I'm in need of ideas and on a tight budget
 

Hello all, and advanced thanks for all responses. Ok after 18 yrs my partner and I have discussed getting married next spring, but we have a very tight budget. My idea was keeping the guest list to close family and friends who sincerely care and love us. As well maybe have the wedding in our backyard or ask our friends to use their backyard as they have a large outdoor man cave in case of rain as well they live on the lake, beauti views for pics. In need of ideas to keep it inexpensive but not cheap looking. I am not wearing a wedding gown, I have a bronze color dress that I wore once(pd $310)for my son's wedding and none of my friends and very little family (my kids, mom and my brother and his wife)have seen me wear it. All reponses and ideas are appreciated!
Thx Bunz

How about bouquets of fall leaves? Holding that would go nicely with a bronze colored dress, and appropriate for an outdoor setting. Will there be tables set up? Small pots of mums surrounded by fall foliage or sitting on tufts of decorative grass are pretty and inexpensive for centerpieces.

Sparky- wedding is being planned for Next Spring.:) A variation of your idea would still work.

ANN

Uh, duh, thanks ANN. I see that now.

The timing of this question is interesting in that I just recently heard about an outdoor wedding that was done on a tight budget. I'll get more info and post more suggestions.

if it will be springtime and outdoors/covered I suggest going with the nature themed decorations. Less costly, useable and look good.

I went to a similar wedding for a long time living-together couple with 3 kids. The had a reception with heavy finger foods and punch. Rented clear glass dishes and cups- no cleaning, no broken dish drama. She also bought huge boxes of clear plastic cutlery from Sam's club. Blue napkins also from Sam's.

Centerpieces were flats of (blooming) annual bedding plants (my table had pink petunias, next table had pansy, etc). Couple used the flowers as thank you gifts (each table took home a six pack -from the flat they had sliced apart). Invitations were cheaper to get done at OfficeMax copy shop vs. home printing (ink = pricey). Her invitations were actually postcards (postage was cheaper too).

Her bouquet was mixed colors of Spring flowers. Closest floral warehouse made it for her at roughly half price of local flower shops. It was beatiful!!! Sold her a big bags of loose petals for the "aisle".

Used a lot of blue latex balloons, made it look like "more" than actually bought. Ordered them from $1 store; had her neighbor pick them up and bring early to tie on chairs, poles, tables, etc. Looked wonderful and neighbor felt helpful. A girlfriend bought all the table rolls (heavy paper cloth like thing)

Everyone stood for the ceremony, sat at round tables and folding chairs from thier church (gave a small donation to church for use). Disposable cameras on each table (thier wedding photos) *have one or two people pick them up before party ends to collect them all

Kids were attendants, wore pretty party dresses instead of "new" bridal party dress.

She also told people who asked her/her mom what to get/where they registered that they preferred VISA or WalMart gift cards as they already had "set up a house" years back.

Dont forget my invitation and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Congratulations! I wish you both the best.

As for cheap ideas, the $1 store or Dollar Tree would be a great place to start for decorations. There is lots of things you can do with their products for very cheap. There are blogs with Dollar Tree crafts that you can check out. Also, check out Pinterest to see some of the ideas that come up there. I'm sure with a combination of the two of them you can come up with some inexpensive, yet classy looking decorations.

Have you considered not having a meal? Just cake and punch can be so much cheaper. My YD bought her cake from Walmart, it was beautiful and delicious. We had to pick it up and put it together. My two sister in laws did that for her since she was to busy on the wedding day to do something like that. As far as music at a reception there are people who do the actual Karoake set up that do DJ work with thier equipment. Hobby Lobby and other craft stores rent out things like arches. Although when my sister got married my Dad made the arch and then she used it in her home for years. There are bridal consignment shops that also sell the other things used at weddings. I love the suggestions from Sams. That;s where we did all our shopping for YD wedding. The plates or napkins weren't monogrammed but who cares.

For my YD wedding that was held in January we wanted a winter them. I'm sure this could be altered for a spring wedding I went to a city park and picked up appropriate length small tree branches. We spray painted them white, potted them and put strings of lights from a dollar store. They still use all those strings of lights in their home. Their kids love knowing that those lights were from thier wedding.

I'm sure a good Google search would give you ideas. You could probably find a library book on it

Hello and thanks to everyone for your congrats and ideas!
Jane your post sounded much like some ideas I have, I would rent a tent/tables/chairs and comes with linens just in case of rain. We would also do our own music as we installed outdoor speakers this year, I like the branches sprayed and lite up, I want lots of white lights and yes thought balloons cheaper than flowers (other than my flowers) lots of them maybe in white and silver. The flats of flowers as centre pieces and then give to the guest is a fantasic idea! All our friends and family are big gardeners. Again disposable cameras great idea! We also have thought of doing a fish fry, have some fabulous guy friends with fryers who really know how to cook, and they love doing it, or we have considered having it catered and all dinner/silver ware will be disposable. Then instead of a cake would do red velvet cupcakes with raspberry gnosh, yummy. I like the loose petals for the walkway it would be visually pretty, my daughter would be hurt if she did not get the invite job, as she does invite/bday cards etc... on the side and very good at it. As for gifts I was thinking of putting best wishes only, but would decorate a card box as I'm sure people would still bring a card. Ok I'm winded and my hands are numb from typing, so THANKS for the ideas and keep them coming all and I'll try and get you that invite out Jane Lol!
Bunz

congrats from me as well.

if you take your own pictures check and recheck the camera to make sure that there's film in it.

at my brother's CO outdoor wedding my dad brought his own camera and later discovered he didn't put film in it! thankfully my brother also had a friend take pics so they did end up with them.

My YDD put disposable cameras on each table and the pictures were pretty bad. Most of them ended up as crazy shots of the people thee but maybe that's what people want. They want to see thier friends having crazy fun that they are missing out on becuase of all the wedding business. These days I think a wedding is so expensive and busy I don't know how you enjoy them. I spent $75 on my dress, simple flowers, the best man wore his Air force dress uniform, we had cake and punch in the church reception hall which we paid nothing for. 40 years later we are still married.

Haven't heard back from my friend, but you've got lots of excellent suggestions and ideas. Congrats on making the jump!

Congratulations on 40 yrs Doydie, I'm assuming you had your immediate family/friends as well. I guess everyone has their own thoughts of how they want to get married, I just want nice memories of our day to last our lifetime together.
Thanks for the posts on the disposable cameras! I have decided not to go there, we want lovely pics of everyone there not just my honey and I, my niece can have the job as I am thinking of enclosing a pic of my guests in their thankyou card. A large expensive, busy, confusing or noisy wedding is not what we had in mind, That's why we decided to go with a backyard wedding so our guests will feel comfortable and relaxed in a small intimate gathering. As well the reason I am going to wear a dress I already have(sitting in my closet since 07/2010 and a money saver). Cutting costs is important, but as well we only plan on one wedding and will most likely spurge on the food lol everyone likes good food. I don't have all the answers yet doydie, I just know that I want to marry the man I love with all my heart and to share this very special day with all our loving family and friends.
Thanks again!
Bunz

I guess I should have clarified that the disposbale cameras were on each table in the reception hall. The photographer takes up so much time with the bridal party after the wedding my daughter wanted to have the ones at the reception hall to start taking pictures of what was going on at each table. There was a lot of children that took over thoguh.

as for photos: I used disp cameras with great success. Perhaps it was because we had a relative hand them out. She said something akin to to "Hi Suzy, would you please be so king as to take photos with this camera and return it to me at the end of the reception. Jane and Michael really want to capture all those special moments of this day." Worked like a charm and they "guarded" the cameras since they felt like they had a job bestowed on a selected few.

Another option is to ask a family/friend who has a knack for taking good photos (a hobbyist in photography) to be your photographer. We all know someone who has the fancy camera and who loves to use it. Offer to pay for developing. Shutterfly (and other photo services) even offer fancy photo album creation- all online. http://www.shutterfly.com/wedding/index.jsp This way you cut costs on developing endless rolls of film since you pre-seect the pictures to use. You end up with a wedding album that looks just like what you would get at a photopgraphy studio.