Going to the chapel part 2

3. If your heart is not already set on a Church where this is out of the question try to have the reception and wedding at the same place. It will save time and money because you only have to book one space. No worries about timing, limos or traffic. This works well for outdoor weddings.

4. If you would like to be married outdoors, check out your local parks. Many cities rent out the gazebos, cottages, pagodas, ect. for weddings and events for very reasonable prices. Beware of places that schedule events back to back. I have worked in buildings that did this for weddings and events and sometimes events got scheduled too close together and the wedding guests would end up getting kicked out too soon.

5. Shake your family tree and friends down for skilled people to help with the wedding. We had friends take care of our cake (we only paid for the ingredients), be our DJ, and be our officiant. Be sure to check that they really are skilled at the task they are offering though. Our friends were glad to help and looked at it as a wedding gift to us.

6. Consider making your reception a potluck. This may sound strange but for us who had been living together for 2 years, it did not make sense for us to register for more stuff. We did not need anything, so instead we asked that people come with a dish of food. We provided the plates and such and hamburgers and hot dogs. Our family and friends provided the rest. It saved us so much money in catering bills and the food was really wonderful. This is often cheaper for the gusts too.

Going to the chapel

Wedding season is here! I love weddings but it drives me crazy how expensive people can make a simple declaration to spend the rest of your life with someone. If you want a very expensive no holds bared wedding then power to you, but if you are looking for cheap wedding ideas that don't leave you wanting more then you have come to the right place. I had a wonderful wedding that cost about $2000. I had the teared cake, beautiful outdoor landscape, dancing, food, and great pictures. So here is how I did it.

1. The most important thing we did to save money was to have our wedding on a Thursday. Not having the wedding on the weekend saved us so much money. It saved on the place we rented, the photographer, and the honeymoon. For us even a Friday was considered a hot day. So Saturday, Sunday and Friday were out. Having our wedding on a weekday saved about $50 an hour on the place and about $1000 off of our photographer. Wedding photographers do not usually work weekdays so any work on those days is considered extra. They are willing to make really good deals when they have nothing better to do. Plus the photographer had no other weddings to do that day so we could pressure him to stay for the whole wedding without paying extra.

2. Keep the guest list small. Under 100 people is good, under 50 is even better. Do you really want to entertain all of those people? Here is something that I have learned from listening to so many brides, the more people you have at the wedding the more stressed out you will be and the less you will enjoy your big day. Really, I have met so many ladies that say that if they could do it over again, they would have invited less people. If there are too many people, then the bride and groom spend the whole reception, greeting people and have no time to eat or relax. So do you really need to invite your neighbors, coworkers, old friends you have not spoken to in years? Consider it carefully.

To be continued...