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Home > Wedding Frugality, part I

Wedding Frugality, part I

March 9th, 2007 at 04:12 pm

We got married in a fever,
Hotter than a pepper sprout...


I got married (again) about 9 months ago and really wanted to have a wedding (I didn't have one the first time). I did it, however, on a cash-only budget. Did I scrimp and save? Yes, but not to the point where I was uncomfortable. Was it tacky and cheap? No, everyone had a great time and everything was beautiful.

So, how did I pull it off?

One word: creativity. I had to force myself to think outside the box.

One major way I saved was in the venue. I held the wedding and reception at a state park. I am fortunate enough to live in Tennessee and we have some very beautiful state parks. One of them has a quaint little stone chapel and a pavilion right next to it. For a small fee (less than $200 total), I was able to rent the chapel and the pavilion for the entire day. Lots of state parks have gazebos and pavilions which would make gorgeous backdrops for weddings. All you need to do is ask the park ranger.



Everyone enjoyed the lovely setting and I didn't have to book a reception hall!

The cake? I admit that I got lucky there. My sister-in-law took a Wilton cake decorating class a few years ago and started making cakes as a side business. She made my wedding cake for free... as a gift to us. It was really beautiful.

Invitations cost me about $110, and that's including postage! I found some very nice looking computer-printable invites at Office Depot (!) I printed them myself on my ink-jet printer. Everybody said they looked great and thought I'd had them professionally done. All it took was a little patience.

The flowers? Fake. I went to good ol' Hobby Lobby and bought fake flowers (on sale, of course). I know diddly squat about flower arranging, so I selected ones that were either already arranged or that were pretty enough to use on their own, without any special arranging. My bouquet was several stems of hydrangeas, tied with a ribbon. It cost maybe $5. The bridesmaid's bouquet was just a smaller version of mine. I found some ready-made bouttonieres, white rosebuds, for the guys. 50 cents apiece! WOO HOO! And for the mother's corsages, they had some ready-made gardenia corsages for $1 each. They all looked really nice.

Flowers/decorations for the church? I borrowed the ferns my mother had hanging on her front porch and used them to decorate the front of the church. I tide tulle bows around the pots. The only other decorations were tulle bows that I tied and hung from the ends of the pews. The tulle cost next to nothing (buy it by the bolt, not in the individual - and more expensive - packages).

More to come.

4 Responses to “Wedding Frugality, part I”

  1. Fern Says:
    1173459812

    i like the idea of having the wedding and reception at a state park. One way, perhaps, you get something back for everything you pay in taxes!

  2. debtfreeme Says:
    1173463065

    the location is gorgeous!!

    There is a state park near my home town and i often think of having the wedding there. the chapel there is about 160 years old and just in a gorgeous area.

  3. monkeymama Says:
    1173470297

    Oooh - I like the way you think. Wink
    We actually got married at a public golf course. IT was beautiful. If you didn't know you'd assume it was some hoity toity club. But it was "free" - we paid for their buffet - I think that's about it. After looking at all the $1k+ room fees it was nice to have a beautiful outdoor wedding and everyone loved the reception was in the same place - they had a beautiful banquet room, free to use if they could cater.

    Most of the vendors were friends who did everything free or very cheap. 6 years later people still tell us how nice our wedding was. I am sure you will find the same. I think some people just find it refreshing when you scale it down...

  4. fairy74 Says:
    1173482086

    beautiful and some great ideas! Thanks for sharing Smile

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