do it yourself weddings(Anyone with experience?)

[camille]

Hey guys. Things have finally settled a bit in life and my fiance and I are now starting to make plans for our wedding. We want a VERY inexpensive wedding. We are getting handfasted in my hometown.

around 100 people can fit in the hall.

im already saving alot of money as the wedding and reception are in the same hall and it only costs 60$ to rent.

my mother will be catering the event

but id love ideas on decorating etc. and tips and tricks and suggestions for a nervous bride to be who has no idea how to organise her wedding.

we want to try to keep the wedding under 3000$

[Kathleen]

First, congrats on your upcoming wedding!

I would say figure out what is important for you, and devote your time and money to that!

iPods can go a long way for music, decorations can be simple. Think about things that you, friends and family may already have that can be combined to make up the day you want. If you want photos, either find a friend who is capable, or maybe find some time before the ceremony to go to a studio to have some wedding day photos taken - they might not be of the actual ceremony or reception, but they would be wedding day portraits.

[Miss Shannon]

Congratulations!

I got married last year, and my big splurges were dress and photographer. Everything else was really very minimal, it was around $5000 if I remember right.

We got married at my home church so we got the members rate, and had our reception there too at our Fellowship Hall. It wasn't as cheap as $60 but it was pretty good and they had all the candlesticks, pew flowers, etc. for the ceremony as well as tables, chairs, and tablecloths we were able to use for the reception.

I designed the invitations myself and did email invitations. I'm a web designer so I set up the online RSVP system myself, but you could also use something like http://www.pingg.com for the technical side of the invites. I also included a phone number for RSVP. For the couple of relatives that didn't have email, I printed the invitations myself and mailed just those few.

I had minimal flowers, just bouquets for the bridal party and boutonnieres for the groom/groomsmen and corsages/boutonnieres for parents and grandparents only. I had no ceremony arrangements or floral centerpieces or anything.

I sang my own solo. The music for the ceremony was just a pianist.

I made the programs myself, they were fairly simple. We didn't have favors.

For table centerpieces at the reception we had theme tables and used things we already had to make a unique centerpieces.

For cake, we had a small cake for us to cut and cupcakes for all the guests. It was a nicer bakery but it ended up being alot cheaper than regular cake for the same amount of people.

We didn't get prints or an album from the photographer, we just got all the digital files. You probably have to find a forward-thinking photographer for this though. The photographer's brother did the video for only $300 and they gave us the raw footage and we edited it ourselves.

If you'd like to see all my wedding photos are here, including pictures of our centerpieces, etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prettygeek/sets/72157607488798030/

[shazzt]

Congratulations! How exciting. I saved big money on my dress - it was made for me by a local dressmaker using a pattern I found in a fabric shop. It cost about $200 all up including silk fabric. No one noticed that it didn't cost thousands. I had a small wedding party too (best man plus bridesmaid) - much easier to organise. You can save money on a photographer if you hunt around but make sure you get someone who will do a good job - experience can count for a lot in this case and your photos are all you have left at the end of the day. Cheap is not always the best option if you end up with photos that you hate. If you are thinking of asking a friend or relative to do it, bear in mind that you are putting them under quite a bit of pressure AND asking them to work instead of enjoying the wedding. They may jump at the chance of course for the experience in which case it is a win-win.
We had a beautiful cake - it was a wedding present from my husband's aunt (she is into cake decorating) so if you know anyone into that sort of thing, that might be a way to save. My mum made simple centrepieces using shot glasses - not fancy buy looked nice. We had those disposable cameras on the tables for guests to take photos with. We also negotiated with the venue and provided our own wine (our wedding was in winter so we had a bit of leverage) which saved quite a lot too (even cheaper I suppose if you have an alcohol free wedding - but I doubt my guests would have enjoyed that :) )

Hope you have great fun planning your big day. Remember to enjoy it and not get stressed. Looking forward to seeing photos :)

[Miss Shannon]

Congratulations! How exciting. I saved big money on my dress - it was made for me by a local dressmaker using a pattern I found in a fabric shop. It cost about $200 all up including silk fabric. No one noticed that it didn't cost thousands. I had a small wedding party too (best man plus bridesmaid) - much easier to organise. You can save money on a photographer if you hunt around but make sure you get someone who will do a good job - experience can count for a lot in this case and your photos are all you have left at the end of the day. Cheap is not always the best option if you end up with photos that you hate. If you are thinking of asking a friend or relative to do it, bear in mind that you are putting them under quite a bit of pressure AND asking them to work instead of enjoying the wedding. They may jump at the chance of course for the experience in which case it is a win-win.
We had a beautiful cake - it was a wedding present from my husband's aunt (she is into cake decorating) so if you know anyone into that sort of thing, that might be a way to save. My mum made simple centrepieces using shot glasses - not fancy buy looked nice. We had those disposable cameras on the tables for guests to take photos with. We also negotiated with the venue and provided our own wine (our wedding was in winter so we had a bit of leverage) which saved quite a lot too (even cheaper I suppose if you have an alcohol free wedding - but I doubt my guests would have enjoyed that :) )

Hope you have great fun planning your big day. Remember to enjoy it and not get stressed. Looking forward to seeing photos :)

Your post reminded me of some more things.

Instead of disposable cameras, I got memory cards to put out for people to use in their own cameras.

We didn't have a meal, it was a cake and punch reception. My mom made this really good slushy punch that was like the one my parents had at their reception.

[shazzt]

Memory cards are a great idea - our wedding was in the pre digial days :)

[MsJessica]

For dresses, look online. If you want a dress at a store, go to NetBride. I got my dress for 50% of what they wanted at the stores, and it was genuine. If you want one made, there are places on eBay that do it for cheap or as someone suggested, there are local ladies who will most likely do it for you.

For flowers, silk can save you money, but a friend of mine had each of her girls carry one beautiful rose with a ribbon, and she carried just a few wrapped in a ribbon and it really looked beautiful.

For catering, a way to keep your costs down is to do just a dessert or appetizer reception. This also helps cut down on other expenses, since you don't need as many tables/centerpieces/etc.

iPods are the way to go for music, but I would defintely make sure you get a good photographer. I can't tell you how important the pictures were - it's not just for you, it's for your family and kids as well. So that's important.

Also, another thing my friend did - she bought things that she knew she'd be able to resell on eBay, which meant she made back quite a bit of the money she spent on the wedding overall. It requires not being sentimental, which is great.

Good luck!!

[camille]

So far i was lucky to find that hall for the wedding ceremony and reception

my mother is a chef so she is going to be catering for me and making the cake. I might help for the cake though as im a bit more artistic.

her friend is an esthetician so she is going to do my makeup as a present

another friend might do my hair as a present also.

one of my friends is an award winning photographer and said that she would give me a BIG deal. Im not allowed to say how much but her usual price is 1300 and lets just say im getting it for alot less.

Im going with a slightly more celtic tradition with my wedding. Instead of a white gown ill be wearing burgundy OR maybe a dark green. Ill have flowers in my hair

I tried designing my own invitations(I have them uploaded onto my gallery) using photoshop.

Im trying as hard as i can to make sense of everything. its overwhelming.

[camille]

So far i was lucky to find that hall for the wedding ceremony and reception

my mother is a chef so she is going to be catering for me and making the cake. I might help for the cake though as im a bit more artistic.

her friend is an esthetician so she is going to do my makeup as a present

another friend might do my hair as a present also.

one of my friends is an award winning photographer and said that she would give me a BIG deal. Im not allowed to say how much but her usual price is 1300 and lets just say im getting it for alot less.

Im going with a slightly more celtic tradition with my wedding. Instead of a white gown ill be wearing burgundy OR maybe a dark green. Ill have flowers in my hair

I tried designing my own invitations(I have them uploaded onto my gallery) using photoshop.

Im trying as hard as i can to make sense of everything. its overwhelming.

I also used to work for a woman who was also a florist. my job was in her crafts boutique not her floral shop but sometimes when she got really busy she would make me do wedding flower arrangements. So i have a bit of experience with silk flowers

[Miss Shannon]

So far i was lucky to find that hall for the wedding ceremony and reception

my mother is a chef so she is going to be catering for me and making the cake. I might help for the cake though as im a bit more artistic.

her friend is an esthetician so she is going to do my makeup as a present

another friend might do my hair as a present also.

one of my friends is an award winning photographer and said that she would give me a BIG deal. Im not allowed to say how much but her usual price is 1300 and lets just say im getting it for alot less.

Im going with a slightly more celtic tradition with my wedding. Instead of a white gown ill be wearing burgundy OR maybe a dark green. Ill have flowers in my hair

I tried designing my own invitations(I have them uploaded onto my gallery) using photoshop.

Im trying as hard as i can to make sense of everything. its overwhelming.

I just looked at your invitations, they look pretty good so far.

The photographer friend sounds great, and you can probably get just the digital copies from her without much fuss, assuming that's what you want.

[Ledostro]

Hi, I'm new here. But I do have quite a bit of wedding experience. At least as far as flowers go. I was a floral designer for over 20 years. One thing I might suggest is carrying a single flower, such as a rose, for your attendants. It's very elegant and also inexpensive. You may want to do something like just baby's breath in there hair. Something that's very traditional/Celtic that you don't see very often is using herbs in your nosegay. Each herb has a different meaning. I'm sure you can find that on line. Rosemary is a very good one to use though as most grocery stores carry fresh herbs now. And it smells good too. I can't remeber what time of year you said you were getting married. But it's always less pricey to use flowers that are in season. In other words if it's a fall wedding don't use tulips or lilacs. And go through magazines and online and find photos of nosegays that you like. Perhaps it's a style that you like but the same thing can be achieved with different flowers. When you go to the florist you'll already have an idea of what you want. If you are going to attempt to do your own flowers make sure you get the freshest possible, keep them in water, and put them together at the last minute. If you have refridgeration that's great. But don't put flowers in with any fresh fruit as it gives off a gas and kills the flowers. Don't use things like star gazer lilies. I did a wedding for a friend and we got the lilies the day before. By the next day they were dead. Fortunately the wedding wasn't until evening and I was able to run around and get more. I know this is a lot of info. One last thing ~~~ I would also suggest you keep a journal or make lots of lists.

Remember ~~~ relax, breath, and just ask me if you have any questions. I'm sure it will all turn out beautiful and will be a great day!

Donna