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We are spending about 6,000 for 200 people.
Church - free (donation) - the pastor is my fiancee's uncle and we already go to the church
Reception Hall - Local fairgrounds main building, holds up to 400 people & we get 4 hours + the decorating the night before for $750
Food - BBQ. We both love barbecue, so that's what we are having! Plus, mom and pop BBQ places are the best, and usually charge less.
Alcohol - Just beer and wine...no liquor
Flowers - DIY or Ebay, silk flowers
Centerpieces - Ivy bowls (they're cheap!) decorated w/ a candle (no flowers)
Photography - My fiancee's Aunt is doing it as a wedding gift...she's a professional photographer
Music - We are hooking up a laptop to speakers and having a loud friend MC.
Cake - my cousin is making it for about $200. She's just making one layer of cake and the rest is a dummy cake...There will be sheet cakes in the back.
Dress/Tux - David's Bridal on sale! Plus FI gets a free tux at MW tux when all of his groomsmen rent theirs.
Invitations - Michaels, on sale and discontinued for $15 for 50 of them, plus the cost of cardstock to mount them and extra ribbon to dress them up, so about $.50 each
Other - Michaels and AC Moore have 40 or 50 percent off coupons in their sale papers all the time. They definitley help! Also, walmart seems to have glassware (like ivy bowls and vases) cheaper than anywhere else I've found.
You can get table linens, plates, and forks that look real but are disposable and cheaper. This is nicer than plain old plastic tablecloths and styrofoam plates.
Always check with friends and family...you never know who might have a skill that could be useful!
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Our wedding will be approximately $7000 total with our rings included into that price.
My Dress: Found it on Ebay new, with tags & no flaws. Saved $600!
Flowers: I bought silks at Hobby Lobby during their 1/2 off stem sales. My future MIL's best friend was a florist back in the day, so she offered to arrange our flowers as our gift. Total cost of flowers & supplies were $165. Save major $$$!
Ceremony/Reception: We are not religious people & do not attend church, so we felt that a church wedding wasn't something we would enjoy. So, we looked at venues in our city that would allow us to have a wedding & the reception at the same place. We found a Golf Course that has a wonderful clubhouse (with a beautiful fireplace) & that will be the location we are married in....and will party in afterward. The rental of the place was $550 & they did not charge us to get married there...it was only to rent the room for the reception. The total cost with food will be approximately $3600. Not too shabby!
Photos: My future SIL majored in Art & has several friends were majored in Photography. Her friend has agreed to take our engagement photos for free. Savings of at least $500!
Our wedding photos will be taken by a Photographer who is friends of a friend. He is just starting out his business & needs to build up his portfolio. His cost will be $770 which includes the rights to all photos (so you can print your own...huge savings!). Savings for this deal is in the thousands!
Cake: As much as I wanted to go with the best vendor in town, I hated the thought of spending $600 on a cake. So, we hit up the local grocery stores in town & found one who will do our cake for $250. Savings $350!
Veil: I refused to purchase my veil through a bridal store since the markup on them are outrageous! My friend made her own veil for her wedding & has offered to make mine. Cost of making the veil is approximately $25 compared to $150 in the stores.
Favors: We are doing little candy organza bags on our tables. I found the baggies on Ebay super cheap (so cheap, I don't even remember!) & in a bulk quantity. The cost of those are less than $1 per bag.
Cake topper: Found it on Ebay for $15.
Invitations: Target for $50 per box. That includes all stationary & templates to print them yourself. Huge savings!
Reception supplies (toasting flutes, bubbles & etc): I bought them at Hobby Lobby during their 1/2 off wedding supply sale. It pays off to watch the ads!
I hope that helps you save some hard earned money!
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KOOLAIDMOM56
6/13/08 12:02 P
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| My daughter made gel candles for favors.
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BLUEISIS02
6/12/08 10:41 A
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| WOW thanks for the tips ladies! I am in the same boat, so this is helpful!
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| I shop for centrepieces at the dollar store: small glass jars filled with smarties. Also they have bags filled with tissue flower petals to put on the tables. For party favors I found at the dollar store bgas filled with little glass slippers (3 per bag)and I am going to glue some tulle in them and three Hershey kisses.
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MANDIETERRIER1
5/8/08 9:35 P
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| If you forget the party favors, you can save a lot of money.
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Dress: Made my own. (I'm an amateur seamstress)
Bridesmaids: They're wearing a "little black dress" of their own choosing that they are purchasing. I didn't want to ask them to wear a dress they'd spend a ton of money on and never wear again.
Flowergirls: Made their dresses, too. Girls are ages 2.5 and 4.
Flowers: All are silk and I will make the bouquets. The only thing that is real are the guys' and girls' corsages/boutonnieres (sp?)
Food: My in-laws are wonderful and are paying for the rehearsal dinner and the reception food
Cake: My brother-in-law and his wife are getting us our wedding cake.
Music: We're playing music on a CD for the ceremony, along with our worship director playing a song he wrote on the guitar for us
Favors: I'm making bookmarks out of cardstock with some having our wedding colors. The only "expensive" thing was the stamp I got made from staples.com ($30).
Pics: My good friend in art school is taking some pics and developing them as a gift. My maid of honor's sister is taking some more formal pics. We will get her a gift.
Overall, everything that WE are actually paying for ourselves should cost less than $1000.
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| There are so many things you can do to cut down price. We to are trying to do everything for $5000 or less. I bought all silk flowers and my fiancé just finished making the bouquets last night. We still have the men's flowers to do and special people but that won't take much. I am making our wedding cake so that is going to save us a ton! I have a friend who is taking all of our wedding pictures for free. He also did our engagement pictures and they were amazing! I bought a lot of stuff on line through eBay and Craiglist and that was a great way of saving money. This is how bad I am, I ordered my wedding dress and 2 days later it went on sale so I went into the shop and got a price adjustment! Every little bit helps. The lady who made my mom and dad's wedding cake is making all of our wedding mints for free. It's all about connections and people you know or who you need to get to know!!! haha I also made all of our wedding invitations as well and they are odd shaped so what I did was go to a local Hallmark store and bought some bigger envelopes from them so I didn't have to pay extra postage!!
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| A family member of mine got our local high school which has a floral class to make the centerpieces and bouquets for incredibly cheap. Now that I think of it, the school has a cosmetology program and I used to get my hair done there when I was in school for like $10. You should see if any local schools do that and take advantages of it. They actually did a really nice job.
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RASPBERRYTART
5/8/08 9:55 A
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| I used silk flowers and hand made our own bouquets.
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HOPKINS3208
5/8/08 8:49 A
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If you have any family members or friends who are into flowers you could have him/her put together arrangements for the church and/or reception hall. My mother is into gardening and is putting together flower arrangements for the church, which are then being transported to the reception hall. This is a huge cost savings for us.
We are also only having a small cake to cut for the bride, groom, and wedding party. For our guests we are having a couple of sheet cakes made. However, you could have a family member or friend bake you sheet cakes depending on the number of guests. This would also be a good savings.
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SINGLEMAMA2004
5/7/08 7:16 P
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anything that really wasn't needed and if you did it again wouldn't include?
Anything you found that was $ saving?
I'm trying to spend under $5,000 for the whole wedding and would still like it to be a decent wedding looking for any ideas
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