Ideas for a small budget, outdoor, September wedding?

Question

I'm getting married September 12th, with an outdoor wedding / reception. I need help!! ANY ideas are welcome!

Facts about the wedding:

-The colors are green and white

-It will be held in a park with a covered pavillion

-About 60 guests

-About 10 children as well

-Fairly small budget, and I'm willing to cut corners wherever needed! So if you have any money saving ideas, I need them!

So any ideas about decorations, favors, food, cake, invitations... anything. We just kind of up and picked this date, and there's lots of planning to do between now and then.

Thank you!!!

<3

Answer 1

I had an outdoor wedding. we had our ceremony in the park and the reception in my backyard. we served hotdogs and hamburgers. we had deviled eggs and salad as well as chips. we did a sheet cake which we got from Sam&#039;s Club. we had our engagement pic on it (but you do not have to). as for pics my dad and my best friend took them.

the best thing to do is see what kind of talents your guests have. maybe Uncle Dave takes great pics or perhaps you have a friend who loves to cook. also, if you are near a college as the photography department for samples of student&#039;s work (they usually do not charge much and are looking for ways to build their portfolios) and ask if there is a cullinary arts department and see if there are students who would love to help you cater.

the invites buy a kit at Wal-Mart and make them yourself. they come out great.

Answer 2

0.o

Pretty!!!

Well lets see here. Money saving ideas.. do like the first person said about the sheet cake. You can have first the big fancy cake and cut it and what not then have them take it back and bring out the sheet cake, they won&#039;t know the difference.

Are you getting married in the pavilion then staying there to eat or what?

Here is some ideas from ask.com

http://weddings.about.com/od/weddingplan...

Also another money saver is to Have no alcohol, cuts it down a lot. favors if your good at making jams and stuff and add some sort of candy you can get in the big bags and put them into little small bags, for your guest.

For decorations around the Pavillion use flowers and green and white stremers.

I say to ask the floriest to have the ones in season...

http://www.freshflowersandmore.com/fflr-...

keep your invits simple...

Some websites that will help you are

http://www.weddingchannel.com/home.html

http://ourweddingday.com/

They help you a lot and its free!

Good luck on your wedding.

Answer 3

Hey!

I&#039;m so excited for you.

I also got married on a low budget. It was also an outdoor reception so I think I better share what my husband and I did with ours.

First, we got so much help from friends.  They knew the wedding had a very limited budget. We told them. So they helped for free.  And the result?

     1. a live band performed during the reception. For free!  These are friends of my husband&#039;s who have their own band.  I know you and your husband would have friends who would be willing to be a part of and help you out during the most unforgettable day of your life.

     2. My uncle who owns a very well maintained Mercedes Benz offered his car to us as the wedding car.

     3. Then his wife offered to do my make up. All for free. They said that that would be their gift for us on our wedding day.  And what a very special gift it turned out to be, right?

     4. My cousin who was a photographer did all the picture taking.  With all the high tech cameras now in the market, anyone can be a pro.  Just browse through wedding photos ( you, your husband and the photographer) so you will have an idea as to how you would want your photos to be done.

     5. We did not have a souvenir because we felt that it only gathers dust after some time. =)

     6. Since I felt that the highlight of the wedding is the couple itself, then we didn&#039;t have anybody marching down the aisle except for the bride and her parents.

     7. The wedding and the reception happened at the same place.

     8. If you have the luxury of time, you can do a lot! You can make your own invitations.  Thus making your day a special one because each one had been hand written from the heart.  Give out invitations on a group basis, not individually, specially if they belong to one household, or one group anyways like maybe The Recruitment Department of your office??

    

     9. Something borrowed, something blue. Check if you can borrow something that has been passed on from one wedding generation to another.  My veil is an example of that.

     10. It would be a real hard work but it is going to be all worth it.

And remember, the whole wedding day is about you two.  It is one whole day. A special day I know. But what counts the most, what matters the most, are the days after that.

Goodluck and hope I can be filled in with the details after the wedding!

Answer 4

First of all don&#039;t look at as your cutting corners that will be in the back of your mind for life. Every girl wants what she wants on her wedding day, just look at it saving money for the honeymoon. Second, for the children to keep them busy download some free coloring book pages, then print them at a library for super cheap. Next you can go to Microsoft office online, there are a ton of templates for weddings to download, then you can just buy card stock paper for the wedding invitations, and or you could email everyone one your list to save even more. Our entire flowers (5 girls, and 5 guys, two mothers, two fathers, and four god-parents that were real) only ran us $15, I went to Wal-Mart three days before got left over roses and did them myself. The cake can be small, and pretty for decoration only, and to cut. Have someone buy a sheet cake and cut it up in the back, or just forgo the fancy cake and have a sheet cake made, no one has to know. That will run about $30, for enough to feed all your guests. You can burn a cd, or use your IPOD and just rent speakers instead of hiring a DJ. For Food you can get chicken, mashed pots and side items from Wal-Mart, for less than $100.  Right now Michaels and Hobby Lobby are having a 50% off sale, and since your wedding takes place in an off season, that will work for you. Have family and friends take your pictures, they will get great candids. For your honeymoon Google timeshare resorts, my husband and I went on our honeymoon for less than $300 that is including the airfare. We went to US Virgin Islands, so we did not have to have a passport and yet it was tropical. We did have to listen to a talk for 90 min about the timeshare, but we sch. it for our last day there and then turned it down, and who cares if they get upset about you saying no,  your never going to see them again anyway. Any other ideas, needed I have ton! Just let me know you can IM me. GOOD LUCK

Answer 5

decorations

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

http://www.bloomeryweddings.com/blog/con...

http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/80/71/6h/www....

http://www.brides.com/images/editorial/2...

favors

jelly beans in little bags or containers

m&amp;ms

candles

food-whatever you want to eat.  Its not about color here. Buffett for 60-70 would work well.  Casual comfort food.

cake

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

http://www.cakeamerica.com/images%5Cimag...

invitations

http://www.crane.com/Content/ProdImages/...

http://www.imaginewedding.co.uk/images/o...

Answer 6

Get a sheet cake from Sams and have them decorate that with wedding decor.  Sandwiches - prebuttered buns, plates of presliced sandwich fixings.  We have a bakery outlet store and can get great specialty bread for very cheap - look around.  Have a bread knife, because kids tend to hate crusts on their sandwiches.   Fruit - easy to eat fruit like cubed watermelon, pineapple, grapes.  If you can get ice, fill a bowl with ice and place a bowl with potato salad in that.  Keeps it at a safe temperature.

Answer 7

Hello,

I am also getting married this September on a small budget.  The thing that I did was hired all amateurs.  This is risky but my photographer, make-up, hair, and baker are all new at their fields.  I am buying my flowers from a florist but I am getting flowers that are &quot;left overs&quot;.  Flowers that are still gorgeous but are literally left over from other arrangments.  I will be using white and pink roses.  Other things are that I shopped around and compared prices like crazy, for a single thing I probably looked at atleast 5 stores.  It was worth it though.  I realize you don&#039;t have much time and are probably stressing but just calm and look around you can get some great things for great prices.

Good luck

Answer 8

invitations: cardstock in green (moderna dn pretty) you can get this online or at a hobby store. prink them on word. with buisness 10&#039;s (long &amp; narrow) you can get more per/page of cardstock. get a pretty stamp (like of ivy or a pretty flower) to make it look for modern. have people rsvp on a free wedding site rather than paying for postage of a response. you need to send out those invites by aug 12th!!!

cake: have a baker ( local grocery store make cakes too!) make a small 2 tiered cake for display and a sheet cake to serve in addition to your display. they are cheaper &amp; easier for your baker. you get more out of square cakes than round ones (they are using the whole cake rather than throughing away the corners) buttercream is cheaper than fondant. the more decorations, the more expensive. ribbon &amp; monograms are easy to do &amp; look elegant

flowers: do your own!!! pick something colorful. daisies are cheap and come in soooo many colors. you can buy them in bulk at sams club. at the bottom is a video of how to do your bouquet yourself.

centerpieces: buy glasses instead of vases. fill them with flowers &amp; fruit. kiwi or limes would look great for green. its a cheep filler.

food: o&#039;hdurves are cheaper than entrees.

favors: if your on a tight budget, get edible favors. small frames, key chain, etc... just end up getting thrown away. im using russel stover choclates. my flowers are bright orange and pink so my candy is dark chocolate w/orange cream. you could do vanilla cream for white.

drinks: have a &quot;signiture drink&quot; if you dont have the money for an open bar. that way you have still passed out an alocolic drink w/o looking cheap. im making a punch type and adding a chunk of pineapple to the side of the glass. we are using this in place of champange when we toast.

kidos: have a kids table. go to the dollar store &amp; get a few things for the kids to do. bubbles, coloring books, frizbee. that way they arent totally bored.

hope this helps!!! below are links for everything i talked about above. it took me 30mins! lol.