I have that bag in blue and absolutely love it. Seriously. Like I'm gonna marry it one of these days... LOL

Hi Carrie! I, too, am de-lurking (I've read your blog forever). My husband were (still are) poor graduate students when we got married, so I feel your pain. We also had a small wedding, but it was much bigger than we originally envisioned. The biggest way we saved money was to ask a family member with some photography experience to be the "official" photographer, then asked for everyone present at the wedding to send us copies of their pictures. A close friend also did my flowers - she just went to the local Harris Teeter florist the day of and bought bulk white roses - they were gorgeous and so simple. Place settings were crafted by my aunts but looked very martha stewart. We also didn't serve dinner, but rather heavy hors d'oeuvres (everyone was full full full!) and had beer and wine (cheap stuff) but no liquor. For favors, we used little bottles of bubbles - so the guests blew bubbles (instead of throwing rice) and got to take the bottles home. Hope this helps - congrats!!!

testing the comments.

My Hubbster and I managed our funky, wonderful wedding for about $1,000 not including the rings. I got a ridiculously good deal on my dress (um, less than $40!), but beyond that we did it mainly through the generosity of friends. The ceremony was at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, conveniently located a 10-minute walk from the apartment of a dear friend who volunteered her lovely, huge front room for our reception. We did the legal part at city hall then had three friends "officiate" the ceremony. Friends picked up and arranged flowers, and baked cheesecakes and quiches (the ceremony was early morning, so the food was all brunch). I made bread. Hubbster and I spent the week before picking out all our favorite foods from the Union Square farmer's market and favorite bakeries, etc. We chose as much as we could that didn't need to be cooked that day - smoked duck, cold cuts, quiche, onion tart, etc. Since it was an afternoon thing, we got a case of light fruit wine from the farmer's market that was very reasonable, and some Crimean champagne which we had already tested out and knew to be a fantastic deal. A friend with a photography hobby did the photos, but everyone else brought digital cameras too and we ended up with a slew of great shots. My craftiest, most brilliantly creative friend from out of town flew in early on purpose to hand-make decorations. The biggest expense of everything was the $300 fee for the Botanic Garden (so TOTALLY worth it as every photo comes out gorgeous against that backdrop). The flowers were bought that morning at a regular florist (we're lucky that in NYC there's at least two florists on every block, so you can choose)-- just a big pile of roses that were made into a bouquet for me, boutenniers (sp??) for most everybody else, with leftovers in vases all around at the reception.

Oh - and we had the most wonderful guitarist. For FREE. He was a friend of a friend, just starting to do lessons and weddings, and he wanted a little exposure. All we did was tell everyone we knew about it him and make sure he was well-fed at the reception. And I made the invitations and the program for the ceremony, with nice paper and a laser printer.

Here are pictures:
http://www.columbia.edu/~kmp30/wedding.html

WOW! New style? :)

My Hubbster and I managed our funky, wonderful wedding for about $1,000 not including the rings. I got a ridiculously good deal on my dress (um, less than $40!), but beyond that we did it mainly through the generosity of friends. The ceremony was at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, conveniently located a 10-minute walk from the apartment of a dear friend who volunteered her lovely, huge front room for our reception. We did the legal part at city hall then had three friends "officiate" the ceremony. Friends picked up and arranged flowers, and baked desserts and quiches (the ceremony was early morning, so the food was all brunch). I made bread. Hubbster and I spent the week before picking out all our favorite foods from the Union Square farmer's market and favorite bakeries, etc. We chose as much as we could that didn't need to be cooked that day - smoked duck, cold cuts, quiche, onion tart, etc. Since it was an afternoon thing, we got a case of light fruit wine from the farmer's market that was very reasonable, and some Crimean champagne which we had already tested out and knew to be a fantastic deal. A friend with a photography hobby did the photos, but everyone else brought digital cameras too and we ended up with a slew of great shots. My craftiest, most brilliantly creative friend from out of town flew in early on purpose to hand-make decorations. The biggest expense of everything was the $300 fee for the Botanic Garden (so TOTALLY worth it as every photo comes out gorgeous against that backdrop). The flowers were bought that morning at a regular florist (we're lucky that in NYC there's at least two florists on every block, so you can choose)-- just a big pile of roses that were made into a bouquet for me, boutenniers (sp??) for most everybody else, with leftovers in vases all around at the reception.

I agree with the person who suggested in you call in favors. You'd be surprised how happy most people are to do this. My best friend did the cake for my daughter's wedding. Grandpa was the photographer. Local DJ (two of them were grads from my daughter's HS) made the reception, at up to half of what the big guys in town would have cost. Decide what you can afford and limit the guest list. (That's the most heartbreaking part. My daughter had 25 "crashers" at her wedding...prayed with us at the mass, went out to dinner on their own, then rejoined the party for dancing later. The reception hall was completely cool with this, and even provided pitchers of lemonade and carafes of coffee for this amazing group of young people.) Groom's mom did silk for the wedding party, only bride had fresh flowers. No flowers for the church...it was ordinary time, and the natural beauty of the place plus the beautifully attired people were all the adornment it needed. I made simple pew bows, and simple simple table decorations. Feel free to e-mail me - this is all still fresh in my mind, and I'd be happy to share. By the way, "traditional" is the new "funky and unique". My daughter's wedding was more like a gathering from the 60's than today - not a lot of frills, emphasis on the people. Not putting on a good show, but being good hosts. Focus on food and entertainment, and not so much on the pretties. Cause even bohemian weddings can get away from you in cost.

Hi! Congrats to the wedding!
Check out the category "bryllup-Anna" in my blog to see some pictures from my wedding preperations and the real thing ;)
http://www.blog.nunnun.net/mt/archives/hjemmeanna/bryllupanna/

Fun blog.

My wife and I are owners of two yarn shops. I've got something of interest I'd like to pass along to you. Take a look at our website -- sitnknit.com -- so you'll have a good idea of what this is about.

Would you please e-mail me at sitnknit@yahoo.com.

Thanks,

Jack

I love the bag! I wish you could take a picture from the side so I could see how big it is. I can't decide between the blue, grape or red. I also want to thank you for giving instructions for the swift. I gave them to a co worker and he's making me one in exchange for a scarf. Good luck on the wedding!

hey--i'm delurking.
i stop by daily to see what's up, but today i got here by way of the knit blog ring. you may or may not know, but your right arrow on your knitting blog button goes to the main list rather than the next site in the list. just thought you might like to know :) cheers!

Jealous jealous jealous about your bag. Thanks for the inside shot -- that's helpful for those of us considering getting one (in our dreams).

You clearly have more than enough money-saving tips above, and I haven't read them all so I assume that anything I would say has already been covered. I will suggest that you pick the couple things that are most important to you and make yourself compromise on the others. Yes, huge cascading flowers are lovely, for example, but if they're not your designated priority, do your own simple lovely flowers for 1/5 the cost (one of my favorite memories from my wedding weekend was seeing my mom and the team of people she had organized decorating the reception site the morning of the wedding -- it was so cool that everyone was willing to help out).

Oh, also (and I'm sure someone said this), if you're wearing a veil, make it yourself. The markup on those things is something like 10 billion percent.

Oh, I just remembered what our favors were. We wrapped 2 gladiolus bulbs in fabric and tied a little ribbon bow--springtime wedding. The centerpieces were 6" pots of impatiens in different shades of pink and white, with the same fabric/netting and ribbon around them. We put them all together ourselves, and the guests took the plants home with them.

My sister is doing some wedding planning right now too. I actually went with her to talk to some dj's this weekend. Fun times. Did you know that "Paradise City" is a commonly requested "introduction song"? As in, it's playing when they first introduce you as Mr. and Mrs. So and So? Hilarious. Anyhow, I've got no tips, but I'll let you know if I hear of any. Whens the date again?

And I am so envious of your bag. It's Jordana Paige,, right? I've had my eye on one for a while now. I can't decide between the black or blue though...

I have no wedding tips, because my wedding cost a freakin' fortune!

However, go check out yarn a go-go's website for her run a go-go fun project! Could help motivate!

I didn't have time to read all the wedding tips, but my daughter-in-law had a very beautiful wedding and reception she did the center-pieces her self. She bought pretty glass containers at Old Time Pottery and put split peas (the brownish ones - her colors were brown and pink) in the bottom of the containers and put votive candles in the middle. They were really beautiful. I've also seen it done with rice, yellow split peas, sand, etc. all have been beautiful. You could add a ribbon if you wanted. For my daughter's BBQ reception (outdoors) we used mason jars, put red & white checked ribbon around the top, filled them with salt and put white/red votives in the middle.

1. I got a tiara on ebay for $20 including shipping. No veil necessary, it would have been overkill on my beaded dress.
2. Do your own flowers. http://www.freshroses.com/ is FANTASTIC. I know the site looks cheap. They grow flowers, not websites.
3. All the invitation catalogs are the same company, but the prices vary. Shop around.
4. Limit the guest list.
5. Discover Hobby Lobby. Also, Old Time Pottery. The store called The Pottery in Commerce might do just as well. Cheap, cheap centerpiece ideas here.

Although my wedding was 4 years ago, I still remember all the crazy pre-wedding stress vividly. And in hindsight, all meltdowns were over stupid things. A tip for the big day, though: if at the end of the day you and your schmoo are married, then nothing went wrong. :) Remember to breathe. And let other people (bridesmaids/friends/cousins) do your trouble-shooting for you.

Hi Carrieoke;

I'm also planning a wedding, and trying to do it on the cheap/elegant, if possible. We're having an evening ceremony followed by a cocktail reception, so it's finger food versus a sit-down meal. I agree with the person who mentioned the favours - a friend who is a professional musician is singing for us, and we're passing on the big white cake. I'm sewing my own dress. A graphic designer friend of mine (also my wonderful maid of honour) is designing the invitations and we're having them printed locally (ergo cheaply). Oh, and we're making thinking of making our own wine... no big centrepieces (white IKEA candles instead), and we're omitting all the 'save the date' cards and frillies like that.... And it's making a HUGE difference.

At any rate, good luck!

Pass on the disposable cameras...they create so much waste! Instead, ask everyone to bring a digital camera (most of us have them now anyway) and ask them to send you the best of their candid shots after.

If you do have a friend do your photos make sure you have a list of all the important photos you want to get, and go over it with your friend before the day. I had a friend (not a super close one) do my photos and we didn't get some photos I would have liked to have, like just me with my parents, or me with my great aunt and uncle. My friend also got kind of weird with my mom when she tried to go over her list of photos with her, so I think it would be better to have a plan beforehand.

I bought paper from an art supply store and made my own invitations. I just printed them out on a laser printer. i got 4 per page so it was very inexpensive, and I think they were really pretty. I also made my the bouquets and centerpieces. I just bought pretty plants from Home Depot and fastened fabric around their containers. My Mom and I went to Costco and bought all the food. We had nibbly things, and grapefruit soda from Trader Joe's instead of alcohol. The most expensive thing was our venue, which was a small public garden and house. That was $600. It was really pretty so we didn't have to spend much money on decorations. My parents gave me $1000 and I don't think I spent much more than that.

Also, check out indiebride.com and offbeatbride.com. IB has a forum with lots of brides planning weddings on a budget.

ooh, thanks for the wonderful tour of that bag. I've eyeballed one for ages. Maybe for my birthday :)

Oh, forgot one thing: We used the USPS for our save-the-date cards. You can upload any image and make a postcard (see http://www.usps.com/netpost/sendpremiumpostcards_consumer.htm). We used a photo of Rodin's _The Kiss_ for the front and the back said our names, the date, and had a website address (we set up a basic thing on Live Journal with directions, suggestions for hotels/food/tourist stuff, etc.)

a wedding can be way expensive when you're paying for it all by yourself...even w/ a small wedding it can incur huge costs. my advice is to get a ton of disposable cameras...and don't go w/ a huge "wedding portrait" package w/ your photographer....all the shots that our friends and family took remind us so much more of the day than the formal portraits...of course you still want formal portraits - just don't spend a TON on getting the largest package possible...

Note to self: start leaving links to Jordana Paige's site where the husband can find them.

Too bad you have to rip out Forecast, but better to rip out and have an item you can wear, than to finish it and have to find a pygmy to wear it. And woman, there is nothing wrong with being voluptuous (we tiny girls envy that).

I'm searching for the perfect knitting bag and I love the one you got! I'm thinking of hitting up the boyfriend for Valentine's Day.

As for the wedding budget. I helped a friend plan her wedding three years ago, All my girlfriends are married and had to go thru this process & I'm in the early planning stages for my own wedding in Oct. which I'm determined to do for very little money. Here are some money saving tips I hope they help (please forgive the repeats from earlier posts):
1.Do as much as you can yourself but preserve your sanity: invites, favors, centerpieces (floating candles in large round bowls from $1-Store work great OR floating flowers) -- you can ask your closest friends (esp. those w/ limited cash) to do some of the work as their gift to you.
2.Buy your own liquor if the venue allows you to byo
3.Instead of an evening wedding where dinner is expected, do an afternoon tea where you can offer tea and cakes (light fare)
4.Don't waste money on an expensive veil (I'm knitting my own mantilla) or bridal bouquet-- it makes for a pretty pic but one friend was out $700 for a veil that was never looked at again.
5.If you know how to sew (or have a friend who can) get discount fabric and sew your own chair covers; they make any venue look elegant and they're expensive to rent
6.Ethnic fabric shops have beautiful ribbon & fabric that can also be used to decorate your venue
7.As for venue finding a place that's inexpensive or free (backyard, public garden) This isn't always possible and inexpensive can often come with frustrating staff/ managers or weird rules
And finally, it is a wonderful day and no one I know regrets the money they spent so don't stress too much.

The bag is fabulous - congrats on the purchase. Weddings are expensive - hard to work around that but the memories are great - it's an exciting time - enjoy the process.

Wow, that bag is fantastic! Drool.

And I love your tip about putting a work in progress on scrap yarn--I'm about to do that with the Tubey.

As for shaving costs off weddings, you can save a lot by not serving a meal, just finger food. Buy your own alcohol (at a reduced rate for quantity) and have friends serve it--if the site will allow it. Have an arsty friend do the flowers, take the photos. Definitely make your own veil--the prices they charge are insane, and veils are so easy to make. You can make your own favors--you've got a group of local knitting girls who I'm sure could knock out such a project in no time. You could do seeds in a packet, tie ribbon (yarn?) around little bubbles favors, etc. And let your friends know how they can help!

OMG I LOVE THAT BAG! I am going to steal it when you are not looking.

And also: don't cut off your armpit circulation. Very dangerous medically.

I absolutely love that bag! I've been wanting a Jordana Paige for months now. Glad to know that besides being so darn cute, its actually functional and practical!

The Paper Source (www.paper-source.com) is an excellent online store (with locations in Chicago and SF) to buy paper/invitation kits if you are interested in making your own invitations. My husband and I were married in December, and we purchased all our materials from this site. The printing was done at a local copy house, and the graphic designer on staff helped us with font and formatting issues, and she also made our map cards. For about 100 invitations (pocketfold enclosure style) with rsvp cards and map cards, we spent maybe $250. They took quite a bit of time and work to put together, but they turned out beautifully, and we received lots of compliments. Good luck!

You live in a college town, right? My wedding is going to be in a college town, and so I'm trying to use grad students for things like photography and the stringed instrument music we'd like during dinner. The grad student photographer that I'm almost set on is much cheaper than the "professional" ones, he offers more of what we wanted (being able to own all the photos, which seems like a no-brainer but actually costs a lot from the pro people), and his work is pretty neat. Weddings are EXPENISVE...it stinks. good luck!

Like the many before me, we planned a cheap wedding too. The best tips I can give you are:
1. Set a budget and STICK to it -- it's too easy to lust over stuff and cave.

2. Try to get a friend photographer to do your wedding. Not only will it be cheaper (and hopefully you can get the negatives -- a huge plus) but that person also cares about you & Jacob -- so they will want to give you a better product than a professional photographer who doesn't know you. (Photos were my top priority from the day).

3. We enlisted our friends & family's help, and it made them enjoy the final product of the day that much more, too. You can be proud of yourself for putting on a great party, while your friends and family can feel like they were a meaningful part of it too. I realised how important this was at our wedding. You are spread so thin visiting with so many people that you may not get to give people loads of attention on the day, yet your guests will still feel like the wedding is 'interactive.' And how they helped are often great memories!

4. I've been to several fancy wedding meals where the food was served cold by the time the last guests got it, which can be a bad experience for your guests. Nibbles or the other ideas mentioned earlier could have a better customer service factor for your guests than the courses option and be cheaper. Or, make sure you trust your venue.

Good luck, and seriously, stick to that budget!

I'm knitting forecast as well and have been having the same problem! I increased about another 10 rows and am about to try it on again - I seriously think the pattern should be adjusted because everyone seems to have problems with joining after the armholes - the KAL has been really useful though. Will look forward to seeing yours finished

good luck with the wedding stuff. my husband and I opted for getting married in his parents' backyard with our immediate family and a few friends. it was home cooked food and flowers from the garden.

re:forecast. i just finished it. I found that (a) I had to go up a needle size (to 5mm) and (b) i had to block the de-jesus out of it (which I omitted from my post about it). it is a beautiful sweater. good luck with it.

Hope this isn't a repeat suggestion. There are already lots of great ideas for money saving tips, so here's an idea...recruit the players at your wedding to help you put together your invitations, favors, etc. Throw a little get together with drinks, snacks, and music, and put the stuff together. Also, instead of a limo, you could rent a snazzy little sports car for the day. I see companies like Enterprise run specials for $50-100 a day, and hey, they pick you up! haha.

It's been said already, but decide what's REALLY important. For me, it was just having family/friends with us. The guest list was Centerpieces - Michael's/ACMoore, etc. - every week I took the 40% off coupon and bought one until I had enough. I used tall glass vases filled with gelwax to make my own candles with some colored stones on the bottom. I printed all my own invitations - also with a kit from Michael's, but I've seen similar options all around. A pretty stamp colored in with markers made it uniquely ours. Go to the Dollar Store - there are colored stones and other little doodads to spread around. I also got my headpiece from the dollar store - fake pearl headband-like thing to which I attached my veil. I didn't care how I got to the wedding and reception, so my dad just drove use in the minivan. Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing! The best part of the day was sharing our happiness with those closes to us.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the obvious: cater your own wedding. Both of my nieces are married now. One went over the top with the full-blown frou-frou church-reception hall deal. The other niece went homemade (she's an artist as is hubby). She:

• made her own dress (peach!)


• hired me to play guitar/sing


• picked wildflowers for the bouquets


• had the bridesmaids choose their own dresses


• held it outside on a mountaintop at a friend's house


• made all the food


• had a friend make/decorate the cake

We had black beans and rice, shrimp cocktail, lots of great pasta salads, a keg of beer, and the best time ever, even though it started pouring rain after the ceremony and we were all huddled under the overhang stuffing our faces. It was more fun than the fancy over-priced wedding my other niece had (sorry, niece!).

Here's some cheapo wedding tips.
Invitations are a rip off. Buy some ready made nice ones and write them out yourself. For my wedding, we had our favorite local restaurant cater the food (it happened to be a BBQ restaurant so we had fried chicken, bbq, baked beans). Everyone loved it. Flowers are also a huge rip off. Since my wedding was in autumn, we bought a pot of mums for every table, wrapped the pot in burlap and also had small pumpkins and orange & black candles. No open bar. We supplied the drinks and had soda, beer and wine and champagne. We also didn't have a band or DJ, we brought our own CDs and people had fun putting on different songs. Plus I did not have to hear "Hot Hot Hot" or the Chicken Dance. For the cake I bought a bunch of different cakes (carrot, red velvet, vanilla, chocolate, etc) from a woman who sells the best cake at the local farmers market and decorated them with fresh flowers. Much tastier & cheaper than traditional wedding cake. Our wedding was 8 years ago and people still talk about what a great time they had. Good luck!

Hi, loving the Jordana Paige (it's the colour I've been coveting) and thanks for the advice on the top-downs. I have just started my first and was umm and erring over trying it on (the hassle of slipping all those stitches onto waste yarn - esp when the size is a large) but I will defintely do that.

My favorite wedding money-saver was ordering wholesale flowers online. My bridesmaids & I made our own hand-tied bouquets the day before the ceremony, and it honestly was fun and a HUGE stress reliever! I also got a cheap cake and used the leftover flowers to decorate it. I used freshroses.com, and I can't recommend them enough -- it's been 4 years, and I still get compliments on my wedding flowers!

The Paper Source (www.paper-source.com) is a great online paper store (with locations in Chicago and SF, too) if you are interested in making your own invitations. My husband and I were married in December, and we purchased our invitation paper online from this site. The printing was done at a local copy house - the graphic designer on staff helped us with font and formatting issues, and she made our map cards. For 100 invitations, I think we spent $250 (for a pocketfold enclosure design with rsvp cards and map cards.) It was quite a bit of work to put them all together, but they turned out beautifully. Good luck!

My wedding was by no means inexpensive, but we did do a couple of things to save money:

#1 - Hire friends!! Anywhere you can. My husband's hair stylist, the one he'd been going to for years, hooked us up with a florist he used to work with. We had friends of ours play music for part of the reception. My brother shot our wedding video. Also, if you find one vendor you like, ask them to recommend other vendors. This isn't really a money-saving tip, just a good way to get good quality. Vendors know if they recommend somebody mediocre, it'll reflect badly on them.

#2 - Many very funky decorations can be put together with a trip to a craft store or garden store. (Garden Ridge is my first choice there but you may not have one of those around..)

#3 - Go with the smaller "show" cake, and have the same flavor sheet cake in the back for serving. If you have fondant for fancy decorations on the show cake, the sheet cake will actually taste better than the pretty one. Fondant is not especially yummy. Also, we ended up with a TON of extra cake. A lot of people leave after the ceremony so you don't need as much cake as your baker may recommend.

#4 - For the invitations, my mom and I did a crash course in calligraphy. We bought pens and practice paper and kind of made up our own font, and practiced until we had it down. It only took a couple weeks to perfect it and then address everything. We actually had a stationer print the invitations and only addressed the envelopes, but we could have saved a lot more by buying neat craft paper and writing them out by hand. Depends on how many people you're inviting I guess.

#5 - Don't serve dinner. We had "heavy hors d'oeuvres" instead, and nobody complained.

#6 - The best place to splurge is photography. A good photographer can turn some cheap flowers and decorations into gorgeous memories.

#7 - For me, the second best place to splurge was on music, but that's my own priorities. You probably have friends you can call in for the music.

#8 - This is only sort of a money-saving tip, more of a personal tip: Get the ballet slipper style shoes. Not heels. Unless you're SUPER comfortable wearing heels, don't do it. You are on your feet for HOURS. My slippers were super comfy and nobody sees them anyway.

I could go on and on...

I so want one of those bags! Here are my tips -
1. If you are using candles for centerpieces (we had three multilevel candles tied together with a ribbon) or decorations, look for sales at craft stores, often around holidays (valentine's day maybe).
2. This doesn't work for everyone, but we had a late wedding and a dessert reception. I wanted to have too many people there and couldn't afford a dinner. We made sure everyone knew it was dessert on the invite and noone missed the dinner because the chocolate was so good.
3. Have your veil made by someone who is decent with a sewing machine(you might be able to do it, too). It cost me like $10 rather than $100. Later, my friend hand beaded it and gave it a new life.
4. If you have a friend who is good at photography, have him/her do your bridal portraits. As opposed to your wedding pictures, you can always re-do bridal portraits.
5. We threw flower petals when we left and asked our florist, they just gave us leftover petals from that day (for free!).

I am reading! I am reading! Hurrah for Forecast! As for the wedding stuff, decide what's important to you and then make a commitment to do the rest at a more conservative cost. Such as: we wanted really good photos, so we hired an expensive photographer. We've never regretted it. However, we skimped on flowers. It just wasn't that important to us, as we had an outdoor ceremony in the Blue Ridge Mountains and there was green all around.

These tips are great. I'm in the throes of wedding planning, too, and I don't even want a wedding! Every time costs seem outrageous, I suggest eloping, but the boy hasn't taken the bait yet. Here's to hoping!

I. Want. That. Bag.

I only have one wedding tip that we used to cut costs (I was fortunate that my parents were able to pick up most of the tab). For our centerpieces we got a bunch of square cake boxes that bakeries use (small, medium and large). We wrapped them in white paper, stacked them in little tiers of three boxes each (we actually used a little glue to stick 'em together), and then tied a big ribbon around them in a color that coordinated with the bridesmaid dresses. It was VERY simple yet elegant looking. They resembled our wedding cake which was built in the same way. I could send you a picture of them if you'd like.

I'm in Asheville right now and am about to head out to TWO yarn shops AND a cool fabric shop I spied last night! Hoorah!

Crazy weather. We're having it up in the Pacific Northwest, too. Big windstorm a couple of weeks ago knocked out power for days and days.

I had a great wedding and also tried to find ways to make it less expensive. I made my own invitations, which turned out really well on our fancy pants lazer printer with help/ideas from the fancy paper store and some crafty friends. My bridesmaids wore pretty, simple cocktail dresses that I found on sale at the Gap of all places, for around $30! They were formal enough but also definitely wearable after the wedding. Also, the ladies carried hand-tied flowers which doubled as centerpieces on some of the tables. So pretty. I'm sure you'll get loads of other tips. Have fun, that's what it's all about!

Not necessarily a budget tip but instead of your usual guest book, I bought this:

www.guestbookstore.com

I put the pages at each place setting, set out little vases with scrapbook markers and stickers and guests filled this out before and during dinner. it's great and now I have an amazing scrapbook!

I also did the ipod reception and also had three individual cakes on funky old cake stands rather than the traditional wedding cake.

Yeah, this is exactly why I want to elope, and then just have a big barbeque or something later on. The boy? Wants fancy wedding stuff. I need to find a way to de-program him.

Hi

When we got married - money was tight (still is, in fact!). I wanted to get married but didn't want to wait forever or blow a fortune which could be better used towards a house. We cut corners by:

1) Got a friend with a flash car to drive me to the church.
2) Asked another friend to do the photos as their wedding gift.
3) Another friend did the favours (again as our wedding gift).
4) Another friend did the flowers for the reception (as our gift).
5) For my own bouquet, I didn't have flowers, just a green bouquet (ie foliage) - may sound strange but our bridesmaids were in green so it all looked quite lovely and saved a fortune!
6) We made our own orders of service and menus on the computer - spent ages actually hand sewing them etc, but they looked great and hey, I made those...
7) My hubby's brother has hundreds of air miles due to his job and he donated them to us for our honeymoon.

All in all (1999) the whole thing cost us less than £2,000.00 with a sit down 3 course meal including booze for 110 people - includes dress etc.

Good luck with yours - remember to call in all those favours and most of all to enjoy!

My suggestion: don't serve champagne. No one really likes it that much and you'll save a bundle.

Get Jason Thrasher to do your pictures (he's an old friend and does an amazing job).

No favors, just bubbles...

Wow, I can't believe that tree came down on campus like that, yikes.

Wedding tips:

1) We did the heavy appetizer thing. We had passed and buffet tidbits, plus beer and wine only. Hard liquor+open bar=crazy-freakin'-expensive.

2) We used paper flowers as centerpieces. Huge ones, not the ones trying too look like the real thing. Just fun, big, colorful daisy, sunflower type things. We got real flowers for my bouquet and his boutonniere. And corsages for our grammas.

3) I got a bridesmaid dress for a wedding dress. Nicole Miller, Vera Wang, etc. all make bridesmaid dresses in white, ivory, pale pink -- bridal colors. He wore a suit he already owned with a new shirt and tie.

4) We didn't get a wedding cake. We got three different cakes and three old, funky cake stands to place them on. Much, much, much cheaper than a wedding cake and so tasty. We did chocolate and rasperry, carrot, and a peanut butter cheesecake, that way, everyone got something they liked.

5) We got married in an old hotel (the Tabard Inn in D.C.) so we didn't need much in the way of decorations. If can you can get a place that is somewhat ornate, you can really save on ornamentation.

6) No favors. Instead, I made cards for the table that were stamped "Thank You" on one side and on the other we listed a couple of local charities to which we made donations. Not sure if it was cheaper, but it was a lot less hassle.

7) We got our invitations off the internet. We used invitationoutlet.com but there are lots of other places. They were perfectly pretty, had two colors and reply cards, and color-lined envelopes. I think we paid about $80. Besides, who remembers the invitation anyway (besides mom and MiL who inevitably frame 'em).

We're getting married in May. We decided the most important things were cake and photos (and the ceremony of course) and the rest was just gravy. I think everyone has mentioned my tips, but here they are anyway.

1. iPod reception.
2. Mom's veil. I can also recommend a couple good cheap veil places online.
3. Getting wholesale flowers and having a friend do them. 4. Avoid crazy expensive flowers like calla lillies, or if you must have them, use silk or rubber versions.
5. Use real flowers only for bouquets, etc., and silk everywhere else.
6. Serve heavy appetizers instead of a meal. We are getting married at 1:30 so less food and (hopefully) less alcohol on our tab at the end of the night.
7. Check your local board on The Knot; lots of brides sell their stuff when they're done with it.
8. Have only the top layer of your cake be actual cake and the rest styrofoam. You can have sheet cake in the kitchen to serve guests.
9. We are having small round cakes as the centerpiece on each table. Less decorations=less expensive. Plus we'll have lots of flavors, which will encourage folks to mingle.

Hmm, I think that's it for now, but feel free to e-mail me! I know how you feel. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you two are married.

wow. crazy wind. i admire your workout mojo! you got the best motivation! Keep going!

And I too just got a Jordana Paige bag and LOVE IT! You're so right, it's HUGE when you open it and then a nice sized bag when closed.

I ordered my gown waaaay ahead of time and put it in storage. Made my own headpiece - ordered a cap from Joann's and the veil and just sewed the two together - saved major bucks! Made my own favors and had a friend who worked for a invitation co. and saved a bunch there. Held the rehearsal dinner at our house, and basically just kept everything on the small side.

We had a beach wedding with a brunch reception at a (nice) local Elks Club.

1) Bridal party: told them to wear Hawaiian shirts/khakis or floral dresses, so no tux rentals or bridesmaid dress angst -- also we could have as many people as we wanted in the wedding party and not feel guilty since they weren't buying/renting clothes

2) Ordered daisies from http://www.freshroses.com which were assembled by bridesmaids

3) Painted little flower pots filled with cacti for centerpieces

4) Asked our friends to bring "wedding pies" to the reception (we don't like cake as much as pie -- and we got to sample everyone's pie recipes)

5) Made our own invitations and programs with a color printer (we have a friend who used evite instead and it worked well)

6) Got a friend to take pictures -- he gave us all his negatives and got great shots

7) Uncle shot and edited video

8) Dress from bridesave.com and shoes from Payless (bride-esque) and Old Navy (white flip flops for the beach)

9) Friend and sister did my hair and makeup

10) Brought our own laptop (pre-iPod) and speakers to the reception for music

11) Friend became an Internet minister through ulc.org and performed a ceremony we put together ourselves

12) Used an old iMac to run a looping slide show at reception on gift table with pics of us as kids, as a couple, etc.

13) Held the wedding on a Monday morning, which meant it was much cheaper to get the reception place. Plus brunch was cheaper than dinner. Plus having it on a Monday meant we could invite EVERYONE who might have been hurt not to be invited, and only the half that really wanted to be with us showed up. And it was fine to have a cash bar because most people don't drink before noon.

It was the best day of my life! And even though we could afford to spend more now, I would do it the same way all over again. Except with an iPod this time.

Best of luck!!

Isn't that bag the best? Sorry, no wedding tips here. But I do love the bag!

Hubba Bubba and I got married in Oct 2003. We rented a tent w/ tables and chairs for our backyard. Having a wedding at home is amazing. You don't have to remember to bring anything with you to your site, since you are with all your stuff. We had a artsy friend make the flower arrangements and another friend do photography. Our big splurge was having a bag pipe player play during the ceremony. People were so relaxed and just HAPPY. People tell me all the time that we had the best wedding they had ever been to. It makes our house such a special place. We'll never be able to sell it since its where we said "I do!" We had just bought our house and we just felt it would be fiscally irresponsible to use up all our wedding money on things like fancy invitations and the like. We've got some nice hardwood floors to show for this!

Hi, long time reader but his is my first comment.
1. Love the blog.
2. Belated Congrats on the engagement.
3. Wedding Advice: I had a very small wedding (25-30 people) on my favorite beach barefoot. Those 3 things saved bucko bucks. I hate to have nothing new to add, but what people have already said it right on. Do what is important to you guys, not what anyone (books, mags, co-workers, etc) says. Call in all those IOUs and write some of your own. Do alot of DIY and less hiring. I guess one thing I can add is to have the time of wedding between or after major meal times to you can just do appetizers ann finger foods. Loads cheaper than a 4 course meal.

Anyway goodluck and can't wait to see the finished forecast!

I'll second/third/fourth everyone who recommended going with seasonal flowers. I compiled some pictures of what I liked - most of which were kind of wild looking - and the florist was able to do beautiful work with what was most available (and hence, most affordable). The groomsmen's boutonniers were made of cool leaves & grasses, too! I'm a bio-nerd so it worked for us.

One thing to remember: figure out those things that are MOST important to you and prioritize spending on those (if need be) over the things you don't care so much about. Our cake lady worked out of her trailer, but we had a rockin' Motown band!

I'm sure you'll be able to call in a lot of favors and find groovy solutions in Athens!

I will totally be stalking these comments - I'm newly fiance'd (to my very own Jacob!) and planning my own (small, cute, fun) wedding, too! For me, the thing I'm finding hard to justify is the flower expense, but I see you've gotten lots of great tips on that. Martha has some cute paper flowers on her website that I think I'll be using to decorate instead of billions of pricey real ones. Also - if you can make the invites/save the dates/etc yourself, you will save money and (probably) have fun, too. I'm also planning on saving $ on music by renting speakers and making (or, more likely, having myJacob make) a playlist for the iPod - I can't afford live musicians and if I hired a DJ and he made people do the chicken dance or the hokey-pokey, I'd have to jump up in my wedding gown and kill said DJ. Oh - and have you seen the knitted ring pillow from Martha? The direct link isn't working when I copy/paste, but you'll find it in the current wedding section of her website...

My mom has sent me hundreds of links (no, seriously. Hundreds.) so just email me if you want me to pass some along!

Wedding tips:

Flowers: we gave the florist an idea of colors and sizes of what we wanted, and told him what flowers we disliked, and gave him a budget. He then created centerpieces, etc. with whatever was fresh and cheap on the weekend of the wedding. I think we saved about 30-40% over quotes that had everything specified. And we got some beautiful flowers :) But, you have to be willing to trust your florist -- we went with someone that we had ordered other things from in the past.

Favors: Instead of individual favors, we put out a bowl of chocolate candies at the exit door, with a sign saying that in lieu of favors, a donation was made to the Jimmy Fund, in honor of my uncle who had died just months before our wedding. Technically, this is not much cheaper than favors, but it is a contribution that we would have made anyways, outside of the wedding.

Someone ahead of me said "call in favors" -- we did that too!
Veil: Auntie made it.
Ring pillow: SIL made it
Ring bearer vest: MIL knit it :)
Babysitters at the reception: Kids I coach
Petticoat: borrowed from a friend

Stole: made it myself ($12 -- the ones in the cheap bridal store were $70!)
Shoes: got white dyables, left undyed of course, from a non-bridal store, for about half the price of bridal stores. Nobody sees your shoes, anyways!

Invites: Made them ourselves (we spent around $250 for all of our paper stuff -- invitations, table cards, place cards, etc.) They got so many compliments, too -- and were soooo much nicer than comparably priced stoe boughts! I have a ton more invitation tips, if you want them.

Photographer: We hired a student, got great photos for about 1/2 the price, and got to keep all the digital prints and negatives for no extra cost. It also allowed us to make reprints for albums for the parents, etc at a much lower cost.

Bar: Our meal package included 2 rounds of wine and a glass of champagne. So, we figured that most people wouldn't drink too much more at an open bar. We had a modified open bar -- open bar until a certain dollar limit was reached, and then it became a cash bar. I think we spent $500 on the bar tab (100 ppl wedding) when an open bar would have been $1200+, for the same number of drinks!

Dessert (in addtion to cake): nobody will eat it anyways, they are so stuffed! So, we got a better cake -- super yummy, with 3 layers each in a differnt flavor -- and saved on the meal by not ordering a dessert.

Limo: had my brother take us to the airport at the end of the day, rather than hire the limo for several extra hours. Instead, it just did to the church and church to reception -- we had a morning wedding, so we got a good price, because it also freed the car up to be used for an evening wedding, which they couldn't have done if we had the car until 5 or 6 at night.

Hope those tips help!

your forecast looks great so far. i recently finished mine and love to wear it.

For wedding tips:

http://www.urbanhonking.com/liz/2007/01/i_went_to_talk_to.html

I read that just yesterday. It's like my bloglines account is meant to be...

Love the bag! I'll need to drop by and see it IRL. And great photo of the (sad) tree--much better than my camera phone pics!

On the wedding: I think the easiest way to cut expenses is focus on the stuff that actually matters. Think about every wedding you've been to--what do you remember about it? Maybe you and The Pants can sit down and brainstorm a list of the stuff you remember that was good/bad and then focus on that. It's amazing how much stuff people do for weddings that just doesn't matter. Food, drink, music, cheer--those are the things that are necessary. The rest is just forgettable window dressing, you know what I mean?

(delurking to offer wedding advice :-))

yeah, what Cari said (i did the same thing for my wedding centerpieces)... i bought the flowers from here, on a friend's recommendation:

http://www.freshroses.com/volume.html

got my vases from ikea. also, people spend lots of money on stuff the guests probably won't remember, e.g. fancy invitations/thank you cards/multi-page programs. save money on RSVP stamps by giving an email address instead.... and at least you know lots of great musicians already. :-)

congrats and best of luck!

that's one reason why i love top-down raglans. it's really not THAT much of a hassle to put it on waste yarn! so much more convenient than ripping.

wedding tips: we didn't have an open bar but instead provided all the beer, wine, and prosecco which we got at a wholesale distributor. we also (shock!) didn't have a DJ and instead just hooked up itunes and danced around. but most people just wanted to sit and socialize anyway :) i don't think that anyone really missed the dancing. i did all of the decorations myself and we used lots of cheap white christmas lights. we saved money but it was still expensive. we had to get a loan. i feel your pain for sure.

my only wedding budget tip is not to skimp on the photography, but i'm sure jacob has that well covered.

if i come across any good tips, i'll share 'em. do you have the book "bridal bargains" by denise and alan fields? a friend loaned it to me and there's some good advice in there for cutting costs

what i really find amazing about the whole wedding thing is that there are soooo many little costs (obvisously the place, photographer, food, etc is a big part of the cost, but there are so many little detail things and gifts, its crazy!!)

Do your own flowers and centerpieces. For our wedding we bought our flowers that morning at a flower shop--lots of red and orange and purple and yellow daisies, Gerbera, shasta, etc. We had simple vases that cost like 1.79 each at The Rag Shop, and then simple glass soup plates. Bought a bag of river stones for a few bucks at a garden center, put some riverstones and water in the soup plates and floated a few daisy heads on each one, then made simple arrangements in the vases. The plates went at the center of each table and the vases were scattered around the house. (We got married at home, with 80 guests.)

I hear you about the trouble with getting motivated to exercise. It's my first week back on the treadmill and my whole body hurts...but I've managed to log 16 miles since Sat. which may be a new record for me. I'm back on my Buffy workout routine--144 episodes in a row which should keep me occupied for about 9 months. Right now, I'm at 5 down, 139 to go...

TV on dvd totally helps me w/ the exercise thing. Let me know if you'd like to come over & run. I'd even let you start on the Veronica Mars dvds. :-)

oh i bought that same bag a year ago and i love mine too! it goes everywhere w/ me.

no tips on cheap weddings though - sorry :(

Hub and I got married while we were still in college and dead broke . . . we still had a nice wedding for not much cost.

My tip is to call in Every. Single. Favor. Possible. If you know someone who knows someone who works at a cake place, call 'em! Know someone whose cousin is a florist? Yep, you know the drill. And you might even be able to get some of your crafty friends to help out with the decorations and such . . . etc, etc, etc. Call in those favors!!

Oh, man. I have no wedding tips because I eloped to avoid such planning and expenses. But I'm sure you'll think of something. You're a crafty schmoo!

LOVE your bag. I just got a knitting bag, nothing fancy, just one of the ones from Knit Picks. Hooray for not carrying around my knitting in a grocery bag!