Budget Weddings Forum

How is $10,000 not enough?!

2

Re: How is $10,000 not enough?!

  • adk19 said:
    I agree with PP that if the alcohol is a big chunk of your budget, and you want to cut it out, just don't have a bar. Can you put wine bottles on tables?  My Best Friend had a limited alcohol wedding, with just wine bottles that they bought on their own for each table.  It was fine. 

    What if I'm at a table with a bunch of lushes who fill up their wine glass to the tippy top?  By the time the bottle gets around to me, it's empty.  Am I supposed to walk around from table to table, pouring the dregs left at the bottom of the bottles into my glass?  And what if I want a second glass?  It's fine to only offer wine, but whatever is offered should be available all night, not just until it's gone.

    In this case, my friend had enough bottles to replenish them when it was gone.  No one had to get up and look for more.  They added when needed and had a few left over to bring home. 


  • mrscomposermrscomposer member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its First Answer
    edited July 2015
    I think that asking people to contribute towards the cost of a dinner is more common with students/young adults. I went to a number of dinner parties when I was a student where it was asked if people could contribute ~$10/person to help offset costs. Plus the guy cooking was a chef in training and it was always something amazing (steak, lobster etc) so I didn't mind. Nowadays I would never ask someone to help contribute towards ingredients because it just seems tacky, but I think starving students/young adults get a pass on this one. 


    Not even a little bit.  I threw dinner parties (and attended dinner parties) when I was in college - my ex was a chef also - and I never asked anyone to contribute, nor did anyone else.  If it was a potluck, sure - but dinner parties are different.

    You're setting a bad precedent for yourself if you think that people will subsidize your parties for you when you're a young adult.

    ETA - you think it's tacky for people to ask for contributions towards ingredients now... it was tacky then, too.

    **The OMH formerly known as jsangel1018**
  • For us it depends on what kind of night is planned.

    If we specifically invite people over for dinner, most of our friends will ask if they can bring something and we say "sure a bottle of wine" or something like that. But we are doing the inviting, hosting, and cooking so would not ask for money in return for food served. 

    If it's a group of us that want to hang out and our place happens to be the spot we choose to be (which is usually the case because BF is the only one without roommates and has the most comfy couch), then usually we all go shopping together and split the bill and cooking duties. 

  • Ours was under 10K same theme.

    Flowers were going to be around $800.. I decided to do them myself and use fake.. They turned out great and cost be $200

    We invited 250, 180 ended up coming but we did budget for 250

    We did sheet cakes instead of a big fancy cake

    Beer and Wine

    Shopped around for a good caterer

    Friend used another friends camera to do engagement photos

    I did our invites by using templates found online and had them printed at a local printer.. 250 for $45

    Postage is what it is

    NO FAVORS

    Only paid DJ for 4 hours, no photo booth

    Splurge: Photographer (Cause I love his work)

    My jewelry I got at a local craft and artisan sale

    Girls gifts came from Coach outlet

    I made all of my décor



    As others have said your biggest cost is your guest list. Find a caterer that fits in your budget.



  • My first wedding we stayed right at $10,000. 

    Saved the most by:

    no favors

    finding a beautiful venue so decor and flowers were minimal

    no cocktail hour

    no gimmicks like photo booths, performers, or games

    family member officiated

    no alcohol

    finding a dress at a small local shop that lowered the price for me

    lucked out on having a personal friend who's a DJ

    Budget this time around will be more like $6,000. Plan on doing all the same things to save money except we're having alcohol. Guest list this time around is nearly 1/3 of first marriage. And date is in the "off season" which is probalby saving us the most money. 

  • I think that asking people to contribute towards the cost of a dinner is more common with students/young adults. I went to a number of dinner parties when I was a student where it was asked if people could contribute ~$10/person to help offset costs. Plus the guy cooking was a chef in training and it was always something amazing (steak, lobster etc) so I didn't mind. Nowadays I would never ask someone to help contribute towards ingredients because it just seems tacky, but I think starving students/young adults get a pass on this one. 
    When I was a student, I used to host dinner parties all the time. With what I could afford. I never asked people to bring anything, food or ingredients. I used to source out the cheapest ingredients and make things that would feed a lot of people on the cheap. My friends were just happy to have a home cooked meal. Hosting a party then asking people to pay for it is tacky no matter the circumstances.
  • Wegl13Wegl13 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    When we decided on a budget for certain things (dress, flowers, etc), I called places first. I think this is especially important for the dress and venue (although that bird has flown). It seemed like most places don't publish obvious prices online so I just sat down with a list of places and called. If they weren't in my price range, I hung up and kept going. It's a lot harder to fall in love with something out of your price range if you never see it. This worked really well for the dress and the flowers (which I did want- at least bouquets). The other thing that helped me was to order importance even within a category- when I consulted with the florist, I told her my budget, then what I wanted- as much of it as could fit in the budget (for example the bouquets and bouts were the most important, then if she had enough money I also wanted VIP bouts and centerpieces). We saved a lot by having an afternoon wedding with heavy apps, but I would also look into barbecue or pasta for good, filling dinner options that are cheap. Finally, the "no alcohol" thing is a really big money saver- we bought a case of champagne (which was cheap), but we had to pay a lot more to our caterer in order to serve it (bartender fee). Just don't forget to hold 20% back because you are going to go over for things you forget (example of things I forgot: the aforementioned bartender fee, cost of the music we put on an iPad instead of a dj, rings, hotel room the night before, food to munch on the morning of the wedding for family, stuff to make signage so people wouldn't get lost, etc).
  • I think the budget also depends on location. I'm in DC and $10,000 does not go a long way here. The venues are half of that budget. I am originally from NC and I know my budget would stretch almost 3 times over in NC but I wanted to get married where I live. My biggest budget savings are DIY projects. I also have a saying that I refuse to pay full price for anything. I found all vendors during promotional periods. My venue is a piece mail venue so I can select my own catering. I selected a day of coordinator instead of a full one. Luckily my mother purchased by dress. I don't think we will have transportation. We are doing all silk flowers to cut out a florist. I am DIYing pretty much all decor. consignment and thrift shops are my best friends and micheals with a 40% coupon. lol. Even with all of this im still over 20k which is beyond ridiculous. If you are not big on decor or having a super fancy wedding I think 10k is doable. We did splurge on what we thought was important which is a saturday evening/night wedding, open bar, and food. A videographer is also non negotiable so that was an added expense but still on a promotional deal. Good Luck!
  • beautyofdreams said:
    I think the budget also depends on location. I'm in DC and $10,000 does not go a long way here. The venues are half of that budget. I am originally from NC and I know my budget would stretch almost 3 times over in NC but I wanted to get married where I live. My biggest budget savings are DIY projects. I also have a saying that I refuse to pay full price for anything. I found all vendors during promotional periods. My venue is a piece mail venue so I can select my own catering. I selected a day of coordinator instead of a full one. Luckily my mother purchased by dress. I don't think we will have transportation. We are doing all silk flowers to cut out a florist. I am DIYing pretty much all decor. consignment and thrift shops are my best friends and micheals with a 40% coupon. lol. Even with all of this im still over 20k which is beyond ridiculous. If you are not big on decor or having a super fancy wedding I think 10k is doable. We did splurge on what we thought was important which is a saturday evening/night wedding, open bar, and food. A videographer is also non negotiable so that was an added expense but still on a promotional deal. Good Luck!

    Are you saying the venues on their own are $5000 or that venues, including their own catering, are $5000. I'm in a large city in the northeast and while we certainly have venues that are $5000 and up, we have a lot that are a lot less expensive as well. Our venue was $1000. With catering, it will end up costing $8000. That isn't counting an open bar (we'll only serve beer and wine, I think, unless a lot of people decline and we can afford to upgrade). So with the open bar, venue, catering, we're still over $10,000 without having even considered florists, DJs, and photographers. I can't imagine how much people are spending if just their venue cost is $5000, but there must be less expensive options, even in DC.

  • My fiance and I recently went to a local bridal show here in our area.  I found many vendors there offered raffles or specials if you set up an appointment or booked their services at or right after the show.  The DJ we had been considering was at this show and we ended up getting a significant discount on the cost of their services by connecting with them through the bridal show. 

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  • I think the time of year matters also, we are getting married in the winter and it's making things more expensive because there aren't a lot of options for full indoor venues that would work in the area we are getting married in. I could have gone with a community center or something like that but it didn't feel like it fit us. FI wanted to start the budget at $10K for everything, after calling around in the area we are getting married in it wasn't going to work so we doubled it and I'm sure I will still be going over. To save anything we are doing just wine and beer, and the centerpieces will cost close to nothing (DIY and I have the stuff already). Since our venue requires we use their catering that's where it gets expensive, the venue was the cheapest one we found but their food is a bit high. It all ended up being a was because the cost of other venues would have put us at the same anyways if we had gone with an outside caterer in a different venue. Good luck with budgeting and make sure you have a list of what is priority so you know where to put the money.

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  • I think the time of year matters also, we are getting married in the winter and it's making things more expensive because there aren't a lot of options for full indoor venues that would work in the area we are getting married in. I could have gone with a community center or something like that but it didn't feel like it fit us. FI wanted to start the budget at $10K for everything, after calling around in the area we are getting married in it wasn't going to work so we doubled it and I'm sure I will still be going over. To save anything we are doing just wine and beer, and the centerpieces will cost close to nothing (DIY and I have the stuff already). Since our venue requires we use their catering that's where it gets expensive, the venue was the cheapest one we found but their food is a bit high. It all ended up being a was because the cost of other venues would have put us at the same anyways if we had gone with an outside caterer in a different venue. Good luck with budgeting and make sure you have a list of what is priority so you know where to put the money.
    I'm very curious here. I've heard a lot of people here say, "We started with X budget, but then upped it to Y and I'm sure we'll go over so we will end up spending about Z". I always wonder how?  Where is this money coming from? 

    Since you posted this, I'mma ask you. You don't have to answer and you don't have to give me specifics, but how and where are you coming up with an additional 10-15K for your wedding? 
    Image result for someecard betting someone half your shit youll love them forever
  • I think the time of year matters also, we are getting married in the winter and it's making things more expensive because there aren't a lot of options for full indoor venues that would work in the area we are getting married in. I could have gone with a community center or something like that but it didn't feel like it fit us. FI wanted to start the budget at $10K for everything, after calling around in the area we are getting married in it wasn't going to work so we doubled it and I'm sure I will still be going over. To save anything we are doing just wine and beer, and the centerpieces will cost close to nothing (DIY and I have the stuff already). Since our venue requires we use their catering that's where it gets expensive, the venue was the cheapest one we found but their food is a bit high. It all ended up being a was because the cost of other venues would have put us at the same anyways if we had gone with an outside caterer in a different venue. Good luck with budgeting and make sure you have a list of what is priority so you know where to put the money.
    I'm very curious here. I've heard a lot of people here say, "We started with X budget, but then upped it to Y and I'm sure we'll go over so we will end up spending about Z". I always wonder how?  Where is this money coming from? 

    Since you posted this, I'mma ask you. You don't have to answer and you don't have to give me specifics, but how and where are you coming up with an additional 10-15K for your wedding? 
    FI is very practical with his money, we have more than enough to cover the additional budget in our accounts right now without touching investments, or emergency funds. The 10K was his "ideal" the 20K was my "more realistic" and the over is "I'm tired of calling around trying to get deals so I'm just going with this". So in short, we didn't start out at the top end of what we could afford so there was room to grow without sacrificing other things. We are still at a comfortable budget where we could double it again if needed and still not hit emergency funds but that is something we will absolutely not be doing. If we had been at the top of what we could do when we added in savings and income for the year before our wedding and what we could save up we wouldn't have changed it and would have made it work with the original budget. Hope that made sense?

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  • I think the time of year matters also, we are getting married in the winter and it's making things more expensive because there aren't a lot of options for full indoor venues that would work in the area we are getting married in. I could have gone with a community center or something like that but it didn't feel like it fit us. FI wanted to start the budget at $10K for everything, after calling around in the area we are getting married in it wasn't going to work so we doubled it and I'm sure I will still be going over. To save anything we are doing just wine and beer, and the centerpieces will cost close to nothing (DIY and I have the stuff already). Since our venue requires we use their catering that's where it gets expensive, the venue was the cheapest one we found but their food is a bit high. It all ended up being a was because the cost of other venues would have put us at the same anyways if we had gone with an outside caterer in a different venue. Good luck with budgeting and make sure you have a list of what is priority so you know where to put the money.
    I'm very curious here. I've heard a lot of people here say, "We started with X budget, but then upped it to Y and I'm sure we'll go over so we will end up spending about Z". I always wonder how?  Where is this money coming from? 

    Since you posted this, I'mma ask you. You don't have to answer and you don't have to give me specifics, but how and where are you coming up with an additional 10-15K for your wedding? 
    FI is very practical with his money, we have more than enough to cover the additional budget in our accounts right now without touching investments, or emergency funds. The 10K was his "ideal" the 20K was my "more realistic" and the over is "I'm tired of calling around trying to get deals so I'm just going with this". So in short, we didn't start out at the top end of what we could afford so there was room to grow without sacrificing other things. We are still at a comfortable budget where we could double it again if needed and still not hit emergency funds but that is something we will absolutely not be doing. If we had been at the top of what we could do when we added in savings and income for the year before our wedding and what we could save up we wouldn't have changed it and would have made it work with the original budget. Hope that made sense?
    Yes, it does. Thank you! I hope you know that I wasn't judging you or your financial decisions, I was just trying to think of the "average" (whatever that means) couple and where that comes from. But you're going at your budget from the opposite of what we did, which makes sense. I've been wondering this for a while so thank you for responding.
    Image result for someecard betting someone half your shit youll love them forever
  • I think the time of year matters also, we are getting married in the winter and it's making things more expensive because there aren't a lot of options for full indoor venues that would work in the area we are getting married in. I could have gone with a community center or something like that but it didn't feel like it fit us. FI wanted to start the budget at $10K for everything, after calling around in the area we are getting married in it wasn't going to work so we doubled it and I'm sure I will still be going over. To save anything we are doing just wine and beer, and the centerpieces will cost close to nothing (DIY and I have the stuff already). Since our venue requires we use their catering that's where it gets expensive, the venue was the cheapest one we found but their food is a bit high. It all ended up being a was because the cost of other venues would have put us at the same anyways if we had gone with an outside caterer in a different venue. Good luck with budgeting and make sure you have a list of what is priority so you know where to put the money.
    I'm very curious here. I've heard a lot of people here say, "We started with X budget, but then upped it to Y and I'm sure we'll go over so we will end up spending about Z". I always wonder how?  Where is this money coming from? 

    Since you posted this, I'mma ask you. You don't have to answer and you don't have to give me specifics, but how and where are you coming up with an additional 10-15K for your wedding? 
    FI is very practical with his money, we have more than enough to cover the additional budget in our accounts right now without touching investments, or emergency funds. The 10K was his "ideal" the 20K was my "more realistic" and the over is "I'm tired of calling around trying to get deals so I'm just going with this". So in short, we didn't start out at the top end of what we could afford so there was room to grow without sacrificing other things. We are still at a comfortable budget where we could double it again if needed and still not hit emergency funds but that is something we will absolutely not be doing. If we had been at the top of what we could do when we added in savings and income for the year before our wedding and what we could save up we wouldn't have changed it and would have made it work with the original budget. Hope that made sense?
    Yes, it does. Thank you! I hope you know that I wasn't judging you or your financial decisions, I was just trying to think of the "average" (whatever that means) couple and where that comes from. But you're going at your budget from the opposite of what we did, which makes sense. I've been wondering this for a while so thank you for responding.
    No problem! No offence taken, and happy to answer the question. Of course this is only my personal situation and I can't speak for everyone who has increased the budget.

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  • I may get grilled for this, but men don't have a clue to how much goes into a wedding to make it look nice. I'd say make the food yourself and keep your menu simple. Buying ingredients that are in season will cut down the cost significantly or you could just have a lot of appetizers and have your guests fill up on those. I'd also suggest to have a dry wedding. Alcohol really drives up the price, so if you take the cost of alcohol out of your budget, you'll also be cutting out the need for a bartender. For photos, have you ever considered finding a photography student to take your pictures? They'd be more than grateful to get the experience and probably will ask for little to nothing. To get the most bang for your buck, I have 3 letters for you... D.I.Y. Making everything yourself will save you a lot of money, not to mention, it will make your wedding unique. Since you said that the sound system is included in the price of your venue rental, why don't you just have an ipod or mp3 player for music? As for hair and makeup, would you be willing to do it yourself? I know a lot of brides look forward to being pampered before the wedding, but when your budget can't account for it, that goes out the window. Or if you just really really want to have your hair, makeup, and nails done, try a beauty college. It would be a fraction of the price. As another poster said above, have you checked out Craigslist? It can be a little shady, but just take your time and you should find someone who fits your needs. Congrats on your wedding love :)
  • I may get grilled for this, but men don't have a clue to how much goes into a wedding to make it look nice. I'd say make the food yourself and keep your menu simple. Buying ingredients that are in season will cut down the cost significantly or you could just have a lot of appetizers and have your guests fill up on those. I'd also suggest to have a dry wedding. Alcohol really drives up the price, so if you take the cost of alcohol out of your budget, you'll also be cutting out the need for a bartender. For photos, have you ever considered finding a photography student to take your pictures? They'd be more than grateful to get the experience and probably will ask for little to nothing. To get the most bang for your buck, I have 3 letters for you... D.I.Y. Making everything yourself will save you a lot of money, not to mention, it will make your wedding unique. Since you said that the sound system is included in the price of your venue rental, why don't you just have an ipod or mp3 player for music? As for hair and makeup, would you be willing to do it yourself? I know a lot of brides look forward to being pampered before the wedding, but when your budget can't account for it, that goes out the window. Or if you just really really want to have your hair, makeup, and nails done, try a beauty college. It would be a fraction of the price. As another poster said above, have you checked out Craigslist? It can be a little shady, but just take your time and you should find someone who fits your needs. Congrats on your wedding love :)
    To the bolded, sexism isn't very well received here. I'm sure there are plenty of grooms who understand the relative costs of weddings.  To the other bolded, catering your own wedding doesn't come highly recommended at all. There are food safety issues to start with, and I know a lot of venues won't even allow this. Past that, is that really what you want to be doing the morning of or day before your wedding? 

    Other than that, these are some perfectly acceptable ideas. The only other one I'd be a little iffy about was the photog student, but that's just because I'd be crushed if my pictures came back less than stellar, but everyone might not feel that way. Oh! And also that DIY projects can help save money, but they don't always. Even the ones that do sometimes end up taking more time than they're worth.

    Daisypath Wedding tickers
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  • I don't recommend making your own food. Cooking for a large crowd is not easy. Who will serve it? How will you keep it hot/cold?
    What did you think would happen if you walked up to a group of internet strangers and told them to get shoehorned by their lady doc?~StageManager14
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  • jacques27 said:
    AddieCake said:
    I don't recommend making your own food. Cooking for a large crowd is not easy. Who will serve it? How will you keep it hot/cold?
    Food poisoning is totes the best diet ever.  It's the new heroin chic.

    I also have to assume that women who make sweeping generalizations about men don't actually know more than one man.  My circle of friends include many men with varying hobbies and interests, including but not limited to: theater, computer programming, weaving, golf, paintball, cooking, painting (pictures, not walls), music, writing, trivia, watching really shitty reality TV shows, traveling, fishing, knitting, carpentry, graphic design, attending sports games, and baking.  My fairly "stereotypical hegemonic masculine at a superficial glance" friend just stopped his fiancee from having a gap and a cash bar (because "that's rude as fuck - I'm not making my buddies pay for their beer or wait around while you make me traipse around in a garden getting our picture taken") and has some definite opinions about the color scheme (he really wanted pink involved - he says the color suits him).  It just seems that if someone has actually taken the time to get to know more than one man, they'd realize how varied and interesting they are. 
    Heroin chic is my wedding theme. We're tying these really adorable burlap and lace ribbons around all the spoons.

    Daisypath Wedding tickers
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  • ugh so I've posted before how I'm in this FB group about weddings..... everyday there is something new and cringe worthy... The other day it was "how many of you took out loans for your wedding and how did you go about doing it?"  I wanted to write and say DO NOT DO THIS. Plan the wedding you can afford. It may not be your "dream" but is it worth the debt? I don't know I guess for some the answer would be yes. Wasn't for us.
  • jacques27 said:
    AddieCake said:
    I don't recommend making your own food. Cooking for a large crowd is not easy. Who will serve it? How will you keep it hot/cold?
    Food poisoning is totes the best diet ever.  It's the new heroin chic.

    I also have to assume that women who make sweeping generalizations about men don't actually know more than one man.  My circle of friends include many men with varying hobbies and interests, including but not limited to: theater, computer programming, weaving, golf, paintball, cooking, painting (pictures, not walls), music, writing, trivia, watching really shitty reality TV shows, traveling, fishing, knitting, carpentry, graphic design, attending sports games, and baking.  My fairly "stereotypical hegemonic masculine at a superficial glance" friend just stopped his fiancee from having a gap and a cash bar (because "that's rude as fuck - I'm not making my buddies pay for their beer or wait around while you make me traipse around in a garden getting our picture taken") and has some definite opinions about the color scheme (he really wanted pink involved - he says the color suits him).  It just seems that if someone has actually taken the time to get to know more than one man, they'd realize how varied and interesting they are. 
    I think Jacques is my new favorite person in the world.
  • julieanne912julieanne912 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited August 2015
    I think the time of year matters also, we are getting married in the winter and it's making things more expensive because there aren't a lot of options for full indoor venues that would work in the area we are getting married in. I could have gone with a community center or something like that but it didn't feel like it fit us. FI wanted to start the budget at $10K for everything, after calling around in the area we are getting married in it wasn't going to work so we doubled it and I'm sure I will still be going over. To save anything we are doing just wine and beer, and the centerpieces will cost close to nothing (DIY and I have the stuff already). Since our venue requires we use their catering that's where it gets expensive, the venue was the cheapest one we found but their food is a bit high. It all ended up being a was because the cost of other venues would have put us at the same anyways if we had gone with an outside caterer in a different venue. Good luck with budgeting and make sure you have a list of what is priority so you know where to put the money.
    I'm very curious here. I've heard a lot of people here say, "We started with X budget, but then upped it to Y and I'm sure we'll go over so we will end up spending about Z". I always wonder how?  Where is this money coming from? 

    Since you posted this, I'mma ask you. You don't have to answer and you don't have to give me specifics, but how and where are you coming up with an additional 10-15K for your wedding? 
    For us, a lot of it is coming from my mom (which is actually from my dad's life insurance from 15 years ago).  I hate the fact we are spending so much on something like a wedding, I'd rather use it for something more practical, but I also want to be a good host to everyone we're inviting, which meant upping the budget by about 8k.  I also have been very frugal with my own budget and am raiding my savings more than I planned.  
    Married 9.12.15
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  • Also wanted to add, I think if you give yourself more time, you can save money.  We got engaged in Feb and our wedding is in about a month from now.  A lot of venues were already booked up even though I started calling days after we got engaged.  We probably could have found a cheaper venue if I had more time, that's where our budget was really blown.  Also catering etc. cost more than I thought.  Again, if I had more time, I could have researched what it would have actually cost and tried to find cheaper alternatives and/or just had more time to save for it.
    Married 9.12.15
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  • adk19 said:
    I had a $10,000 budget when I first started planning, but I didn't know anything about the wedding industry. That quickly went up a bit.  Crazy how fast it builds, right?

    I agree with PP that if the alcohol is a big chunk of your budget, and you want to cut it out, just don't have a bar. Can you put wine bottles on tables?  My Best Friend had a limited alcohol wedding, with just wine bottles that they bought on their own for each table.  It was fine. 

    What if I'm at a table with a bunch of lushes who fill up their wine glass to the tippy top?  By the time the bottle gets around to me, it's empty.  Am I supposed to walk around from table to table, pouring the dregs left at the bottom of the bottles into my glass?  And what if I want a second glass?  It's fine to only offer wine, but whatever is offered should be available all night, not just until it's gone.

    BF and I purposely sit at tables of non-drinkers at company xmas parties for this reason... More for us :)
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  • I didnt' read all of the posts because I had a list pop into my head almost immediately...Sorry is these are repeats:

    1) off-season  most venues have a cost list of season vs off season. 
    2)have your wedding during the day or during the week- things will be less. 
    3)ask if you can put up advertisements for vendors in exchange for a discount. 
    4) go lightly on the flowers.. if in church, don't decorate every pew,.use other forms of nature or pick a venue that stands alone, larger flowers = fewer flowers, pick what's in season, consider bridesmaids carrying something other than flowers.
    5)go lightly on the table linens- runners instead of 2 different colored cloths, forego the chair wraps, etc. 
    6)can the open bar
    7) no kids  or only children over the age of 13 or something- you have to pay for them and they don't eat. 
    8)if you have a sound system create your own playlists and fore go the DJ or Band. 
    9) minimize your guestlist to only people you have had interactions with regularly. 
    10) Consider heavy hors de vours instead of a full meal. 
    11)multipurpose centerpieces (gifts, cake, etc).
    12) get your dress on ebay of craigslist or tradsey...you can get a beautiful dress for much less than at a boutique, just keep in mind you need a dress that is a size or two bigger than the largest size you wear. 

    Does 8-12 include set up and take down? If so, your actual reception is going to be very late and from 9-11.
  • doclago said:
    I didnt' read all of the posts because I had a list pop into my head almost immediately...Sorry is these are repeats:

    1) off-season  most venues have a cost list of season vs off season. 
    2)have your wedding during the day or during the week- things will be less. 
    3)ask if you can put up advertisements for vendors in exchange for a discount.  I'm on the fence about this one.  It may also be hard to even get people to sponsor, but how much advertising would be involved? 
    4) go lightly on the flowers.. if in church, don't decorate every pew,.use other forms of nature or pick a venue that stands alone, larger flowers = fewer flowers, pick what's in season, consider bridesmaids carrying something other than flowers.
    5)go lightly on the table linens- runners instead of 2 different colored cloths, forego the chair wraps, etc. 
    6)can the open bar  Open bar...that's where all the money is?  Are you saying she has the option of an open bar or no bar, then yes.
    7) no kids  or only children over the age of 13 or something- you have to pay for them and they don't eat. 
    8)if you have a sound system create your own playlists and fore go the DJ or Band. 
    9) minimize your guestlist to only people you have had interactions with regularly. 
    10) Consider heavy hors de vours instead of a full meal.  I looked into this too.  hors de vours was JUST as costly if not more.  Every time I go out to eat at a restaurant, the apps are the same price of meals these days.
    11)multipurpose centerpieces (gifts, cake, etc).
    12) get your dress on ebay of craigslist or tradsey...you can get a beautiful dress for much less than at a boutique, just keep in mind you need a dress that is a size or two bigger than the largest size you wear. 

    Does 8-12 include set up and take down? If so, your actual reception is going to be very late and from 9-11.


  • Can the open bar means don't have a bar at all....unless there is no extra fee for cash bar but you still have to pay the bartenders,etc. 

    When you work with  catering company the all hors de vours can be MUCH less expensive than a full dinner. You have to look around and it depends on where you live as well. Restaurant prices and catering prices are much different.

    Advertisements are usually tasteful standing cards and possibly business cards for people to take...usually nothing obtrusive 
  • Oooh can as in nix.  Gotcha. 


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