anyone have a wedding budget under 2000?

Something you could cut back on, is the gift size.. Your friends should be happy to be in your wedding, and not expect a huge gift.. Can you cut their gift down to $25? I realize it gets expensive, but I think as accepting being MOH you kinda know you are going to pay for your dress? Maybe that's me!

For the suits, is there a place that offers specials? I'm from a small town, so we have tons of offers..The guys paid full price for theirs with a 10% discount, which was only $109. They also received free shoes, and didn't have to rent them.. DH got his tux for free.. We got to choose like 3 specials that we wanted, and those were the specials we chose.. 10% off for everyone, free groom, and free shoes. You should check into that! Your reception place and chairs are basically set prices, you can't really negotiate them.. Do some other negotiating, with what you are giving your pastor.. Guestbooks you can find SUPER cheap in Clearance isles at Hobby Lobby or something..GL

Fh already told them 50.

we have NOTHING in our area that isnt over an hour away

i dont really want to lower the price of the pastor becasue he is driving 3+hours to be at the wedding, he will most likely go home after the rehersal besause he has cerebral palsy and dont like to be away from home, so that amount will basically cover gas.

what do you suggest about a SMALL loan? fh says he is going to have student loans to pay off so why not take out a 1000 loan just to back us up so we are sure to have the $ we need? then use the $ we get as wedding gifts to pay off the loan. we are 100% sure we will get over that amount for the wedding.

I have a blog all about saving money on your wedding. Check it out. I have a post on there about dollartree.com that may help you with centerpieces and favors.

www.eventsbytammy.blogspot.com

Make sure to look under weddings too.

Unless you wedding is far from your home you don't really need a hotel room for the night before at least. I know that a lot of people do this bc they live together and don't want to see each other but what about one of you staying with a friend or family? GL!

We have centerpieces THANK GOODNESS we got a really good deal at an auction and those will probably be our favors. and the wedding is 2 hours away and it is at 10 am

What exactly do you still need to cover with that $500??

For the groom it doesn't have to cost that much ...my cousins husband just wore black slacks and a nice button up and he looked great... and was very comfortable.. you can barely see it but I love this picture of them... also my sons prom tux was only about $115 and he went with a designer tux...

Wow. The purpose of the gift is to thank them for all of the time, money, and effort that they put into helping you. You shouldn't have to pay for the dresses. I'm not exactly sure what you need to buy. The holidays are coming and there will definitely be a lot of after Christmas deals, especially with the economy.

I dont NEED to buy the dresses, im just puting some towards dresses/hair for the girls because my moh is throwing a fit that she has to buy a dress and that i wont let her wear a dress that is to small. then we decided to pay part of the guys suit cost that way we dont have to worry about gifts for the bridal party. we have to get fh suit that i think was like 125 ish then the shirt and shoes and such were budgeting for 200.

How much are the dresses and tuxes to begin with? It sounds like your wedding party is strapping you. Personally, I am going without one to avoid drama. You might want to just give a color requirement and let them find their own dresses. Every weeding i've been in I never expected the bride to foot my bill. The gift is usually $25-30 max.

What else are you trying to pay for with the extra $500 left in budget?

I agree with Tammy's post regarding Dollartree. They have some great stuff and you can buy bulk items by the case online. You have be careful, though. There's a fine line between cheap and tacky.

I was at the dollar tree last night they have isle bows ... you shouldn't need much more than that for the isle decorations ... they are only seen for the first 1/2 hour to an hour anyway... if you want I can send them to you... how many isles do you have???

I also have a post about affordable bridesmaid dresses online. Most are less than $50, so your bridesmaids can pay for their own dresses. And they only take about a week to come.

http://eventsbytammy.blogspot.com/2010/08/affordable-bridesmaid-dresses.html

I will take a look at this when i get home. I am responding to "put a pin in it" to respond. My budget was $1,200. We blew past that and are aright at $2,500 total for everything. I have a lot of free sites I can send you to.

WOW Tammy that taffeta halter dress is adorable for $50 .... I'm loving ur website... and I like the way you blog very easy to relate to!!

We need still

cake

gifts for the bridal party

donation to pastor

chairs

odds and ends- a few decorations and guest book and such

and fh suit.

the reason we are paying for part of the girls dresses is because 1 girl honistly dont have the $(my sister) one girl is in school, probably has the $ or could get it, but has helped me a ton with the wedding stuff so i feel she deserves a nice amount. and my moh dont want to buy a dress because the one she got is WAYYYYYYYY to small and i WILL NOT let her use it! fh told her(moh/his sister) that we would pay 50.00 so i cant back out now.

i have not looked at the website posted before but one girl refuses to order online so that isnt a doable thing either

@Victoria, thanks! I like to help when I can. I love helping brides save money. If I had the chance to do my wedding over again with all of the knowledge I have now, I would have saved so much money.

@Sheila, if you have a walmart supercenter near you, they do wedding cakes for around $180. Another alternative is a cupcake wedding cake. Sam's club has cupcakes for around $12 for 30, and here is a post on my blog with links to a cupcake tower and some other affordable wedding items.

http://eventsbytammy.blogspot.com/2010/10/affordable-black-and-white-damask.html

And check out my online store for some affordable wedding accessories and guestbooks

http://www.eventsbytammy.com/Wedding-Items.html

We are doing the sams thing for the cupcakes even though family HATES the idea OH WELL!