[GoMilton]

$23? Dang. Im paying $56.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Nomes

I'm having friends (not professionals) take the photos (how often do people look at their wedding photo's anyway

Not very often if you have friends do it haha

[hapa_angel]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Not very often if you have friends do it haha

This from the professional cameraman who I am honored to have capturing my own wedding.


If you are paying for the wedding yourself, set out a budget beforehand, and an extreme upper limit of how much you can/are willing to spend. Then stick to it, as much as is possible. For example, I refuse to purchase the majority of the wedding dresses I've looked at because they were far too expensive for cheap lil' me. ($300+ for a dress I'm going to wear for at most half a day is completely unreasonable, to me. $200 I may consider for a bit. Obviously I'm struggling to find a wedding dress that meets my requirements but I'd just as soon spend the day in a white print dress I already own, happily saving hundreds of dollars.)

You can save money on location by considering a local park for a venue, seasonal weather permitting, of course. You could make little "tents" of sorts out of PVC piping and cheap white sheets, and have your guests stand and nibble at finger foods. I saw this done on a TV show where the man had one week to plan a $10,000 wedding without the bride's input, and I thought it was a lovely idea.

Another way to keep costs down is not to go overboard on silly frivolities. I may be in the minority, but I don't think flowers everywhere is a necessity for ceremony or reception decorations. White Christmas lights, anyone? Candles? Of course, I'm having a winter wedding so my decorations will likely reflect that moreso than say, summertime nuptuals. And the price tag will also reflect this, hopefully.

I noticed that Wal-Mart (of all places!) and Michael's have veils and tiaras and wedding-y things, near the arts and crafts areas. I'll definitely be making several purchases from there in the next few months for my own wedding.