I Need To Plan A Wedding For Under $2000 HELP

Christine,

Tulle and white christmas lights can be great decorations. Just cover the lights with the tulle and it gives this wonderful fairy tale feeling. Also, Winn-Dixie has cakes for around $100 and they are nice!! If you don`t go with that then you can make your own cake and it can be incredible! Just get styrofoam in the different shapes that you need and pin them together. Them either take them to the bakery or decorate them yourself. When it comes time to cut the cake make sure that at meast half of your fake cake is real so that you can eat it! :) Then bring the cake to the back and have sheet cakes in the back precut for the guests to eat! They will never know the difference!

As a student living on a tight budget, with no help from parents, I am planning my wedding also on a budget. I chose a picnic theme, and chose daisies as my flower theme. They are casual, SOOOO cheap and last a very long time (for the days of entertaining family & friends before and after the wedding...). The majority of them can also can be purchased easily before the wedding at the grocery store - only my bouquet is from a florist. They set the scene for a very casual outdoor wedding. I also bought a very inexpensive ($9.99) arch at a garden store, and will decorate it with grape vines and some daisies. Having an outdoor picnic theme also allows me to avoid the high catering costs - pitchers of lemonade and a BBQ grill are perfect for a picnic... And easy on my pocket book.

My fiance and I are both graduate students with little extra cash so we decided on an evening wine and cheese reception. The major expense was the hall, but we hunted around for one that was both attractive and economical (450). Try small towns - that`s what we did, and it`ll be quite nice to get out of the city for such a day. We hired students (3 @ 50 bucks each) to be servers for the wine and beer and cake. They don`t charge corkage fees and you can buy magnums this way too. We are spening 400 dollars on wine and beer - unopened bottles of wine can be returned to the store. For the food we are going to the grocery store......a selection of cheeses, crackers and seasonal fruit and veggie trays (250). Make the trays yourself....much cheaper and do not be afraid to accept offers of help from family and friends. Some may offer to make other things such as pate, truffles etc. . Some halls also have a sound systems so you can make premade cd`s and let them play. We lucked out - my brother is a dj and doing us a favour. If you want a dj, post an ad at your local college or university - students need the extra cash. As for decorations, we are doing the white tulle and lights thing......so pretty and accenting the tables with glass decorator stones (dollar store) As for the cakeand glass holders with tea lights. These are really cheap - I got 100 for 5 dollars at IKEA. We had to rent glasses and table clothes - 60 dollars. Go for fresh flowers from the grocery store.....cheaper and more interesting. As for the cake - call in a favour from a talented friend, or you can also get a couple of elegant cheesecakes or tortes from local cafes. This all depends on whether you plan to have an official :cake cutting moment". Apparently grocery stores also do wedding cakes, but few think to ask. The prices are vastly lower. We are managing the entire wedding on 2000 Canadian. Having the wine and cheese style is elegant, cuts costs, and because you have to have it after dinner, it also lessens drinking time.......good for the budget and the memories! Both the E & G and Rossi wines are excellent and inexpensive. Let me know if you would like any more tips.....I have many! Rebecca

Wow! I`m also on a budget and these are some great suggestions!

We have wedding supplies on sale

Visit our page for more info: Jmart Party Supplies

Get married during the week or on a Friday or Sunday -- everything has been less expensive on those 2 days for us

If you search the web for stationary and "coupons" you can get some discount deals--we got invites, notecards, etc and printed them out on our home computer. We also bought a dozen disposable cameras for the tables to supplement the pro photographer--sent a combination of the best shots to an online service to ouput CDs of the pictures [compupixny.com] and found a downtown flower market vendor who was willing to negotiate a great price on flowers that didn`t quite meet the standards for his business clients. You have to scrounge around a bit but you can save money across the board if you don`t want the total convenience of having others do the leg work.

I am also trying to plan a wedding on a budget (aren`t we all) and so instead of having a d.j. My fiance and I are making our own mix c.d.s (tapes) and playing them at the wedding.

This way you don`t have to worry about any songs you dont want being played, and you can be assured that all the songs you do want to hear are played.

Dear Frugal Wedding planner:

When my husband and I got married in Oct. 1998, we had to pay for nearly everything ourselves. The most expensive aspect was our DJ. He charged $300 for 4 hrs. But he was an excellent DJ. I ordered my dress from a bridal boutique. It was on sale for under $300. But you can also try nice department stores such as Dillard`s, Kaufmann`s, Lazarus, etc. And find bridesmaid dresses or prom dresses on sale that come in white. Most any formal wear store will carry white dresses. Or also try ordering from a bridal boutique`s catalog. They have bridesmaid dresses that come in white also. As for your invitations, we used a party supply store and ordered invitations from the non-wedding book. You can order simple invitations that come as a single card. Ours came on a single card with full color, and saved us big bucks. We decorated the hall ourselves (actually my mother-in-law and my husband`s family did) and purchased the decorations from a craft store. We also used paper plates and plastic dinnerware for the food and iced coolers filled with canned beverages. The food was purchased by my mother in law at a small family restaurant that did catering on the side. It was very delicious and only cost about $200 to feed around 50 people. We had family pick up the food and set it up in the basement of the hall. Our hall was cheap too. It was an old opera house in a small town that was used for jazzersize classes and graduation parties. They only charged us $150 but as long as the place was cleaned and arranged as it was found, we got $100 back. The cake was made by a cake shop and cost us $100. It was the best cake we`ve ever had! We purchased silk flowers from a craft store and my mother-in-law made my bouquet and my maid of honor`s bouquet. She also used the left over flowers for the men`s boutennaire`s. Also, we only had one attendant each in our party. We didn`t have an engagement party or rehearsal dinner. But possibly others can write in about how you can do those inexpensively. You can also save by getting married and having your reception at the same place, as we did.

Sweet Tree carries everything from cakes to chocolates to invitations to cooking classes. Call 416-895-4517 for further information.

I recently attended a wedding that was pot luck-it worked out really well as the guests provided wedding type fare-not stuff like a bag of chip and salsa. They had puff pastry and amazing salads and fantastic entrees.

She assigned a coordinator(a friend) who worked via email to make sure the food variety was good. She also assigned food. People ended up bringing gifts as well.

Hi i got married in 1984 ok this is what we did . Our wedding only cost about $400 for everything . (my dress) i had a friend who sewed alot so instead of a gift she made my dress for me and man is it pretty. (food) hubbys folks got lunch meat trays for us we bought the bread and condaments. (hubbys clothes) he just wore a dark blue suit with a baby blue shirt and dress pants that had baby blue and dark blue stripes in it . All we had to buy was his dress shoes and his shirt he had the rest . We only had a best man and matran of honor and the best man wore a dark blue suit he already had and she wore a baby blue birdsmaid dress she had from another wedding she was in. The lady that made our cake did it as a gift to . We had the wedding in a church and the reception in the back of thew church it was a baptist church so no drinking so we had ice cream punch that was great . I also got the cake cutter at a discount store and our glasses that say bride and groom on them i made my own flowers. To and the guys to. Got blue silk roses 2 of them for us to give to our mothers with lace around them. Bought 2 white long candles and got 2 cheap clear glass candle holders for them got a big white candle and decorated it myself for the unity candle . At the dollar store . U can do a very nice wedding for a little of nothing if u want to do almost all the work yourself for things.

We only invited emediate(spelling) family to the wedding and then sent cards to others and ask then to the reception if they wanted to come .

U can do your own invitations on your home comp if u have the right proram of if a friend has a good program . And if it`s a friend pay them for the paper and ink u use wont be that much.

For a dress u could always buy a inexpencive prom dress make your own vale out of curtain sheer and decorate it and the dress with perals from walmart just sew then onto it .my dress what made of ivory chennel and white cotton eyelet the design of the eyelet was seashells that was aplicaid on the bodice and the flowers around the bottom of the skirt.

Mine was as plane but thats what i wanted i`m also sewing the pearls into the eyelet now for my daughter when she gets married b/c she wants to wear my dress at her wedding. And that will make it look differant for hers.the lady that did our pictures was a friend with a great camera so that was a gift to lol.

I have a sony mavica camera myself now and i am going to do my daughters pictures she is getting married outside under a trellais done up in silk roses and greenery . My camera takes awsome pics outside and i will print thier pictures myself then if she wants she can send them off to have more made or i will print out as many as she likes .

Sorry this is so long but thee are ways to get around all the money u think u have to spend for a wedding i did all my daughters senior pictures fpr school and found a place to buy the port folios from so the kids at school never even new they weren`t pro done. I printed a gallery name on the pics so no one ever new well my own gallery name lol. And that was just a made up name so ppl wouldn`t know she didn`t have a pro do it .

The only ones who knew was her best friend and her family b/c i did hers to. Just took the kids out to a really prerry park and took pics they where really nice if anyone would like to see a pic or 2 let me know i`ll show u .

The reason i an against spending so much on a wedding is i have a niece that barrowed the money from a bank for her wedding and it was a lot and they got a divorce within 2 yrs and the wedding wasn`t even payed off yet .

Oh and if u have the wedding outside in a field or park u can set up a stereo system and have cds playing in the backgroubd softly while u get married and turn the thing up and party when it`s over *S* also put in the invitations that u wont be serving booz and if they want to drink to bring thier own to that way u just have to buy fgor yourself and bridal party .if u want booz that is i think a wedding is better without it myself . Then u don`t have to worry that anyone will get out of control and have a fight . Makes the day more enjoyable for u .

As for a honeymoon when we got married we didn`t have a lot of money so we went over night to louisville ky i live in indiana. And went to the zoo to marago cave to windot cave and to another cave and we had a ball hubby had to be back to work on tuesday anyway so that was great for us. We got married on memorial day weekend so monday was a holiday and we didn`t mis s wortk and still had a great time of it .
Anyway hugs i didn`t mean to ramble on here
Tweety38

Oh sorry i forgot to put my email addy lol
Tweety382@hotmail.com

Hello, Christine.

Do you still need help? If so, please email me at abeautifulcelebration@juno.com, and I will be more than happy to help. I make wedding accessories by hand that are especially for the budget wedding, so I am sure that I can help make your special celebration even more beautiful!
Enjoy your planning! :)
Kim

E-mail me and I can give you some suggestions.

I have a white wedding dress (FULL) SIZE 16 NVER WORN. And lavender bridal flowers and mens flowers. If you would like if you pay for shipping you may have them. God bless you. If you would like them please give me a call. Elizabeth 337-278-9124

Elizabeth,
I have a very dear friend that is getting married in March, how is on a tight buget for her wedding and she really needs a dress for her wedding too. Can you tell me how much the shipping will be so that way we can get the money for so she could have this dress. She would be very thankful for this. if you can call me so we can talk about it... Paying for the shipping of the dress will help her and her soon to be husband out a lot. Thank you so much....

TJformal has some great prices on wedding gowns, bridesmaid gowns, shoes, etc. You might check them out: www.tjfrmal.com