Inexpensive wedding ideas

[Lohman446]

Well, I managed to give my G/F the ring thats been sitting in my safe for a couple months now the other day, and am looking at getting married sometime next year.

Since I am approaching 30, her parents are retired, and I don't feel like asking my parents for money I am going to end up footing the bill for this ceremony.

I expect we are going to negotiate the list to a couple hundred people (my initial position of 10 each being quickly vetoed).

At this point I am angling for a late "sunset" wedding on the beach and then a simple ice cream reception (Marble Slab will do a "portable slab" for about $5 a serving). Since I have never been to a wedding with really good food, and I have no desire to try to compete with some of her friends $30,000 weddings I think this works well, is novel, and would be memorable enough. I figure we can pull this off for under $5K, maybe even closer to $3K.

AO is always so full of good ideas, I am looking for inexpensive, novel, memorable ideas here. Any input?

Note: her church is out, as her pastor and I do not agree on his interpertations of the bible.

[MANN]

Congrats and good luck. I got married 2 years ago, and it was $$$$.

[turbo chicken]

i got out cheap ... paid like 3 grand for everything ... not including the ring ...

Found a cheap chapel that does just receptions and weddings ... invited about 100 and i think 80 showed up.

We already had been living together for a few years so we didn't really need/want wedding gifts. Instead we asked them to join us at our favorite restraunt instead and eat lunch and have cake with us. It work out great ... everyone got food that they wanted and the restraunt was happy to have their back room of tables filled for lunch....

Best of all noone was pressured to stay for some big reception and dance ... they all kinda left when they finished lunch ...

but I kinda like your idea of the icecream ... that would go great with the cake ... go with that ... sounds cool ...

[geekwarrior]

Vegas!

[Pacifist_Farmer]

Congratulations!

I got married 2 years ago, our initial approach to the wedding was the same as yours, $15,000 later we were hitched, that included everything mind you, dress, food, place, etc. That was much more than our initial figures, but in the end we decided it was the best plan.

My suggestion, do your absolute best to stick with your initial figures, there are many many ways to keep costs down, for instance we didn't have a wedding cake, my wife and a bridesmaid made cupcakes 3 days before, and they were perfect.

Turbo that was an excellent idea for the reception, in fact that way everybody gets what they want!

[BigEvil]

City Hall = $50.00
White Castle for sliders afterwards = $200

cant go wrong.

[AirAssault]

To be honest dude, I say Justice o the peace and spend the $65 (how much my wedding was) and call it a day. I know that most ladies want a big wedding but what's the point? My brothers wedding was 35k, yes 35k. I don't think they are any happier than my wife and me. A wedding is about you and your future wife. I say do what makes you happy, and save the big bucks for a down payment on your new house. Congrats. Oh, my wife and I, married almost 7 years, all of them happy!

Well, I managed to give my G/F the ring thats been sitting in my safe for a couple months now the other day, and am looking at getting married sometime next year.

Since I am approaching 30, her parents are retired, and I don't feel like asking my parents for money I am going to end up footing the bill for this ceremony.

I expect we are going to negotiate the list to a couple hundred people (my initial position of 10 each being quickly vetoed).

At this point I am angling for a late "sunset" wedding on the beach and then a simple ice cream reception (Marble Slab will do a "portable slab" for about $5 a serving). Since I have never been to a wedding with really good food, and I have no desire to try to compete with some of her friends $30,000 weddings I think this works well, is novel, and would be memorable enough. I figure we can pull this off for under $5K, maybe even closer to $3K.

AO is always so full of good ideas, I am looking for inexpensive, novel, memorable ideas here. Any input?

Note: her church is out, as her pastor and I do not agree on his interpertations of the bible.

[rkjunior303]

City Hall = $50.00
White Castle for sliders afterwards = $200

cant go wrong.

thats a lot of sliders..

[Lohman446]

I own my house - no mortgage, so a down payment is not a big deal :).

I tried Turbo's idea and it did not get approved. I agree though, between the two of us I do not think there is anything we want gift wise (X-box 360, AR-15 etc. but you know).

She wants the "memorable" wedding. And if she wants it, I have no problem with it. That being said, a big cookie cutter 30K wedding does not strike me as memorable. I think we can do better for far less.

[SlartyBartFast]

We had a memorable wedding and it cost next to nothing.

One hundred people in the Church, reception room at the church, acquaintance for photos, friend for DJ, self-catered, did our own decorations, two people hired to serve.

First hurdle is to make everyone understand that the wedding is about celebrating your devotion to each other. NOT about respecting ridiculous and pointless traditions or putting yourself in debt to show off how much you can spend.

I never understood why asking for cash and no presents is gauche and greedy while a wedding registry listing thousand dollar place settings is acceptable.

In the end, the most expensive things for Us were paying the pianist and renting Full regalia kilts for myself and my best man.

(what's with that? it's your wedding and you're not even the best man. )

Note: her church is out, as her pastor and I do not agree on his interpertations of the bible.

Unitarian. They'll tailor the ceremony to however you want it. Ours mixed religion/non-religion, readings and messages from friends, involved family and parents, we read our own vows, and it was all bilingual. The only stuff that gets said is what YOU want to have said and it's still in a house of God which elevates the ceremony above the ranks of a court house ceremony.

[StygShore]

Homa suspicion...

Beach wedding on that side of the state wold be nice, and pretty easy to arrange. ( free maybe a small rental fee if you do it at a public area with pavilions and such ) Maybe even look into a Bead and Breakfast that has a beach area this could all be arranged at - more private, cost a few hundred bucks, but worth it to not have idiot people crashing the party and getting in all the shots

Find an officiant for $100.00 just about anywhere. My friend got ordained and married my wife and I in under on a weeks notice because his youth pastor from the church he goes to decided she would not sign or marriage license if he did the ceremony ( ie she wanted to get paid )

Your soon to be wife will probably want an arbor of some sort to get married under on the beach and have decorated with flowers of course - Rent it, or buy it from Home Depot and A) set it up in the yard somewhere when you are done... B) take the damned thing back and get your money back for it :)

The ice cream idea is neat, but might be hard to get the logistics all in order for it to happen on the beach. Maybe fresh fruits, veggies, light cheeses, punch, that type of tropical feeling would be good, serve hourderve type foods rather than a sit down meal - means you don't need as many chairs or places to sit as well if people are up and walking around and mingling. Pigroast or BBQ is best bet to serve a lot if you want a full cheap meal. Tent on a beach with chairs would be preferable looks wise than a rented pavilion on a beach, unless you have really nice beach pavilions out there.

For memorable moments, my wife and i did a butterfly release, not sure if your girl is into that, but its something unique, and turned out really well for us. Can do 2 colors of sand poured into a vase by hand instead of a traditional unity candle lighting ceremony. Releasing of doves at end of ceremony. Balloon release ( looks cool for pictures too ) Sparklers if its dark enough.

Photographers - If you want one find someone that knows what they are doing. The disposable camera thing, and uncle Joe with a digital camera always turns out bad. My wife is a photographer, and processes photos for a lab for a living, she has seen some bad bad bad wedding photos :) I am assuming the soon to be wife is like any other woman and wants good classy photos - if she chugs beers with the guys, then maybe 24 shots of butt cracks on the disposables would amuse her :)

One thing to look into, some photographers will do CD's/DVD's only for the wedding, so you are not paying for wedding albums and printing fees. You can have them printed by whoever, and whenever you want. You can usually get away with like 400-500 bucks for services rendered and photos put to CD for a 3-4 hours stint with the photog in this manner. ( 3-4 hours is about what it would take, bride and her girls getting ready, pics of the groom and his boys doing shots before the big event etc )

Silk flowers are A LOT cheaper than real ones, so use them when you can - they also don't die, wilt, or tear when you move them...ok.... that pretty well de-masculated me


Styg

Just went through all this almost a year ago ( May 20 ) - make a maximum budget, and stick to it. We went way over for ours, and although we had a good time, I'll be paying it off for the next 6-10 years.

[CKY_Alliance]

To add to the photo thing...i've been to some receptions where they put a disposable camera on all or a handfull of tables for people to just take pictures while everyone is dancing and such..I don't know how well any of these pics came out, but im sure they got some pretty unique photos. This along with a professional photographer of course.

[warbeak2099sgf]

Congratulations! I love your idea about a beach wedding, my boyfriend and I are planning ours like that as well. And the ice cream cake sounds great for a summer evening wedding.

As for the person who will marry you, if the priest is out then go for something like a justice of the peace or someone of that sorts. If you don't want to splurge on the invitations type up a copy of what you want it to say and then take it to a place that does copies, get an inexpensive cardstock and then embellish it yourself(things like ribbon work great).

Flowers can be expensive but if you pick something that is always avaliable then you should be good on that. If you plan on having a party afterwards plan on hiring a dj, rather than a band, much less expensive! Folding chairs work great on a beach also. I would have a back up plan or at least a tent in case the weather decides not to cooperate. :)

[rkjunior303]

run to vegas
elope
and have the "honeymoon" in the backseat of a car.

[robnix]

Well, I managed to give my G/F the ring thats been sitting in my safe for a couple months now the other day, and am looking at getting married sometime next year.

Since I am approaching 30, her parents are retired, and I don't feel like asking my parents for money I am going to end up footing the bill for this ceremony.

I expect we are going to negotiate the list to a couple hundred people (my initial position of 10 each being quickly vetoed).

At this point I am angling for a late "sunset" wedding on the beach and then a simple ice cream reception (Marble Slab will do a "portable slab" for about $5 a serving). Since I have never been to a wedding with really good food, and I have no desire to try to compete with some of her friends $30,000 weddings I think this works well, is novel, and would be memorable enough. I figure we can pull this off for under $5K, maybe even closer to $3K.

AO is always so full of good ideas, I am looking for inexpensive, novel, memorable ideas here. Any input?

Note: her church is out, as her pastor and I do not agree on his interpertations of the bible.

Fly to hawaii, get married on the beach at Sunset. There's plenty of wedding/honeymoon packages you can pick from. Bring everyones parents, forget about the friends.