planning a wedding

[Heather]

ok...we've decided to get married april 15 [yes i know it's tax day]. with less than 4 months to go does ANYONE have any advice for me to help me plan this shindig?

[acjmom]

give me something to go on...... colors, style, number of people, etc.

[mini]

Elope!  Its cheaper and quicker.  But alas, im a lone voice!  LOL

[SippinTea]

Tulle is cheap to buy, and goes a loooooong way in decorating. 

[Heather]

we are going fairly simple. going to browse for a dress this weekend. a little over a hundred people [over half being people from church]. after service on sunday.already have a lady to do my cake.

[Chseeads]

There's still time to back out and save your time and money.   :grin:

[SippinTea]

  I don't think she'll find that suggestion overly helpful, Chseeads. *L*

[zizi90]

Tulle is cheap to buy, and goes a loooooong way in decorating. 

*sigh* I love tulle. You just can't have too much of it!

[Envelope]

At wal-mart they sell this shimmery tulle....I got some to use for decorating in our christmas banquet!!

sharon

[Jennie-lynnie]

I agree with the Tulle. And... especially right after Christmas when all the Christmas stuff is marked down get some white ice cycle lights! They look beautiful with the Tulle!

I had my Mother In Law make my dress. We got the pattern at Wal-Mart. Some of the material I bought at JoAnn Fabrics. And some of it I bought at Wal-Mart. If you know someone who is a good seamstress I would definately say that's the way to go! Saves a lot of money!

Money saving on the reception... I had a pot luck type reception. All the women in my church made the food. It was delicious and they were all thrilled to be able to have a part in helping with the wedding!

Invitations: We bought an invitation kit at Wal-Mart. Very cheap. And just ran em through our printer. In my opinion they looked very professional. They had several styles to choose from! We were very pleased/excited with how nice they turned out!

I have a ton more I could share but how about some specifics first. Like What Colors? Do you have someone in charge of the decorating? Will you be using fake flowers (WAY Cheaper and they can still look very elegant) How many are in the wedding party? Do you have a theme or specific style you are going for?

[Envelope]

here are some pictures from the christmas banquet that I just did!  Of course our theme was winter wonderland...but maybe you could look and see...











We did place settings for about 70 people...and kept the cost to around $200.  I wanted to do a balloon arch, but the ceiling was too low...so keep that in mind if you're thinking about something like that...

Helium balloon "boquets" also look very pretty as centerpieces!!  We've also used candles as fairly cheap decorating methods before....

sharon

[SippinTea]

I agree with the Tulle. And... especially right after Christmas when all the Christmas stuff is marked down get some white ice cycle lights! They look beautiful with the Tulle!

I haven't tried using the icicle lights, but when my best friend got married we wrapped white light strings in tulle and made garlands that hung from the pews on the inside aisle. It turned out gorgeous! If you try that make sure to get the lights on a white cord. The dark cords ar impossible to hide in sheer tulle. 

(Ask Titushome if you want to see a picture of how it turned out).

[Jennie-lynnie]

These were the best 2 pics I could find with the icicle lights and tulle





Here are some candles on a grand piano

[Jennie-lynnie]

For some reason this pic is really small! LOL

But it has a good veiw of the icicle lights/tulle too!

[Jennie-lynnie]

Hope that helps show what I was trying to explain! LOL

[Amelia Bedelia]

$80 at the courthouse   

[Heather]

right now i'm planning so far to either rent a dress or have my grandpa's seamstress woman [they aren't married but have been together as long as i remember] make me a dress and i think i've talked matt into just buying a nice suit [he needs one anyways]. for the maid of honor and bridesmaids [3 all together] i've suggested just wear black and blue [the wedding colors]. so far we've decided on a kinda bright royal blue. the best man and groomsmen i believe are just wearing black suits as well [being apostolics...well they have nice suits  :grin: ]. haven't gotten as far as flowers yet. looking into doing my own invitations. have definitly thought about having the ladies from church do the food. we discussed that they would honestly be almost offened if we didn't ask for their help. lol.

[TiffanyJ]

Fake flowers are not ALWAYS cheaper than real flowers. I had bought fake flowers and they had a major mishap at my sister in laws house so I had to go out like a month before my wedding and see if I could get flowers. So I just went in a flower shop and she told me she could do bouquets out of lillys instead of roses and they were REALLY cheap and REALLY beautiful. SO ya never know just check around and see whats the most affordable.

[Envelope]

AMEN to that one......

Do you have any friends in the florist business who like you?  I have a friend from yearrssssss ago...who did fresh flowers for my wedding and did them at cost.  I got about $700 worth of flowers for $100!!!  The doctors I used to work for couldn't believe it!!  I said it's gooood to have friends    I had a gorgeous red and white rose bouquet and a smaller version of the bouquet for my sister (maid of honor)

My husband also wore a Suit!! 

I bought my sister a nice red suit from chadwicks and then gave it to her as her gift (so I killed 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak). 

My wedding was VERY small and we had it at a bed and breakfast.  We had 41 guests and served the cake and punch ourselves and I had a FABULOUS time!!!!  I remember everyone there and it's been 5 years ago!

sharon

[Envelope]

I found some pics of my bouquet......

please bear with me...i've posted some of these before...but it's been a LONG time ago....



my bouquet...and my sister's suit


my dress and bouquet.  I got my dress of the clearance rack at dillards....


sharon

[apostolicgirlmo]

Oooh, I love weddings!

You can do a wedding as simple or elegant as you want for cheap! We probably didn't spend more than 1500.00 on our wedding and we had everything we wanted! I would recommend purchasing a dress rather than making one, it actually can be cheaper. I bought mine off of a clearance rack at the end of the season for about 200.00, cheaper than what I would have paid for material and lace to make one. I had my great aunt, a seamstress, make my bridesmaids dresses for like $20 from a pattern and they looked professional. I used fake flowers and got them like 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby (the best place for deals).

If you are having a sit down meal, here are a few ideas for place settings. I did these for a Mother/Daughter tea we had where we had to decorate the tables ourselves, it turned out to look like a wedding. lol.




Floating candles always are pretty and I just used tissue paper for the place mat. You could just do paper plates if you wanted and the napkins are just a decorative fold with some fake flowers stuck in them.

[Envelope]

WOW!!!!!!!!

I LOVE those pictures!!!!!

someday someday someday................(our church being able to do that kind of thing).....

sharon

[Jennie-lynnie]

With the material and pattern altogether my dress ending up costing $65

[Heather]

i'm look at either fake or real flowers. my sisters best friends mom [yes kinda confusing] is a florist at a local store. so gonna talk to her if not gonna poss go with fakes. i was thinking fake ones though bc i could keep them as a kinda memory token. my cousin has emailed me tons of ideas for cheap decor and gifts. she's all about DIY. i really like the idea with the white lights though. gonna look into finding some maybe on clearance after christmas. i have loved all of your pictures. and thank you so much for the advice thus far. definitly keep me in your prayers as i prepare for this day.

[alohilani]

Definitely look for lights after the holidays. I bought about 30 boxes of white lights (just to have on hand) from JoAnn's at an after Christmas sale; they ended up being like $.13 each! Aside from that, I recommend looking for coupons for things like tulle. I worked at JoAnn's, and people would bring their coupons in and buy bolts of tulle for 1/2 price - a very good deal!