Unemployed and planning a wedding is possible!!!! :)

Since you mentioned a bridesmaid dress at a reasonable price, be sure to take a look at Target.com -- they have some cute dresses (my girls got theirs for $70) that usually go on sale, and can be returned in store if necessary.

Congrats on winning some money for tuxes!! Happy planning!

If I am not spending $300+ on my dress I don't expect none of my girls to spend that much on their dress! The most I am seeing is $50, but yea I already have the main thing done: hall for ceremony/reception, dj, minister and decorations. I just want a relaxed wedding!

Also if you don't mind ordering online Davids Bridal has an online outlet with dresses about $20 a piece.

It is nice to see a bride not expecting the BM's to have expensive dresses and one rooted in reality. I am a budget bride trying to spend as little as possible. I am not having a bridal party, but if you ever want to bounce ideas of me...I am here I feel ya on not having a lot of extra money

Arzel - Yeah I've saw a lot of pretty decent priced dresses on there. But in the next month or 2 I will be taking a trip down to Davids Bridal!

Future Mrs. C- It's hard not having a job and planning a wedding, but it is what it is and I making the best of it! I know I when I was in a wedding I paid over $130 for my dress and it was ridiculous. I just want the people that I love to be there! And yes, ideas sound great... same here for you too! Happy planning. Wanna be friends?

Maybe it's possible, but is it responsible? I hope you find a job soon and I wish you luck!

You give me faith. I have a good job but am currently part time until my caseload of clients gets built up...I don't want to find another job, because once I get a full caseload, I will be making $5.00 an hour more than I ever have made plus I will be salary (I should also add that you don't make money in my field, but this company pays very, very well)...DF is a mechanic who gets paid only on commission, so if there is no work, he doesn't get paid....He usually brings in A LOT of money, but since being engaged, he has been bringing in less than half of what he usually makes...And we have had many unexpected financial issues pop up due to this and other circumstances beyond our control...I think we are still going to go for it and get married October 20th of next year (we already put a deposit down on the venue) but it will be tough. I was thinking of having the date changed to 2014, but something tells me we can do it. If you ever need to chat with someone who kinda knows what you are going through, feel free to message me. Good luck!

Where there's a will there's a way. Glad you got some added funds.

I want to encourage you. I went through the same situation. We are almost there and our planning almost done as we are tying the knot in feb 2013! We had wonderful help from a website where one can sign up for a free wedding planner course as well as other wonderful tips we followed to help us save literally thousands. We were at the predicament where we paid most of the vendors the deposits and then I lost my job! We were really in a state as we are really planning our dream wedding for a while now and have put every extra bit of money into our savings account. We also didn't want to take out a loan because we simply don't believe in any debt. We really got right by persistance and the wonderful tips from the course. They are secretweddingplannerideas.com

Catie G. Your very welcome! All through out relationship we've had ups and downs financially, but we always manage to get through them like anything else. He knows that I am trying hard to get a job which by the way, I received a phone call today for an interview. Go me! My FH makes really good $$$ too, but it goes towards bills etc. and I am usually the one that pays 2 bills including my car payment every month so yes, it's tough but we will get through it... we always, always do!

But I would DEF. not move your wedding up another year! Girl, you are getting married a day after me and if I can do it, you can too! I got faith in ya that everything will work out in the end, perfectly! Keep on smiling because God is great and he'll manage something for you both!

Peter. You've defiantly have encouraged me to inspire my wedding planning better! We both have a savings, but mine isn't all build up as I want. But I know that it will be considering I am learning as I am getting older! Although our hall for the ceremony/reception, DJ and minister is already taken care of we are very happy to start doing the little stuff at the beginning of the yr! We are so lucky to have such good people in our lives to help us out!

LeCee - I cried a little when I read your response, haha. We will do this!! And yay, we are *almost* date twins!

Ladies, I can totally relate to everything your going through right now! Have you seen the move five year engagement? We had a similar situaiton as the plot of that movie (except the cheating and breaking up part, we never did that thankfully!!!). Plus issues with our families and of course financially. We are both full time students and we graduate next may right before the wedding. I am applying to grad school and we will be moving assuming I get accepted...so we literally just got to a point that we were tired of not being married. We have lived together 4 years, own cars and a RV together, and will be 27/28 by the time we do get married next may. We finally just got to the point of saying, it does NOT have to be complicated, cut down that guests list,do what we can afford and do it OUR way. We were trying to plan everything so it would be perfect for our families..but they are impossible to please. So we are just going for it! You can do it!

To add I am also looking for another job. I was assisting in two research labs but they don't pay. However I needed the experiences to be competitive for grad school. So for the past two semesters just FH has been working and it HAS been really tough. We cut down on experiences evne more then we already were. We were always thrifty but we even trimmed the Y off of thrifty is you know what I mean! It's what we had to do though to realistically be able to meet our small budget for the wedding. I'm looking for a job now that one of those projects has wrapped up and am waiting to hear back from a few places. So crossing my fingers over here for myself and everyone else looking for a job right now

Peter thanks for that link, I'll have to check that out.

I always go back to thinking of my amazing Grandparents. They were in the great depression, eloped to Indiana, from Michigan because my grandma's dad was not in approval and with a few loved ones, married with barely anything to their name. When my Grandpa passed first at 96yrs old, they had celebrated their 74th wedding anniversary. Only modern industry had made weddings and getting married so blown out with the expectations being so materialistic at times. As long as you are marrying your best friend, everything else is just the icing. We all forget this sometimes Hang in there. All in of us, budget brides are in this together

Catie G.- I'm sorry I didn't mean for you to cry. I'm only telling you the truth! And yes, almost date friends! Yay!

Mags- You def. relate to us and it all honesty, there isn't nothing wrong it! As long as your marrying your best friend, your soul mate and the one that always puts a smile on our face you'll be 100% happy! The FH and I've had some rough patches, but we continue to learn from our past mistakes and continue on our marry way. But to answer your question, I've only saw bits and pieces of the "Five Year Engagement"... I may have to rent it just to see exactly what you're talking about! If anyone of you saw "The King of Queens" it totally represents the FH and I. That's exactly how are relationship is, but in our own kinda way!

And about the whole family situation. Let me just say, my family and my FH never did get a long a few years ago, but they've realized that my FH isn't going anywhere. My FH makes me happy in so many ways and why would my family not want me to be happy! There are a few problems in that area, but regardless my FH will always be himself around them!

Future Mrs. C. - I completely 100% agree!!!!!!!

Congrats!

David's bridal is having a win a dress or 5 bridesmaid dresses. log on!