SPONSORED WEDDINGS

You don`t seem to understand the "concept" of sponsored weddings. It has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the exchange of actual money. A SPONSOR is a COMPANY who will be ADVERTISING at your Wedding or Event. This advertising may include discount or FREE merchandise or services that will be visible at your event.

Think of TV:
"this MADE FOR TV MOVIE is SPONSORED by Coca Cola."for instance) The MOVIE is YOUR WEDDING. Coca Cola is YOUR FLORIST (for example). Coca Cola pays $25,000 for their commercial to be played during the MOVIE break because 500,000 viewers are expected to watch this movie and if they see the Coke ad, they will be persuaded to buy the soda.

Your florist, or any vendor, for that matter, may give you FREE flowers IF you show them your guest list, and it is an A-list crowd from your geographical location AND the FLORIST name is printed in the program that all your guests will be handed before the ceremony AND if they are thanked on the microphone during the reception. (Just like the Coke commercial, everything should be in a written contract) If you do not come thru on your side of the bargain, you will pay the price for the flowers).

If you are just an average Jane and your guest list includes a bunch of ruthless and toothless hillbillies, you are going to have a tough time convincing anyone that they are going to make money by advertising at your wedding.

If you are Star Jones from The View, you will have no problem. She agreed to mention her VENDORS on TV and in Print as often as possible and they gave her FREE stuff! The ADS or all posted on their website starandal.com:

Http://www.starandal.com/index.cfm?fa=bridalparty#
Http://www.starandal.com/index.cfm?fa=thankyou#

The bride and groom are not just happy and thankful for the good and services... They are making sure that the companies are getting their monies worth in advertising for all the freebies that they provided for this couple!

Unfortunately, this doesn`t seem "fair." It is the poor people that can`t afford the wedding of their dreams that could really use the sponsors, but the rich people that are bathing in the limelight can and many will get everything for free because they promise that PEOPLE magazine will be there and E! will be covering the event on TV. However, if you are creative enough, you too can think of ways to drum up business for your vendors and they will compensate you for this advertising. Just find something you can offer or promise to bargain with and make a deal!

Good Luck!

And to ALL YOU SPONSOR BASHERS out there... You guys clearly have NOTHING to offer anyone but your jealousy and bitterness. You are uneducated and have no business sense whatsoever! Star and Al have plenty of money, but they are shameless in the thank you`s that they hand out to companies that SPONSORED their wedding. They also give plenty of their time and money to charity. It is all about doing the most good possible in this case and everybody wins.

I think a wedding like this is a great idea. Afterall, the average wedding costs $22,000$ and some of us don`t have the money to do that....

If anyone has any information of how I can have the following items sponsored in the Washington D.C. / Prince Georges County area, Please e-mail me at cherry8201@yahoo.com

God Bless,
Cherry Allen

I cannot believe you would say that to all of the bride`s who may not be able to afford a wedding at all. It`s not like asking for a handout. These businesses are only agreeing to do this because they want something in return. Everyone wins with a situation like this.

You called these ladies trailor trash, but I think it is a lot more `trailer trash-like` to begin your new life together with debt to your eyeballs because everything was spent on the wedding. People like you may have to live in the trailer after you beautiful wedding.
Good Luck!

YOU GO GIRLS!!!

I agree with you Kris. I have been blessed to be able to pay for a lot of stuff for my wedding that I did not think I was going to be able to afford. I was just trying to see if the opportunity was possible and if so how could I reap the benefits. I am a hard working college student and all that my fiance and I want to do is live "Happily Ever After as Husband and Wife". The lady`s comment about being "Trailer Trash" are blatantly RUDE! I understand that is the sarcastic way of the 1st Amendment. I guess the hard working Americans still go thru the "Robin Hood" syndrome : "Give More to the Rich and Less to the "Poor" or in this case the "Middle Class" Americans that deserve the assistance.
"Trailer Trash" is a state of mentality and it does not have to be a lifestyle of choice!!!!! For the person that made the comment "Common Sense" you need to reevaluate your comment b/c it did not make "Common Sense" and this web site , more importantly this web page topic was designed so people can come and express their feeling and possibly seek help not to be slandered for an idea! I took you comment to be personally offensive and I just pray that you learn how to treat others better than what you exemplified yourself on this web post.

And for everyone else that came to this page looking for help in this particular area, I pray God`s Blessings upon your Wedding and Most Importatly your Marriage!

God Bless,
Cherry (June 10, 2006)

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THEY HAVE PEOPLE IN LOUISIANA THAT WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR A WEDDING. OR IF SOMEONE KNOWS OF SOME PEOPLE EMAIL AT SHORTY70818@YAHOO.COM AND LET ME KNOW.

Go to www.jevon-n-christina-sponsoredwedding.com
This bride is in the proces of writing a book and she isn`t charging much for it. She is having it published after her wedding... But the thing about her is that she succeeded by planning a huge wedding and she is all over the media! I am buying it because my sister is getting married at the end of next year and wants to try it. I figure if I get the book by August, I will still have about a year to help her look for sponsors. -Jenn

I WOULD LIKE TO GET SOME HINTS ABOUT SPONSORED WEDDING.

I think having a sponsored wedding makes a lot of COMMON SENSE! What makes no sense at all is spending $20,000+ on a wedding and not having a house to live in afterwards. The bottom line is that weddings are expensive and they are only for a few hours! The MARRAIGE is more important than the wedding. Beginning a marraige in debt is the dumbest decision anyone can make.

I am proudly looking for more information about sponsored weddings. I am a graduate student (i.e., POOR with no time but plenty of `potential`) and my fiance owns his own business (i.e., POOR with no time but plenty of `potential`). I consider myself a smart and savvy individual. I applaud all of you like-minded smart and savvy people who are also looking into sponsored weddings--GOOD FOR YOU!!!

I am going to start by giving you some information about sponsored weddings. Here is what I did..
1. Created a website for my wedding.
2. Contacted all businesses in my area. Local Florist (that we purchased prom flowers, funeral sprays, weddings etc.) and asked them for sponsorship or discounts.
3. Contacted new businesses locally and in surrounding cities and asked for sponsorship and discounts. You can put their business information on the website, in the programs and a business card near the item that they donated and it helps their business. I had 250 guests from work, family and friends and so many of them purchased things from the businesses because they saw something that they liked. I didn`t tell any of them that it was sponsored.
4. Contacted students at local trade schools. I got a photographer and videographer for $500 (both together). They were able to use my pictures and DVD`s for class grade, they received recommendation and referral letters from us and we received over 400 pictures and 4 DVD`s (2 sets done by different students that caught everything about our special day). They chose the students who were the top in the class and they were great. They did everything at the school and I only paid the school for supplies. My entire bridal party received massages for $15 at the local massage school, our make-up, nails, toes and hair by the top hair student at the local beauty school for $20 each (nice discount since it was my special day and I had 20 people there men and women for cuts, perms, nails etc) and the styles were gorgeous. We had gone there 3 times before the big day (once a month for 3 months before the wedding) so we knew who we liked and were comfortable with. The Instructors were close by helping and we gave them letters of recommendations as well. The Art Institute allowed 2 students to make my wedding cake. They had done beautiful designs for the school and they had 8 flavors to choose from. I chose a death by chocolate drizzled with Kaluah (no children was at my wedding besides the ones in it) and they did a buttercream frosting and with fresh flowers.
5. Location - find locations that you job uses, church clubs use and things like that. I used the garden club that my job uses for the Christmas party and because I work for the Marketing area, I told gave them the promise that we would use their location for our summer picnic/ barbecue. That was 1200 employees that they were promised (with permission from my job) and I got my location for nothing (used Sunday early evening). Saturdays are very busy days and I informed them that I was willing to do a Sunday. The great part about that, they had ordered too much beef and chicken for their Saturday party and didn`t cook it all, they froze it, and I got it added to my menu for only $250. I paid nothing for the location and for the catering, I paid $1500 plus the $250 for the added meats to my already buffet of Salmon and Pasta. The scenery was beautiful.
Favors, I purchased 180 champagne glasses (and received 100 more for free - a deal that I worked out with the store) and purchased an etching kit from the local craft store and put our initials on them and some rub on transfer flowers that I sealed on the glasses and tied a personalized ribbon (done by me). I did a 2 nice centerpieces, one was aquatic garden centerpieces (no fish in them), the rocks were clear and the color ones light up so as evening came, the tables were all lit with our wedding colors and 1 guest got to take it home. The lights didnt last beyond a week but they loved them. I left it up to them to put their own fish or dwarf frogs in them. We put those on friends and coworker tables. Then on family tables, we had 2 different lengths of heart shaped bamboo plants in a tall vase filled with rocks and some that were lit.

Most of my wedding was sponsored and I put everyone`s information on my site. I received support from businesses that I buy from and that my employer uses as well. I don`t see anything wrong with it. It has nothing to do with being poor or being rich, they want their business name out there for more people to see and students want a good grade. If you have the time, patience and resources, get out there and take a few hundred dollars (or thousand) off of the cost of your wedding and help people in the process.

It is probably too late for Patti, but here is a web site where you can purchase a guide for putting together a sponsored wedding: http://www.tiptopwebsite.com/websites/index2.php?username=danelle

I am a widowed pastor on disability retirement, so my income is EXTREMELY limited. My soon-to-be fiance went to school later in life and has student loans to pay on. Even a fairly basic wedding and honeymoon are pretty much out of the question for us. A sponsored wedding may be our only option, so I`m going to order that book and see if we can save some money.

Tim,

You`re too far away to make it worth your while. I`m in Missouri. The closest I`ve gotten to celebrity status would be my appearances with Jerry Lewis on the MDA Telethon back in 1987 and 1988.