Young Couple With No Money!! Please Help!

First of all I want to say congratulations.
And second of all I know exactly where you are coming from, like yourself my fiance and I are young. We are both 20 years old and getting married in May.
I have been spending day and night trying to find ways to cut the cost of our wedding and the best advice I can give you is go to www.theknot.com. They have everything. As far as the church goes it does get expensive, mine is $675. But don`t get to worried. If you need to I`m sure they will help you as much as possible and if possible help you set up a payment plan. Likewise you don`t have to have your reception catered. I went to a beautiful wedding that wasn`t catered. I have found that the best place to start when planning a wedding is online. I found my hair style, my girls hair style and everything else.
If you need someone to talk to or help please feel free to contact me.
Sincerly,
Dawn

My fiance and I will be married at 23 with little money! Check with your university for reception sites. I got a beautiful reception room overlooking the water for $50! I had to wait in line overnight to reserve it, but it was worth it. Have you considered getting married outside? There are many beautiful parks that charge nothing to $75 or so.
Use the internet! The gown that I fell in love with at a bridal store was quoted on the internet for over $200 less. Try pearlsplace.com, bridalexpressions.net. (You may need to double check those web addresses).
Good Luck!

Lauren,
I have seen some of the other people saying that you should wait until you have more money but remember it is all up to you, I know how you feel, shoestring budget and all. If you want some personal advice please feel free to contact me at dawnp332@yahoo.com I love sharing all of the things that I have found and since I am getting married in May also, it would be nice to be able to talk to someone going through the same things at the same time.
When in May are you getting married? I`m on the 15th.

Sincerly,
Dawn

If you want to have a beautiful wedding and have no money, here are a few things I am doing. My church is free because Ihave been a member for a long time. If you don`t attend church, you can get married outside beside the lake, or on a beach. Reception. You don`t have to have a catered meal. Just have cake and punch and maybe some cheese and snacks, fresh fruit etc. You can buy that at walmart very cheap. Your dress you can either make, or have someone you know make it for you, or go to a discount bridal place. Either way you`re going to spend at least $200. Forgo the limo, and drive away in your own car that has been decorated for you by your friends and family. Use silk flowers, and not real ones....much more inexpensive. Remember 20 years from now, you`re not going to remember how much you did or did not pay for your wedding, You`re going to remember the feeling you felt when you said "I do".

Just an Idea, I leve in south GA, and they have acouple of Thrift stores, you can find couple of the dresses there, and if you know someone that sews, just make your own unique dress, that is how I make my veil.
For my reception, I got roasted chickens from wal-mart for $4.00 a piece, we cut then and put them on a crystal platter, and they were really tasty and everyone loved them, I got few large cheeses, and cut them put them on a platter with crackers and beside it I put a platter of cut fruit, that we cut our selves and put grapes and flowers for decoration. My cakes were bught at SAMS, and they made a great job, and only cost me $9.00 a piece, they look great and they were the best cake. If you will like to see some pictures I can send them. Please e-mail me at reme.mattice@moody.af.mil
Congratulations !!

I think that the first question for you would be-where do you live? Different parts of the country have different expectations for weddings. I live in the NY/NJ Tri-State area, and can give you a ton of ideas on what would be acceptable, but that won`t really help if you live in Kansas (for example).

Everyone has given you some great advice. The bottom line is this: Look at how much money you and your fiance have, plus what your parents will contribute and stick to that amount of money as your budget. Don`t go into debt for a wedding. Look in the classified for dresses, look online for wedding crafts that you can do, and look for unique ideas to make your day special.

If he is in the military, you can get married at the military chapel -- for a very nominal fee, depending on the rules of the chapel. I know that at your age you dream about a big, splashy wedding -- but like someone said, 20 years from it won`t matter. It`s not about how much money you spend or don`t spend on your wedding -- it`s about loving each other and being determined to make the marriage work.

Have a very small wedding now -- with just close family and close friends. Then, 5 or 10 years from now when you are out of college and both of you are earning more -- THEN you can have your "dream" wedding when you renew your vows.

When I used to teach Sunday School to young adults in Georgia, I saw way too many couples getting frustrated because they wanted to get married... But they wanted a big, extravagant wedding. One couple went as far as using the young man`s college grant money to fund their wedding. I would not advise anyone to do that. Be proud of what you can put together; a marriage is not about pleading to vendors to donate items for a wedding day.

Hey, chicken girl,I would like to inform you that your grammer is really making GA, sound stupid! Isnt it bad enough that people think you are all ignorant anyway, I dont think it needs your help! By the way, some large cheeses sounds horrible next to chicken and fruit, unless it is and old fashioned ho down from the movie "Delieverance" Kiss Kiss love ya you all from the non stupid sate

Yes, i think it is time to take those chunks of roasted chickens from out between your teeth, and it is bad for your health to bught things, but you go ahead and eat your cheese and chicken.

And fruit

ZULU KING and QUEEN,

I don`t get into the name calling that this message board is so infamous for but, why don`t you take your opinions and shut up. No one asked you to be english teachers. This post was how to help two young people on a tight budget. You did not offer one piece of advice on that. If you do not have anything constructive to add to the discusion don`t post. Like the saying goes "If you don`t have any thing nice to say. Then don`t say anything at all."
ZULU KING what is bught obviously you can`t spell either.
The both of you sound more ignorant in you rant than the other girl did for 3-4 type-o`s.

My advice to the two of you is get some manners.

And for the topic at hand. A good way to safe on money is serving ethnic food. Make you own decorations, and remember simplicity is very elegant.
No matter how much money you spend on your wedding the only thing that will matter is how much you love each other.
Also, a very romantic option can be to elope. Take a trip to Las Vagas or to TN and get married. Then spend the rest of your time on your honeymoon enjoying each others time.

Thank you Kim!!
As you can see, there is too many ignorant people in the world and the queen and king are a couple of those. I have learn long time ago that it dosent matte what people think of you it hurt your heart and it dose not go anywhere. When people tell me about by background, all I have to say is that I`m an american by choice, English is my 2nd lenguage and in total I speak 3, and up to now, I have been doing pretty good, so in the place of making stupid comments about how people spell, or think, I think that we should help the person that asked the question. So it it is better to ignore people that have nasty comments.

HI MY NAME IS TINA AND I AM A 22 YEAR OLD NEWLY-WED BRIDE I GOT MARRIED ON 10/4/03 I KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO GET MARRIED ON A LOW BUDGET,BUT I MUST SAY WE PULLED IT OFF. THE REASON I AM REPLYING IS ACTUALLY TO ASK YOU A QUESTION....THAT IS ...
DO YOU HAVE A DRESS? IF NOT I WANT YOU TO E MAIL ME ASAP! THIS IS NOT A PRANK! PLEASE LET ME KNOW EITHER WAY OK.IN THE REPLY PART PUT "TINA"SO I KNOW IT IS NOT JUNK MAIL I DONT WANT TO ACCIDENTIALLY ERASE IT. I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU. HAVE A BLESSED DAY.MY E MAIL ADDRESS IS ITALIAN_PRINCESS_XO@YAHOO.COM

Well, being on a budget, I understand. This is a remarriage for me (02-14-04) we both have children so with that in mind, we wanted elegant but inexpensive. Go to Ebay for sure, look under weddings, they have over 3000 items ! Anything from decorations to dresses, register books, etc. I bought my register book brand new for .75 cents, bought my dress for $39.00 it was wore 1 time and retailed for 450.00 but is silver gray, which is what I wanted and very simple lines. THey even have people on there who do flowers ! You can get all the flowers you would need, fun thing is you bid on them, and you may win! I got my invitations for $55.00 by a service that does them. Received them today and they are beautiful. Good luck and best to you both!

I`m trying to plan a inexpensive wedding as well, so I know where you`re coming from. All the suggestions have been very good! I would try to be unique as possible. I`ve been pulling ideas from all over the internet. I plan to make my own invitations, favors, and centerpieces. Not only will it be cheaper, it allows me to put a personal touch into my "special" day. As for a dress, I would definitely use ebay or second hand stores. If you decide this is where you want to splurge and you don`t want a second hand dress, just go to a search engine & type in cheap wedding dresses. Off the subject, Reme, you`re doing a wonderful job. Don`t let anyone tell you differently or try to make you feel bad. To speak three languages is a wonderful accomplishment. I can`t believe anyone would use their time or energy to belittle others, but you never know. Good luck to all!!! Have a wonderful weekend. :)

Hi, I just wanted to say, I am 20 and my husband is 21, and we got married in March and are having a second wedding in December for my family. (My husband is from Australia and I`m from the states so my family couldnt make it for the one in March). We dont have very much money either. I was trying to get my residency visa, so i couldn`t work, and my husband was working part time trying to support both of us. So i know how it is to not have much money.
Anyways, because we are having 2 weddings, we really have had to do an inexpensive wedding. It helps if you know someone as well. For our wedding in March, we had friends who were in the catering business, and they did it for us at a low cost, plus we knew someone who made cakes as a hobby, & they did it for us as our wedding gift. Also, I made my own invitations. I didnt buy an expensive gown, i looked all over and just found a really nice simple dress that was 120 dollars, originally 200. We had our reception in the backyard, and just decorated it nicely with candles and the long tiki torches around the garden with tulle and bows. For our wedding in December, we`re having our ceremony in a chapel because its winter, and we`re having the reception back at my moms house. We`re having finger foods and we`re doing it ourselves instead of the caterer. My mom bought invitations from Michaels ( I think a pack of 50 for 15-20 dollars) and she did it on the computer. I have also got a lot of things from ebay at a cheap price. I bought my veil on there for 15 dollars, and other things for cheap. Have a look around on the internet, I`m sure you will be able to find a lot of things, especially on ebay, just type in wedding. Hope that helped out some!! And I hope you have a nice wedding!!

Congratulations! Have you checked in to any package deals yet? I got a great deal that included pictures, a small cake, flowers and all decorations for $675. Also whatever wasn`t included I tried to do myself (invitations, flowers, etc.)
Good luck!
Wendy

Hi... I`m 18 as well, and low in money. I`m getting maried May 22, 2004. Some things I thought about doing was, for the centerpiece you could write the story of how you guys met and put it in a $2.oo nice frame and then put rose preddles around that- you could also do the same with pictures through out the years of you two together, or- love poems... It wouldn`t matter... Have an outside wedding in a cayon or in a park somewhere- make silk flowers, but then if you want real ones only use them for you and the brides maids... If you know someone that still has there wedding dress that you love and could use that would be helpful. Wedding picutres have someone take a bunch of pictures with a normal carmea that you TRUST, and then take them somewhere and get the ones that you want blown up, that saves ALOT there... I duno.. If you have any questions... Contact me @ mizundastood_deika@hotmail.com if you have any ideas for me also that would be great. Congrats...

I know how you feel, im exactly where you are. My fiance is also 21 and in the military, and im 18. We both don`t have a lot of money so we are going for something small. Not a lot of people. I know a lot of people would love to have a fancy wedding, but money isn`t everything all the time ( in my opinion) im just happy to be marrying the man i love.