For all getting married

[taxguykarl]

Here's a handy article. And another useful site.

Remember bridezillas: More weddings were ruined by the brides behavior than any other cause...real or imagined.

[KiaKat]

I'm DIYing a lot. I'm a crafty person with a family of crafty people, so that won't be difficult.

Plus I'm trying to go indie/artisan for anything I can't make myself (dress, rings, invitations, food). As of right now we're looking at less than 40 people, so we can definitely be as anti-industry as we want.

[Bright_Star]

All the more reason to skip the fancy wedding & get married by a J.P.

[Indigo]

Love the first article... and it goes so well with my ideas about my wedding.

Another good tip is that if you have a decent stretch of time before the wedding, you can actually hunt around and find great stuff on clearance. I scored my cake topper for half the original price.

[trailerparkmedic]

All the more reason to skip the fancy wedding & get married by a J.P.

Hey! You stole my idea!

Honestly, I am SO relieved to be planning a JP wedding. I got a restaurant reservation for dinner, shopped online for a cute dress and made a grand total of two phone calls to figure out who would marry us. I think it took at least that much effort to find shoes for the bridezilla wedding I was in.

[AdminAssistant]

Well, I'm looking at a more medium-sized wedding (I really want lots of family and friends to be there), but it's not going to be for a while (a year and a half to two years). But Fiance is already setting up a special "wedding/honeymoon" savings account and we're going to budget everything out on his next longer visit in September. He works in the mortgage industry, so he's well familiar with how important it is to be careful with money. I'll be able to reuse some of my sister's stuff, and we're having a small wedding party (two bridesmaids, two groomsmen).

ETA: We're having a secular wedding, and I plan on asking a family friend who is a JoP to marry us. I've looked at the first article....and I'm already guilty of one thing - the engagement ring I have has a matching diamond wedding band. I think it's pretty, and Fiance did too. I also plan on having a groom's cake. Fiance wants a Warcraft cake that says, "For the Alliance!" And...yeah, we'll probably rent tuxes. I'm not sure about the dresses, I need to talk to my sister first. (I still need to ask my friend if she wants to be in the wedding.)

[Magpie]

Note that to use those tips you really need to be willing to ride roughshod over your family, your future in-laws and your fiance... Not that they're necessarily bad (you can put your foot down with a few of them), but don't get your hopes up about getting to do all that stuff. Remember, you have to live with your family for the rest of their lives. And seriously - you do want the dress dry cleaned. It wasn't very nice after the wedding, there was no way I was going to try washing that myself, not when it's a delicate.

[trailerparkmedic]

I'm not sure about the dresses, I need to talk to my sister first. (I still need to ask my friend if she wants to be in the wedding.)

Please don't be one of those brides who says "Well, if you shorten it, it'll be great for less formal occasions!" If you want your bridesmaids to wear whatever, just be honest.

For my cousin's wedding we got J. Crew wedding dresses on clearance for like $60 each. They were actually cute and wearable and she loved them. A friend of mine took her bridesmaids to the mall and they all got matching dresses at a department store. There are ways to get cute matching dresses, especially if it is a less formal wedding, without paying bridesmaid dress prices.

[Indigo]

Well really, it depends on what your family is like. My mother agreed with quite a few of the tips and I'm sure my future mil would too. The thing is that they're both pretty frugal women and don't see the point of spending more than I make in a year on a wedding.

Dry cleaning the dress - definitely something that should be done. Especially if its an outdoor wedding.... those can be sweaty.

Diamond wedding bands - some engagement rings look better with diamond bands.

Guestbook - it should have a nice cover, but doesn't have to be encrusted with crystals.

The attire (tuxes, dresses) - well that depends on your wedding and budget (and those of your friends') Matching dresses are nice, but they don't have to be hideous.

But for the most part, I can see the sense in the tips. Especially if the bride and groom are footing the bill, which is becoming very common nowadays. You can cut out a lot of the costly things and still have a very beautiful wedding.

[Green_Fairy]

i was totally gonna make my own wedding dress...but my mom would have none of that. but we did find one on sale ^_^

i'm gonna do my wedding invites and my dad tests printers, so he's gonna print off a bunch.
gonna bake and decorate my own cupcakes...who needs to pay hundreds for something that's gonna get eaten?
as for people...the smaller the better! we're gonna have around 40ish people...i found a venue for $750. i'm not sure about the rest of the country, but around here, that's amazing. most places run well over a thousand.
lol and apparently, the woman that's been doing my mom's hair for years is also a photographer.

as for a honeymoon...lol i'm saving all my tips from work. in the past week and a half, i've collected about $50. by december, i should hopefully have a couple hundred. so...a hotel for a week. woo!

[iradney]

Hehehe
I'm apparently the anti-bridezilla. The lady doing my decor and flowers calls me the easiest bride she's had work with in her entire career.
*shrug* what can I say, I'm determined that my wedding is going to be fun and lowkey, and if things don't match, I don't give a crap.
Like our stationery guy, asked for our colours. "Yellow, cream and white. Any shade of yellow except lumo rave yellow and mustard, and I'm happy."

[KiaKat]

I've already worked out most of the major details and vendors, except for venue (several options, need to test them all out), invitations (either going with the seed paper or with letterpress, expense is the question, waiting on quotes), and catering (really needs to be GOOD catering).

If everything is the quoted price, I think we can get this in under 5K. It would possibly be under 1K but for the photog. She's EXPENSIVE, but worth it. You want good photos. Actually, my date is entirely dependent on her. If she isn't available, we'll pick another date. I love her work THAT much.

[AdminAssistant]

I bought the Bridal Bargains book with my birthday money today; it seems to be very useful. (I also got a binder-type planner. )

[Indigo]

This could be useful for any DIY (or those of us too cheap to hire a wedding planner). My mom used it for her wedding and I'm using it for mine.

http://www.ezweddingplanner.com/

Free to use. They ask for a donation, but it's not required.

[Chromatix]

A new friend of mine has just been dealing with her friend's wedding - and apparently Bridezilla did indeed manifest on this occasion. I'm still waiting to find out how it went.