The Wedding Thread!

[ttmom]

Our wedding cost $5000, but that also included getting 4 people from San Diego to north central WY for the wedding. And that was last year.

A coworker got married the same year in Chicago for 25,000.

Another coworker in Chicago got married 10 years ago for $250--friends did everything and she wore her favorite dress.

 

[moo]

This is my favourite piccy of them all.

We didn't have a professional photographer - we just asked everyone who came to bring a camera and snap away - we got some really good shots too - and all natural, no forced smiles!!

In this picture you can see my dress.

 

[jellybelly]

Moo, you look really pretty and love your hair and color and the dress is pretty!!

 

[moo]

Aaawwww shucks jellbelly – thanks so much for those nice things you said (blushes)

We had a really nice special day and once the ceremony was over (we were surprisingly nervous) we both looked very happy and relaxed (well I hope that we did)…

We told our cats that they are no longer our :censor::censor::censor::censor::censor::censor::censor: children now that we are married – they didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to care

 

[lhezzza]

Just a side note:

I appreciate everyone sharing their wedding day photos...

I love to see wedding pictures... makes me feel good!
(plus it give me GREAT ideas!)

Weddings are very special and are to be shared by all!!

Low budget or High budget it doesn't matter!!!!

It is a time to share your love with your loved one's

***** Nick and I are VERY fortunate to be able to have the wedding of our dreams ~ Yes.... it is very pricy, but we want this day to be one our family and friends will remember! ******

 

[okeefecl]

A friend and her now husband wanted to spend as little money on their wedding so that they could spend a month honeymoon in Spain. She had her mother's dress altered by a seamstress (who made our bridesmaid dresses), the guys got their tuxes at Sears, an aunt made the bouquets and boutiniers as their wedding gift, they got married at a non-denominational church on campus (since they were employees they were charged a nominal fee), they had the reception at a ski lodge off season that also had a catering service, and they home brewed beer for the reception. Their one big expense was hiring a really top-notch photographer. Although the wedding was on a shoestring budget, it was probably the best wedding I've been to. There are ways to cut costs, but sometimes it takes imagination.

 

[valanhb]

Here's the pictures I promised.

These really are almost ALL of the pictures I have of our wedding right now. We are still paying off the album.

The bouquets do have mini lights in them, and that's Pepe Le Pew and Penelope on the cake topper.

Before I post these, I just want to say that everyone's pics are beautiful! Everyone looks so happy, and gorgeous. I mean everyone!

 

[tuxedokitties]

Sicy, if you want to get married in Vegas go for it! But if it's budget that's forcing you to do that, keep in mind that it is possible to have a nice wedding for cheap if you are creative & thrifty. The most important thing to remember about any wedding is that it's about two people in love joining in the commitment of marriage. Everything else is gravy.

For our budget, we didn't scrimp on the photographer, but everything else was negotiable. We got married in a small town about an hour away from our city. We utilized the local small-town vendors and saved big $ that way, and got much better service, too! Friends & family who hear you're getting married will often offer to help, donating their creativity & time - take them up on it! A good seamstress can work wonders to make an inexpensive off-the-rack dress look like the designer one you've had your heart set on. She can also usually make you a veil or order a headdress for WAY cheaper than the ones in bridal shops, even discount bridal places.

One thing to keep in mind in considering the cost of a wedding is that's it's easy to lose perspective with all the advertising directed at brides; there is a huge industry dedicated to separating brides from their money. Use the magazines & websites for ideas, but temper the advice they give with the knowledge that most of it is given with the motivation of getting you interested in their advertisers' products. For our wedding I tried to think of what made weddings I've attended pleasant for me as a guest, and kept that in mind - people honestly don't notice all the details you think they will. Spend on what you think is important, and cut corners on the rest. Don't be afraid to stand up to salespeople who want to push you out of your budget. Also, being friendly and curteous to salespeople who are in the know can get so some great "insider" info.

Sorry if this was too long; I'm off my soapbox for now.

 

[pat]

Originally posted by tuxedokitties
<snip> Friends & family who hear you're getting married will often offer to help, donating their creativity & time - take them up on it! <snip>

Great point! I remembered how lovely it is to see the bride and groom pass out cookies at their reception...having my aunt offer to make traditional Italian cookies for this was so wonderful (and so were the cookies!)...it was a lovely, personal touch for our wedding...and a gift to us.

 

[tuxedokitties]

That's sweet! I love how having your loved ones help can add such a wonderful personal touch to your wedding. Hubby's aunt is a music teacher, and she played the organ for us. She was excited to play on the church's 100-year-old pipe organ, too. She chose the music to play, and it was truly beautiful!

Here we are doing the deed...

 

[ldg]

Heidi - you found more pics!!! They're great! I still LOVE that dress. I love weddings!!!

This is so much fun for me, because Gary and I never did a "dress up" wedding. I love ALL these pics, and I totally agree with Lizza!!!!! Big, small, fancy or not - it's just so wonderful seeing all these smiling faces. THAT's what is so great!!!

Gary and I eloped and got married in Seattle on Dec 26 1993... no pics

. BUT his mom got so upset, we did have another one! Again - we didn't want family, so we got married at mile 0 of the "Alaska Highway" (which is in Dawson Creek British Columbia). We let his mom know two days before the wedding... and what do you know? She just couldn't manage to get there from Chicago for the wedding. Poor thing. *evil grin* BUT - we do have pics from that one! It was July 26, 1994, and it was BEAUTIFUL up there! We got married in the back yard of the Justice of the Peace's house, and our witnesses were the photographer and his wife. We met him while in a sporting goods store stocking up on fishing lures... he worked there, but was starting a photo studio.

Here's during the ceremony:

 

[ldg]

The wedding kiss....

 

[tuxedokitties]

You sneaky girl!

How sweet!

It's great to have a picture of your happy faces!

 

[ldg]

We're married!!!

 

[ttmom]

Everybody looks soooo happy!

As for headdresses, those things are hideously expensive! I made my own by buying a pretty head band at Michaels and then hotgluing a pre-hemmed veil that I found at Hancock's on it. It worked perfectly!

As for the dress? That was NOT the dress I asked for and we had it made especially for me. It didn't fit and it was no where near what I wanted. I did find a dress that I liked at a second hand bridal shop and they offered to dye it for me. If I had known that my dress would have turned out so poorly (it actually had me in tears) we would have taken the bridal shop up on their offer. Their dress was $150.

My shoes I found at Payless for $7.

The flowers were done by a local florest for $300 for a bouquet and 8 boutineres (sp?) and flowers for the reception tables and cake. We had the bout. things done because we knew the florist and he makes over-heavy corsages. The best thing was that the day before I went into the florist's shop and he showed me a sample bouqet that he had made from the pictures I had sent him of bouqets I had likes. They were gorgeous! And when I mentioned that I loved lime green and coral he added more of those flowers in for free (it's nice when the florist is a family friend).

 

[ldg]

Thanks Tess! I loved your pics too. Quite frankly, I love all these pics!

I totally understand you're supposed to want to share this with family and friends.... but we'd both been married before, and we really wanted to just be selfish about it.

It was just what we wanted. And it was a GORGEOUS day! Those canola fields up there are just too much - expansive fields of golden yellow stretching for miles...

We wanted to do it "right" this time in our lives - as a matter of fact, we decided to put the wedding bands on our RIGHT hand! We got married again... and now wear the same bands on BOTH hands, LOL!

We had such a great time, and the photographer and his wife came back to the gorgeous RV Park we were in at the time, and we drank a bottle of champagne with them while traipsing around the park taking pictures in various different beautiful spots. We had a GREAT BBQ - and it was just so relaxed and wonderful!

 

[sicycat]

Wow thanks everyone for your encouragement! I think you are all right and we can probly still have a nice wedding for cheap. I think I would only invite immediate family and best friends. Probly aroun 20 people or less so that would save a lot of money

I love the pictures..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! moo you are purrrty

 

[tuxedokitties]

Payless, Michael's & Hobby Lobby to the rescue!

Resale shops are great for all kinds of things, and you're recycling! There are also formal dress rental places that have great gowns for bridesmaids that can save your friends some $, too. Be careful not to mention the "w" word, though, or the price will go up.

 

[ldg]

Sicy - I agree. Moo's purrrty, and I love the dress!

But I think EVERYONE looks gorgeous on their wedding days!!!!!

 

[blondiecat]

Wow everyone's wedding pictures look great! I didn't mean to start a debate about the wedding cost when I put on my other post the rounded fiqure for what we spent for our wedding.

Since Ken and I paid for our entire wedding ourselves we did it the way that we wanted it to be. You can have a very beautiful wedding for a lot less.