The Frugalista's Wedding

In today’s economy, living within ones means is not only chic but necessary. So why must even a modest wedding carry a price tag of $20,000? It's time to stop the madness. Here are some tips on how to have the perfect wedding without drowning in debt afterward.

Location
The perfect chapel followed by a reception at the swankiest place in town sounds beautiful and picturesque, but is it really worth it when faced with the bill? Cheaper alternatives are beaches and parks which can be reserved with a permit for a nominal fee. If your wedding is in the spring or summer, integrating it with.

Postage Stamps
Designing, Printing and shipping an irregularly shaped wedding invitation can be very costly to say the least. An easy way to cut down on expenses is to print the invitations at home using high quality paper. A less glamours (though completely free) alternative is email. There are also services such as evite.com <http://evite.com>  which can ad a little convenience and pazazz to your invitation.

Guest List
An effective way to keep your budget low is to keep the guest list as brief as possible. You may want to invite all of your friends, coworkers, and second grade teacher, but with each person your budget goes up incrementally and before you know it, your wedding costs more than your car. Create criteria for who gets on the list. For instance, don’t invite any one you have not talked to in the past 5 years or family you’ve never met. Also, make sure that everyone knows that although they are invited, the rest of their may not be.

Food and Drink
Can a Marriott catering team make a better peach cobbler than Aunty Gertrude? I think not! Hiring a professional caterer can be extremely pricey due to the amount of man hours required to cook and serve all that food. By outsourcing the various culinary responsibilities to relatives and having guests serve themselves buffet style, you can save big. That being said, its probably a good idea to hire a bartender for obvious reasons.

Browse Hundreds of Beautiful, Trendy Wedding Dresses Via nymag.com!

If you are or ever have been a bride to be, you know just how stressful finding a gown that fits your style, personality, and price range can be. Whether your in the market, doing preliminary research, or just looking around, NYMag.com has a wonderful tool to efficiently browse for wedding dresses of all shapes, sizes, and styles.

So fret no longer! May this tool serve you well (and maybe even save you a few bucks).

SHOP-O-MATIC WEDDING DRESSES VIA NYMAGAZINE

Top it all off...

Wedding favors can be the perfect topper to any reception that your guests will talk about for years to come, though choosing the right one can be a daunting task to say the least. Wedding favors can be anything your guests will appreciate whether it be chocolate, a deck of cards, or something more creative. The hard part is figuring out what wedding favor is right for your special day. Some food for thought ...

First, think about what type of bride you are. Are you the traditional type or are you a bit more avant-garde? As you make your preliminary list of possible wedding favors, this step will help you to narrow it down quite a bit. Chances are if you're an electric guitar playing tattooed sky diving enthusiast, white chocolate dolphins on a stick just won't do.

What do you hope to achieve with your wedding favor? Do you just want to give your guests a tasty treat or rather something that they can always have to mark the day? Maybe you prefer to give them something that they might find useful. Remember to consider your guests during this step. If your grandparents on both sides are diabetic, then maybe a blast of sugar isn’t what the doctor ordered.

Where is your wedding taking place? If you're having a destination wedding, your favors should definitely reflect the surroundings. If you're getting married on a beach in Hawaii, you might consider something like bamboo picture frames or exotic pineapple candies.

What is the theme of your wedding? If your planning an eco-friendly wedding, a bundle of cork coasters or tote bags might be just the thing. Is your wedding taking place on a specific holiday? If you're getting married on Christmas Day, then Santa hats are the obvious choice.

What is the color scheme of your wedding? Its true that wedding favors can be a very special accent, but they probably should not be emerald green if everything else is hot pink. Try to coordinate your gifts, favors and decorations to have a consistent and cohesive theme throughout the duration of your ceremony and reception.

Another great one...

Writing this blog, I frequent many other wedding and wedding planning related websites. Photographers, caterers, florists, dress makers, DIY sites, all of it. One of my favorites though is, and will continue to be, Offbeatbride.com. As they put it, they supply "Wedding Porn". Sitting quietly at your computer screen, silently clicking through other peoples cool, weird, wacky and brilliant wedding ceremonies and ideas.

This morning I stumbled across this lovely post of theirs:

Funky photos from Sunday and Michele's Bowers Museum Wedding



The photos are adorable -- but what really caught my eye was the word "Museum". Well I'll be damned! I never would have in a million years thought of a museum wedding. Held at The Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California, I gotta give Sunday and Michele a big KUDOS for a super cute, and artistically informative ceremony and reception!