Wedding For Cheap

Where are you located at? By Wedding do you mean the reception and wedding or just the reception ar does this budget also include the Dress Tuxedo etc.

Make all of your own decorations.....you can buy almost everything you need at a loonie store, and don`t have a dinner.....just have snacks at the reception, and a cash bar....see if you can borrow a friends backyard or even use your own. If you make everything including invitations and place cards you should be able to keep within budget. Have the bridesmaids and groomsmen pay for their own gowns/tuxes.

Thank you everyone for all of suggestions. I just may be using at least one idea from everyone. There was one young lady who asked where I was located the answer to that is Philadelphia. I have a few thoughts of my own. Tell me what you girls think. I was going to get married in the parkfor $100. The reception hall cost $300 for three hours. The only problem with this is that the place only holds about 100 people which means that my guest list will have to be shortened. I am having two bridesmaides. Their dresses$100 a piece. Two groomsmen. I have yet to find a caterer or someone to prepare the food. We have already reserved our honeymoon spot at the ceasars pocono resort for three day the day after the wedding. Please send me more ideas if it is at all possible. The wedding date is July 18, 2003. Thank you again :)

I too am having a DIY wedding and my budget isn`t much more than yours. If you want a dinner reception have an old fashioned potluck dinner. A lot of your guests will be happy to help I am sure. Otherwise a tea reception with sweets and different teas would be cheap as well and really nice. We are doing decorations ourselves..I`m a crafty one so it helps but even if you aren`t there is a lot you can do. Our church had a great Christmas performance and I stole this idea from them: tree brances(cut about 6ft high)with christmas lights(white) in them..they made the stand by cutting pieces of PVC piping and fastening it to a square of plywood with table brackets or shelf brackets......or just stick em in a good sized bucket with gravel to hold them up. Looks sooo elegant and pretty. Tulle netting is really quite cheap and can make any room amazing. Wrap it around anything. Marbles in the bottom of a bowl with a floating candle. Marbles are cheap at any second hand store and you can probably find the bowls there as well. I picked up ivy bowls for 25 cents a piece as well as clear glass votive holders at one second hand place. They are both around a dollar at Wal-mart. The dollar stores are great. Balloons in your colors are another cheaper alternative and can be used as centerpieces weighted down with a small bag of sand. Fruit looks nice..like lemons and limes or even apples. Candles..lots of candles are cheap and great for Ambiance(great word!hahaha) and the dollar stores are great for these as well. Know any friends who grow flowers? See if you can snip some here and there and create multi-colored boquets for on your tables or your boquets. Our wedding is in July as well, the 26th so we still have a fair bit of time. We are getting married at a recreation facility and have use of a full kitchen including tablewear, plates, cutlery etc. We are having the ceremony on the grounds...they have a nice area in the back with weeping willows and such. No extra charge because we booked the hall with them. They set up the chairs and tables and we have the room from 8am to 2:30am the next morning. Time to eat, dance and clean-up. I made my own invites. Found a cute pix I like and copied it , cut two little holes in the top and put a ribbon through.....printed off the wording on the computer. I used note cards...the pre perforated packs of 100. Cost $15 at Staples for 100 invites plus $2 for ribbon. Oh another nice candle holder is mason jars with sand or pebbles in the bottom with a votive inside. After Valentines Day check out the sales of leftovers. Hearts are pretty standard for just about any wedding. Buy one of those paper punches and make your own table confetti. Butterflies, hearts, flowers etc. Head outdoors and use pressed leaves as place cards(saw this on some site)they used a gold pen and wrote the name right on the leaf. Very nice. Don`t worry about monogrammed napkins and stuff like that. Write a simple poem or find one of your faves and print it on some cardstock and frame it in a secondhand frame. Use that as table decor. Try and get the frames to match though. Can you tell I love second hand stores, ohohoh and flea markets and garage sales rock too. Be frugal but have fun. There are soo many ideas. For a guest favor....recipe cards of your favorite recipes, ask family members to contribute and make up small books of 4 or 5 different ones tied with ribbon. Or love quotes or poems. Cheap but personal. Candy hearts, those hot cinnamon ones or the ones with the messages on them.....after valentine`s day sale again. We are renting a Karaoke machine for $75 and bringing a Cd player and making our own mixed CD`s burning them off the computer. Will have my soon to be brother-in-law run the whole thing. He`s 17 and is pretty cool when it comes to being Mr. DJ. Might not be the most perfect dance but we will have fun. And isn`t that the whole point. To share a day with your loved ones, celebrating your marriage and having fun! Hope this helps a little!
Love Chris

Well, the North East isn`t the best spot for cheap weddings... I`m in NY. My father gave me a book on consolidating debt and saving money. As far as weddings go, it recomends a pot-luck wedding. It says to send out home-made invitations with a food the guests are required to prepare instead of bringing gifts. Good luck...