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Planning A Wedding On A Very Tight Budget
You need to begin with a very positive attitude and the commitment to produce a successful, memorable event. I have only planned one wedding in my many years as a wedding photographer. Since my bride-to-be considered me to be the "Expert," my job was to line up all of the other service providers since the photography part of the event would be covered by my own staff. Wow! Where to begin? I had just a few months to get the job done. My goal was to plan a wedding that would create memories that would last a lifetime. So far (11 years later) it looks like I succeeded. Here are the tasks I had to complete--in order of importance. 1. Select a date and a wedding site: My bride had lived in this city a little more than a year and had no church affiliation. I, on the other hand, was an On Again-Off Again member of a small Episcopal Church. Why should a church be our first choice? TO SAVE MONEY! The wedding date we picked was a Saturday in February--Valentine's Day! Ahhh, how romantic. Since this was not during the BUSY wedding season I quickly booked the church for an early evening wedding. 2. Reception/Catering: We anticipated 60-70 guests and due to the time of day--a sit-down dinner was appropriate. I had lucked out here as I had just heard about a popular hotel/restaurant that was scheduled for demolition to make way for an Interstate Highway interchange. These folks were anxious to make all the income possible before the wrecking ball began swinging so I got an exceptional deal plus reduced room rates for out-of-town folks. 3. Entertainment: Over the years I had completed several weddings with a local DJ. We had become fast friends. Alan cleared out the date for me. Couples may consider several choices for entertainment that run from an orchestra, a small musical ensemble or recorded music. I have done low budget weddings when the music was supplied by a family member with a "Boom Box." These next few steps can be accomplished in any convenient order since the preceding steps should be taken care of ASAP. A. Wedding Cake: Both of us prefer "Pound Cake," so we narrowed down the choices to three local bakers. We both started out on a tasting tour and never got beyond the first one visited. Of course I had dome several weddings with this lady and she did flip-flops to accommodate us. Man, was that cake delicious. We may have gotten a little better price had we visited the other two bakers but I doubt if it would have been as good. B. Formal Wear. Here again I pulled on my experience with having done at least one wedding with every shop in town. My choice number three gave me the best price and they got the order. Yes, there are quite a few other details to clean up such as: Wedding Invitations, marriage license, limo, etc. A word about invitations--the cost can be cut by about two thirds if you have access to a decent computer and printer. Most office supply stores sell blank invitations and envelopes. Run 'em yourself. As for party favors, wedding attendant gifts and so forth, try eBay! The honeymoon didn't pose any problems. I owned a one week time share at the coast so I made an internal swap to get the date we needed. (maybe you know someone with a timeshare that'll let you use it. Also we had planned a two week camping trip during the warmer months that included ending up in Maine for a Lobsterfest. Now you say, "OK, you were in the business so you had all the leads to vendors in hand. What am I to do--starting from scratch?" Yes I did have a head start but you can easily catch up to what I did. See my tips below. * Don't depend on just the Yellow Pages for your starting points. These ads can be deceptive in that the biggest ad isn't always the most successful vendor. * I didn't know about Google 11 years ago so you have that in your favor. Put Mr. Google to work for you. * Don't hesitate to thank a shopkeeper and head for the door if you don't think you're getting the best deal. These folks know that once you leave, the odds are highly against your coming back. * Check with recent brides, family and friends for their experience with certain vendors. * And don't forget to scan Craig's List for your city. It's a good source for one-time-used bridal gowns (or not used at all). * Seriously consider hiring a wedding director if you plan on having more than 2-3 attendants. Many churches provide a director just to be sure things don't get screwed up. * Two weeks before the wedding call everyone you booked--just to make sure they haven't gone out of business, developed some rare tropical disease or have been run over by a school bus. "Stuff" happens, if you know what I mean! * Develop a contingency plan: Plan for the best, expect the worst: Illness or other problems may prevent a wedding party member from attending, airline flight delays, etc. * Winter weddings: What will you do if a blizzard or ice storm strikes * Summer outdoor weddings: Have a backup shelter available if it rains or thunderstorms move in. I do hope these tips have been of some value to you. But please don't stop here. My friends Tim and Lisa Spooner have an interesting story to tell. They managed to whittle down a $20,000 Dream Wedding to $2,000--and it turned out far better than they ever expected. Stop by and visit them and they'll give you a FREE WEDDING PLANNING GUIDE! Get your FREE wedding planner see below Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Don Penven is a freeleance writer and professional photographer with locations in Raleigh and Morehead City, NC. He is soon to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of his 30th birthday but he still photographs weddings. Tim and Lisa Spooner saved nearly 80% of the cost of their dream wedding. They are offering a FREE WEDDING PLANNING GUIDE. Visit Tim and Lisa. You can reach them at: sites.google.com/site/treefern01/ |
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