Posted on Feb-13-08 at 07:57 AM (Eastern) by 64.12.116.68

After 10 years toghether my boyfriend finally proposed to me on dec 10 ( our 10 year anniversary). Since it took him so long to ask me I wanted to get married asap. LOL . We are planning on getting married on November 15th of this year and I was just wondering if any of you had any money saving advice or know of any websites that discuss cheap wedding ideas and things of that sort. We are trying to get married on a low budget but at the same time I want to have a nice wedding. I am so excited to finally be getting married! I have been calling him my husband for the last year or 2 since we live together and have been together so long but I am just so excited that I am r4eally gonna be his wife!!! Thanks for any tips or advice. Feel free to email me if you like!

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so.......
Love the people who treat you right.
Forget about the ones who don't.
******************************************
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the
rest to God.

• see inside here..., Skaytes, 09:26 AM, Feb-13-08
• our goodwill store gets new gowns sometimes. check..., coltura68, 09:56 AM, Feb-13-08
• You can buy the veil at Michaels and just add what..., teener, 11:08 AM, Feb-13-08
• Please see inside, kandywolf, 11:10 AM, Feb-13-08
  • Lots of great ideas there! Doesn't TAKE a million ..., Skaytes, 11:59 AM, Feb-13-08
• don't laugh too much but..., cinda68, 12:43 PM, Feb-13-08
• here's a good website for ideas, cattlebaron1, 08:40 PM, Feb-13-08
• cheap tips for weddings inside, glennie58, 00:39 AM, Feb-14-08
• Also....., kandywolf, 06:20 AM, Feb-14-08

Posted on Feb-13-08 at 09:26 AM (Eastern) by 71.0.13.135

daughter Marissa is getting married in June and one of the biggest savings she has gotten so far is her wedding dress. She watched for sale this past summer at the stores that carry wedding gowns and got her BRAND NEW gown for only $16.00!! Yep..that is $16! It was a STEAL to say the least and she just loves that dress! She is going to use my own original wedding veil (That too was hand made for me waaayyy back when!lol) The Veil is easy to make yourself and soooo much cheaper. Just a lot of tulle..sew or hot glue very carefully the tulle to a hair 'comb' and hot glue carefully pearls/flowers etc on the comb as well. Same for your bridal bouquet. MUCH cheaper to make them yourself and only takes a little bit of time to do. Just get flowers/foliage you want (even cheaper with artificial flowers/foliage and will last forever) and arrange how you want them and wrap stems up with floral tape. You can do your own flower arrangements as well and save TONS of money.

She lives in another state but plans to marry here in our back yard so I will be making the food for the reception as well..yet another major cost cutter for them. I know of several people locally that bake wedding cakes so will be ordering a cake from them. MUCH cheaper than the bakery and just as good and beautiful too!

Also check out discount places for wedding accessories..like for plates, decorations etc as well. I found a store in another city that specializes in that stuff and they have major sales on that stuff all the time so will not cost hardly anything to get what I need there for her as it's SUPER cheap!

Posted on Feb-13-08 at 09:56 AM (Eastern) by 72.65.213.90

Mom 2 Nathan and Keirsten and lovin it

Auction link http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmrscoltura68QQhtZ-1

Posted on Feb-13-08 at 11:08 AM (Eastern) by 74.236.236.38

My future DIL did this and found a beautiful lil Chapel where they want to have the wedding and it has different size packages for just the wedding or the wedding and reception Good luck and congrats

Posted on Feb-13-08 at 11:10 AM (Eastern) by 24.115.234.41

We did my cousins ENTRIRE wedding for under $500, that included EVERYTHING except her gown and her husbands suit (Included the bridesmaids dresses too!) (Her Dress was $300, retail $1400, she was in love with it, and her husbands suit they got on clearance for $125, she bought her shoes at Payless)

Hit Dollar Tree, Big Lots, Ollies.. etc. Walmart also has some good cheap things for weddings (We got the Tulle, the holders and collars for the bouquets, the guest book, and the cameras for the tables)

At Big Lots we found the Wedding invitations, 50 in a box for $2 (They included the response cards and envelopes too!) They were very cute and had silver hearts around the outside border. (Printed them on my computer) I hosted the Bridal Shower at her moms house, we made all the food ourselves (We had barbeque, chicken fingers, Meatballs, Ziti, Macaroni Salad, Potatoe Salad, Cake.All for under $50 (Bought the Ground beef on clearance, got the chicken fingers from Angel Food Ministries, Ziti and Elbows at the Dollar Tree, Also got the Soda at the Dollar tree) I made the Shower invites on my computer. We invited over 200 people to the shower and wedding (Stamps were the most expensive thing.. lol!)
We found the Unity Candle at Walmart, bought a plain Ivory Pillar Candle for $2, got the scrapbook transfers that said love is patient, love is kind (At Dollar Tree) a Mirror to put it on, and I added some beading and lace around the top and bottom edge, which was left over from my wedding 6 years ago)) Got 2 Ivory Tapers (2 for $1) and 2 Crystal taper holders ($1 at Dollar tree) so $7 for the entire thing
The Centerpieces we found these very pretty Silver metal and glass floating candle holders at Big Lots for $1, we found a large 4 candle set to match for the head table for $10, we added artificial flowers to them from Dollar tree. we also bough little Christmas balls and bells and sat them on the tables also (It was Dec 22) We bought the Tables cloths at Dollar Tree.
The bouquets were artificial, I made them all by hand with hot glue and the holders and collars from Walmart, and all the flowers were from Dollar tree, everyone went nuts over them! We did her bouquet costed $10, the rest which there were 7 more, including the toss bouquet cost $30
The boutineers, we found large roses with a clip on them for $1 each, I added small poinsettia's to them and everyone thought they were gorgeous!
For the mothers and grandmothers corsages, we bought wrist corsage straps at Micheals for $1.29, and Wedding floral for each for $1.79, and added left over flowers from the bouquets.
She had the Wedding in a Church, then found a church less than 1 mile away to hold the reception, it was $150, but after we cleaned up they got $100 back. She was fortunate that a lady she babysat for was a cake decorator, so she only paid $50 for her wedding cake, and she knows a guy who does catering, so he got the food at his cost and did all the cooking for free.. also her best friend is a professional photographer, so he did her pictures for free.. Her friend did the DJing (He isnt a DJ, but her brother had the equipment, and she made up cds for him to play for when) Her favors were custom made CDs which a friend did for her.
I made her wedding topper for $4 (a round plastic rubbermaid bowl, a half of a foam ball, silver spraypaint, and a Hexagon Mirror. I had the beading and ivory lace and the stencils and the etching cream) I made them a custom cake topper with their names on it!
As for the bridesmaids dresses, she had a black and white wedding, so the girls were allowed to wear any dress they chose as long as it was mostly black, the girls that were thin were able to get their dresses at Debs for between $10 and $20, I got mine at Boscovs for 50% off at $40 and another girl got hers at Value City for $30.

Now for my wedding 6 years ago, here is what I did, I bought a small wedding cake (2 tiers) for the wedding party, and a sheet cake for the wedding guests (no one knew or cared the difference) We did a Garden Wedding in my brother in laws back yard. Someone lent us Tables and Chairs, and we rented a tent. The mayor did our wedding, and didnt charge us anything for it! We had gotten catered food, but heated it ourselves and did a buffet style (We used crockpots for everything, and had a few people to keep an eye on them and take care of them) We got a 1/2 keg of beer (Only 1 kind) and a friend who owns a bar gave us 20 bottles of wine as our gift, so people had their choice of wine or beer, and when it was gone, it was gone. I made our wedding invitations on the computer, as well as the Wedding CDs and bubbles as the favors. 2 of my friends DJd for me (they had never done it before, and actually started up a dj business after that!) Pictures were done by my Nephew and he did a great job! My Husbands Aunt is a professional photographer and she took pictures, but I think the ones my nephew took came out better. I also made my bouquet and the girls bouquets for my wedding also. There are tons of ways to cut corners!

Sorry so long.. HTH!

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Posted on Feb-13-08 at 11:59 AM (Eastern) by 71.0.13.135

make your wedding LOOK like a million bucks! Just a lot of time, effort and the savings are WELL worth it! My daughter said she would rather have that money to use on something they would use for a long time in the future (example: new television) that waste it friviously on things you only use for ONE day. :)

Posted on Feb-13-08 at 12:43 PM (Eastern) by 207.255.74.117

My husband and I are a strange breed. We got married this past November in jeans at the local JP. Yep. lol We got simple plain wedding bands, $100..license $50...JP fee $50. And then we went to McDonald's for lunch! lol Perfect day, just perfect. He had to go to work that night so the next night we took off to the Motel 6 for one night alone. Now all I need is a nice wooden memory box to keep my Motel 6 soaps in and my wedding costs are done! lol
Oh and by the way, we are extremely happy. Been together since September and haven't fought once, not once. :)

Posted on Feb-13-08 at 08:40 PM (Eastern) by 64.136.26.225

http://www.save-on-crafts.com/calibo.html

Posted on Feb-14-08 at 00:39 AM (Eastern) by 98.203.99.63

I've been a wedding planner and been married, lol

I think for my wedding I needed a planner. IF you have an anal, organized friend willing to help you out let her. You will need someone on hand to take care of problems on the day of the wedding that is NOT you. I did not have this which is why I became a wedding planner.

if you have a friend who is a florist they can get cheap flowers for you. If not just get small bouquet for you, decorate the church or wedding site with candles and things, maybe dried wreaths? nov is a festive time and you can do a lot of winter decorations cheaply.

if you can, go to you local bbb for photographer and check bbb website, the ripoff report, etc., plaints and buy the smallest package. we had a 'friend' who was a pro do ours and not one was usable. this sometimes happens when people are donating their time (we DID pay for the film and developing). Make sure to discuss the exact shots you want and pay only part up front and pay the rest on delivery of the photos as you ordered them.

Try David's bridal or high end boutique sale for 'non-traditional' wedding dress (bergdorf, needless markups, even macy's) if you have filene's bsement they do wedding dress sales several times a year, if you live anywhere near boston it's worth a trip, I got mine for less than $200 this way, people try them on in the aisles and fight over them lol.

register at reasonable places and let your friends put out the news so you don't look greedy or grasping - it's a chance for the people that want to give and can afford it to do something nice for you.

we registered at macy's and crate and barrel (with a few things at williams sonoma).

for the rehearsal dinner we kept it simple, did it buffet/picnic like, but indoors and at the church we decorated the path with tea lights in 'bags' along the path. it looked really pretty.

we got married in a unitarian church but by our minister (almost free) and used the church for the reception. It held 300 people no problem, and we had the wedding in the late afternoon and just served punch and hors doeuvres by waitstaff that was told to keep it moving but did not (some folks managed to fill their little plates up and some others did not eat at all but we found this out after the honeymoon and felt real bad about it. We had bought enough we thought - we tripled the recommended amount - I just think people are used to really eating at weddings lol)

(if it's a church parking should mostly be taken care of too.)

I think a small buffet might have helped but you live and learn.

We had a DJ friend make 10 mix tapes and had a person in charge of the 'music' at the reception. If you choose this route make sure they know where the switch is to turn on the power in the reception room.

hth
Glennie

(boy it's no wonder this did not last, huh?)

Posted on Feb-14-08 at 06:20 AM (Eastern) by 24.115.234.41

Register for the shower and the wedding.. I got my guest book, pen, unity candle and bubbles at my shower.. people would rather buy you something you can use...

Also we did the rehersal Dinner at my house, Just ordered pizza, it was alot more relaxed and fun since I was a nervous wreck! For my attendants gifts, the men got a biottle of cologne and the women got a glass jewelry box with their names etched in the top of it (Also did this for my mom) Printed up a poem and put it inside the jewelry box, telling them what they meant to me and thanking them for sharing my special day.

Since it is in Nov, think about Decorating with Fall foilage, Pumpkins etc. Take advantage of cheap things available at the time. We are renewing our Vows in 2011 so these tips are helpful to me also, as we are having a full wedding, because when we got married we lived away from my family, so most could not attend, so this is a way for everyone to be able to see us get married again or the first time for those who missed the first wedding! We are doing Medieval theme this time. Cant wait, I would love to be a wedding planner lol!

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