Anyone with a budget under $4,000?

Where were you guys when i started planning my wedding these are really great ideas we are paying for our wedding by ourselves and our budget started at 10 and is now at 20, and thats because neither one of us new the first step to planning a wedding but some of the ideas you guys have i will def. use and maybe they will save us some kind of $$

Call us crazy but we're taking our $4k and getting married in Dom.rep...it takes care of everything....

We're trying to keep our budget at about 5,000 for 30 guests. So far we booked the ceremony/reception vendor, a bed & breakfast estate, at 1,200. We get to have a nice suite room for our wedding night for free! I was thinking of party favors, but thanks to you all, I see they're not really necessary. As for the florist, I' ll look into Michaels or dollar stores for vases and silk flowers. One of the caterers we're looking at provides centerpiece.

We're on a tight budget too. 1500. I already have my dress, veil, gloves, and my FH made our wedding bands out of stainless steel. We were going to do favors but it wouldn't be possible since we are having catering too. WE booked our Ceremony and Reception at the same place which helped us save alot. And places like Albertson's and United Market street only charge by the slice. So if you have a certain way you want your cake draw it out. That's what I did. Our cake, to feed 75, is only 162.50.

Oh my. Well FH and I are on a budget and also paying for everything on our own, I have a crappy job and going to school (paying for it too). So these are some things we are doing....

CEREMONY/RECEPTION: in our backyard.

GUEST LIST: is 100 give/take.

FOOD/DESSERT: we are cooking our own food, Cupcakes instead of big cake. We might even bake them ourselves...not sure yet.

MUSIC: we have a great Dj but he's a friend of a friend so he's giving us a GREAT deal at $400 for the night.

WEDDING PARTY: is MOH and BM only, no one else, so I am getting her a pearl bracelet (she's a pearl fanatic)BM will prob get a flask.

TENT/TABLE/CHAIRS/TABLE LINENS: Got a great deal under $700 for everything, but googled my butt off to find it.

DRESS/ATTIRE: David's bridal dress, shoes $250. FH and BM are wearing khaki pants and white button up which they already have. MOH is wearing a discount dress from DB.

LIGHTS: We are stringing the deck(dance floor) and tent with our xmas lights, so thats free.

Continued...

FAVORS: We are making cards and putting our fav dessert recipes and tying them all together, paper and bows = $15 for everything incld ink.

DECOR: I found pretty votives from http://www.candlesjustonline.com

and also u can get nice clear vases from: http://www.dollartree.com/floral-decor/vases-bowls-containers/Crystal-Cylinder-Vase/202c203c203p9889/index.pro

PHOTOS: My mom wanted to splurge so that is her gift to us, but I found her a great deal from abbeyoflondon.com we are getting a steal of $700. I was going to use a friend, but one couple I know who did that ended up having all her photos blurry, THANK GOD guests brought their own cameras.

OTHER IDEAS: GOOGLE IS YOUR BEST FRIEND!! I kept on searching backyard wedding and do it yourself weddings and there is a lot of great, cheap, but pretty ideas out there, just a lot of research.

Check out www.koyalwholesale.com - 10,000 wedding supplies for 30-70% lower than retail prices (including tons of DIY supplies that will fit your $4000 budget). Use Coupon Code WW10 to get 10% off your order of $50 or more. Expires 12/24/09.

I got my dress for 88.00. I just need to get shoes and headpiece(tiara & veil). Any suggestions on where to get these cheap? I'll be wearing old earrings & neckace. I'll do hair and makeup with help from bridesmaid on big day.

Instead of dj we'll have ipod, but not sure what to do about the cake.

Small wedding cake and then sheet cakes. Check out orientaltrading.com their stuff is cheap but make sure to read descriptions because the pictures can be misleading.

We paid for own wedding also and our budget was $3500.00 we managed to get a free dj, free officiant, we only paid 150.00 for our limo, and because we cut our guest lest to 50 our hall with food and cake cutting was only $1095.00 as far as favors we went to walmart bought 100 little white boxes for $15.99 bought the ribbon 6 rolls at walmart for $18.00 and went to the bulk candy store and for less than $20.00 we bought m&m's the color of our wedding and just got labels for $5.99 printed them myself at home with our names and wedding date and poof our favors were done. gifts for your party.. Get 10 DVD's and take all the photos from your wedding and make them a dvd total cost $12.00 and they all get one.

Go to silverjewelryclub.com. Really. It's a wonderful website for bridesmaid gifts. Getting real topaz/other gem necklaces pendants for only the cost of shipping? It's an awesome deal and you can't beat the prices

I am stopping by the local salvation army and goodwill every few days and just checking to see what I can find for cheap.. So far I have found some rose petals (500 for 2&dollar and about 5 vases from 25-50 cents each. I am also shopping on ebay... got a chocolate fountain, 1000 rose petals and 40 yards tulle for under $40 for all of it!!!

It is all about what is important to you. What was important to me was good food, and not having to stress over it. Whole foods is going to feed my 150 guests for under $500. Our favors are mason jars I've been collecting, people are going to use them as drinking glasses at the reception. I've made the flowers out of tissue paper, they look real, and cost me $25 for 100 flowers. The 'vases' are large peanut jars my dad had saved. We put pictures of ourselves on them, and they're going to serve as the centerpieces. The flowers are going to serve two purposes: flowers for the bridal party, and table decor. And to make people feel special, I'm donating a dollar a guest to different charities. Our end budget=$2,700.

As far as your mom doing the bridal party hair as a gift. Updo for wedding here can cost up to $100. That a pretty penny spent out just for one day. Personalized M$Ms are too costly to my budget and I am looking at over $6000.

As for decoations and other things you need I will pass on a few websites I recieved from the forums some time back.

http://www.retailmenot.com/

http://www.budget-bride.com/

http://www.bagborroworsteal.com/ui/welcome

That last one you can rent high end things to wear for a price. Some are good deals but depends on what you like and can afford.

Our budget it super small too- Here are some suggestions-Favors aren’t necessary at all! Go to Costco or Trader Joes and get in season bouquets of flowers for under $8 each. Ask all your friends if they have clear glass vases you can borrow. Carry those flowers during the ceremony and then put them on the tables when you arrive at the reception. I am putting travel board games on some of my tables at the reception instead of decorations. This gives guests something else to do besides stand around and talk/dance. Those you might already have or can borrow from friends as well. As far as attendant gifts- you can get frames off of Craigslist (maybe a different one for each girl-something that fits their personality) and then put a picture of you and them together with a hand written note of what that picture means to you. I have no clue what to get the fellas.

Purchase mini cupcakes from the grocery store. I find no one really cares about the cake either. Hope this helps!

I started re-reading my watchlist posts and this was an excellent post! I'm sitting here pondering how in the world did you magnificient future brides pull off a wedding and reception for under $5,000??? I'm in awe. I don't think I can do that with a guest list of 200 people. Aargh!

My FH and I are also on the tight budget of $4000 and having a hard time finding a CEREMONY location. We did not want to do a church wedding, but we don’t have enough room at our reception location (my aunts house) and I am having a hell of a time finding a place to have the ceremony without the reception package. Any suggestions??

What about just your aunts backyard? Or another relatives? Or perhaps a city park-my mom got married in the park,it was small, intimate, beautiful, and free, just had to call the park office and reserve the space-didn't cost a dime. (chairs had to be rented, but that was less than 100 so it wasn't bad). Its possible to get married in a house as well.

I was thinking of doing the ceremony at my aunts, but my FH does not want to have it there. I will check out the local parks thats a great idea. I did find a small church that was only $400, but would rather do an outside ceremony if possible and we do have some great parks around here.

If you have a local farmers market, you could buy flowers there seeing as they are usually significantly less than purchasing them from an actual floral vendor and for the cake - a lot of culinary schools will do bake cakes for a considerably lower cost because it's the students doing the work (and the quality of work is always really good because they're still being supervised). For party favors...I saw this done once and I thought it was awesome. If you and your fiance have a charity you would like to donate to - you can make a small donation and put cards at the table that state the charity you donated to instead of giving favors (there's a better way of wording it then that). But that way you know the money you spent is going to a good cause and the couple I met that did that instead of favors said it was a huge hit with the guests. Hope this helps!