Planning a Wedding on a Budget

When my husband and I got married a few years ago it was important to us to make it economical while still being as special as it deserved to be. If you are planning a wedding you know how overwhelming it can become very quickly. We were planning a small wedding inviting around 50 guests. The first problem we encountered was finding a venue that was appropriate for such a small party. All the traditional places in our area, such as hotels, banquet halls and the like were geared to parties much larger and would have made our affair seem squalid not to mention they had a huge price tag. So we had to do some research into alternative venues. Will a little effort I did find some places. I found out the public parks are excellent options for a small wedding. Often there was no cost involved at all. You could simply show up with your guests and use the grounds. These grounds are landscaped and manicured so they are a great backdrop for a ceremony. I found a local historic fort (I live on the coast) that had a stone building in ruins that would be terrific. The cost to use the area was free and the way the sunlight streamed through the vines that covered most of the missing ceiling was amazing. So look for public parks, it's a great asset.

Our next high price tag item was flowers. Every bride wants beautiful fresh flowers covering everything. Well, fresh flowers are incredibly expensive. I scoured craft store for really nice, realistic looking silk flowers. There really are nice silk flowers out there, I promise. I was able to find two bouquets completely assembled for under $20. I had only one bridesmaid so I only needed two bouquets. We decorated with tons of tulle, which is cheap by the yard. There were not a lot of flowers, but nobody noticed.

One of the hardest things for us to figure out was what to use for table centerpieces. As you know centerpieces can be very expensive depending on how elaborate you want them. I knew flower arrangements were out so I had to be creative. The centerpieces turned out incredible and we were thrilled with them. I think the cost per centerpiece was around $5. Imagine that! This is what each centerpiece consisted of: one round brown paper box from the craft store, silver spray paint, floral Styrofoam, floral picks, silver tissue paper, three helium filled balloons in wedding colors and two silver spray foil centerpieces (see picture - if you google spray foil centerpieces you'll find them). To make: spray all sides of round box with silver paint, hot glue a square of Styrofoam to inside of box, push foil sprays into foam block, using floral picks to attach ribbon from helium filled balloons into center of foam block, arrange tissue paper to fill box and cover the foam block. There it is! Everyone loved these and so did we.

Another huge element is the photographer. I was in sticker shock when I started to look at the price photographers were charging. So, I asked around. I looked for photography students at local colleges, I asked photographers to barter my time as an assistant to help pay for their services, I asked friends if they knew of any reasonable photographers. In the end we were referred to a gentleman that does photography as a hobby and did our pictures for a fraction of the usual cost. We got professional results and were very grateful.

I bought my dress from a national bridal chain for $99 (regular price was $699). I bought my bridesmaid's dress at a consignment shop for half its original price. We toasted with sparkling cider instead of champagne. This was more of a taste decision, but it was also cheaper. We had a buffet instead of a sit down dinner. Our ceremony and reception was held at the same venue. I hand made my own invitations with all the inserts, hand made the programs and hand made the thank-you notes. All these things were more special to us because we did it ourselves. These things also saved us a bundle of money! We had a beautiful wedding and a terrific reception. If you are like us and want the wedding of your dreams without breaking the bank do your research and do lots of stuff yourselves. Good Luck!