Wedding Information

Archive for March, 2010

My fiance and I are getting married in August of this year. We’ve been together nearly 6 years and have a 13 month old daughter. My aunt (who helped raised me) passed away late last year and left me some inheritance money, the only problem is we have to spend most of it on bills and on college tuition & daycare. We can really only afford a 5K wedding and even that’s cutting it. We’ve found the perfect place Duke Gardens & having the ceremony there would only cost 650, but my grandmother (who has lavish tastes) wants me to have the ceremony & reception there which would cost 2500 and she said she’d cover the costs but if she would be willing to spend that much on me, I’d prefer her to use a more cost-effective choice since we are on a strict budget. She also told me to invite many of my family members knowing that most of them wouldn’t come but would instead send a gift or money. But what if they do RSVP then I get stuck with the bill. I’ve planned 2 funerals in the past 2 years I’m a pro at them, but this wedding thing is stressing me out already and I’ve just gotten engaged! I want to hire a wedding planner but I’m afraid it will be more cost that we don’t need, but then I feel like a planner could actually help us cut costs. So lost…please somebody help me!
And I have about 4 really close girlfriends, but a few others I’ve known for years & we can’t afford 10 bridesmaid dresses, how should I go about that?
Thanks a lot!
@ Bonnie D that sounds perfect thank you I guess I’m too stressed out to think clearly but that definitely clears up one headache!

Some people I know have gotten a creative family member or friend to do their wedding planning, and that was their gift to them so it didn’t cost anything. Make sure you pick someone frugal who really wants to do this.

just go with four bridesmaids. That is plenty. It sounds like your venue is already pretty and doesn’t need a lot of decorating, so there is some more money saved. People remember the food, drink,and flowers more than anything so make those your biggest expenditures.

You should send invitations to the people you are expecting to come, and wedding announcements to the people who you know won’t come, but might send a gift.

Check my website for comprohensive information about Scottish wedding traditions: http://www.bluebonnettartanweddings.com

Case in point, I’m engaged and planning a wedding but never wanted to get married before now. So for most girls, they already know how they’ve wanted their wedding, already knew the style of dress and all of that, I didn’t and still working through it. Is there a book or magazine that covers this sort of thing.

All of them. Any decent bridal magazine or "How to plan a wedding" book will have essentially all of the information and checklists you need in them. Go to any local bookstore, they will have what you need.

And not all women dream about their weddings starting at age 5. Weddings didn’t cross my mind AT ALL until I got engaged, same story as you.

I am a magazine junkie an ended up buying the "common" bridal magazines for a few months to get the ball rolling. In the end, while certainly not necessary, it did help me come up with some ideas. The features that showed "real weddings" were the most fun for me. You can also check out websites like The Knot.com and frugalbride, offbeatbride, etc. depending on your personal needs.

Here are some of the magazines I bought:

-Brides
-Modern Bride
-Canadian Bride
-Elegant Bride
-Weddingbells (Canadian magazine)
-Martha Stewart Weddings
-Luxe Weddings

Although I wasn’t initially in love with the idea of planning a wedding, everything turned out really nice in the end!

Good luck and have fun!

Suprise after four years we just found out we are pregnate!!! I was raised very old fashioned so I’d like to be married before the baby. And I know if I don’t have an actual wedding now I’ll probley never have one. We have talked about this a million times but now I’m 6 weeks and need to figure out a way to do a wedding about 2 months away on a low budget. If you have any ideas or suggestions to help out please let me know.

First, you are pregnant, not pregnate.

You can do this, but obviously you’ll need to cut a lot of corners. First, figure out your budget and then subtract the marriage license cost and officiant fee. These are the only 2 must-haves. Then the ideal way would be to get someone to offer up their backyard for the ceremony and reception. (You have to take into account that 2 months from now is the height of spring wedding season, so you have very limited options). Once you’ve done this, then get the invites out. Obviously, this would be a fairly small list of family and friends.

Next get an officiant. You can ask on your local craigslist about this.

Then track down your dress through ebay, craigslist or you can check with local places like David’s for any sales.

Figure out the catering. For a small group, you could either beg family members to do it, or if you can afford it, check with local restaurants about their options and prices.

Then see what’s left and figure out how to get anything else you want cheaply.

What all is there to plan? Like I know invviations, food, dance hall, church, dress, bridesmaids dresses, groom stuff, I am planning mine for next year and would love some help!!!!
Any tips or ideas… websites with to do lists I could use…would be sooo so appriciated!

I like The Knot (theknot.com). It has tons of information and ideas, and probably more than one checklist. You have to sign up and create an account, but it’s free. Check it out!

my fiance an i are trying to have a wedding here with in the ned few months an we don’t really no where to go. We don’t want to get married in the court house we no that. but we would like to have a nice small wedding an a reception. but don’t no where to go that we are not going to spend a fortune. any ideas PLEASE HELP. we live in tucson az an need a nice inexpensive place.

You can definitely do a wedding on a budget. Like mentioned, you can always do a cute ceremony in a park, but then you have the risk of unwanted observers. You could also see if you can rent out a local country club. At some, weddings are very uncommon. My friend was able to rent one in North Scottsdale for only $200, and she had a beautiful wedding. You could also check out local nicer hotels.

Depending on how large your wedding party is, you can always do a dinner preceding the wedding at a nice restaurant, then you would just have to pay a set amount a person. Or, you can supply your own catering with bulk foods. Flowers are very expensive too, so I would definitely recommend decorating with fake flowers and saving the real ones for your bouquet. Maybe have each of the bridesmaids carry a single flower down the aisle.

My fiance and I are planning our wedding on our own. We plan on having an outdoor wedding by the summer of 2011 with a budget of give or take 10K and a guest list of about 125. If anyone has any advice on how to do this without losing our mind, it would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve looked at many articles online, but I wanted to hear some genuine advice from real people. Thanks!

We are doing ours for about that. The main thing is to decide what’s important to you and what’s not. Cut back in the areas that aren’t priority. Also, I signed up for lots of mailing lists and don’t think I’ve purchased anything at full price!

If you are including a postcard style RSVP card with your wedding invitation, should you also include a phone number on the bottom of the invitation, or is just an RSVP date enough?

Also how long before the wedding should you set the RSVP date?

A phone number would be helpful, perhaps even an email address - especially because we tend to forget to mail in rsvp cards - don’t know why, but we do! Are you also enclosing postage-paid pre-addressed envelopes?

When is your final headcount due to the caterer? I"d say 2 weeks before then so you will have time to call the people that do not remember to to mail in their rsvp cards.

I have a report due and I would really like to get input from someone who witnessed a Irish wedding or who knows a lot about them or who has even had one themselves.

I’ve been to lots. They’re the same as weddings everywhere else. The ceremony is in a church, hotel or registry office, usually starting sometime between 12 and 2pm, and can take anything from 1.5 hours (if the bride decides to hold everyone up by arriving late) to 20 minutes. Then there’s a drinks reception at a hotel at about 4pm, where people drink champagne or go to the bar. Everyone goes to dinner at about 6, then a band plays for a few hours, then a DJ til about 2am. You’ve got the usual dress, cake, flowers, music etc. I’d like to see a wedding just once that doesn’t follow this formula.

We got engaged last September and had planned on getting married a year later but after we both lost our jobs, we postponed. Now we’re trying to go ahead with this September and I’m wondering how I’m going to plan a (hopefully outdoor) wedding in just 6 months with a very tight budget. Any ideas or suggestions?

First things first, if it rains you will have to have a backup location or use umbrellas, I love outdoor weddings, but, my luck it would rain. If you attend church, most churches have a social hall available for weddings. I am going to list several sites below that give you from a year to the time of your wedding. You can print these off and decide what you do and do not want off of them and then make a master checklist.
First thing, decide on your budget. Second, how many to invite and what kind of reception do you want to have. Good ole’ finger foods are cheaper, old standbys with some twists, mom and rest of family can help make, but you will need two people to preside over tables and keep trays/dishes/punch bowl full. A no alcohol reception will be much cheaper. People that want to party and get drunk can go buy their own, unless you feel differently.
Then, your dress and bridesmaids, go online for cheap bridesmaids gowns, but it being only six months, think I would shop locally and can have alterations done if needed by a good local store. Big department stores like Macys, Dillards and Belks usually have bridal departments and are very willing to help because so many go to bridal shops or shop online.
Sites for checklists:

http://www.frugalbride.com/weddingplanningchecklist.html

http://www.wedding-planning-guide.net/wedding_planning_checklist.html

The following one you can put in the date of your wedding and it gives you a month by month checklist right up until the wedding date.
http://www.weddingwire.com/wedding/usermyckecklist

good luck, stay cool and don’t panic and don’t listen to every Jim, Jane and Jill, unless their opinions are ones you rely on. There will be more opinions coming at you than you will know what to do with. Answer nicely, thank you and then do what you want. Don’t let it get to you, be prepared. Remember this is YOUR DAY!!!!!