Ultra-Cheap Wedding Planning?

Comments

1. The Older Woman says:

   January 10, 2009 at 12:24 am

   I was just married in May, and we got away with a reception for under $1000. The facility where the reception was held catered for us, so all the table linens were included, and they also put a small lantern with a lit candle on each table for us for no extra cost. In lieu of more table decorations, we placed small baskets of wedding mints ordered from Oriental Trading ($4.00 or so for a pack of 50), and Hersey Miniatures I had covered with coordinating scrapbook paper that was cut down to size and glued on, ($2.50 per bag, and $3.00 for a pack of 400 sheets of scrapbook paper) No one knew it wasn't special 'gormet' chocolate.

   Since it was May and most spring flowers were still in bloom, I cut bouquets of Easter Lillies, Gardinias, etc from relative's yards and placed them in vases all around the reception and wedding, saving greatly in the cost for flowers. My bought wedding bouquets were red roses and calalillies were the only other wedding flowers, so the spring bouquets mixed in nicely and were very fragrant!

   I had found small note cards 3×3" in a sale bin at a craft store, bought a few packs for less than a $1 each, and placed each card atop it's envelope on each place setting. We ordered wedding pens for a low price from Oriental Trading and put a pen near each card, and asked each person to fill out a card with advice, love and support, or just well wishes to the couple. This was a big hit, and people I didn't ever dream would even pick up a card had filled them out with touching words of love - a wonderful keepsake…especially from those who were getting on in years, and may not be around to celebrate our first anniversary.

   On the sign in table, we had photographs of not only us as babies, but our parents', grandparent's and immediate family member's wedding photos as well. They felt honored that we included them in such a special way.

   I had gone to the fabric store and got bolts of tulle in the coordiating colors of our wedding, along with a bolt of shimmery organza, and tied bows on the backs of each chair. They were beautiful and we got many comments on how wonderful everything looked.

   The facility had banisters that we decorated with Christmas lights, and since it was a night reception, we had groupings of tealight candles everywhere. Simple and cheap, but extremely elegant!

   We also had gone to a Home Depot and bought metal-looking fencing and made it look like wrought iron in an L shape topped with fleur de lis and placed them in corners of the room, with large potted plants in front of them that we had borrowed from friends. We wrapped some of the organza loosely around the fencing, along with the Christmas lights for a soft glowing effect.

   Our facility had a pull down screen and projector, so I made a PowerPoint slide show of photographs of us growing up, us as a couple, us with friends and family, and I am still getting compliments from it. Many of the guests cried seeing themselves and remembering good times, others cried at seeing family who are long since gone, and after it was over, most everyone applauded and whistled. It took me about a month to do - finding pics, scanning them into the computer, editing and transitioning the slideshow, but it was more than worth it.

   We had told the dj the songs we would like to play while the slideshow was in progress. For each song to be played, I had one page full of pictures atop each other, setting the transitions to fade in and out on each photograph, and I had the presentation timed so that one page transitioned to the next group of pictures for the song that was playing. It would be lots easier to have a professional do one for you in the latest movie/photo software, but I didn't have the budget for it. If you're planning on hiring someone to video tape the wedding, they may offer a 'slideshow' as part of their services. If you can afford it…it's definitely worth it!

   We ordered our blank invitations online and I printed out our information onto them. It was a golden fleur de lis themed paper with a light colored square in the middle for our info. Everyone called to say they were the most beautiful invitations they'd ever seen. They were simple, quick, and cost $13.00 per pack of 12. What really set them off were the wax seals in our initial I'd put on the back of each that I'd gotten from Micheals. (under 5 bucks for the wax and about 5 bucks for the seal.) It was an old world touch that I really wanted to have.

   Also, we had many people who are special to us, but couldn't be in the wedding party. We had them do small jobs for us during the reception, and it made them feel proud to be a part of things, as well as helping us out. Such duties were - having our godmothers cut the rest of wedding cake for distribution after we had our first bites and photographs, having a favorite cousin collect the note cards, having a friend of the family in charge of pins for the money dance, having my sister take care of my wedding dress after we'd changed into going away attire, and having a good friend in charge with a list I'd written of what decorations to pick up with 'what goes back to whom' - to ease the hassle of clean up after the party. It sounds like petty little things, but having each person singled out for help for the reception worked out well all around.

   Overall, my best suggestion in keeping costs down is to prioritize what you really want for your wedding and reception, and what you can do without. This was my 2nd wedding. During the first, I had fake flowers so I could keep my bouquet, had sign in books, the glasses for toasting for each person in the wedding party, etc. I kept all these things for years, and after my divorce, I realized that most of these things were never looked at again during the course of our marriage.

   This time, I got the real flowers I'd always wanted and didn't worry about preserving them, I got a couple of sign in frames from Oriental Trading for about $13 bucks each, so that instead of having a book full of signatures that would never see the light of day, I have two frames full of names of people who shared our happy day that are hanging in our hall with pictures of our wedding. We used the facility's glasswear for the toast, since no one in the wedding party keeps theirs for long anyway. You can also borrow your jewelry from a friend or relative if they have anything like what you're looking for…which will also take care of your 'something borrowed' and possibly the "something old".

   Just take a look at what's important to you and what you'd like to pass down as a keepsake. The rest you can borrow, rent, or do without. If you have enough time before the wedding, start now making the things you can do yourself (favors, programs, invitations, etc)

   Figure out what theme you want and look around at Walmart, Target, etc for sales after the holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day for very reduced Christmas lights, heart containers, balloons and decorations, or Easter for spring related items, or whatever theme you decide to go with. At a local Holiday Hallmark, I found wedding seal stickers I used on some of the favor cards, and cake server/knife on their sale shelves. They were discontinued or not selling, and I got them for 90% off. They also had wedding albumns and guests books galore.

   Search online for free or cheap wedding, reception, bouquet and favor ideas. I looked online at what favors were out there, and chose the one's I could make at home to look just like what's for sale. (My sister sold jewelry, so she was able to get cord necklaces for a low cost and I got charms for cheap off the internet, and gave pretty fleur de lis necklaces for some of our favors. Another favor was cheap but nice keychains from Oriental Trading that I wrapped in sheer black material remnants and placed in a red organza favor bag, and tied with a heart charm that I bought from a pack of 50 for $4.00 at Michaels. These same organza bags also held colored M&Ms for a separate favor, and others held bath beads. We decided to have a mixture of favors instead of one basic item, and besides looking great and giving diversiety, it was a hit with the crowd so they could choose what they wanted, as most guests don't keep or use their favors unless it's food related)

   There's plenty of books at your local library on wedding ideas as well - from decorating, to simple easy invitation ideas. Altogether, I had 6 months to prepare for my wedding, and spent 4 of them researching ideas. It was time well spent, and money saved.

   Sorry for writing a book, but Best of luck and well wishes to you for the future! Congratulations!!