Ask Me Help Desk - Money is tight

OK I don't know what to do. I am getting married on January 5th and I'm worried that we may not have everything in time. We are just now getting a place and that took a lot of money. We still have to get the food and cake and his suit. Do you have any tips on how to keep the cost as low as possible??

How many people will be attending?

I have found that the cheapest way to get things done is to do them yourself. Do you have any friends or family that can cook/cater? That would be your best bet; family tend to not charge as much to other family as they would for people they don't know. As far as the suit, you can rent that for much cheaper than you can buy it. Things like flower arrangements and party favors, you can buy all of that yourself and put it together yourself, that usually tends to be cheaper as well.

Doing things together as a family is much more fun than hiring someone to do it, and it has more thought put into it as well. The important thing is that you got your place that you will live in together, that is better for you and more beneficial than spending a ton on your wedding (in my opinion anyway :p)

Nautical has good advice, I have done a couple of inexpensive weddings, one for my younger sister, one for my brother. They were both classy pretty weddings. There are a lot of places you can save money, some things you should not skimp on. You already have the location set? The outdoor wedding can be very inexpensive, but depending on where in the country you are it may not be possible in January.(it is here in southern California most of the time) Music is pricey, D.J. is less expensive that live music .
Food can be anything really, as long as it tastes good, no one will remember the food unless it is skimpy. Put it on a china plate which can be rented. Trays of miniature sandwiches , veggie nibbles, quiche squares, skewers of chicken or beef, anything finger food is good, just have enough of it. Keep the cost of champagne down, Serve a champagne or sparkling cider punch. Hire a couple of teenagers to serve or keep the trays looking presentable,and clean up. Or lean on family!
For my anniversary just this week I had a small wedding cake made for $65.00 at the grocery bakery, it was two layers , buttercream frosting, white roses. Same cake was over $200.00 elsewhere. Buy a sheet cake for serving, have the tiered cake for the cutting pictures. Set it on a stand to raise it up higher. You can even make or buy your own cake topper. Or use fresh flowers.
Craft stores are full of ideas and idea books.
Flowers for the wedding do not have to be very pricey, stay away from exotic flowers, use a single flower for the bridesmaids if they have flowers at all.

If you are brave, or have talented friends, look into coffee filter roses in Martha Stewart.com for centerpieces, arch, whatever decorations you may want flowers for. Gorgeous and actually easy. Need tablecloths? Walmart sheets at $4.00 a twin flat are cheaper than rental and look much better than plastic. Rent cloth napkins though.
Wow! I do sound cheap, really though, all this can look like a million bucks.

For my sisters wedding, I made her dress, handkerchief cotton hand embroidered with flowers around the neck and hem, his shirt of the same fabric . And bridemaids dresses. Same fabric in pale blue. And the cake topper, last minute, because the bakery didn't send it along. I used a plastic champagne glass filled with fresh flowers, who knew?
It was an outdoors wedding, in April. We scattered our pool with flowers, white twinkle lights in our arch of trees. He was nervous and dropped the ring. They have been married 27 years. The wedding pictures are beautiful

Stop spending money, don't rent an expensive hall, don't buy large big cakes, have only a wedding to the level you can afford

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

stop spending money, don't rent an expensive hall, don't buy large big cakes, have only a wedding to the level you can afford

Well I'm not going all out but I would like it to be classy the only thing that I'm paying for is food and some decorations and my dress and the suit and the cake. But ideas are always welcome and the could deffinatly help me

Quote:

Originally Posted by angel0772001

ok i dont know what to do. I am getting married on January 5th and im worried that we may not have everything in time. We are just now getting a place and that took alot of money. We still have to get the food and cake and his suit. Do you have any tips on how to keep the cost as low as possible????

Best thing I can say is get some friends and family together and create some decorations.. use your crafty sides. This will save on cost enormously. As far as the cake do you know anyone who does cakes on the side. Someone who normally does birthday cakes and things like that. That you think might be good at wedding cakes have them make a mini one just to see who they do... just a thought sometimes you can really get by cheap if you go this route.