Budget Wedding in Dallas

We got married at the Dallas Women's Forum on Ross Avenue. It's an old Mansion and is a beautiful spot for both the wedding and reception, so guests don't have to drive anywhere. It's a non-profit organization, so it's chaper than most places. Good luck!

Hi... I work with a wedding photographer and hands down our favorite value venue is Rockwall Wedding Chapel. Tell Linda C. sent you, she'll take good care of you. Also... if they'll consider getting married on a Friday or Sunday they'll save at least 20% on a venue and the vendors.
Hope this helps!
C. P. Reinoso
____@____.com

I got married at Highlands Christian Church. My parents are members there and I grew up at the church, but I believe there wasn't a charge for use of the facility, just a small charge for the minister. I can't promise that this is the case for non-members, but it is definently worth a look! I don't know what part of town you are in, but Highlands Christian Church is in Lake Highlands which is in Northeast Dallas - it is nearby Audelia and Northwest highway on McCree. Their website is http://www.highlandschristianchurch.com if you want to check it out. If you are on a super tight budget they also have a fellowship hall you can have a reception in.
If you are looking for a nicer reception, I had mine at The Guest Lodge at the Cooper Aerobic Center. It is one of the most beautiful locations in Dallas! It was really pretty reasonable as far a wedding reception locations go, I would check it out. The prices can vary depending on time of day, day of week, what you pick for food, etc. One good thing is you bring your own alchohol if you want it, so we just got a bunch of beer and wine from Sams and their staff served it. Their food is very good and you can do as little or as much as you like. You can bring in your own entertainment, which can be anything to fit your budget. Anything from a full band or professional DJ to a friend's or family member's band to a Cd player with CDs of songs you have picked. You can cut costs on flowers by getting them yourself at Sams. Another great thing at The Guest Lodge is they help you out by recommending venders they trust for flowers, cakes, bands, djs, whatever you may need. They are very helpful. I will say - for cake, I tried many and though many are good, we went with Radford cakery and were not disappointed. In fact we were overjoyed. They were quite a but cheaper per slice than comparable tasting bakeries and the cakes looked and tasted awesome!! One advice I have is don't skimp on photography. You will want the memories. Don't have a well meaning friend do it unless they are a professional. You are probably all right having a friend video if they know what they are doing. Also don't have a well meaning friend DJ. We did and it almost killed our reception. Recored CDs probably would have been better. Think about things you can truly skip. As you are looking at bridal magazines and planning you will fall into the trap of thinking you need things you don't - all excited brides do. Do you really need personalized napkins? No - nobody cares. Do you really need party favors? Think h*** o* this one - they are nice, but in the end, unless they are really special people tend to forget about them and its money you put out for nothing. Do you need special seat covers? Probably not - see what the venue offers. Oh - invitations. A couple of ways to go with this. I got super cheap invitations that looked awesome at Party City. If you are crafty/technical and so inclined you can do them yourself on your printer, but for the money I would go the Party City route, it looks nicer. Unless you are having a super super small wedding please don't send email wedding invites. I personally find this tacky. I think an email save the date is awesome, but I think guests deserve a mailed invitation. Besides, many of the older guests won't have email - maybe not even a computer! That being said, The Knot, or theknot.com has a great website with tons of wedding ideas and you can set up your own wedding website with all the information about the wedding and from this you can send out the save the date emails. You can also send out hotel info for out of town guests, etc. Speaking of out of town guests, if you did The Guest Lodge at Coopers they will give you a special rate there for your out of town guests, you also get the honeymoon suite for the night of your wedding - it is awesome! I'll stop rambling now, I hope I gave you some ideas. Definately check out Theknot.com though, there is so much info there! Good luck and congrats!!!

M.,
Your friend should check out Fairy Tale Manor. They do it all! Tom Parker and his wife are VERY nice and professional. A hidden gem for a small church wedding is the First Baptist Church of Murphy. They have restored an old country church and it is beautiful! The fee to use the church is only $500.(a bargain in this area)

Good luck,
K.

Consider having your wedding and reception at the same location. My close friend had a justice of the peace or pastor come to the reception site and perform the ceremony. After that, everyone was already there and the party began. This helps by not requiring you to pay for a ceremony location and reception location. I think there is a small fee for the pastor service. Buy the flowers in bulk from Sam's or Costco and make the boutonnieres and bouquets yourself. Wrap a flower with some baby's breath with green floral tape and your done. If you want the curly end you put some wire into the end of it, wrap in tape and curl it. Don't forget to buy the stick pens are saftey pins. For bouquets, gather some flowers with stems together and arrange until it appears like you want it and wrap the stems in ribbon to hold it all together and tie it in a double knot at the end. As for the food the only way to keep costs down is to make it yourself or recruit help from family in making items that feed large quantities of people ie barbeque, spaghetti, lasagna, fruit salad, etc. Good Luck.

Consider coming up to Denton and checking out the Little Chapel-in-the Woods at Texas Woman's University. Hubbard Hall is a short walk down the sidewalk and provides excellent banquet facilities and catering. Prices are very reasonable, and they even have an all inclusive package.
http://www.twu.edu/conference-services/ ###-###-####

i would suggest those places where you can have the ceremony and reception at the same place. Austin Ranch has a couple of places - it is just off of the tollway north - Tollway and Windhaven Parkway...they have a Ranch House that is very large with a large back area and small pool; it also has a large catering kitchen and space inside for tables. They also have a Victorian house on property that was completely restored and is furnished with antiques; it has a small yard area where the ceremony could be; small kitchen area though but a very nice, quaint space for a small wedding. coming down the tollway from downtown Dallas, my guess would be it is about a 30-45 minute drive, depending upon how fast you drive. she could do inexpensive catering and have both the ceremony and reception in one spot. the ranch house is much larger and rustic; it is off of the property on its own. both spaces are well decorated and wouldn't require much decor at all (as opposed to a ballroom at a hotel which is a total blank space that requires complete decor to fill the space). www.austinranch.com is the web site and there are links on there for both event spaces.

Maybe a ceremony at a smaller church off the beaten path wouldn't take much of a ding in the budget plus they are usually so quaint and have so much character that you don't need many florals in the church (which will save $$$).

don't be shy shopping and calling around with restaurants, caterers and even look at pricing from central market or whole foods for food needs. look for sales at grocery stores for beer and colas then call around to different liquor stores (don't forget Costco or Sam's!) to see what they have on sale now and what will be going on sale for liquor and wine - if it is a summer wedding, do wine spritzers and beer to beat off the heat - beer is less expensive and wine spritzers will take you further than just 5 drinks per bottle that you usually get from wine. consider other specialty drinks where you can stretch your liquor/wine so that you don't have to buy so much - plus the guests feel like you have really thought everything out and they are special because you are serving "special" drinks.

Note Sam's and Costco as well as liquor stores have people on hand you can talk to to see what wine is good AND inexpensive that they are carrying or will be carrying. Call and ask for the manager of the larger liquor stores (i.e. Sigel's) - don't be shy. Tell the manager you're on a budget and would like to check and see what wines and/or liquors they have that will be going on sale or are on sale and what are good ones that are inexpensive - also, if you're serving a specialty drink let them know and they may suggest an even less expensive wine/liquor that you can use and your guests won't be able to tell the difference because it will be mixed with other things. Also don't be shy asking about a volume discount - if you are buying a certain amount from them they sometimes give a discount (i.e. if you buy all your beer, wine, liquor, colas from them) but note it is usually a large amount you will be buying from them in order to get the discount.

good luck to her - it's so hard because everything is so pricey these days and you really have to do your homework and spend the time shopping around, but it can be done - and it can be done beautifully!

Hi M., I'm in AZ so can't really help other than to say that I got married last Oct and what really helped me was that I googled everything! Like "cheap wedding ideas", "weddings in ____ area", and things like that. And Walmart had really great wedding items for less. Good luck!!!

It was 8 year ago but I got married at the Cooper Institute at Preston and Forest. At the time we rented the ballroom (it's not that big. It held about 100 people) for $500. The grounds are beautiful and I thought it was a bargain given the surroundings.

My friend has a pretty tight budget and they're getting married at Rose Church or Chapel not sure which in Ft. Worth and then doing they're reception at the Stockyards. The Stockyards provide the tables, chairs, linens, and table centerpieces. They got pretty lucky and are having a friend do the DJing but I've heard it's not hard to rent equipment and just set up and Ipod mix or CD mix. Good luck!!:)

Wales Manor Winery in Mckinney - free to use their space as long as you use their wine. Cross Roads Winery in Frisco. Cavalli Pizza caters to both places. Gourmet pizza and Wine....yum!