Wedding/Reception Suggestions?

Question

My fiancee just got the job of his dreams, so we decided to get married in Nov. There is little time so I am trying to get all of the suggestions I can. I wont be an expensive wedding. I am registered on theknot.com, but I need some suggestions about flowers, centerpeices, ceremony decoration, and neat little things like that. I reallllllly love flowers but I am not sure what kind to use in the fall, and I really dont want leaves. Im still deciding on my colors but here are my picks, 1-deep red, & chocolate, 2-wine color, chocolate......and I think that I will use gold also. Help please...........only 6 months!!!!????!!!????

Answer 1

It sounds like you are doing good. You have your colors picked (deep red and wine are virtually the same color--look for bridesmaids gowns and go with whatever shade the gown you love comes in). I'd pick up a book to help you plan.

My mother made a great notebook. A 4" notebook and divided into sections. Bridesmaids, Hair and Makeup, Flowers, Cake and I can't remember the rest--filled w/ those clear pgs that you slip pages into the top. Each time I found a picture that I liked of a cake or a bouquet I could put it into its section. Then once I decided on the bridesmaids dresses, I cleaned out that section of all the rejected dresses.

Take your bridesmaids shopping for their gowns. My bridesmaids are built nothing like me so everything I kept picking out (which would have looked fabulous on me) looked horrible on my sister.

Figure out your budget. Thats always the first step. Ezweddingplanner.com and Theknot.com have budget calculators that can help you figure out how much of your total budget should go to each section.

There are loads of questions on Y!A about how to save money--read through those answers for suggestions on cost savings.

Figure out which is most important to you. For example, flowers didn't really matter to me. I don't know a mum from a rose, and I cut a lot of costs in that area. I met with my florist much later on so that I could show him pictures of my dress, the bridesmaids dresses, and the fabric samples from the tablecloths so that he could substitute and give suggestions. For some though alcohol isn't important and they cut corners by not having any alcohol served. It's all whatever is important to the 2 of you.

For invites, look online. I used www.annswedding.com and www.invitationsbydawn.com. They had lots of cheaper invites that were beautiful.

Modern Bride has some checklists in the back that are great. First is to look for photographers and reception halls as they tend to book up sometimes more than a year in advance. Then call caterers once you know how much money you'll have for them. That can help you plan your menu more than anything. Plus often caterers already have the person they rent silverware, glassware, tablecloths from --so that will take the stress off that. My place only needed to know 2-3 weeks in advance.

You don't have to spend much decorating the church. It already has decoration with stained glass windows and architecture, plus its the first time the guests will be seeing bridesmaids gowns and of course You in your gown. They are already on sensory overload.

Centerpieces--people spend hundreds on them and in trying to make a unique statement. Check with your reception hall though--they might have mirrors for the tables that you can borrow for free. One arrangement I think would be very pretty and quite formal is to have a wine glass filled with a red and pieces of dark chocolate scattered around below the glass on the mirror and some dark red rose petals.

But after you've figured out your budget, rented your hall and photographer, and while you are dress shopping--figure out how you envision. Do you want a formal wedding? More casual? Evening, morning? How do you envision this going? I always imagine fall weddings as afternoon (like 2-3 pm) with the reception being late afternoon 3-6ish. It's around sunset. I don't know why--but that seems fall to me. But figure out how you envision it.

Your colors are gorgeous and you have plenty of time to get everything just as you want it. Don't stress too much. After all its one day. You know you are with the perfect man and you want to spend the rest of your life with him. This is merely the day that lets you start all that.

Answer 2

You'll be fine, first off you need to relax. Since you've already been on theknot.com, you know they've got the timeline tables and charts and everything, what you need to concentrate on is getting your to-do's down to that 6 month mark, and then from there just take it as it comes. If you haven't gotten your gown yet, I'd suggest you do that before tackling flowers or anything else--I'd also suggest you book a location ASAP--especially if you're planning a Saturday evening reception--those locations tend to book up months/years in advance. After you've got that nailed down, the rest should start coming together. Take a walk in the farmers market, look at flowers, look in magazines, etc. Keep a file of everything you like AND everything you don't like--even write on the photo what you do or don't like about it.

Personally, I like your deep red, chocolate and gold color scheme--it's what most of my house is decorated in right now! ;-) Think autumn colors, think of autumn flowers like chrysanthemums, even roses in deeper colors. You could have a theme of something around floral abundance--given that November is Thanksgiving--I'd try to tie that in to the wedding somehow.

Just get organized, make that list, and get going. I planned my wedding (that was in January) in 5 months, so it can be done. Hire a planner if you're at all worried, sometimes they can get stuff done quicker than you can, simply because they have all the contacts in the industry. Good luck and congratulations!

Answer 3

Dress color go wine, chocolate and gold if you can.
For some cheap flowers in the fall you can get Mum plants pretty cheap in most areas. Something that you could do is stop by a floral shop and ask to look thru a book and ask about fall colors and plants etc. You really could use any kind of flower and color that would compliment your bridesmaids dresses and if your dress has any hint of color that too.
Check with the church and see if they have anything that you need to get in-particular. I ran into that when I was talking to my current Chucho a few years a go when I was engaged to be married. But I never was so I have many ideas and things purhcased but have not used.

Answer 4

first of i think allsmeer flowers would be simple and go good with a chocolate wine colour setting they are elegant yet simple fall flowers - center pieces try a small 2 layer double chocolate cake with red table covering piece amongst all tables - banquet halls are always the simplist . the sheraton fallsview hotel looks perfect and yet honey moon in niagra falls is so romantic and classy-elegant. - not cheap but not too expensive and fits- using the oaks grand ball room sits 560 which would probably fit everyone depending on family size on both the brides and grooms side. As for the brides flowers and bridesmaids bouqets - roses are say classy and and yet simple always the ones that are the late bloomers . But your day is your day all that matters is what makes you happy and not what other peoples opinions are . as for ceremony decoration twigs tied around the alter brings the feelings of outsideness to inside and yet pretty and plants hanging in each corner of the room does even things out with a fall setting...but as i said these are just suggstions because your day should be nothing but perfect happiness its all in your hands - so have a ball and congradulations.

Answer 5

I only spent $6000 on my wedding.

Instead of real flowers I bought fake flowers, ivy and hershey kiss roses.

You can order the hershey ones in any color you want and put them in vases in the center of the tables. They smell amazing and look great. They also worked well as guest favors.

I took the fake flowers and sprayed them with glitter hairspray so they sparkled pink or silver to match my theme. Arranged the hershey flowers and the fake ones in a clear vase and tied ribbon around the vases. I bought placemats to put the vases on and sprinkled them with glitter also.

I spent $300 for all my decorations.

Answer 6

Have you ever thought of a destination wedding, they have packages at alot of places that will do most of the work for you... It's cheaper than a real wedding and you can combine the wedding with the honeymoon... I just got married in Cabo San Lucas on the beach and it was great not to have to plan anything! Everything was BEAUTIFUL and more than I expected. Good Luck!

Answer 7

well, i can tell you about the dream wedding i did;

the whole thing was hawiian themed and had a budget of $1000.00.

We got big fake hibiscus flowers for the girls to carry and then they set them onthe main tables at the reception to help decorate.

Instead of fancy suits, have all the groomsmen and groom wear plain dress pants and jacket with a bright hawaiian shirt underneath. Then have the bridesmaids and maid of honor in a pretty forally dress. My girls wore knee legnth red dresses with really fancy hair.

Since i live in florida we got married at the beach. and then went to our local church for our big luau reception with lts of finger foods and bbq. But a family or friends house would have worked well too.

All the tabels were decorated with seashells and candles and we got an arch that lit up for picts at night. the party was amazing with frozen drinks and lots of food.

We saved a ton of money by doing most everything ourselves, our big spending was on the food and pictures. (having disposable cameras everywhere helped though) We also had lots of cute things like having everyone sign a blank photo frame instead of a guest book and put picts of th ewedding in it. it was great.

Answer 8

I love your color pics. They both sound beautiful. :)

For decorations and stuff, you should get a catalog from Oriental Trading Company (www.orientaltrading.com). They have a lot of wedding stuff in there for really cheap!!! I got two personalized wedding flutes less than $10. I was shocked!

Answer 9

Gerber daisys always give me a fall impression and they come in all different colors of the rainbow.

The best advce I can give you is to be alomost anally organized. Get a binder and make sections and start tackiling things one at a time. 6 months is doable, but you have to be really on top of everything.

You can do it!

Answer 10

For our wedding we had hollowed out pumpkins with flowers in them for the centerpieces. You could even use those white pumpkins, it would look nice with your colors. We also had those mini pumpkins carved out to fit tea light candles that we used around the cake and on the head table. I know you said no leave but we did have some fabric leaves from walmart with glitter that we used as table confetti. It also looked pretty. :) For favors we gave out caramel apples. People really seemed to love it; we bought extra and actually ran out because people were taking more than one home with them.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa299/CARWALL/congaline.jpg (please ignore the crazy conga line and all the stuff we have on... our DJ gave out props. And this was the only picture online I had of the centerpieces.)

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa299/CARWALL/Wedding_Cake_on_decorated_table.jpg (the wedding cake was made by my hubby's grandmother so it's very simple, but we absolutely loved it!)