how to plan a very small wedding

If you don't plan to have many guests you can look into having your reception at a really nice restaurant in the area. In fact a lot of them have private rooms for wedding. Plus because the table, chairs, flatware, linen is all included you will save a bunch! Good luck

Http://www.standrewscivicclub.org/2009hallratesheet.pdf

http://www.standrewscivicclub.org/

the first link lists their rates, the second is the venue i found, it's in panama city, and very affordable, hope this helps

When planning a wedding on a tight budget one of the best ideas is to have an after dinner ceremony and reception. This way you can just serve fine desserts, nice wines, coffee etc. You may also offer an appetizer reception as well. I like to call these sunset weddings. Good luck and congratulations!

Do a wedding on the Beach and have all your guest meet at a local resort and walk out with your officiat and groom and set up about 20 chairs for them ! Hire a photographer and there you go ! Simple !

With 4 grand, and max 30 people, you can do a whole heck of a lot really! try city parks! here's a few links i found...oh, and these sites i listed below, INCLUDE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY!!! which is really good! also, it includes the planner, the permit fee for beach use, all the outdoor decorations, an officiant, etc...trust me, with 4grand you can do alot!

http://www.ultimatebeachweddings.com/packages.html

http://www.sugarbeachweddings.com/packages.html

http://www.destinweddings.org/packages.html

another thing, try private beach front home rentals. we found some in cocoa beach(i am just saying), that had living room/kitchens that took up just the 1st story of the home! which meant, we could bring in a caterer, OR do it ourselves, AND in the event of weather, we could easily hold the 65 people in some of those houses!!!

If you find a vacation rental on the beach that has beach access you could rent the house for a weekend, have the wedding on a friday night or saturday early. Hire a photographer. With only 30 people and wanting to keep it simple you could create a Itunes playlist or just put on your fave radio station in the background and have a back yard BBQ style dinner. Everyone can mingle, chat and just in general enjoy a nice relaxing afternoon on the beach. If you have it at lunch time, you can maybe cater in the meat or even see if a family member/friend is willing to bring their grill and cook. You might even be able to pay a off duty cook from a restaurant to do it. Once all is said and done you and your Hubby dont have to go anyplace and can stay the night at the house you rented. If you wanted to and you find one you really like, rent it for the week and make it your honeymoon.

I didn't want allot of people at mine. however the list grew and grew now we have 43 people coming so far and invited 115 oh boy. we should have done a vegas wedding. i am sure a small wedding is doable. dont do what we did invite everyone

I had ~ 55 people and ran almost exactly at my budget of $5000 it is totally doable! You shoud be able to go far! Especially since you have so much time to plan and shop around!!!

If your doing it in Panama maybe you can have it right on the beach reception and wedding? I'll bet you can find somewhere to do it with little research! good luck!

Thank you so much everyone! I have got some great ideas from all of you. I think a beach condo or house sounds good, so does a bbq. I had seen a few on the beach wedding sites but wondered if they were good. I relly still don't know if even 30 people will be there heck it could be 10 haha.

It always works out in the end. The planning is always the toughest part.

I think that sounds great! We are having a very small wedding as well, 30 ppl (max) and a budget of about 3000.00 (again max) so I feel you, we are having our reception at our local park, they have an enclosed pavillion and we rented it out for the day for only 200.00!!!! So yea, we were super excited, and best of all its in the same park as my dream venue that was too expensive, so hopefully we will be able to take pictures if there is not another event in that area that day.

Thank you again everyone. I am thinking Mexico beach area for my wedding.

Update! I have found a house to rent for a week in Mexico Beach Fl. It's right on the beach and we plan to have the reception there also. The budget is being cut some due to the fact that I will be moving out of the country right after the wedding. Talk about stress. Geeze!