Elegant Wedding On A Tight Budget

Get Crafty-Make whatever you can. Favors, Decorations, Programs, Pew Bows, Invitations

Shop Around-Before you purchase anything shop around. Try the internet (no tax and sometimes free shipping), yard sales, thrift stores, dollar stores, ebay, etc...

Something Old-Don`t be afraid to borrow things from family and friends.

Talk, Talk, Talk-Talk to people you know, chance is they know of an affordable photographer, a lady who makes cakes on the side, a reasonable seamstress, etc...

The Perfect Dress-Find "the dress" but don`t buy it at the boutique. Look in the newspaper. Post a wanted ad on a wedding message board. Find dealers that are able to get the gown for a discounted price. Find a seamstress who can duplicate the gown at a fraction of the price.

Get a Head Start-When ordering designer gowns, plan on waiting a good 4 months or more for your dress to arrive. So if you`re working with a limited amount of time, you might want to buy off the rack.

Feeding the Masses-Don`t feel obligated to serve your guests a sit down, four-course meal. Many brides are opting for an hors d`ourves or dessert receptions. These are sure to save you money, not only on food but place-sitting rental costs. If you do feel like you need to serve dinner, a bbq would make a lovely reception for an informal wedding.

Stay Out of Debt-I find that many engaged couples take out loans or rack up their credit cards to cover the cost of their wedding. This is a huge mistake and no way to start out a marriage. Live within your means, budget well and do only what you can. Remember, a beautiful wedding has little to do with how much money is spent.

Hire a Wedding Planner-Unless you have an excess amount of free time on your hands and an unlimited amount of money, you`re going to need a wedding planner. A good wedding planner will help you save money, not only will they keep you on budget but they have connections and can get you the best deals.

Invitation Savvy
Make Your Own-You can find great stationary with templates at your local Staple`s, Office Depot, Target, or Hallmark. Also try bridalink.com

Seal-n-Send Invitations-These nifty invites are a great way to save money when you don`t have the time or patience to make your own. These invites come in the mail like a post-card but open up into an invitation, with a detachable response post-card at the bottom. These are real money savers, coming in at about $1/invite.

The Real Deal-If you insist on the traditional invitation, I suggest you shy away fro the really long, wide, or heavy invites. The postage on these invitations is guaranteed to be more. Be sure to shop around for invitations, find the one you want then find several dealers, many offer discounts.

One More Thing-If you are having a small wedding I would definitely suggest printing your own invites. Reason being, when you order invitations they usually start in quantities of 25. However, there`s usually only a $10-$20 difference between the price of 25 and 100 invitations. Meaning, you`re practically paying the same for 25 invitations as you would for 75 or 100.

Congratulations Danielle,
Sounds like a lot of good advice from everyone. If you would like to e-mail me with some ideas of what "you" are looking for maybe I could help too! I have saved a lot of money with my wedding coming in oct 05. Good luck.

Colour co-ordinate everything and keep it simple - remember less is best. Over do it and you`ll likely end up with something tacky. My budget was extremly tight and we only had a buffet-type reception, yet I managed to pull off that elegant look so much so that everyone thought we`d spent a huge fortune... I had a burgandy/black theme (roses, romance etc). The flower displays were large but simple. A band instead of DJ. The food cleverly laid out . The finishing touch to elegance was our waiters - we hired about 5 people, dressed them in black suits/dickie bows and had them walk around the tables serving water/wine from silver jugs and tit-bits from silver platers. Oh, and we set off fire works. These didn`t cost a lot but certainly made all the difference. Hope it helps.

Your tips are AMAZING!! I just bought my dress on EBAY..Yeah sounds bad..I am waiting for it to come in..hopefully it fits. ;) I am worried about our wedding party in Northern Maine, " MADAWASKA" ..I am soo thankful for your advice, but yet the big things like "caterer, photographer, videographer, come into play..what am I to do in a situation where in a location such as Aroostook County, is the location where I want all to happen..By the way I would greatfully like you to cheack a place where I want my wedding/reception to happen..www.mainelakesidelodge.com.please let me Know!!

Girl, I plan on having awedding too, but around MAy of 2006. Have you any ideas for a dress? You can look online on ebay. They have some nice dress for very low prices.

Girl, I plan on having awedding too, but around MAy of 2006. Have you any ideas for a dress? You can look online on ebay. They have some nice dress for very low prices.

My wedding dress came in from the seller I bought it from on Ebay. Wow it`s gorgeous and fits perfectly, with the exception that the straps are a bit big. Easily fixed! I only paid $175 for it and it turned out to better than expected. I suggest that you keep looking on Ebay and also sample sales are really good. You can always have ot custom made if you have that connection.

I`m also from New England (also named Danielle, lol), and I`m basically raiding my not-too-large savings account. So I can pass along our plan.

Ours is going to be more ecletic than elegant, perhaps. We`ve got a nice church and great location (Cape Cod), but are letting the party be slightly more informal.

We spent some money to get a nice church (old new england style architecture, stained glass, big organ). The ceremony is the "point", after all.

My uncle owns a house nearby and is allowing us to throw the reception there. We`re going to serve hors d`ouerves, some bought and some made by me, as well as clam chowder and hot dogs off the grill. Its an afternoon reception between lunch and dinner, so we`ll fill everyone up but won`t do a big sitdown meal. The idea is to have everyone stand and mingle, with a few seats here and there.

Later, there be the wedding cake (which I am having someone make for around $300-400) as well as a small cake for my brothers (my wedding is the day as their birthday!!!). My fiancee and I are also going to serve tea to everyone. Tea is a passion of ours. Its also going to be in our personal mug collection.

As for distractions, we`re burning CDs of music ourselves and playing it over speakers. There will be a little bit of dancing as well.

All in all, expenses will come to around $2800. $900 church, 600-700 is the food and tea, $400 for cake, $100 for attractive paper plates, $200 for gifts to my bridesmaids & flower girl, $150 for invitations and programs (we`re making those ourselves), $120 for flowers (doing those ourselves too), etc., and the rest various small expenses related to the church and reception.

The only item not included in the above count is the wedding dress---it was $750 incl. Alterations, and my parents are paying for it.

This isn`t a pattern all can follow. Luckily, my uncle has a house that is able to handle a crowd and is willing to host it! That got us out of a reception site. But it is one idea! Avoiding a formal sit-down meal can help a lot.

Where are you located and what budget you are working with?

Have you tried http://www.cupidsgrandeur.com? Prices look very reasonable

Here`s something we did - we had the cerenomy & reception at the same location - it was huge money & time saver. Also - since it was at a museum - the facility fee was considered a DONATION since the museum is a "non-profit" org. That means we can write the facility fee off on our taxes!!

Hi..I got a great deal on my wedding dress. I shopped around on the internet for a while until I found the right one. I paid about $300 for it. I paid no tax or shipping. If you look around, you can find all kinds of online bridal stores that sell almost anything. I also got my professionally printed invitations online for less than $100. I got beautiful monogrammed napkins for about $20 for 100 napkins. It pays to shop the internet for these kinds of things. I spent less than $4000 total on my wedding.

Buy your wedding supplies on Ebay - you can get just about everything... Invitations, favors, cake toppers, accessories, gifts, etc. That`s where my friend did most of her shopping and she had a cheap, but beautiful wedding

Our Ebay store carries a lot of wedding products for 20-25% off retail price. Visit us at: http://stores.ebay.com/Daisy-Days-Wedding-Invitations.

You can also see our other products at www.daisy-days.com - if you see something you like, email me at info@daisy-days.com for a 20% discount!

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