Young couple with a tight budget and need tons of advice!

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2) Where is your wedding going to be? We can't give you advice unless we know where you are.

What is your budget? How many guests?

I agree with the other ladies. We have to know what kind of budget you're working with and how many people you're planning to host. Once we know that, it will be a lot easier to advise you.

#1 rule for a tight budget: keep your guest list small. This has been the biggest headache so far for us at the beginning planning stages. Try to focus on your immediate families first and move on from there only if you can afford to do so.

Also try to look at non-traditional wedding venues (instead of a catering hall/banquet hall). If you are having a small wedding you could even ask around at local restaurants about renting the space for a private event.

Change your date to a non prime date; not a June weekend

limit the guest list to a very small list

eliminate the bridal party

Have your ceremony in a backyard. Get a white dress from a department store. Have a non-meal time ceremony/reception. Serve cake and punch after. Enjoy being married

Shop at second hand stores, you can find a lot of really good bargains there!! Also if you have FB throw out an ISO message, people are always getting rid of wedding stuff!

Jersey Shore Greetings!

What excellent advice, here! The primary goal is to streamline absolutely everything and truly stick to it!

- Very conservative guest list.

- Basic decorations -- if any.

- Extremely cost-effective gown.

- Basic invitations.

- Possibly just one Maid of Honor and a Best Man, choosing something from their own wardrobe.

- Very Off-Season Wedding Date at a more cost-effective facility.

- Skip the Cocktail Hour and have a Buffet Dinner. To control the Liquor Expense, possibly, just one signature drink.

It truly is a challenge. But if Couples really put their minds to it -- and 100% adhere to their plan -- they truly can have a very charming Celebration. We see this, very often, with our Clients. Some of the most incredibly charming Wedding Celebrations have 25 Guests in attendance -- and the celebration is so meaningful!

All the best!

PS-Attached is a photo from a Back Yard Wedding, which our Bride put together, in one month! It was such a charming celebration!

Sincerely, Michele, Jersey Shore!

OP? Any feedback? It will start a new chapter if you give up some info.

Check David's Bridal online clearance for a dress. I got my dress for $99 with free shipping. Look at your local parks and recreation department. The rose garden was $400 to rent the gazebo but the wooded area next to it was free. We could take pictures in the rose garden if we wanted to. Borrow tables and chairs from a church. We decided to have a backyard wedding when we bought our house. I got really stressed out trying to plan a wedding for about 175 people. With my health issues we decided to just invite 40 guest. It took a lot of stress off and I get to plan my own wedding. We went from around a $15,000 budget to a $5,000 budget. Keep your centerpieces simple. You can do your own fresh flowers by buying in bulk and arranging them yourself if they are simple. I am doing purple hydrangeas by the ton so I am doing silk. I will be spending around $400 in silk hydrangeas. If they were real it would easily be close to $2,000 or more. Fiftyflowers.com and globalroses.com are 2 fresh bulk flower websites that I have used. Efavormart.com has silk flowers sold in bulk and they run a 40% off special all the time. Efavormart.com also sells linens with the 40% off as well. Hobby Lobby has great silk flowers and every other week they are 50% off. Keep your food simple and the cheapest reception is a cake and punch reception. I didn't want to mess with a meal so my wedding is at 7pm so I am offering heavy appetizers. Look for a person who is doing cakes out of their home not a bakery. My cake is being done by a woman who owns a cottage business. She is insured and bonded but she does cakes from her home. The college I attend uses her a lot. She is charging me $180 for my sculpted cake and 40 custom made individually wrapped sugar cookies. Bakeries were going to charge me $450 for the same exact stuff. Stay away from tuxedos and suits. You could do dress pants with a dress shirt and vest or just a tie for the groom. If you are having a flower girl dresses at Macy's and J C Penney are 30% off and with Easter right around the corner they have some cute dresses. That is about all I can think of right now. Good Luck!!!!

Heavy apps won't cut it at 7:00 PM unless everyone knows you're not doing a meal.

Have a outdoor ceremony/reception at a public park. Pavilion rentals can be really cheap. Take help wherever you can get it. We're decorating with mason jars bc both of my grandmothers have gardens and they can a lot of vegetables so they have hundreds of mason jars. We're serving green beans straight from grandma's garden. No body in my family has a lot of money, but eeryone is helping where they can. My grandpa is buying pork and shredding it to serve pulled pork. FHs step mom is making cole slaw. An aunt of mine is making pasta salad. Another is making mashed potatoes. All that help adds up. I don't really understand the eliminating the bridal party thing. They bought their own dresses and don't expect gifts from me. They know I value them and they don't need physical gifts to understand that. I didn't have a lot of requirements for them though. If I made them buy expensive dresses, shoes, and jewelry, I would definitely buy a gift. But my wedding isn't extravagant at all and they can wear basically whatever they want. There are a lot of ways to keep costs down.

Bouquets and boutonnieres can be expensive, that may be why eliminating the BP is suggested. But we got our flowers so cheap it's not much of a problem.

@ Celia it was suggested by all my guest for me to have a later evening or earlier in the day reception and not have a full meal. I can't eat the food so they all are like forget it. They are coming to see us get married not for a free meal. I do not eat out in restaurants and I have to make all my soups and sauces myself. Food can literally kill me if I consume something with sugar in it. We are having a cake for cutting and pictures but I cannot even lick my fingers and FH cannot smash it in my face even if he wanted to. So it would be very difficult to find food to be catered that I could eat and probably very expensive. My guest are like don't mess with it but I do want to offer something. The other issue is I have health issues and get tired very easily so I don't want people hanging around forever after my wedding. By the time we offered a meal, socialized for a little bit, did our first dance and cut the cake I would be completely drained. All my guest know this and love me and FH so they understand when everything has to be done with in an hour and half max. Not everyone has the luxury of a 2 hour ceremony and a 6 hour reception.

@Kendra; rehearsal dinner, gifts, bouts, flowers. It all adds up. And gifts are non negotiable for people who are helping you and standing up for you.

@Maggie; a two hour ceremony? That's not a luxury, that's torture. If you have a group of people coming to see you get married, not expecting a meal at 7:00, then that's fabulous, but that is not advice I'd give to most couples. It seems like you've got several challenging situations in place, and have found the perfect answer for you and your guests and that will make your day ideal for you. (I'd still let everyone know that a 7:00 reception is not going to be dinner because it's not later in the evening; that is what most people would be expecting. )

@Celia I am sorry don't meant to be so short I just had surgery and don't feel the best yet. The wedding ceremony is at 7 and immediately following is chatting and food. Everyone knows there isn't going to be a dinner because they all told me not to stress over it. Yeah 2 hour ceremonies and 4-6 hour receptions are the norm around here. There is no way I would make it through all of that. I was going to try and my health isn't getting any better and my FH is like it just isn't worth it.

Maggie, no apologies necessary! I didn't mean to be short either, and I don't even have a good reason except the cabin fever that is running roughshod over NJ....

For every 'rule' there are exceptions, and the important thing is that couples' choices work for them. I'm not really into IPOD weddings, but I've been at several (in very expensive NYC hotels) where it worked just perfectly (and a DJ would be overkill). I'll always warn against small kids at weddings but I've done many where they are almost in visible.

For every 'rule' there is an exception! If everyone's expectations are met or exceeded, including yours, it's all good.

@Maggie- A 2-hour ceremony??? What in the world would take that long?? I have been to full Catholic mass wedding ceremonies and they haven't been 2 HOURS.

I heavily stress keeping the guest list small and intimate.