A Man Talks: I Planned a Wedding

With apologies to every girl out there who is going to have a fit over the absolute perfect wedding, I have a story to tell.

I planned my wedding.

Granted, it was out of necessity. The woman I was marrying was in the process of finishing school and her family was in Ohio. We were in Arkansas, I in the southern part of the state and she, three hours north.

We planned to pay for the wedding ourselves. And, since she was still in school, it meant we were going to have an inexpensive wedding. I have good news, though, for those of you stressed about wedding plans: It's only a wedding. And it can be pulled off without breaking the bank or, Heaven forbid, going into debt.

A wedding is going to last less than an hour. Count the reception and you're still out of there with the better part of an afternoon left over. Hopefully, the marriage will last longer that. It annoys me to no end to hear of people taking out personal loans or second mortgages on a home, to pay for a wedding.

It's important to keep one's mind on the bigger picture. It's the marriage that counts.

That being said, though, there's still a little lady who needs to be able to look at her wedding album without bursting into tears. Just follow a couple simple steps and hopefully, she'll see a wedding can be planned without a lot of stress ... or money.

1) If you're the religious type or attend church somewhere, ask about having the wedding in the auditorium. If the church also has a fellowship hall or something of the sort, you'd be wise to have the reception on site, as well. This goes very far in keeping down costs.

2) Avoid professional caterers, wedding planners, etc.

Let's keep this under control. Know someone who can cook to please the masses? Chances are this person would be delighted to be involved in the wedding and, to be honest, the food is probably going to be better, too.

As for wedding planners, if you want to pay through the nose to have your bride-to-be bossed around before, during and after her wedding, more power to you. For someone who's a bit of an organizer, it's just not that hard to do. Find an aunt or cousin or someone who gets along with everyone and slide this person a little money to handle the process.

3) Avoid limo service. If you're really into the show and you're willing to pay for it, go for it. If not, use your own car to "get away." If yours isn't as nice as you'd like, consider borrowing - or even renting - one.

4) If you have a set budget to cover both the wedding and the honeymoon, spend the bulk of it on the honeymoon. That's likely going to last several days as compared to the very short wedding/reception.

And, you're likely to remember it much better.

One last tip, guys: Not every girl is going to go for these tips. To a lot of males, these ideas sound a lot like common sense. Remember, though, that it's not worth upsetting your favorite girl in order to save a couple of bucks.