I need some cheap wedding ideas.?

My husband and I did a budget wedding and it was BEAUTIFUL and elegant for 125 people.

Things we skimped on:

Invitations: We purchased simple invites from Target for less than .50 an invite and printed them using pretty calligraphy font on a computer, everything down to the envelopes. They came out GREAT and no one knew the difference. Also, instead of including response cards with postage to mail back, which can get pricey. We included an email address for online replys and two phone numbers. We got a lot of response online and it was a big hit as it saved us money and everyone else the time of filling this stuff out and sending it back via snail mail.

Location: we rented an empty ambulance/fire hall and decorated it to our tastes and it came out better than most fancy reception halls. The GREAT thing was, because they do a lot of weddings they had things we borrowed free of charge such as tables, chairs, a wedding arch, a mailbox for wedding cards, a cake table, et. Invest wisely and make sure you can get the most for your buck out of the location. (We did "winter wonderland" and got married in january so a lot of snow and things were half off, that helped a lot. And it turned out BEAUTIFUL.)

Alcohol: If you want a really cheap alternative, don't serve it. But if that won't fly with your guests you can do what we did. We served only beer, wine, margaritas (most people pick one specialty mixed drink, that was just our choice) and we made it self serve. Invested in a wine fountain, Beer Keg and Margarita machine (rented of course) so the need to pay a bartender did not exist. If you are having it at a hotel hall you can opt for a cash bar where the gyests pay for drinks but many people consider that bad taste. If thats not an option either, cut down the amount of time in open bar.

Transportation: My husband and I were very active in our local ambulance squad so we rode away with our bridal party in an ambulance and everyone thought it was great when we pulled in lights and sirens. Be creative. Do you have a friend with a vintage car that you would look awesome in driving away? Can you use something creative? Like our ambulance idea. Or does it really matter to you to have it at all? Also a cheaper option is renting a cool car for the day and having a friend drive for you and have the bridal party arrive in regular vehicles, I assure you, its your day, they shouldn't care.

Photography and videoography: We asked a friend who studied video production to do that for us. And for photography we asked a photographer from a local paper to photograph our wedding, and it was at least half off. But don't skimp on these things if you can't get lucky like we did, these memories last a lifetime.

Cake: We asked an experience culinary student (graduating and we sampled her work beforehand) to make our cake and it turned out wonderful and was also half off. Students do these things for grades so they are very careful and much, much, cheaper than traditional bakeries.

Attire: My husband wore his army dress greens, but a good alternative is to wear a suit instead of a tux, all our attendants did and it looked just as good.

Flowers: I picked "in season" flowers and went with a smaller bouquet instead of a larger one and it was beautiful and elegant. And carrying that for a while when its heavy can get on your nerves anyway. Also, for any child/ junior attendants, get carnations, not roses, they hold up much better and are cheaper. I didnt use roses in anything but picked in season cheaper flowers that looked really neat in my boutineers. For the bridesmaids: My bridesmaids carried a single white rose with a purple tip trim and it looked very elegant and the floral shop jazzed it up and added stuff so it didnt look so plain. But your girls wont care what their flowers look like.

Favors: If you have a theme, go practical and go cheap. Our theme was winter, as I said. So I found porcelin ornaments for less than .50 each online, and I ordered custom ribbons off an ebay sellar with our names and wedding date and hot glued it to the snowflake, they were a huge hit and looked expensive when they weren't. Another option is a "candy buffet" look those up online, they can be neat. But if you do that get smaller bags/boxes so the candy lasts.

This and that extras: I bought my disposable table cameras online from ebay from a woman who didnt use them at her wedding, same with our bubbles and cake cutting knife and I found a beautiful authentic crystal headpeice second hand for $150 less than in the bridal shop in excellent condition. We found our "unity candle" and ring bearers pillow and white basket at a craft store for 60% off what they were in the Hallmark store. Look online, its a realy great resource.

As for food, never skimp or not have enough, thats not in good taste. We really wanted an evening reception s we just picked less options and less expensive options. Like 2 meats, 2 starches, vegetable, bread and salad and that was it and people had plenty of selection. And we did it buffet style which can be hit or miss because you eliminate the need for staff to serve them but you have to over estimate food since people serve themselves a lot more than a waiter would. We also got our own appetizers and desserts. we got cracker trays and shrimp cocktail from sams as well as some hot options a friend threw in the oven right before the reception and it cut down our costs. In addition to our cake we bought cream puffs (which were a HUGE hit) as well as some bakery cookies and it cut down our costs significantly.

Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate: We had our cater throw in a carving station and table linens in at no charge, work with them, haggle and see what you can do.

Another option: My friends for their second marraige had a "pot luck" where guests brought a dish and it was CONSIDERABLY cheaper. But only consider this for a informal wedding.

Another option for food: Have a breakfast or brunch reception, its thousands cheaper and gives you the day to celebrate with your signficant other just to yourselves. And if you do that you only have to serve champange for alcohol for the toast.

We borrowed a lot of things from friends, enlisted their talents and looked around the internet and looked second hand before buying new. I even found my dress more than half off. (I payed $300 for a $1500 dress because it was "last season," well, it could have fooled me, it was beautiful and white so what did I care...) Suggestions: For little things you need, search dollar stores or walmart or sams club before going strait to a wedding store. Dinner mints in white packages that would be $3.00 for 500 at walmart are now $5.00 for one hundred because they have a wedding bell on them. Shop away from wedding sections as much as possible. There is no difference. we even did things like asked the ambulance hall if we could clean up ourselves and took money off the rental.

Entertainment: Never skimp on entertainment if you would like your guests to have a good time. An option to consider if you are having trouble affording it is to make the reception shorter. But get an experienced DJ that will match your tastes in music and will do the whole thing for you, you don't wan tto have to tell your DJ what to do on your wedding day, get an experienced person whether it be a live band or DJ. Some DJ's charge less in the "off season" (thats why we got a discount on ours) and some bands will work for considerably less also during the off season as the amount of wedding gigs are more scarce.

Which brings me to my last option: Have a winter wedding. Or a fall or "off season" wedding. (Not spring or summer) You cna usually find everything from your wedding dress to catering and entertainment at a discount.

By the way, the girls should be paying for their own bridesmaid dresses and they went to JC Penny's and bought matching prom dresses for under 80 each but I've seen them as low as $40 if you are going less formal. Flower girls parents should be paying for her dress, and just as an idea, my girls and guys wore black and white (Black dreses with a white strip on top.) and the flower girl wore a cute little white lace topped dress and black satin bottom that she could wear again. For the flower girl, honeslty just tell the parents a certain color and style and make it something that they can dress her in again. It doesn't matter what color, the kids are so darn cute either way.

Hope this helps, have a happy wedding!!

Cheap Wedding Entertainment Ideas

If people can help then use them i.e. can someone bake the cake, can someone arrange flowers.

If not and you are on a budget, the best thing to do is not to try and look like you have 10 times as much to spend. It just looks worse...so if you don't have enough to spent on flowers don't bother. If it is in the day try balloons on the tables (they are about 90% cheaper than flowers). Im not suggesting you carry a balloon bouquet down the aisle though...just make sure you pick flowers that are in season:

http://weddings.about.com/od/weddingflowers/a/Seas...

Another option is to have the wedding latter on in the day...candles are always very romantic, and plus they are inexpensive, provide a nice centre piece for the table. In addition having it later on means people will have already eaten and you can provide something lighter.

You could also try having it outdoors..in a nice garden or park for example. Since nature will be all around there will not be a need for you to buy additional flowers.

For wedding dresses try sample gown sales. You can also have a gown made often cheaper than the store price. Look for a designer who takes measurments near you but has the dress made in Thailand or Hong Kong. Another option is to try and negotiate a deal if you buy all bridesmaid dresses from the same place you get the dress. You could always try and find a second hand dress. If you don't mind doing so, buy one size up and have it tailored to fit. This will save you a load and at the end of the days its only been worn once before.

The other option is to trim the guest list- this is really down to the type of wedding you want. Some people want a BIG wedding, but others would prefer a smaller one. When inviting people ask yourself- would they invite you, if not don't bother inviting them.

I hope you have a great day whatever you decide to do.

: )

Cheap Wedding Idea

Lets start with the flowers. You can make them easily yourself by going to a craft store or even a dollar store and get flowers at a cheap price. Next you can make your own 3 tier cake by simply buying 3 different size pans. I would then go with the fondant and cover the cakes and make a simple 3 tier cake. There are a lot of ideas and how-to's on the internet also as for you the wedding dress and bridemaids dresses, they have them on the internet as well, instead of paying thousands of dollars for a wedding dress you can beautiful gowns on the internet for up 75% less then a bradal shop. Now a days anything can be found on the internet by typing in a few keywords. Good Luck.

it is really easy, i did a 10,000 dollar wedding style in under 2000. Oriental trading company (internet) for decorations, local seamstress friend, laptop or computer, windows media player, some preselected music organized in time to the celebration and some very good speakers, the cake was made at home and all the flowers bought at a local grocery store from their best selection and arranged at home while the cake was baking. the most expensive thing that i paid for was the after limo. also pick a day that falls close to the end of the week if you can. mine was a thursday in late june. Parks are cheap and makes picking the backdrop really easy. and you wont need hundreds of flowers with a view like that.

plus you can rent your space for the day and have the reception right there.

If you need alcohol. see if any local major grocery chains have wine stewards. they can recommend great cheap wines. or you go NA gasp, then you won't have to worry about how everyone got home. and you won't have to worry about the clean up as much or buligerent behavior, but your best man toast won't be near as funny.

need more help, let me know.

FREECYCLE!!!

There is a gropup now called freecycle in most areas and you do the 'green' thing people offer all sorts for free but you are expected to as well from topsoil to bathroom cabinets to wedding things! It is great just type freecycle and your town area name into the freecycle box and sign up it is free.

I kept wedding costs down on my second wedding by.

just carrying a single beautiful flower - Big Lily or Big rose it looked beautiful.

You can also have just a tied bunch of flowers for bridesmaids.

Take you brides maids to a high street store that does all sizes of dresses and get them to find a dress they all liek that you think is good and Go for it! It also helps with flowers at a venue as you can just put lots of toied or open bunches around teh venue/ house and its beautiful.

I had Daisy's and Gerberas - big S. African Daisy' sthat were in oranges and pinks - beautiful.

Wedding cake . Find a relative who makes excellent sponge cakes and ask them to make your wedding cake. Anothe excellent thing that keeps it cheap is to have a small cake and lots of single 'bun' sized cakes with 'Wedding cake ' ready made logos on the top.

Do not book a venue ask a relative who has space if you can have a party in their home....honest they will enjoy it.....or just book a local hall and get live music in... it is much more friendly than a stuffy hotel and then you can get outside caterers to do some food it is always cheaper than hotels.

But don't miss out on Freecycle - even eBay for things!

Try EBay to start with. As for the cake ask someone to make it for you like a friend. Why buy a wedding cake, the rage these days is a pile of cup cakes on a stand ! ! ! they are small enough for everyone to get a bit. Flowers buy the basics like carnations and a few Lillie's and then open your back door and see what you have growing in the backyard ! ! any green leaves will look nice and they fill up empty spaces. For your bouquet why not get you and your bridesmaids round for a small flower shower ! ! ! This is where you use artificial flowers from a craft store and make your own bouquets, apart from all the wine you will all drink doing it and the food you will eat. I expect everyone will have a good time ! ! ! !

Wedding/Reception site - most churches charge about $500-$1000 to rent the hall and the church for the amount of time you need.

Flowers - make your own. Look online for directions and practice with your MOH one afternoon. Also single flowers for the bridesmaids will work too.

Cake - make your own. go to the craft store and buy round cake pans - you can make several using one 9inch pan then arrange them on the table. Bake them with regular cake mix. Have your MOH come over and help bake and ice them. Put flowers all around the sides. Cost should be around $100.

Dress - David's Bridal. They have some really nice smiple dresses. Also, check clearance racks at designer stores. I saw a dress that was $150 but it wouldn't fit into my theme.

You don't have to buy the flower girl's dress nor the bridesmaid dresses.

Hope this helps.

You just have to research and go see a lot of people. I'm spending just over $300 for my 3 tier cake and right around $600 for my flowers.

I went to David's Bridal for my wedding dress. That plus all the accessories that go along with it, tiara etc. was only $1000. And my bridesmaids dresses were relatively inexpensive. I'm not doing the flower girl or ring bearer, but I would go somewhere that doesn't specialize in wedding stuff for their outfits if I was using them. I'd go to a children's dress shop and try to find a pretty dress in my wedding colors for the flower girl.

But essentially just look around and ask for quotes from multiple vendors. If you find someone you love, but they don't fit inside your budget tell them that and see if they can work with you. That's what I did for my florist.

Try ebay or a dress - very cheap and very nice too. Maybe a Court House wedding and the reception for a few people at home. That's what I would do.