We are engaged! He asked me Saturday night. Now I really need all those really greatly minds to think here and give us as much frugal advice for weddings. I know someone started one the other day but let's really get it going here please. We haven't set a date yet, but sometimes within the year. Any helpful tips??? Please girlies let's get our minds thinking. We can use all the tips we can have. Thanks!!!

Can you please give us an idea of your budget, and style of wedding etc? As well, a long will depend on the time of year and region you live in, ie: cold winter climate.

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Children Learn What They Live, And Live What They Learn.
What have you taught your child today?
When life throws you a curve ball...it's up to you how you catch it!

I went to Vegas and got married at the Little White Wedding Chapel. That was my decision, I preferred not to have a big wedding.

That plus the license cost us about $200.
Wore a nice evening dress, quick and simple!

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www.myspace.com/sassy143


Alex & the spider monkey

We live in Vegas, but do NOT want a Vegas wedding. I want a nice wedding and reception, for not too much.

We married in Vegas, too! I wanted a small ceremony, only close family and a few friends, and the more we talked about it the more I kept hearing my friends complain about the cost of this and the cost of that (and none of it was even close to what I spent being in their weddings!) and I just didn't want to deal w/ it! So we took 3 friends and went to Vegas! We had a beautiful outdoor ceremony at The Tropicana, dh wore a suit and I wore a nice evening gown, and we loved it. We were happy, and that was most important to us. Our friends came out for a long weekend w/ us and we stayed the whole week. Now we did have a reception/party a couple weeks after we got home, but it was just casual, nothing fancy, and our moms and one of my friends and I did all the food. It was just what we wanted, family, friends, and just a big celebration of our marriage! For our trip (airfare, hotel, spending money), the wedding, and the reception all included we spent under $2000. I think for all we did that wasn't bad, we had a great week in Vegas (though it was long...4 days would have been good!), a beautiful little wedding, and a great party w/ all our family and friends and tons of food!

I guess my advice w/ all that said would be to just do what you want, don't do this because someone else did or do that because someone else thinks you should, just stick to what you really want, and it can make a big difference!

I don't really "know" you, but I do have a few good frugal wedding tips! My DH and I did a wedding in Fairfield County, CT for about 10% of what most weddings here cost (this is a VERY pricey area). We rented a public venue on a beach, which was gorgeous. Because the location was spectacular (and only around $500, which for this area is a steal), it made the whole day. We also used a caterer recommended to us by a family member, who was very inexpensive. We made centerpieces from flowers, etc. purchased at rock-bottom prices when the craft stores were having sales. We also limited the number of attendants we had and had family and friends do pictures and videos. I do wish we'd gotten some professional wedding pictures, though. We also ordered invitations really inexpensively, but I can't recall the printer off the top of my head. I think it was Willow Tree or something like that in Wisconsin. They did a FAB job! I got my dress and veil on sale, too. Good luck and have fun planning your special day!
Michelle

Okay here are some more details. I already have the wedding gown now, so I don't have to worry about that. All of you would be PROUD to know that I got it for free and it is brand new with the tags still on it and everything. I got it from freecycle. Someone bought it for their daughter's wedding and the daughter never ended up getting married in the end. Tags showed $350.00 from David's Bridal, and it is my DREAM gown too. It is so cute. Our church will let us reserve the night for free, so we would have a reception wihtout the cost of renting a space somewhere.

When I was pregnant, someone pointed me toward the book Baby Bargains by a husband/wife team. I think their name is Fields. It was the best resource I could imagine. It goes through what is essential, what is nice but not necessary, and what is a waste of time and money.
I tell you about this now because they also wrote a wedding book. I think it's called Bridal Bargins. If it's even half as good as the baby book, it's well worth it.

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~Jeweled

Dress - check.
Church - check.
What else do you need?

Our wedding was beautiful and nearly free! The trick? Talk to people and ask their recommendations or if they know anyone that works with what you need.

Through connections at church and via my in-laws, we borrowed candelabras from a woman who did silk flower arrangements. She put flowers on them, and wove christmas lights through them, and she also did my personal bouquet - all with live wildflowers she picked from her backyard garden. We bought the ribbon for the bouquets, and she used our christmas lights.

A friend offered to pay for our wedding cake, which was made by her mother-in-law (who had her own business). Her MIL charged her only for the supplies, so it was pretty cheap. Also, she borrowed a cake fountain for us - it was so beautiful, the cake on pedestals encasing a trickling fountain.

We had friends and family take pictures, which was the only part of our wedding that I wish we had changed. I wanted to have a professional come in and take some shots of at least me and DH and our parents. I dont have very many shots of our wedding, and most of them were taken by a 12 year old, so they're blurry or have people standing in front of us or whatnot. In hindsight, it's the only thing I wish we would have spent some money on, but at the time we had no money, so we couldn't do much. Others have had great luck with this, but for us, it didn't work out as well as I had hoped.

Our food was potluck. My MIL and her family (DH's aunts, gmas, etc) made a good bit of the food, and people from church threw in some stuff here and there. We had fresh fruit (it was July), fried chicken, pasta, pierogies, etc. A big huge picnic with TONS of homemade fresh cooked food. It was great. Some people think "potluck? tacky!" but I think it allowed for us to have the best of every food we had - everyone brought their signature dishes, so everything was super yummy. Plus, everyone wanted to help, and some people didn't have the money to buy us a present like they wanted -- bringing a salad or a dessert to the wedding reception was their gift to us.

We went on our honeymoon with money from our presents. We booked our hotel at home before we left, and drove off, money in hand (we cashed the checks at the bank the next morning, so we had cash to do stuff with).

Things were different for my SIL who just got married this past August. They rented a ballroom, bought an expensive wedding dress, had rehearsal dinner at a hotel, had the ballroom/hotel cater the reception (the most base meal available and cost them $3k alone with no alcohol), hired a DJ (who started the evening off with a hip-hop song that had cursing in it, and both families were devout Christians), hired a professional photographer, had 5 attendants for bride/groom, went to Disney for their honeymoon. They had a BEAUTIFUL wedding, no doubt, but it was SOOOOO stressful and expensive. My SIL cried and cried over so many things, and they have a nice FAT credit card bill to carry for it all.

It's all in what you want. Whatever you decide, it will be a beautiful wedding. I have a lot of tips and ideas strewn through my computer; I'll gather them together and post some on here if you'd like.

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~~Amanda~~
Mommy to one Little Man (3 1/2 yrs old), FINALLY expecting #2!!! (due around Memorial Day 2009) *adoption has been put on hold*

I would LOVE as many tips as you can give me,fly!!! Thanks everyone