Wedding for Young Couple

**Coleroo** · 11-30-2007, 11:53 PM

A wedding is special based on the people there - a wedding can be special with just you, her and the minister & witness. Perhaps you mean visually appealing?

I just got married last june of 06...i remember being in tears once after going through how expensive everything was! lol..i think its a bride's perogative to cry when she wants to.

(j/k)

Perhaps we could better answer your question if we knew exactly how much you were thinking to spend on the wedding? Do you have 2k, 5k, or 20k in mind as "low cost"?? I had a nice renaissance themed wedding, with around 95 people in attendance - including my dress, invitations, cake, caterer, and all, the cost was around $3500.

Do you have a location already? Your reception will probably be your biggest expense - followed by the photographer - and then the dress. Your best way of having a low cost wedding is to prioratize BIG TIME. What means the most to you and her? We couldnt afford a professional photographer - but we did have an excellent aunt who loves photography...she took all of our shots and made us a nice big album as a wedding gift. I dont think i could have gotten any better.

Do you have talent in your own family you can use? Family usually love to be involved in things like that.

You should also research your location and -especially- reception menu options thoroughly...theres a big cost difference between a sit down steak dinner versus a pick-the-fruit-from-the-buffet type of reception!

Also, don't get caught up in what other people claim you should or shouldn't have. If you don't want fancy froo froo invitations, then by all means dont get them...if you don't want to wear a stuffy tux..then dont. Remember, the day is about you and your bride - and the people who truly love you two will NOT care about the "whatsits" of your wedding details. They'll just be there for 2 hours to enjoy witnessing you pledge your love. Thats what matters the most - don't lose site of that in all the upcoming planning.

Good luck!

**mackybethsmommy** · 12-01-2007, 02:42 AM

We spent about 2,000.00 on our wedding. We had over 100 guests and everything was simple but beautiful. All of the flower we artificial and I had a girl who was going to school to be a florist arrange them for me. They were about 100 dollars total. This included my bouquet, bridesmaid's, bouquets, bouttenierres, church arrangements and small vases at the receptions. We used any left over petals and buds for the flower girl. My dress was on clearance (originally $2000.00) with alterations and all it was $400. I went to a store and looked at the clearance dresses and found one that was about 6 sizes to big and had them take it in for me. I had a BBQ for my reception and bought all the meat on sale in bulk and froze it. We made all the other side items. I had no alchohol at the reception because it just cost too much.
If you shop around and use what you already have you'll be amazed at what you can find. You can have a elegant yet simple wedding for cheap. Shop Michael's and even Walmart has a bridal section. You can make a lot of the stuff yourself.
Remember that you are going to have to same thing everyone else has after the wedding regardless if you spend 20k or 2 bucks....a spouse. All that matters is what is important to you and not what will impress your guests. Congrats and best wishes!

**Roupey03** · 12-01-2007, 06:33 AM

We have definitely decided we want a small wedding. 50 - 100 people max. 2-4k would be great. I think the location is what is kind of holding us up. We our in columbus, ohio and having trouble finding a place that seems affordable.

**Joan.of.the.Arch** · 12-01-2007, 07:16 AM

Location for the wedding ceremony, the reception, or both?

Most recent wedding I attended was outdoors in a town owned park on the ocean, in a small wood pavilion. The reception was in the same place with barbecue and soft drinks! About 60 rented chairs, recorded music, Frisbees, softball--all very fun and the only thing formal was the attire of the bride and groom. Of course that was in summer. It would be hard to do in winter or early spring. The only flowers were those carried by the bride. The cake was extraordinary, made by a local talent who decorated in a seaside theme. It was small, delightful for us guests, memorable and a wonderful, wonderful happy couple! I don't think much money was spent for the beautiful day.

**Roupey03** · 12-01-2007, 08:11 AM

Yes when I say location I mean both.

**cptacek** · 12-01-2007, 08:18 AM

I am going through the same thing. In fact, that is most of what my blog is about at the moment. I have found that when I look for advice on this, everyone points to "don't have a fancy church wedding." But for me, the advice is going to be "don't have a fancy wedding." For us, the church is free, and we are only going to give the priest a small thank you gift. The reception is what is going to kick us in the pants.

Make sure you check things out on the internet BEFORE going to a special wedding store to buy it. Or even Michael's. You can get some great deals online. Anything with the word wedding attached to it will cost you more. So, don't shop there.

I have saved alot on making my own invitations/save-the-date cards/thank you cards. First of all, you don't HAVE to send save-the-date cards. But if you do, send postcards! The stamps for postcards is $.15 less than for envelopes. I got save the date cards for $.15. So, I bought and sent postcards for the price of postage for an envelope. I did the same thing for thank you cards. Make them sort of generic thank you cards (I mean, not wedding specific) so you can use them after the wedding, too. (This is in my blog, too).

Now, for my invitations. I made them out of vellum, heavy paper stock and tied them with ribbon. I just printed them out on my home printer and took them to Copy Max to cut. They can cut a ream of paper for you, and only charge you $1 for each cut. It took a lot of time to tie them together, but my time is free...I did it while watching TV. I made 250 invitations, reception invitations, RSVP cards, and maps to the church and reception, plus 500 envelopes (inside and outside) for $.88 a piece. You don't have to do inside and outside envelopes...that would have cut it to $.61 a piece if I had just used one envelope. I didn't buy the special "wedding" envelopes...I instead found square envelopes that were high quality but nothing fancy.

I also saved by buying my dress in a ebay store. I went to David's Bridal and found one I liked, but it was around $650. So, I checked on ebay at an ebay store called Amor Bridal and found the same dress for $350. I got measured and sent the measurements. The dress was back in 6 weeks. If she does this, either have a professional measure her or make sure she knows someone who can sew to make sure it will fit...my mom measured me and we measured it too long so she had to hem it up.

**jIM_Ohio** · 12-01-2007, 10:51 AM

Originally posted by Roupey03 View Post

I am 22, my fiance is 23. Her family just recently moved to Indiana and we are in Ohio Living 4 hours away. My family is here. We want to get married but do not want to break the bank. Any advice you have to make this process easier is much appreaciated. We kind of want to get married soon. Spring at the latest.

I am tired of coming home and seeing my fiance in tears because everything is so expense and overwhelming. Please help? How do you make a wedding special, but low on cost?

Not sure where in Ohio you are, I live in cincy. Got married around 5 years ago.

We cut some corners based on following:

1) reception hall provided DJ free of charge
2) cake lady was about 90 minutes away and worked out of her house. excellent job
3) photographer was a farmer 90 minutes away in another direction. He was 1/3 the price of anyone in city limits.

Whole wedding cost 10-15k I think. FIL paid for some, wife and I paid the rest.

I would suggest an outdoor reception at someone's house. You risk the weather, can save on $$.
I would also suggest saving on photographer. Quite expensive if you ask me. Most wedding albums look the same- we haven't looked at ours in 4.5 years.
Have ceremony and reception and same venue- would save on limos and other logistics.

A solid marriage is worth 10X to 100000X more than a wedding.

**Roupey03** · 12-01-2007, 11:11 AM

Thanks for all your advice.

We are in Central Ohio, 10 minutes east of columbus if anyone is wondering.

**mom-from-missouri** · 12-01-2007, 11:43 AM

Our wedding was very nice and very inexpensive. It was the 2nd marriage for both of us, so we were more into enjoying it and not being fancy...

Our rehearsal and the wedding were at our church--so there was no rent or fee to pay. We fed our rehearsal guests at the church-pizza & itlian food with some pies and cakes I made. We served ice tea, water and coffee for drink. We also invited the relatives who had come in from out of town or guest who had to work the day of the wedding to the rehersal and dinner. This was so we could visit and the would be included.

We had around 215 at our wedding.
The reception was at the church. It was a 2pm wedding, so the reception had cake, mints, nuts and punch. We didn't feed a meal to anyone and no one complained about it.

I chose a moderatly priced cake-had a nice brides cake and a grooms cake as well.

My candles, centerpeices and flowers were creations made by myself and my sister in laws.

We had relatives with digital cameras take some pictures (which they would have anyway) and one of our college aged daughters had a friend of hers who was majoring in photography also take some (for $50). We put all the photos on CD and printed at Walgreens only they ones we wanted. HUGE Savings there.

Our dresses were inexpensive-my dress came of ebay! (but is was brand new)

We printed our own invitations up--got the blank ones at Walmart. I also printed up thank you notes, and printed up "business cards" and left them by the guest book that our names, address, email and phone number on them. (Everyone had been asking where we would live-his house or mine)

My husband (groom) and his 3 men wore black jeans and khaki shirts with string ties and their cowboy boots. They looked nice.

I spent total around $500. My husband around $300. We had many nice comments from people about how nice the wedding and reception was.

My husbands comments??
His first wedding (his first wife is deceased) had 12 attendants on each side. His tux made him itch and break out. He couldn't visit because of all the picture taking going on. He said he remembers very little of it--just people telling him to go here, do that......They had a huge dinner, paid for a big church...

He does rememeber visiting with family and such at ours-even remembers who gave us what gift.

Basically though-its your wedding. You should plan it, don't let others take control of it--also, don't let the cost of it control your finances for years to follow as you pay it off. You are just as married if you have a $20,000 wedding or a $3 one. (for the license). Good luck!!!

**Joan.of.the.Arch** · 12-01-2007, 12:21 PM

Getting married by a civil official (judge, justice of the peace) can save a lot of headache and frustration. Sometimes I even see bride and groom arrive at the county courthouse in full formal attire, but mostly just in street clothes. A reception can be scheduled then for any day you like, or none at all.

**lgslgs** · 12-01-2007, 01:21 PM

Originally posted by Roupey03 View Post

We have definitely decided we want a small wedding. 50 - 100 people max. 2-4k would be great. I think the location is what is kind of holding us up. We our in columbus, ohio and having trouble finding a place that seems affordable.

Depending on time of year, call some of the local apple orchards and see if they have suitable facilities.

Lynda

**lgslgs** · 12-01-2007, 01:25 PM

Malabar Farm is also nice and quite close: Malabar Farm - Activities

**LivingAlmostLarge** · 12-01-2007, 02:24 PM

Remember that you can't compare someone's wedding 20 years ago or even 10 years ago with today. Things cost a lot more now. In 2005 we paid $15k for our wedding of 50 people in hawaii, including honeymoon.

We did a lunch, no alcohol, and had a smaller wedding to save on cost.

Big thing was our honeymoon and photographer. Together that made up about $8k of the cost.

**irmanator** · 12-01-2007, 03:59 PM

If you go on LilyWedding.com - Cheap Wedding Dresses,Wedding Gown,Bridal Gowns you can get a dress made for about 200 My friend used this site recently and loved her dress.

Wedding for Young Couple