Planning Simplicity Without Stress?

Question

I honestly want to plan a backyard wedding with good home-cooked food like prime rib, BBQ Chicken, and vegetables, salad, rolls, and of course appetizers and drinks, and the cake only for about 50 people.
I will rent tables, and covers, have no music (which to me is a distraction), no dancing just mingling. I don't plan to go into decorations or lights or anything just simplicity. I will have no flowers at the church or in the backyard, just my bouqet.
I am a simple person, but someone is telling me I am cheap and should go all out since this is once in a life time, and I should have the best. Mind you, I make minimum wage $7 an hour, and my parents can help very little. So your thoughts.

Answer 1

Hi and congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

It all sounds lovely to me.....actually, something I would enjoy attending! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the simplicity of your event.

I only have a couple of suggestions:

(1) You talk about no flowers at the church, so I take it you are getting married at your church. Instead of having to rent tables, would you be able to borrow tables and chairs from your church? Inquire. That would save you some money. I work as a church secretary, and we let our members borrow tables and chairs for parties all the time. Ask!!

(2) My only suggestion as far as decorations go would be to have some table centerpieces. Really.....this can be extreeeeeeeeeeeemly cheap!! Here are two ideas with recycled jars:

(1) Get recycled jars - I think pickle jars and mayo jars work best for this centerpiece. Get some colored tissue paper (whatever colors YOU like)....say, light blue, medium blue and dark blue. Lay the tissue paper down with the dark first, then the medium color, then the light color (or vise versa) and "wrap" the jars by pulling up all four corners of the tissue. (Note: you could do this with just 2 colors also). Then wrap this with a satin ribbon (or raffia ribbon). The jars are FREE, the tissue you can get at a dollar store, same with the ribbon or raffia. Then put them on your tables! Here is a picture:

http://www.do-it-yourself-weddings.com/wedding-centerpiece-idea-mason-jars.html

(Note: you don't need the flowers in it...but that is the only picture I could find.) I got this idea off another site, but there was no picture. It looks really cute just with the wrapped jar....it will add a little color to your tables.

(2) The second idea, again with recycled jars. Get some baby food jars and some olive jars (the wide mouth ones). Tie a silk ribbon around the lip of the jar (where the top was) or a raffia ribbon and put a small votive candle in it or a tealight candle (if baby food jars). Here is a picture. If you want a little more, this picture also shows to wrap the jar in some paper, but it looks nice with just the ribbon.
http://www.craftideas.info/html/glass_jar.html

BUT.....these are only ideas....I think what you have planned is lovely.

One more question: Are you renting table covers too? Again, you can probably get some from your church, or simply buy table covers at a dollar store. If you can afford it, get some REAL cloth table covers. Do you have a store near you called Family Dollar? Not everything in this store is a dollar, but I bought lots of table covers for my son's rehearsal dinner from there (real linen ones) and they were only $5 each! I then resold them to a friend who was having a party.

Do NOT listen to anyone telling you that you are cheap!!! Cheap would NOT be serving prime rib!!! Yummy!

I hope you have a beautiful wedding day! Good luck!

Answer 2

So, this is really a tough choice - both are excellent weapons, but have some specific limitations that have people all in a twist who are passionate about both weapons. On the Glock the lack of external safety is essentially the core issue. It is the old idea - if you don't want it to go off, don't pull the trigger. It just takes a surprising amount of discipline and practice to make that a reality under stressful situations. However, lots of people carry them. Few people hurt themselves, if you practice you can be one of the trained many. On the Beretta, the safety/decocker certainly provides a different level of safety around the firearm. However, for whatever reason Beretta moved the safety to the slide and it requires a wierd push motion with the thumb to disengage it. Again, if you practice with it, not a problem, but for tons of people used to slide mounted safeties it is an abomination. I don't know that I like it, but I have a 92FS built the same way that I have no problem with. Neither have a locked slide mode, meaning that the slide can move while the safety is engaged. The plus to this is you can do a push check for a round with the safety on - which is a good thing. The minus side is that in the holster you can get the slide out of battery and draw a jammed weapon or do so putting it into your holster. This is far from a huge problem - incredibly rare that this would happen, but it comes up. Personally, my recommendation is the PX4. You're a new shooter and haven't had the time yet to really practice all of the safety stuff even if you know it well. You don't have a decade of habits around how you think a safety should work to be bent out of shape around the Beretta design. Finally, I think there is a benefit to having an external safety for your carry gun and I prefer an exposed hammer to a striker fired given a choice. Thinkingblade

Answer 3

Background music even on a CD player adds to the mood of the event especially if you record all your favorite happy, romantic music. It also drowns out neighbourhood/traffic noise. I would reconsider this decision. If your reception is in the evening, why not buy 60 tealight candles (about $15.00) and hang them in trees (use empty,clean,cans with holes punched in them,suspended on wire) or place all over the yard. Flowers are the cheapest decorations you can ever have especially if you ask friends to "bring your favorite garden flowers" and place them all over. For our last big backyard party (87 people) we didn't RENT tables - we asked friends to bring their plastic patio tables and lawn chairs. Ask one person for every 4 or 5 guests, then buy dollar store tablecloths in one color to make it all coordinated. You can even make it elegant very cheaply by going to your closest discount fabric place - the kind that clears out fabric by the pound! you can buy enough FABRIC to cut into tablecloth pieces for the same price. 50 peole, you need 10 or 12 tables, so the tablecloths would cost you about $20! You can buy glass bowls at local thrift shop (the kind that florists use) for 25 cents each, add some colored water (25 cents of food color will do them all) and float a tealight or a fresh flower. All your friends know you're on a budget, hon, and they'll help you get it perfect! You will be much more respected for keeping things within an honest budget than going into debt to impress people!! More young women should follow your lead. Your fiance is a lucky guy!!

Answer 4

Well, I hope your family is different than mine. If I tried to put on an event like that someone would bring a radio or cd player and there'd be booze and it'd be all out party time!

This sounds like a great idea for a morning wedding, what if you had a breakfast menu instead of bbq? It's just a suggestion, but it sounds like a nice morning wedding.
Also think, you're going to remember this day for the rest of your life, make it as special and memorable as you can because ideally, you'll only do this once. :) Good luck!

Answer 5

I completely understand where you're coming from as I am in the same spot. You don't need fancy lights, food, and music to have a nice and memorable wedding. You can make lots of things yourself. I went to a paper store and bought paper, paper cutters and glue, printed all my own invites and put them together for a fraction of the cost (and most people thought they were professionally ordered to boot). Music in the background can easily be done by making a playlist on an iPod or burning a few CDs and leaving a friend in charge of checking on it. No one is going to remember the flowers or the music anyway. People will remember the effort you put into it. Don't listen to anyone else, because it's your day and you're going to enjoy it much more because it is simple. Good luck and stick to your guns!

Answer 6

I think your backyard wedding sounds great. I was surprised that you think you're being cheap but if that's the case go ahead and add the lights and some decorations.
This is a special event so make your backyard wedding the best it can be. Stick with what you like and what will make you both happy. Good Luck!!!

Answer 7

I agree with you, I think simple is the best. I do have a couple suggestions though:
*The person(s) you are having cooking for you (or you) will be seriously stressed out instead of enjoying the wedding.
*I think some light music would be a nice touch, loud enough to hear, quiet enough to talk over.
*I don't know where you live but you may need to think about renting a tent if the weather should happen to change.

Most important it is your and your partners day, do as you choose. Congrats and good luck

Answer 8

The happiness of only two people count here. Yours and your soon to be husband. Is he happy with this plan? If so then you do what makes you happy. You are inviting people to share in your special day. You are NOT throwing a party to make your guests happy. Not everybody wants a big throw down for a wedding/reception with tons of people etc.... and that's fine. Stay focused on your ideas and don't let anybody sway or guilt you into doing something you don't want to do.
Have the beautiful wedding you want and I wish you both much happiness in your new life together.

Answer 9

I think you are exactly right on point. Why go into debt for just one day. You have the most important thing right. Its all about marrying the guy, not how much stuff you surround yourself with. If you ever (which I doubt) feel like you missed out on something you can alway throw yourselves a fabulous anniversary party. My husband and I paid for our whole wedding ourselves very cheaply. That was 30 years ago.

Answer 10

You are fine. Your plan sounds great, just go with it. There will always be "someone" telling you this or that. I had a simple and fun wedding, some people were telling me I would "regret" not having a full-blown one, but believe me I do not regret it. I had a ton of fun, and it's still a great memory. You know yourself better than anyone; do what you and your fiancé feel is right for YOU.