Weddings and Budgets

Thanks :)

that sounds great....and you have a whole year to plan and start working on things and that will help you find great deals.  I don't have any tips about the cold weather thing...we live in the south but it sounds like it is going to be beautiful.  Let me know if I can help...I am a wedding planner and I would be happy to help answer any questions if I can...free advice can't hurt :)

Our wedding was about $10k total. Not much was DIY. We were only engaged 3.5 months and I'm not crafty at all.

My sister pulled hers off for only about $2500. She really recommends the book How to Cater Your Own Reception. If you have people willing to help, you can save a LOT of money that way! Hers turned out well. She bought a lot of things on ebay and also a lot of people at her church helped with things like making decorations.

We are going to do bubbles or bird seed instead of rice since rice isn't good for birds. I never thought of donating the favor funds to a charity, that's a good idea. We are thinking of hosting the reception at my boyfriend's father's property because they own 7 acres that we can use. That way we can have a bonfire and do a cook out, plus there's plenty of room for people to stay and not have to worry about a hotel. May also do a potluck to go with the cook out with those who can (ie those who don't have to travel far) could help provide food.

We spent way too much (our parents helped a lot) and our wedding gift was our honeymoon from my Grandmother.

I love looking at Pinterest for all of the DIY things - I would love to do things over- I loved the planning.

One thing we really skimped on was the invitations.  We got the ones that you print at home from the craft store.  No one (except my Grandmother) kept them and we thought it was crazy what a lot charged for them.

Another thing we did was place a little frame on each table that said "in lieu of favors the couple donated to XYZ charity".  People really could care less about some chocolates or pepper shakers. 

At the moment, we're looking between $8000 and $10,000 for both the wedding and honeymoon, plus the travel to go to the church we want (we are driving to a different state). Costs a bit more for us since we are looking at using a church and pastor in a state that we are not residents in (it's the first church we attended together when we started dating in high school, he's been going to it his whole life and I didn't start going to church on a regular basis until after we were dating, instead my parents and I did our own church-type thing at home. I started going to church with him in order to spend more time with him because I was an athelete with 2 training sessions a day plus being in choir and in song/dance group so I was very busy). It could be less because I'm hoping to do alterations on the dresses (my mom is giving me hers to alter and use) using my soon-to-be grandmother-in-law's sewing machine, DIY decorations, and a cook-out/pot luck reception since it will just be close family and friends invited. Probably pay for most of it (if not all) ourselves, but our families may help. Not sure yet since they have not been notified just yet. Can't wait to announce it at Christmas when we are all together.  Colors will be reds, oranges, yellows, etc for a 'fire' themed wedding (our saying is "Love is Friendship caught on fire", stems back from when we started dating in high school 6 years ago and goes with our nicknames from friends) and also matches the leaf color change. Oh, it's going to be a fall/autumn wedding in November in the Midwest so any tips for cold weather weddings would be appreciated. We chose Nov because he asked me out in Nov and we thought it would be nice to be married on the anniversary of the day we started dating. I found some DIY boquets and butoneers (ok, I have no clue how to spell that) online too and I think we (us and/or family and friends - I have 2 friends who are hobby cake decorators) are going to make the cake as well. Advice and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated, we are trying to get the basics planned ourselves before our family know anything so that we can answer the surge of questions that are bound to come after we announce our engangment.