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.