Hello
Don`t stress out over not having much money you can have a really meaningful ceremony without much money.
First of all where do you live? I know of some great inexpensive places in both Colorado and Utah. Some things that I would suggest:
Look in the white pages
Do you have a local bridal magazine?
Do you have any bridal shows in the state?
Local bridal magazines and shows can be a great source for info and prizes. I just attended 3 bridal shows on Saturday and they were giving away free prizes to the bride who was standing on whichever number was picked. One girl brought about 10 people with her and won 3 prizes in the 2 hours I was there. Bridal shows are a great place to find coupons, discounts and vendors you don`t see other places. Many of the vendors had bridal show discounts that lasted for the next month or so. They Marriott was offering to cut their room rental in half if you booked with them at the show. It cost $5 to get into each of the shows(brides got in free if they has preregisted online), but I think it would be worth it. I saw about 10 photographers who had a decent package for about $400.
About locations The cheapest price for a wedding is always going to be in the day and it will probably be even cheaper on a weekday. I have places that go from $3500 on a weekend evening to $750 for a weekday during the day.
Do you have any beautiful state or county parks? I know we have a beautiful state park that will give you a small room including tables and chairs-sit down for 75- with a kitchen. A patio looking over a beautiful lake with gorgeous trees for $150. The county also has some beautiful boweries that have covered areas without tables chained down that need minimal decorating that you can rent for $50 for the night or $75 for the whole day. All they have there are grills under another pavillion so you would have to be careful about what you wanted to serve and would have to borrow everyone`s coolers. Nature is a great decorator-If you can find a place that has a beautiful outside with a inside backup area :) take advantage of that.
Do you have a friend, neighbor or relative that has a large backyard? Renting tents can be expensive, but if you have fairly predictable weather at one point or another might work.
Another tip-limit your guest list. Decide who it is really going to be important for you to have there.
Do your own catering and flowers. Remember all etiquette requires you to serve after a wedding is the cake and a drink so if that is all that is in your budget do it. There is a great site that has all sorts of recipes and ideas for serving large groups.
Www.growlies.com It has advise from people who done there own catering for weddings pictures. It`s a great site. A great book You Can Cater Your Own Wedding by Michael Flowers and somebody else has several step by step ways to set up catering for your wedding, recipes for everything shopping lists with amounts for 100, 150, 200 guests. It`s all broken up so you can assign different people different food and have them help put it together and bring it.
Decide on simple flowers and do them yourself or see if you can hire someone who works in a grocery store floral department to arrange in your containers flowers you have purchased at Sam`s Club or Costco. Or I even found a florist who had bridal packages starting at $150 for a bridal party of 10.
Remember this day is about your committment to each other not how much money you spend. I have a client who`s budget is $45,000 and her day is going to end up being about how she can WOW people instead about committing herself to her sweetheart. If I can help anyone else or if you are in Utah and need more details about some of the things I rambled on about-email me
Have fun making your days special!
Becky Thompson
