Planning Myself

Organization is the key!! I am planning mine myself. Get the hall, location, caterer, photographer, and dj or band reserved right away and plan accordingly. We started planning in advance and I have almost everything ready to go except I am still looking for a photographer. Pick your colors and watch for clearence items after holidays to get things to decorate with, example red, check after Christmas and Valentines day.
My mom`s best friend is a florist so I asked her to do the decorations. We are having an outdoor wedding in his father`s backyard.I have purchased my dress and wedding party items over the internet at great prices and have reserved a local seamstress already. If you have enough time get the basics down first and all the rest you will aquire along the way. If you want anymore help or suggestions feel free to email me at raidertaylor@msn.com.

Jennifer

I am also planning my own wedding any tips would be awsome!!! I have a budget as well !!
Thanks Kara
Karazemail@yahoo.ca

I`m not using a planner either. This thing is turning expensive enough without adding more costs! The first thing we did was forget about hotels for a reception. The cheapest hotel we found was $24 a person, the one we really liked was $29 a person. Just to feed everyone would have cost $4600 with tip and tax. Ridiculous! We decided to go with the local Legion Hall, which charges $13 per person including tax. We have to decorate ourselves, but hey, it`s less than half the price.

We`re not really skimping on photos or a DJ, we want folks to have a good time and to have beautiful memories of the whole thing. We chose middle of the road for both, about $500 each.

Even going the inexpensive road, we`re looking at over $10,000. We`re sort of shocked actually, we had hoped for far less - especially since the costs are going to be paid mostly by us, with some donations from both sets of parents.

I wish there were a polite way to just ask for money, but in spite of what little poems some people on here think are OK to put on their invitations, I still think it`s exceptionally rude to ask for money in your invite. Tacky in the extreme! After all, these are our invited guests, we`re hardly going to charge admission. We`re just hoping people will come with cash rather than blenders! :)

K

Oh I wish I could find a hotel that charges $29/person. The only thing I`ve found in the Bay Area is $59.00/person!!!

My fiancee and I are also surprised about the HIGH COSTS involved with planning a wedding. Our date is set for approx. 18 months away, and I`ve been searching for a reception site for 2 months already and no luck!

A wedding planner or a binder to keep all those notes and papers and contracts is a big help. Heck someone in the family might offer to buy you a planner...my future sis-in-law bought mine. She saw my notebook that could not handle anymore papers or faxes and told me not to worry, she`d get me a planner. The same thing....$$$$....is why I hadn`t bought one yet.

Try looking for a place where you can have both the Wedding & Reception. We found one for $450.00 where we can have both. Then Decide about your priorities like Plain Napkins & items like that. I`ve found excellent bargains at our Hobby Lobby & saved my self a Great deal of Money. I found Wedding Bubbles for $1.49 for 24 Bottles, My Cake Service set for $4.99, My Guest Book for $4.99, 500 Cake Napkins for $11.59. Dinner Napkins 500 for $17.50. So there are bargains you just have to Locate them. I also made my Centerpieces for $1.25 each.
Tami
Tksavon@Yahoo.com

I am getting married in July, 2003. Congratuations to all of you out there. So far I too have done all the planning, from making the wedding invitations to getting friends to help out with the cooking and baking.
My wedding will be in my backyard, where last spring and summer i planted flowers and rose bushes. I hope all of you have a wonderful wedding. I`m mot sure where most of you are from, but I am from a little town in Nova Scotia.

Hey, I`m in Halifax! Where are you from and when is your wedding?

K

I also planned my own wedding and kept telling myself that anything that doesn`t get done not to worry cause the only one who knows it wasn`t there was myself. Planning a wedding of 600 people can be very very stressful so I had to always have a thought to fall back on. When the day was over I sat back and thought wow I actually had EVERYTHING i could have ever wanted....OUR day was PERFECT.