Weddings are overrated, anyway. Get married at the courthouse and spend the money on a really great vacation, I say.
My sister and her (soon-to-be-ex) husband drove down to Maryland to get married, and then rented a limousine and went around to pick up his mom, my parents, and my grandmom to take them all out to dinner (nobody but Rich and I knew anything about it). His family ended up throwing them a reception several months later. A lot of people are opting for the simple route. I was fairly open, but Rich wanted a regular wedding. My parents got married by a justice of the peace, so it didn't make any difference to them, but I do think my mom enjoyed planning the wedding with me. Personally, I loved the whole process and didn't find it stressful in the least, but like I said, I didn't know what I was doing ;D.
I think a lot of people go way overboard on the little details of the wedding and forget the whole purpose of the day - get married to your best buddy, and then have a big party ;D. I've heard that the average wedding runs something like $10,000-$15,000 at the low end. Hehehe, they didn't talk to me
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Here's what I did, since I was paying for most of our wedding:
- dress (complete with 6-foot train) from David's Bridal Warehouse, $200
- alterations, $75
- church, $150 donation (we got married in the 200-plus-year-old chapel at Rutgers University, where we went to college and met
- $200 donation to the guy who married us; he was the chaplain at one of the hospitals in New Brunswick (NJ)
- I bought 10 or 12 rolls of film and distributed them to my dad (loves taking pictures and would have been really unhappy just standing there doing nothing) and to a couple of other friends. I'm guessing the film and developed pictures cost between $100-$150.
- flowers for 2 moms, 2 dads, bride, groom, 6 bridesmaids, 6 groomsmen, best man, maid of honor, and flower girl, $212 (my mom paid for them as her wedding gift; it was fall, so I went with marigolds and mums (in season), told the florist the budget, and let her do what she wanted. They were gorgeous).
- mother-in-law paid for the DJ, $200 for four hours
- I bought potted mums and a box full of miniature pumpkins from a nearby farm to decorate the tables for less than $30
- at the beginning of summer I bought small potted plants and repotted them so they made decent sized centerpieces by October, again, for less than $30 (plants, pots, and soil)
- I bought tule, cut it into squares, tossed in some Hershey kisses and a few other types of candy, and tied them with ribbon to put at all the places (less than $15). Inside of two of those per table, I included a little note to let those people know that they could take the plant or the potted flowers home. Everybody else got a little pumpkin.
- I made all the name tags with folded blank index cards and a calligraphy pen (if we're keeping track, it was probably less than $2, since I already had the pen)
- a guy my dad worked with did some printing, so he made the invitations for us - very simple, no flowers or embosing or anything; before that came up, though, I was planning on doing them all up on my dad's computer and having him print them out at work (color printer; hey, this was fourteen years ago
)
- one of Rich's buddies from high school brought his keyboard and played the music for the wedding
- Rich's family has a long-time friend who is a baker, so he made the cake for us; otherwise I was going to do it myself. I bought a little stone statue of two giraffes laying next to each other touching noses so their necks made a heart, and that was on top of the cake.
- we had the rehersal dinner at Rich's parents' house - subs, chips, and sodas in the living room
- we had our reception at a Spanish restaurant (they had a couple of banquet rooms) and opted for no open bar, since there was sangria at all the tables in addition to water, soda, juice, etc., included in the price; it was a buffet; $26 per person, tax and gratuities included (compared to the $50+ per head at most other places). Neither of us has large families, and we didn't invite people like Mom's cousins who she hadn't even seen in fifteen years, so the head count was 82. Let's see...that's $2132.
And in the end, the cash gifts we received from friends and family amounted to a little over $3000.
Hmmm...I'm thinking I should make a business out of this...
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