Archive for September, 2009
I’m in the very very early stages of planning my very, very low budget (~$1000-1500 total) wedding which will probably take place May 2008. I don’t need or want any frills, and we aren’t worried about following all the wedding rules and traditions. I’m thinking VERY simple, yet elegant. We want the focus on the traditional church ceremony, with only the bare minimum as far as decorations, reception, etc. Do you have any suggestions for simple and inexpensive touches that could make a big impact? Could you recommend any links or books that could help get me started?
My father is a pastor and we will be getting married at his church, which is also our church, so expenses there will be very low. Having a church ceremony is very important to us and we don’t want a courthouse wedding.
I was just married in May, and we got away with a reception for under $1000. The facility where the reception was held catered for us, so all the table linens were included, and they also put a small lantern with a lit candle on each table for us for no extra cost. In lieu of more table decorations, we placed small baskets of wedding mints ordered from Oriental Trading ($4.00 or so for a pack of 50), and Hersey Miniatures I had covered with coordinating scrapbook paper that was cut down to size and glued on, ($2.50 per bag, and $3.00 for a pack of 400 sheets of scrapbook paper) No one knew it wasn’t special ‘gormet’ chocolate.
Since it was May and most spring flowers were still in bloom, I cut bouquets of Easter Lillies, Gardinias, etc from relative’s yards and placed them in vases all around the reception and wedding, saving greatly in the cost for flowers. My bought wedding bouquets were red roses and calalillies were the only other wedding flowers, so the spring bouquets mixed in nicely and were very fragrant!
I had found small note cards 3×3" in a sale bin at a craft store, bought a few packs for less than a $1 each, and placed each card atop it’s envelope on each place setting. We ordered wedding pens for a low price from Oriental Trading and put a pen near each card, and asked each person to fill out a card with advice, love and support, or just well wishes to the couple. This was a big hit, and people I didn’t ever dream would even pick up a card had filled them out with touching words of love - a wonderful keepsake…especially from those who were getting on in years, and may not be around to celebrate our first anniversary.
On the sign in table, we had photographs of not only us as babies, but our parents’, grandparent’s and immediate family member’s wedding photos as well. They felt honored that we included them in such a special way.
I had gone to the fabric store and got bolts of tulle in the coordiating colors of our wedding, along with a bolt of shimmery organza, and tied bows on the backs of each chair. They were beautiful and we got many comments on how wonderful everything looked.
The facility had banisters that we decorated with Christmas lights, and since it was a night reception, we had groupings of tealight candles everywhere. Simple and cheap, but extremely elegant!
We also had gone to a Home Depot and bought metal-looking fencing and made it look like wrought iron in an L shape topped with fleur de lis and placed them in corners of the room, with large potted plants in front of them that we had borrowed from friends. We wrapped some of the organza loosely around the fencing, along with the Christmas lights for a soft glowing effect.
Our facility had a pull down screen and projector, so I made a PowerPoint slide show of photographs of us growing up, us as a couple, us with friends and family, and I am still getting compliments from it. Many of the guests cried seeing themselves and remembering good times, others cried at seeing family who are long since gone, and after it was over, most everyone applauded and whistled. It took me about a month to do - finding pics, scanning them into the computer, editing and transitioning the slideshow, but it was more than worth it.
We had told the dj the songs we would like to play while the slideshow was in progress. For each song to be played, I had one page full of pictures atop each other, setting the transitions to fade in and out on each photograph, and I had the presentation timed so that one page transitioned to the next group of pictures for the song that was playing. It would be lots easier to have a professional do one for you in the latest movie/photo software, but I didn’t have the budget for it. If you’re planning on hiring someone to video tape the wedding, they may offer a ’slideshow’ as part of their services. If you can afford it…it’s definitely worth it!
We ordered our blank invitations online and I printed out our information onto them. It was a golden fleur de lis themed paper with a light colored square in the middle for our info. Everyone called to say they were the most beautiful invitations they’d ever seen. They were simple, quick, and cost $13.00 per pack of 12. What really set them off were the wax seals in our initial I’d put on the back of each that I’d gotten from Micheals. (under 5 bucks for the wax and about 5 bucks for the seal.) It was an old world touch that I really wanted to have.
Also, we had many people who are special to us, but couldn’t be in the wedding party. We had them do small jobs for us during the reception, and it made them feel proud to be a part of things, as well as helping us out. Such duties were - having our godmothers cut the rest of wedding cake for distribution after we had our first bites and photographs, having a favorite cousin collect the note cards, having a friend of the family in charge of pins for the money dance, having my sister take care of my wedding dress after we’d changed into going away attire, and having a good friend in charge with a list I’d written of what decorations to pick up with ‘what goes back to whom’ - to ease the hassle of clean up after the party. It sounds like petty little things, but having each person singled out for help for the reception worked out well all around.
Overall, my best suggestion in keeping costs down is to prioritize what you really want for your wedding and reception, and what you can do without. This was my 2nd wedding. During the first, I had fake flowers so I could keep my bouquet, had sign in books, the glasses for toasting for each person in the wedding party, etc. I kept all these things for years, and after my divorce, I realized that most of these things were never looked at again during the course of our marriage.
This time, I got the real flowers I’d always wanted and didn’t worry about preserving them, I got a couple of sign in frames from Oriental Trading for about $13 bucks each, so that instead of having a book full of signatures that would never see the light of day, I have two frames full of names of people who shared our happy day that are hanging in our hall with pictures of our wedding. We used the facility’s glasswear for the toast, since no one in the wedding party keeps theirs for long anyway. You can also borrow your jewelry from a friend or relative if they have anything like what you’re looking for…which will also take care of your ’something borrowed’ and possibly the "something old".
Just take a look at what’s important to you and what you’d like to pass down as a keepsake. The rest you can borrow, rent, or do without. If you have enough time before the wedding, start now making the things you can do yourself (favors, programs, invitations, etc)
Figure out what theme you want and look around at Walmart, Target, etc for sales after the holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day for very reduced Christmas lights, heart containers, balloons and decorations, or Easter for spring related items, or whatever theme you decide to go with. At a local Holiday Hallmark, I found wedding seal stickers I used on some of the favor cards, and cake server/knife on their sale shelves. They were discontinued or not selling, and I got them for 90% off. They also had wedding albumns and guests books galore.
Search online for free or cheap wedding, reception, bouquet and favor ideas. I looked online at what favors were out there, and chose the one’s I could make at home to look just like what’s for sale. (My sister sold jewelry, so she was able to get cord necklaces for a low cost and I got charms for cheap off the internet, and gave pretty fleur de lis necklaces for some of our favors. Another favor was cheap but nice keychains from Oriental Trading that I wrapped in sheer black material remnants and placed in a red organza favor bag, and tied with a heart charm that I bought from a pack of 50 for $4.00 at Michaels. These same organza bags also held colored M&Ms for a separate favor, and others held bath beads. We decided to have a mixture of favors instead of one basic item, and besides looking great and giving diversiety, it was a hit with the crowd so they could choose what they wanted, as most guests don’t keep or use their favors unless it’s food related)
There’s plenty of books at your local library on wedding ideas as well - from decorating, to simple easy invitation ideas. Altogether, I had 6 months to prepare for my wedding, and spent 4 of them researching ideas. It was time well spent, and money saved.
Sorry for writing a book, but Best of luck and well wishes to you for the future! Congratulations!!
I’m invited to my cousin’s wedding on June 2nd and they have no gift register. Does this mean I shouldn’t take anything or just nothing big? I was thinking I’d take something for their baby (8 months old now) as it was not an overt ‘wedding’ gift yet I wouldn’t turn up empty handed just in case.
If I do turn up to see a table of gifts, is it bad form to drop off a gift the following week?
Not at all, my husband and I received gifts up until about 3 weeks after the wedding. People were still sending gifts to the house. It was nice of them.
I dont think, though, that you should give them something for the baby. This is their wedding not their baby shower or baby’s party. Get them something for them as a couple or even for their house.
Just because they’re not registered doesnt mean they dont want or need any gifts. It just means they’re not gonna be pushy enough to directly tell people "I want you to get me this, this, and this, and not any gift you really want to get me."
I asked this question about a year ago. I am REALLY determined to be a wedding planner. I have a huge book of notes and photos all about weddings. If anyone could give me a few tips, sources, or personal experiences it would be a great help! PLEASE do not give a a big lecture on how I will change my mind. I have a right to chase my dreams,k?
Thank you!
<3Diamond
You can plan weddings when your rolodex is bigger than your dream book. Wedding planning is about securing venues, negotiating with caterers, and kicking musicians in the rear. To prepare for it, get a job with a hotel or banquet facility.
I have only been engaged for a couple of days and I am already totally overwhelmed. No one is putting any pressure on my I am totally doing it myself. My problem is that I have no idea how to plan a wedding and I have a very small budget. I want to it to be beautiful and unique, but I don’t know how to make this happen. There is no way that I could afford a wedding planner.
Go to www.weddingchannel.com and click on some of the items in the left side bar. I used this site and set up a web page, and kept track of everything here. It has a budget manager, a guest list tracker, I was even able to choose who sat at which table. There is also a lot of information on this site that may help you. Remember, you can search the web for just about anything now days. I hope this website helps you as much as it did me. I’ve also seen a lot of people telling others about www.theknot.com, but I’ve never used that site. Relax, sweetie, everything will turn out great. Be sure to check out the planning checklist. It tells you what you need to do by when. Good luck!
Im after something that lists everything such as reception - invitations - etc etc. Thanks!
hi congratulations on your wedding the list as follows
brides & grooms wedding rings
wedding dress
shoes,accessories,headdress’s,veil
Lingerie
make up & skin care
Grooms outfit
bride maids,pageboy outfits
Bride/bridesmaids flowers
venue flowers
wedding cars/carriage
registrar & church fees
invitations & stationery
photography
video
reception venue/marquee
catering
drinks,wine,Champagne etc
wedding cake
going away out fit
first night hotel
honeymoon
Plan early good luck Angela
I recently got married at a five star hotel and it was awful - the whole process of dealing with the wedding with them was mistake after mistake. We had 4 different co-ordinators - (none of which were present at our wedding as we were told after they were merely a ‘point of contact’) I ended up going through the arrangements for the day the night before at 10pm as they hadn’t passed on information. They failed to book our whole wedding party in for the night before the wedding- so we couldn’t have a meal as we’d planned. They left our unbooked guests stood in their car park - we came down to the hotel to sort it out. Our evening buffet had half of what we’d paid for. The list goes on…
The hotel is making an offer of compensation tomorrow -but its difficult to put a price on our ruined memories, day etc…
How much do you think we should accept??? The whole wedding cost us £20.000- overall about £15.000 of this was at the hotel.
Hotel has admitted full responsibilty of all the mistakes- it was a combination of them not having a proper wedding co-ordinator, hosting too many weddings and we have since found out (after being on trip advisor) they regularly double book guests and have messed up other peoples weddings
Accept the maximum price they’ll give you.
My friend is getting married and she has a daughter from a previous relationship> She wants to include her daughters name in the invitation like "Joining of family members or whatever"
how can she word that?
you can do it this way ……. name, name, and name, has invited you to the wedding of mr. and mrs. last name.
My wedding is not for a year and a half. I’m so excited to be engaged and everything, but i know the planning needs to happen in a timely fashion and it will soon come all together. For now though, what can i do that is "not too soon"? We have already booked the ceremony and reception hall to make sure no one else books the place on the date we want, and we have an appointment at the end of the month for engagement pictures where my fiance propsed, but what else can I do? Plan an Engagment Party? Dress shopping or the girls and I? Favors? Save the Date Magnets? Cakes? Meet with Florists, Photographers, & DJ’s? Please let me know any ideas or help? I’m a first time bride-to-be! 
And TOTALLY excited!!!
I have a knot.com account, i just want to see what everyone else thinks is "okay" to plan now. And also, someone said I could send out save the date magnets now, a year and a half is not too far away or is it really okay to send them out now?
Congrats to you! It is not too early to choose the sites like you have done, b/c they sometimes go quickly! It is also fine to send out save the dates in the next few months. You do not throw yourself an engagement party; either family or close friends do. But if they do, they may do it any time now. If you have not already booked the photographer for your wedding as well as the engagement pics, you can go ahead & do that.
I would wait on the dress shopping. Manufacturers come out with new styles & consequently discontinue some styles twice a year, usually in December and July. You don’t want to pick something now, have everyone pay deposits & get measured, and then have the dress get discontinued! I would wait til about 6 months away for this. Also, you never know which b’maid might gain or lose weight, or decide to get pregnant!
Does anyone think that it is rude to put wedding list details on the invites?
are you all american?! i have never received an invitiation without the wedding list/bridal registry information on it!!
That’s funny you asked. About a month ago, I received a wedding invitation that listed info such as a detailed menu of the first and second course, complimentary drinks offered, wedding cake flavors, name of the dj, schedule of cocktail hour and cake cutting, etc. To me, it was unexpected, but I think it was the bride’s way of showing how excited and proud she was. Her wedding is this coming Sunday.
I don’t think it’s unacceptable; it’s just strange, funny, and awkward because I couldn’t help but laugh in amusement and at the same time wonder why should would reveal so much detailed info with her wedding invitations. The only unacceptable part was that she also included bridal regisrty info- and that is a no-no.
Wierd, yes. Rude/ Unacceptable, no.
My boyfriend and I wish to get married in either Cuba or the Bahamas. We want to book the wedding with everything included as well as food for 40 people. We’ve got brouchures from sandals, kuoni, thomas cook and virgin. Do you know of any other good travel agents? Got married abroad yourself? If you’ve had a good experience with a company whilst getting married abroad please let me know as much information as possible as well as the company you used. Thanks for reading x
It might work out cheaper to chose a hotel in Cuba and to liase with them directly. Food for 40 should be no problem for a good hotel. I would think that a lot of them have experience in booking these events. I would ring a few hotels or email them and find out whether they have somebody who can organise the wedding for you. Most good hotels have an event planner who will be happy to help you. The paper work might be the hardest thing to organise. You could ring the Cuban embassy in london( if there is one there) and ask them what paperwork you would need. Or is there a British embassy in Cuba, you could contact them for advice. Whatever you decide enjoy the day, it flies bye so quickly…
