I need wedding tips, tricks, easy ways to save money, ideas, comments on theme weddings, etc. thank you !!!?

Question

or if anyone has anything interesting to share about what you had at your wedding that would be great!

I just got engaged, and we love the date November 21, because it's very significant to us....the only thing is it's only 4 MONTHS AWAY!!! And i have no idea where to even start.

so anything and everything would help right now.

thank you ! :-)

Answer 1

depends on the weather...  i had a sort of potluck wedding at a state park in CA in September.  I bought the turkeys for bbq'ing, and some other stuff, cake and beverages (hard and soft), and friends brought various dishes.  Good friends made the bouquet and table flowers and decorations.  It was fantastic.  a friend made some tapes (cd?) and one brought his video camera and asked people for comments thruout the reception.  we camped there that night, someone set up our tent, but someone also forgot to leave more than one sleeping bag in the tent.  LOL.  and someone else made pancakes for the wedding breakfast.  low key, alot of work for your friends, but fun.  and at a park, the kids don't drive the adults too nuts.

Answer 2

Congratulations!

Sit down with your fiance', and create a wedding vision--what do you see, hear, taste, feel, and smell?

After that create a budget that would suit that vision, and a savings plan to suit the budget. You MUST have a budget set before buying so much as a roll of ribbon, and STICK TO IT.

After the budget is set, a savings plan needs to be made. Each of you should figure out how much you make every month, subtract your expenses, and see what's left. From there decide on an amount to save. With such a short time frame, savings will be crucial.

Set up a notebook with dividers for Ceremony, Reception, Music, Traditions, Guest List, Attendants, Attire, Venues/Vendors, Biling/Receipts, etc to keep yourself organized.

Set up an account with The Knot (it will save your sanity, I promise!)

Choose a color palate. I went to a local paint shop, and chose my colors from their paint chips =]

Start booking venues and vendors IMMEDIATELY. Usually you need a year in advance, so this is very important.

Start researching dress styles and cuts you like.

I found these books to be extremely helpful:

Wedding Planning for Dummies (a Christmas gift from my parents, haha).

Priceless Weddings for Under $5,000

The Knot's Guide to Wedding Planning

I used them in conjunction with these websites:

http://www.theknot.com

http://www.offbeatbride.com

http://www.marthastewart.com

http://www.weddingbee.com

http://www.diybride.com

http://www.etsy.com

http://www.thingsremembered.com

http://www.exclusivelyweddings.com

As for theme weddings, I think they can be beautiful if tastefully done. Otherwise they become costume parties. My fiance' and I are having an English Garden wedding, but it will be evient in the touches we include, rather than overwhelming.

If you ever need anything, let me know =]

Here's my list of budget tricks:

There are so many ways to cut the costs of weddings, you just need to decide on three things that are paramount to the day, and compromise on the rest. For example, photography, ceremony venue, and reception venue were the three where we put the most money.

Ceremony: Have an early ceremony (around 2 o'clock).

*Your guests will have already have eaten lunch, and won't be expecting a huge meal. You then can serve light food such as finger food and desert. This is the only way that my fiance' could manage to feed our 185-200 guests without going way over our budget.

Wedding dress: I found a beautiful gown at http://www.groupusa.com/ for a little more than $300 (my splurge). They have beautiful gowns by wonderful designers from affordable to extravagant.

*Try places like GroupUSA and even eBay for knockout deals.

I just found this eBay store http://myworld.ebay.com/gianinarbridal

One dress is $39! Brand new. Add $89 in foreign S&H, and you still have a great deal.

Bridal Jewelry: I found my crystal necklace and earrings at an antique shop for $6, and my Crystal Collections headband from Wal-Mart for $12. Originally I had been looking at genuine jewelry from big name stores, but decided to scrimp here to save money for the wedding gifts my fiance' and I plan to get each other.

*Don't forget retail stores like Wal-Mart and Target. My headpiece, earrings, and necklace came to a total of $18.

Wedding location: I had four choices, a lovely place on the property of a family friend, the beautiful garden of a local inn, a church that has a SMALL fee and goes well with my wedding style, or on the mountain where my grandparents' grew up, married, and live.

*Look for unconventional venues; they'll be cheaper or even free. I opted for the for the garden for my English Garden theme.

Reception Site: I have two options here, one of which is the brand new mansion-style library in our town. It would cost only $199 ($100 refundable damage deposit, and $40 for a library worker to stay on site). The other would be our local arts building of the town center. They have several large and beautiful rooms and are roughly the same amount as the library.

*The same rule for venues applies here.

Caterer: My fiance' and I are spending between $300-$400 on food trays, desert, cupcake tower, and a candy buffet for our large number of guests. A chef friend will be preparing two dishes as well.

*Friends and family can really cut down on wedding expenses!

Cake: A friend of my fiance' and I is a baker, and would only charge us the price of the ingredients for our cupcakes.

*If you don't have anyone who can provide this. Go for a two or three tier cake, and then have sheet cakes to cut for the bulk of the guests. That way you end up saving several hundred dollars. You can also have a two-tier cake, serving that only to wedding party, parents, and grandparents and serve guests with a cupcake tower.

I'm simply having a three tier cupcake tower and forgoing the cake.

Flowers: I am making my own bouquets. Flowers for a 30-stem wedding bouquet, toss bouqet, six 20-stem bridesmaid bouquets, arrangements, and 18 centerpieces (five flowers a vase would only run $288 before shipping costs from http://www.theflowerexchange.com. I am having a family friend do the arrangements for a fraction of the cost.

*Do as much as you can on your own! Http://www.theknot.com has videos and step-by-steps on how to make your own bouquets and arrangements. UPDATE: the cost will go down since I am having a bridal bouquet made by Princess Lasertron, and the bridesmaids will carry six ribbon-tied gerbera daisies.

Favors: Forget them! Most of the guests toss those expensive trinkets, anyway.

*Instead I am making a candy buffet--something even my smallest guests would enjoy. You need a small table, glass vases shapes and sizes, candy from a bulk store like Sam's (in your wedding colors, if you like), scoops, and little bags or favor boxes. Mine will come to about $50-$60.

Children: Do you want children at your wedding, but want the adults to enjoy the reception worry free?

*If so, enlist a teenage niece, cousin, or friend. They may help as a wedding present, or simply be happy with $50 or so. They can keep the children happy and occupied with toys or color books in another room. Alternatively have the kid's table covered in a paper table cloth with crayons at each place setting.

Invitations: You can purchase nice paper, envelopes, and an emblem, and an ink cartridge and make your own for about $50. OR you could go to http:///www.invitationsbydawn.com.

She has great deals and some of them come to a total as little as $100.

*Instead of $250-$350! Do what you can on your own, or look for budget-conscience resources like the one above.

I am making my own invitations using beautiful, old postcards from the early 1900s. One-of-a-kind, over a century old, and inexpensive at a total of $90, if not less.

DJ: My fiance's brother is a DJ, and will save us $975 by doing the reception as a wedding gift.

*If you don't have someone like this, consider cutting the cost by having premade CDs of the music you want, and have someone man the player.

Attendant Gifts: Try places like http://www.exclusivelyweddings.com

*I found my 7 attendants gifts for $35, because they were having a sale on freshwater pearl and silver bracelets =] I am making them each gifts to suit their personalities as well.

Centerpieces: Something simple. If you're having a fall wedding, vases filled with slender branches painted gold or silver is beautiful and inexpensive, and branches of berries can be added for winter. Spring or summer, simple vases with a few flowers.

*I found short, square vases and am putting five gerbera daisies in each. Total cost for 19 tables is $99, and they look gorgeous!

Answer 3

Congrats! You should definately print your own invitations, they will be atleast half price. Go to a dollar tree and get vases or candles for centerpieces, try a flea market for your flowers and do your own arrangements, see if some of your friends could help make a cake (ir's actually very simple, especially if you want a casual wedding), for a venue you could try an outdoor wedding (depending on the weather) use tents and stuff. I think an outdoor fall wedding would be great.. I would use leaves as my isles (but thats me) ha but anywho have fun planning your big day

Answer 4

At a friends wedding for the reception, my dad and 2 other guys dressed up as hillbillies and came in and handed out a sheet that had a song written on it. Then they would make everyone sing the song but would stop it and say," hey someone isnt singing!" Then they would pull out someone from the crowd that had been chosen before and they knew they were coming up but no one else did. There would be 4 people that would come up on different times. They would cut a ladys pantyhose,cut a guys tie and break a watch and then on the final one they would rip open a guys shirt and it would say Congratulations Sarah and Mike!! or something like that. It is funny to see everyone freak out and at the end they see that it was just a joke. The people you pick (if you do it) should be pretty good actors.

Answer 5

Congratulation! I would love to help you on your makeup tips. You can contact me on my website an I can e-mail you tips and ideas of what would look good on you for free.

http://www.johnnytranmakeup.com

Answer 6

Congratulations!

I am hoping to have an inexpensive December wedding also.  

One thought was that we could decorate with seasonal fruit, candles, and the like, since flowers are expensive.

I like the pot luck idea -- it's more like how weddings were in the States many years ago I think.  It's a great way to involve friends and family in the wedding too, and saves money.  UNfortunately it becomes difficult if the wedding is larger than 100 people, I'd imagine.

One thing I wanted to do was focus on more "sentimental" things -- sappy or fun.  For example, things that really celebrate our matrimony and make the wedding memorable and meaningful, like having a slideshow depicting our lives, or playing a game where guests give the bride and groom advice or share their favorite memory or answer trivia questions.

I went to a wedding recently where they didn't have favors.  I didn't even notice until two months later when I was planning my own wedding.  You can probably nix the favors, or else do it cheaply -- like printing a card that has a picture and poem.

Most weddings I have been to did not have wine.  I don't believe alcohol is necessary in order to have fun -- and there will be plenty of other occasions to break out the wine.  Plus a lot of places have a mandatory corkage fee, or mandatory extra security if alcohol is served.

Answer 7

First thing, congratulations, and DON'T PANIC.

Next, try the book, The Anti-Bride Guide; Tying the Knot Outside of the Box. They also publish an Etiquette Guide and Wedding Planner. You can find all three cheap on eBay. They were(and still are) a great help to me with my wedding, and several of my friends'.

Answer 8

http://www.treasuretrooper.com/356036

It's easy and you receive a check once a month. I do it and I've received over $200 so far. All you have to do is fill out simple surveys which takes about 1 to 2 minutes. Oh and by the way, it's FREE!! If you don't do this you're seriously missing out.

Answer 9

You can do consignment for alot of your stuff, such as your gown, bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, bows, silk floral arrangements,etc. There is a great on line wedding consignment shop at www.shellyleppertdesigns.com that can help you with a lot of what you need.

Answer 10

Plan your wedding right after lunch time, so all you need is a simple buffet with finger foods at the reception.  You might be able to get a great deal with a hotel, they usually have catering and they can probably do your cake too.  They might even have a wedding package, with decorations.  All you need to do is call around.  Make your own favors.  You can get the things for them at the dollar store, Goodwill, The Salvation Army.  Look for things on sales.  Book a photographer, maybe a college student who will do it cheaper.  I saved a lot on my flowers just by making my own bouquets and flowers for the wedding party out of silk flowers.  No one knew they were not real.  I got the flowers real cheap on sale.  I also made flower baskets for the tables.  Then I gave the baskets away to my MIL, and other family members.  My favors were tiny little baskets, where a small styrofoam ball fit into it perfectly.  Then I took beads and pins, and made it look like a basket of colorful flowers.  If you look at beads, you know what I mean, and you make all kinds of flowers with beads and sequence.  Takes a lot of pins though, but everyone loved my favors.  I also took some wooden hearts, painted them red, and then wrote our names on it and the wedding date and glued it to a hat pin and stuck that in the favor basket.  (I had covered the white styrofoam ball in a light velvet cloth from scraps.)  

The chapel we had already provided flowers.  I provided the unity candle.  

If you have a good printer, you can do your own invitations and thank-you notes.  

Best wishes on your wedding!

Answer 11

If you need to find wedding songs for your montage, first dance or anything else..

check out this site http://www.365weddingsongs.com for  wedding songs.

It has ton of wedding songs which have videos/lyrics for you to choose from first dance,cake-cutting to march-in wedding songs.

Please rate my post if it is helpful.

Thanks.

Answer 12

Congratulations!  What we did, was at the reception, we served only cake and punch instead of a four course meal.  The guests should come for you and your wedding, not for the food.  Also, you can make some of your wedding favors instead of buying them.  On the theme, pick something you both love.  If there is nothing in common, simply go with a color as a theme.  Do some comparison shopping on prices also.  Hit sales when you see them.  Good luck and God bless.