Post # 1
Member
587 posts
Busy bee
My fiance and I realized that we were basing several of our wedding decisions on what everyone else wants. We decided to wait until 2017 to get married, because it is what my family wanted. They want to pay for everything, but the things they want are not what me and my Fiance want. We’re simple people, we just want a pretty, relaxed wedding, and my family wants a big fancy day. We decided, after them deciding it would be more convienient for them to move the wedding location an hour closer to them (which would make several people not be able to attend) that we would rather plan a small ceremony ourselves.
We were thinking we could just have it at the park this August. We already have a lot of things planned, all we need to figure out is the food, decor, and the attire. We’ll have about 50 guests. Any inexpensive ideas or tips?
Post # 2
Member
813 posts
Busy bee
I absolutely loved my wedding. We had it outside of a cabin that wasn’t really a wedding venue. We had about 40 guests and thought that would keep the cost way down. If you are trying to keep the costs down I would suggest and inclusive venue. With a DJ, caterer and the setup of the decor (tables, chairs, table cloths, centerpieces, cake table, guestbook table, etc) and everything the cost gets out of hand and on top of that the setup was a LOT. Luckily I was shielded from it on the wedding day but after the fact when I realized what all my friends and family had to do to get everything set up I felt awful for causing them stress.
So anyway my point is that you CAN keep the cost down but the park wedding has a lot of opportunity to be really expensive. Do they have picnic tables available and electric outlets? Would you have a morning ceremony with a lunch reception? Something I didn’t think about at mine was lighting at night and we had to get a bunch of cafe lights and hang them everywhere.
Post # 3
Member
587 posts
Busy bee
We have a DJ and two bands playing for free (FI is in a band, so his bandmates and brother band are playing as a gift) and we have photography for a couple hundred. The park has several picnic tables, and there are outlets. I’m not sure about lighting, but we havent officially picked the time of day yet.
Post # 4
Member
130 posts
Blushing bee
We changed to a small park wedding too!
Find a caterer that will bundle everything up. We found one that does linen, china, set up, tear down, and the cake. This is all included in their 18 pp. I double checked the contract and with the caterer to make sure there would be no other fees.
We are only having bridal bouquet and bouquet for my only bridesmaid. I am picking up the flowers from my local grocery store.
Decor, I picked all of it up from either etsy or ebay. We can’t decorate the walls of the nature center, so that saved us some money as well.
Zazzle.com for invites. They always have specials and include envelopes in the price.
Post # 6
Member
1154 posts
Bumble bee
sarahramo: you could also see if any food trucks (if you have any you like) in your area could do food for you!
Post # 7
Member
587 posts
Busy bee
I live in a pretty small town, and I’ve never noticed food trucks before :/ my original plan was to just have it sorta early, and just have snacks out. like sandwhiches, and chips, fruit, and desserts. But one of my bridesmaids says that its a bad idea.
Post # 8
Member
7887 posts
Bumble Beekeeper
I think you could do a sandwich/picnic style reception if you had a lunch or mid-afternoon event. You could even do gourmet box lunches, which would be very easy to set up.
As for attire, you don’t have to do a traditional poofy dress. If it’s going to be outdoors, it might be more fitting to have an easygoing dress. I got 2 simple white dresses from Macy’s and Nordstrom websites for $350. Macy’s has lots of discount codes.
Post # 9
Member
587 posts
Busy bee
I actually found my dress today 🙂
Post # 10
Member
238 posts
Helper bee
sarahramo: Just wanted to say well done! The number of women who have had their lives turned upside down and become totally stressed and upset by in- law interfence and control and and friends being prima donnas etc is legion.
Now you are not going to be one of them. Yay!
And rather a grand dress too.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by
sema4dogz.