Any ides of how to save money on our wedding?

I think it is great to try to save money. You could look for a dress on ebay, and your bridesmaids outfits. That could save you a lot. Don't worry about little gifts on the tables, no one seems to appreciate them, just make sure you provide some colouring books or something to keep the kids quiet. Instead of getting a band why not put your favourite songs onto a CD and play that. I did that at my wedding to save a lot of money. We also saved by having the meal in a hotel as they gave us a free room for the night. We also only invited a small selection of guests to save money.

I know my mom saved a lot of money on her wedding by having family cater the meal instead of having someone else did it. We provided the meat since it was her wedding, but we had other people come to together and make sides and everything else. That really saved her a lot of money and it made the wedding more intimate I think.

So smart of you .. when I had my wedding I made my own bouquets with silk flowers, did my own place settings, used a caterer for the food, no open bar, and bought everything you could on eBay or anyplace else, put yourself on a budget and stick to it, budget each item out what you want to spend and try to spend less, it is alot of trouble but well worth not spending the extra $$$

LOL I don't think anyone could get married much cheaper then me and my husband. $30.00 for the marriage license. $25.00 donation to the minister for his church. $0.00 for the pavilion at our local park. Total cost $55.00. We were saving our money for our house. Oops, I forgot we had 2 close friends witness the marriage for us, and we took them out to eat afterwards. I think that cost abut $40.00. So I guess we spent $95.00. Our family held a small reception the weekend after, at the church and everyone brought a covered dish with them.

Some ideas I have... Get married on a day other than Saturday. Some places have deals for parties on "off" days. Avoid holiday times. Have someone you know make the cake as their wedding gift to you. It doesnt have to be super fancy. Have a backyard cookout type reception. Different, fun, and less expensive. Borrow someone's yard who has a pool... Have friends make the food if you know people who are great cooks...you buy the food and they cook. Use a dj instead of a live band unless you know a band that will work for cheap. Dont go crazy on wedding favors. We used pens with our names and date on them tied with a ribbon. Maybe spent $50 and everyone loved them.... Hope this helps

Congratulations! Planning a wedding is almost as fun as being married! The amount of money you spend depends on how fancy you want to go. First off, invite all your friends and family to help participate in planning and preparing for your wedding. Such as, someone with computer skills can create your invitations or bulletins used during the ceremony (go to a discount office-supply store and buy card-stock); have a friend with lots of audio equipment record the songs YOU want and use that instead of hiring musicians. If you don't have your own church (I wish you did) but you can find other buildings or locations to use for the service. If you do have your own church, check with them to see if their alter guild will decorate for you! That will usually only cost a donatation. Go to a hobby store and pick out silk flowers; they can be arranged very loosely and tied with floral tape for your bouquet (boutineers can be made the same way for the groom). Do your friends and family cook? Ask them to put together buffet-style finger-foods then buy (and pickup) your wedding cake from a local bakery or grocery-deli store. Finally, the dress. Do NOT be afraid of buying used! I got my dream dress for under $100 by going to the used-dress rack. Or, does anyone sew in your family? Let them make it! Having friends and family participate really helps them feel involved and they truly appreciate the chance to do something extra special for you on your big day. Most of all have FUN with it!

I got married at home. My mother-in-law also our minister married us. I didn't have a fancy dress (truth is we wore our jeans and nice shirts). My flowers came from safeway and dinner was at a local restraunt. The total bill was less then $2000 including licenses and all the paperwork stuff. My in-laws paid for the honeymoon 3 days and 4 night in Baniff. Can't get much cheaper then that without going to vagas I think. If you want the white dress then I suggest buying off the rack at a discount sale. You really can have nice flowers at your local grocery store and if you talk to the flower department they will bring inwhat you need for the day you need. A backyard wedding or one at a house and not a church is goind to be cheeper then paying for the church and a justice of the peace is normally cheeper then a minister.

I will give you the tips that we used. It really didn't cost a whole bunch for our wedding and we had a wonderful day. First of all, we booked our wedding and reception in the same place. Great for summer weddings..as you can get married outside and have the reception inside all at the same place. This saved money because we were not paying to rent two different places. (Church & Hall) Another thing we did was have a later Wedding. If in the summer it is perfect as it doesn't get dark out until later. We had a 7:00pm Wedding. This allowed for the guest to have eaten dinner before the wedding...meaning that we did not have to serve a sit down meal. (which can be very pricey) We served what was called a light luncheon (thats what the hall called it) It consisted of what you normally serve later on in the night but a bit some. Sandwhiches, trays, salads, fruit, deserts ect. I had a ton of people tell me that they enjoyed that much more than a hot meal..as they could have their choice of food, go get it..and mingle around the room and visit with their drink and meal. Those are just two things that we did that saved quite a bit and worked out well! Something else that made our day very memorable and enjoyed by our guests too had nothing to do with money and extravigant things. We made out ceremony very personal...writing our own vowes, giving our daughter a ring, having personal readings ect... Hope this helps!

yes i think one should go for court marriage for better savings.

We had our reception in a church and it was only a 50$ clean up fee. We did all the work our selves but the cake, flowers, and photographer. We had our family offer a lot of help so we took every one up on it. Including all costs we spent $4000 and I think if we wanted to we could have spent less. I got a beautiful dress that I loved for $200 but now I dont know what to do with it. I also think the food we had was to complicated. I would have done a fruit's and vegi's, cake and punch. We also did ham salad sandwhiches, nut cups, a few extra cakes, chicken salad sandwhiches and a few other small snacks. I think people are comming to see you and they wond be upset if you dont feed them a full meal. It was fun to plan it out and find ways to cut costs. Hope you have fun too!

'Bridal Registry' would be a BIG help.

A friend is getting married in May, and my daughter is getting married in a-year-and-a-half, so I am currently working on this issue. For my friend, this is what we are doing: No caterer: we can make all the food, if everyone chips in. We rented a hall for both the ceremony and the reception. Becuase it is in May, there is always a chance of rain. She is buying everything herself, but I think her mom is buying the cake. We paid under $200, I believe, fo all of the decorations. I will be doing the decorations, at no charge to her. I will also be taking photographs and putting together a scrapbook for her. I am not a professional photographer, but a fair one. I do have a scrapbook business. This will also be free for her. We are also putting together little gifties for each guest. We are purchasing some things at the dolaar tree. For example; doilees and the bubbles. You can also purchase things like these from there: the garter gift bags and tissue paper for the wedding party ring barers pillow flower girls basket You could also: Purchase your dress during the $99 sales Purchase the other dresses at a non bridal place. Nice does not have to mean expensive. Hop this helps some.

Hey thats very sensible i must say,i guess u are groom or bride i do knw but if u are bride then u can defineatly save on ur wedding dress rather then buyin heavy expensive lehnga buy a sari and later after wearin it few time u can make a suit and a lengha out of it for further family weddings and then u can combinly organize recpetion with both families and save on that to by dividing the expense, hope this helps will keep u posted if i had any more these were frm my personal experience.well congrats to you, god bless!!

how about dont have wedding at all?saves u a lot of money.

well i think you have to check on stores, instead or buying ready made give aways, make it. reserve early on restaurant, or i think it is cheaper to have caterers.

My advice is splurge on the ring and the photo/video. Why? Because these are the things you will be holding on to forever. You dont have to have expensive flowers because they will just wilt. For the reception, try to negotiate so you save on cost like not paying for some corkages. Do not pay for the entourages gown (bridesmaids and secondary) rather ask them to help you pay for it as their wedding gift to you. I'm sure they would understand. be the ones to canvass for stuff for the wedding. try to do what you can on your own. Like my husband and I, we were the ones who printed out "save the date" cards and all the thank you cards for the souvenirs. I just bought nice paper, did a simple yet elegant lay out and picked the font and color that matched my theme.Goodluck to you!

Dear Friend Its very good question. yes these all waste money. the best way is only one you should marry in temple. its simple and good one. No spend and money in that. thanks for your questions.

if you want to save money, you have to spend more time to do it by your own self, no event organizer, no wedding planner, etc. my marriage is simple.. only family, close neighbor and friend that i invite. i put my engagement picture into a simple video, with a little word and story on it, the place for my wedding and my address too and i send it as an invitation. they can keep it as a gift too bcause there's a couple of sweet song on it. my bro and sis do the decoration in my church. me, my wife and other family do the decoration at home, cook & preparing everything.. (no catering allowed.. hehehe...) and mmm.., the ceremony is perfect.. it's cost $500 (more or less) Thank God...

i got happly married a couple of weeks ago we had exactly the same problem.SO what we did was instead of having are weding in a church we had it in reception nthis saved a very large anount of money. this did not runing are weddding in fact i think it was better in a reception. instead of having a weding cake we got a white birth day cake it looked a lot like a wedding cake. we also had a barbie que this saved a lot of money it was also tastey ans we were able to cook it are selves and have the best night of our lives

OK!Maybe you can hold the wedding in a field or a park. You also can only invite some important people to your wedding or not.In my opinion,this day belongs you two and just you two is enough.Others can be told later.