When planning a wedding, there are ways you can be frugal. One of them is to make your invitations instead of getting them made. Buy pretty printer paper, type them up, and decorate them with your personality. People never notice the difference and it's so much cheaper.
Another thing you can do is have family members help with setting up. Your nieces and nephews think they are playing when making paper mache flowers and folding napkins.
Although these ideas may seems a little too cheap, no one notices that there is anything different and studies have shown that people like when the bride and groom use their own creativity in a wedding!
By Claire from Columbus, OH
I can't vouch for the frugality of my daughter's wedding, but I do know it seemed to be a "neighborhood affair." One neighbor's wedding present was the whole hog for the pulled pork, which they served on large croissants. The rest of the food was mostly various chips, cheese cubes and a couple of kinds of hummus (which I think was the most expensive food served, except maybe for the croissants.)
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My husband and I were single until we were thirty, so we agreed that a "full blown" wedding was not what we wanted. Instead we opted to save our money for a honeymoon trip to England, and to put together a more economical wedding.
In 2008, a series of events were brought to our family. Our oldest daughter decided she wanted to get married in October (the month and day they met).
Our daughter is getting married in June of '05 and we need to be careful about the amount we spend on the wedding.
My wedding to my new hubby was a blessed event. It cost us a total of $150.00, not including the marriage license cost. We held it in our apartment.
When my husband and I got married, we only spent $300 out of our pockets for the entire wedding. That included the flowers, my dress, invitations and programs.
You can have a large beautiful wedding if you limit your shopping to thrift stores, Walmart, and Dollar Tree. This wedding cost under $600.
I got married in October so I used the flowers in season. This was very cost effective. I also did a small round two layer cake to cut, and did a sheet cake in the kitchen to serve to the guests.
I have listed several things about my daughter's wedding but realized that I don't think I sent in the prices for the items to decorate, etc. The greenery was either borrowed from friends or else purchased at Wal-Mart. It came in 9 ft. sections for $3/section.
When planning your wedding, ask the groom's family to be in charge of, and pay for any alcohol beverages served. If you aren't serving alcohol, the groom's parents can pay for another part of the reception.
When my boyfriend and I decided to get married on our one year anniversary of dating, we didn't give ourselves a lot of time for planning or saving, just a few months. However, we still managed to have a beautiful and very frugal wedding with help from all our friends and family.