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Inexpensive Wedding Ideas

January 30, 2005

A groom and bride dancing at a wedding.Have your wedding on a Sunday afternoon or even on a weeknight. The demand is way less for these days and you can get better rates and deals. I personally love Sunday weddings in the middle of the afternoons. It seems like there is always more attendance, too.

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By Kat

 
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November 21, 2019

Wedding can be extremely expensive, but there are lots of ways to help keep the cost down if you have the time to do some research. One cost saving idea is finding a frugal location for the ceremony. Local parks are one possibility, weather permitting.

An outdoor wedding in the mountains.

August 17, 2013

We are having a very small intimate beach wedding in the late winter on the shore at the Gulf of Mexico. We are planning the wedding to be at about 9pm under a full moon.

My question is this: Should we have a dinner with our guests before and then proceed to the ceremony? It would be too late afterwards for a dinner. Maybe the night before? (this is our second marriage, so there will be no gifts, and we expect only 12-16 people to be at the wedding)

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By Kim L.

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November 15, 2010

I am looking for ideas for how to plan a nice wedding on a tight budget?

By katherine from Benson, NC

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Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 186 Feedbacks
November 15, 20100 found this helpful

A lot will depend on what you want. The most expensive idea is to just go and get married.

 

Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 109 Feedbacks
November 15, 20100 found this helpful

When my wife and I got married we were in college. She had a youth minister do the ceremony for a donation to the school youth ministry. We got permission from the school to have the wedding near a fountain on the campus and they provided the chairs. We used a sound system from the campus radio station were I worked as a student DJ. We had the cafeteria of the school allow us to hold the reception.

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We had to get the cake and invitations from professional places. I guess they cost us the most besides the ring (which we financed).

The thing is to think of what you have available through youselves or through friends and try to make it work. If you go to a church regularly or know someone who does then that is a good place to start.

 
November 16, 20100 found this helpful

First of all, if you plan the wedding around a non meal-time, you can save a bundle by offering only cake, appetizers and beverages. Ours was in the early evening, after a time that our friends and family knew as "Suppertime".

Our wedding, way back in the early 80's, :-) was held in an All Faith's Chapel on a college campus. (No charge, just had to reserve the venue.) My wedding dress cost less than $200.00 dollars as I bought the fabric and a pattern from a local fabric shop which recommended a seamstress that made the dress for a reasonable fee.

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A dear friend free-handed the calligraphy on our wedding invitations and my dad was able to use his place of work for duplication. Another young friend of ours was starting a catering business and offered to make the cake merely for the experience, and as a gift. As well, another friend took the pictures, also a gift.

A friendly co-worker of mine at the time was willing to play all of the wedding music on the chapel's grand piano. He also gave us great suggestions for music selections.

I got very lucky with an extremely kind-hearted florist who, after learning that my mother had previously passed and would not be helping me plan the wedding, took me under her own wing and helped me make frugal, yet lovely, floral choices.

We opted out of hiring a DJ or a band for the reception and dance. We made our own "dance mix tapes" and yet another friend volunteered his stereo equipment, services, and other tapes and albums (this was long before the digital age) to keep things rockin' and rollin'!

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Many other financially challenged, young, friends chipped in (and after all these years, I'm certain I'm missing someone that should be shouted out) eagerly once we made a point of saying "The best gift you can give us is your presence and your help. We are not expecting material gifts that we registered for from anyone, and especially not from those of you that can offer us your help as you celebrate this day with us."

One of the best days and best memories of my life and the total out of pocket cost was less than $1,500.00!

Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot to mention this, but our wedding rings are melted down, reshaped and redesigned from mostly old family jewelry. The rings are a daily reminder that we are here because our parents were here first. Makes me smile, everyday!

 
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November 15, 2010

I need some cheap wedding ideas or any websites that would help. Thank you. I am a college student and money is tight.

 
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August 26, 2010

I am starting to plan my wedding for May 2009, and am looking for reasonably cheap wedding reception ideas.

 
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January 25, 2010

I need cheap ideas for a $300 wedding for 50 people. The dress and place are already taken care of. They are having a church wedding in July. My sister doesn't have a lot of money to throw her daughter a wedding. Any ideas? Is it possible? Thanks.

By tammy from Phelan, CA

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January 25, 20100 found this helpful

If you know where the wedding will take pace, come up with a plan or outline the decorations wanted - pew bows, flowers and or candles on the alter, centerpieces, etc and start looking now for items to help. Check for discounted Christmas lights, white lights will be decorative in any season. Now would be a good time to start some seeds indoors so that by wedding time there will be flowers for decorating. Depending on the colors, after Valentine's Day and or After Easter sales may prove to be a gold mine. Start with a plan but be flexible you never know what you might see that is a great item but in the 'wrong' color.

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If you find a candle in the wrong color, you can melt some wax and add the color you want and either whip with a rotary type egg beater and apply to the outside of the candle or you could paint the wax on the candle with a paint brush. Of course if you find something you could always post her for how to make-it-work.

Not waiting until the last minute will help with budgeting and cut down on last minute panic purchasing. Good luck

 
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September 15, 2008

I have a friend who is getting married in March and she wants a nice wedding with bridesmaids and all, but she doesn't want to spend a lot of money. Any ideas on how she can have a nice wedding without breaking her piggy bank?



Summer from Osceola, Arkansas

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Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 239 Feedbacks
September 15, 20080 found this helpful

Many years since I got married so maybe my ideas are outdated but...she could start with asking "crafty" friends to help. People love to be part of happy times. Maybe a friend is great at flower arranging, maybe somebody bakes terrific cakes, maybe somebody can sew. A bride can gear it down to a more "natural" type wedding and still have a very meaningful event. I've seen woodland weddings, ranch weddings, farm weddings, and beach weddings. None cost a fortune and all were special and memorable. In my opinion, it should be something that means somethng to the couple. Do they sky dive?

 
By KLS8800 (Guest Post)
September 16, 20080 found this helpful

You do not say how many will be attending, how many bridesmaids/groomsmen. You also do not say what is your max budget. Are you having just snacks or complete meals at the reception?

Look at consignment shops. I found a beautiful ivory wedding dress for 20 dollars.

For shoes: Payless ShoeSource used to sell shoes called 'Dyeables' which were white satin-like shoes, some flat, some heels, that they sent out to be dyed to match either a wedding or prom dress. New, it would be about 25-30 a pair, but sometimes, the customer would reject the shoes for whatever reason and then PS would sell them for about 5-10.

Flowers: Use silk/fake flowers. You can get some nice looking ones either at Wal Mart or even the dollar store if you are lucky. Maybe only the bride have real flowers.

Food: Either have both bride and groom's families make pot luck and bring it if you are going to have a sit down meal, or ask somewhere like KFC if you spend a certain amount can you qualify for a discount If you don't want chicken, you can still get other things like buscuits, potatoes, corn, etc. If only having finger food/snacks then it will be cheaper to do it yourself.

Location: Where do you want the ceremony/reception? If you are thrifty enough to save a lot on everything else, maybe you can rent a hall or church...Ask your clergyman for help with ideas, too. Maybe the congregation can do either a plate passing or money tree to help with wedding and/or getting started.

Good luck and congrats.

 
By Jawga (Guest Post)
September 17, 20080 found this helpful

My husband and I had an inexpensive wedding a year ago and the first piece of advice I'd give anyone planning on having a frugal wedding is to NETWORK! Sit down and think about family and friends and exactly what they can do, most are just waiting to help out on a project like this. For instance, my brother in law is a minister so he married us free of charge, I had two friends who do photography as a hobby so they took all my pics for free and gave me a copy, I did all my decorations and florals myself, being a bit crafty and bought all my supplies at Hobby Lobby, Michae'ls and the Dollar Tre.

My sister in law let get married in her backyard, I had two friends who borrowed or had big Boston ferns, fresh cut sunflowers, one made my grooms cake and both came to help put up the decorations before the wedding. I had more family who helped decorate and all who came brought a snack/finger food to help out with the reception. I provided serving plates/trays, napkins., utensils, ice and drinks. I downloaded my music from the internet and had my own cd player to play it on.

My dress was bought by a dear friend for a wedding gift while the hubby wore overalls he already had with a new $5 red shirt, ours was a country themed wedding. My children were the only attendants and they wore jeans and red shirts also. Our invitations were bought off the reduced rack at Walmart for $5 and we made them ourselves. I think our wedding turned out beautiful, something different for sure and we had plenty of compliments from our families and friends.

About the only thing we did have to pay for was our wedding cake and we got someone who worked at a bakery who did cakes on the side to do ours and it was gorgeous. Good luck on making the day special and affordable!

 
 
September 20, 20080 found this helpful

My daughter got married at a very upscale catering hall. We had the ceremony and reception there, so no cost for the church. We also didn't need to spend much on flowers because it was the Christmas season and the rooms were already decorated. I just bought 3 pointsettia plants for each table, carnation bouquets, corsages and boutonieres. My daughter made her own rose bouquet. She got married on a Tuesday evening which saved us an enormous amount of money. We invited 80 people and 79 showed up, so Tuesday is not as inconvenient as you might think. At least 20 people came from other states too.
The photographer was a friend of the groom's family so they got a good deal on that. The three bridesmaids were also my daughters. We bought their dresses off of the clearance rack at Macy's and their shoes at Payless. The original wedding dress was a simple white gown also off the clearance rack. That wasn't fancy enough for the mother of the groom, so she bought my daughter a $400 dress a few days before the wedding.
We also didn't buy or rent tuxes. All the men wore black suits and ties and white dress shirts. I bought my son's ring bearer outfit on Ebay.
My daughter's college roommates played violin and flute during the ceremony as their gift to her and the catering hall piped in classical music from satelite radio. My daughter and her roommates painted Christmas ornament with the bride and groom's names and date. The whole thing cost me $3,000 but the in-laws did spend at least $1500. It could be done a lot cheaper though. I hope at least some of my ideas are helpful.

 
By Jenni (Guest Post)
September 23, 20080 found this helpful

For my wedding, which is coming up in 2009, I have kept a very tight budget. I bought my dress on eBay; it is a simple, dusty rose number. ($70). We are going to spend the money on the reception and get married in the judge's chambers on a Wednesday ($40 including license and marriage fee). My apartment complex has a community room, and since our party will be just 30 people or so, we are going to rent that room ($100 deposit, $50 gets returned at the end of the night). My fiancee and I opted for a more casual wedding, so we are letting everyone know that nice jeans and nice tops or summer dresses will be great (we have a lot of girls coming, as he has sisters and neices and I have 2 sisters myself). My friend's sister does photography as a hobby and is going to do pictures for us for a low cost, around $50. The wedding menu is going to be a mock Thanksgiving meal of turkey and the fixings ($60). As wedding favors, we are going to have people take home the leftovers! For music, I have a friend who is going to loan us his stereo and we can mix and match types of music to play. My hair will be done by a hairstylist friend of mine. For beverages, we decided that we will have soda and one keg of beer for the beer drinkers, and a pitcher of the hairstylist's and other friend (the one who is loaning me the stereo)'s favorite drinks. If anyone wants something special, they will need to bring it themselves. Finally, a lot can be said for the craft section at Dollar Tree, Dollar General, etc., to get silk flowers and even material to make a veil. I promised my fiancee that we could get out of the wedding cheaply, and I intend to keep that promise!

 
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September 12, 2005

My friend made a farm wedding for two adorable pigs. I made the wedding cake.

 
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