Please Share Your Wedding Story

Go to a hot place like bahamas, cancun, camon islands ahave the ceromony on the beach and have those who can afford it. If I could re do my wedding I would and I would do it there.

My husband and I got married at a Chapel in Livonia - they are smaller and can only fit so many people. I want to say it fit 75?

D.,

We had a small ceremony almost 18 years ago. It was small and intimate. My parents and in-laws "catered" the reception themselves to keep the costs low. We spent about $2,000 total.

Another thing that I saw recently to keep the flower cost low was using lots of babys breath to create the table pieces. It was really pretty and almost looked like a cloud. Here's the site.

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/11/19/ask-and-ye-shall-rec...

Also resource Mamasource about planning your wedding for additional great ideas.

I hope this helps. Remember it's more about you and your future husband than anyone. Do what you can afford and enjoy the day.

Congratulations.

C.

Hi D.,

I come from a big family also. For our wedding we invited everyone meaning everyone like friends, family, and church to come to the ceremony and cake reception. We only had cake, punch, coffee, etc. We could walk to the reception from the ceremony. We had a very short program. Then everyone left and we took the bridal party and immediate family out to eat. I am so glad we did it that way.

Hope this helps,
B.

My husband and I had a very unusual wedding many years ago. We managed a horse boarding stable and my friend suggested that we have the wedding at the stable. We jumped at the idea and decorated the place with simple decorations, set up hay bales for seating and swept out the hay loft. My mom and mom-in-law made some simple western style shirts for my husband, myself and my girls (7 & 9 at the time), we shined up the horses and made saddle blankets out of clearance fleece to match our outfits, found a preacher and guitar player through a friend, my brother sang and we got married on horseback. Afterwards, we had square dancing in the hay loft.
Our invitations asked that instead of bringing a gift, please bring a dish to pass for a potluck meal. My mom made a simple sheet cake to go with the potluck. One of our friends took our photos as his gift to us.
We have a large extended family (one of my uncles has 12 children!) and also felt obligated to invite all the boarders at the stable. Since it was an unusual wedding, we let people decide for themselves if they wanted to come. Quite a few opted out!!
Our wedding was at 11:00am and we were cleaned up and home by 6:00pm.
The bottom line is that if you can find a nice park to have your wedding in, you can invite everybody if you have a potluck meal. If everyone knows in advance that it is not your usual church wedding, all who attend will have a great time.
Would I do anything different? Yes - two things. We did not have a "rehearsal" as we just didn't think there was much to rehearse, but if I could go back, I would have one, because the guitar player decided on the day of the wedding that he needed to use his electric guitar and amplifier so that everyone could hear it because we were out in a corral. The lack of an acoustic guitar with the whole western theme was a bit out of place!
The second thing - my matron-of-honor's mom knew someone at channel 4 news and had offered to have the wedding covered and shown on the evening news that day. I turned down the offer, but wish that I hadn't. It would have been a fun thing to see and show our grandchildren some day. (We do have some video of the wedding that was shot by the preacher's wife).
Whatever you decide to do, just have fun and don't worry too much about what the relatives will think.
K

We had a very simple ceremony in my parents beautiful backyard in the early afternoon. Actually, it may have been just before lunch at 11am... can't remember if it was 11 or 1pm.

Anyway, following the ceremony we had an hor devours reception. Finger foods, drinks (no alcohol that will be your biggest expense) and cake.

People ate, people chatted, and then people left. We were done with everything by 5pm.

My husband and I got married at Chelsea's city hall with three friends acting as witnesses. We plan on having a religious ceremony later, but we just didn't have the $ to have a large wedding ceremony. It might make some of your family and your husband's family unhappy, but if you explain it right, they'll understand.

We got married in 2003 and had 60 people at our wedding. It was at a town hall that did not allow alchol and I believe it was under $100 because of this. They had all of the tables and chairs. We just had to decorate. We got a local catering company and chose a menu that was $9 a person. It was delicious! All of my flowers came from Costco. They even have wedding packages if you go on their website. Our cake also came from costco. They have a really pretty white frosting basketweave pattern that was perfect for what we served the guest. We had a small 2 layer cake made for us from a local bakery for our cake cutting ceremony. We bought glass bowls/globes from the $1 store. Put crinkled saran wrap in the bottom with water and a single rose in it. We did this the day before and overnight, they opened up and bloomed. They were truly beautiful and it was an elegant but cheap centerpiece for the tables. We had a friend do our photos and rented a juke box instead of a DJ. I think we were married at 1:30 and everything was wrapped up by 6.

My husband and I got married in our backyard with about 40 people in attendance. We bought a gazebo and a 20 foot tent (about $600 total) which we still get to use. My best friend got ordained online and performed the most beautiful ceremony. We borrowed chairs and tables and bought food from Sam's Club and GFS and food was served buffet style. I think we probably missed out on some frills (dancing etc)but whatever we missed wasn't important. The importance of the day was our vows to each other and being able to share them with friends. It was a wonderful, relaxed, low key event and I think everyone had a good time. I did wear a wedding dres and my husband was in a tux and, rather than spend a ridiculous amount on a wedding cake, I bought several cakes from GFS and arranged them at different heights on a table decorated with flowers.

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials, remember what is important to you as a couple and have some fun.

I'd do a pot-luck "Y'all come!" kind of thing outdoors at a park or a friend's large yard or even in some kind of large room that you can rent. I'd keep it very simple. You could do a cookout, asking a friend or relative to do the grilling and asking good friends to bring beans, potato salad etc. I don't think anyone cares if you spend a bunch of money. It's kind of silly with the baby and all. Just get married and have a get-together with hand or computer-made invitations that are very informal. I'd skip the whole formal Emily Post way of doing things and just have fun with it. We had a casual wedding in the basement of a church where we knew the minister then a pot-luck where we provided beverages and simple things in a friend's large home. We invited everyone we could think of and asked a lady we knew to act as hostess. Unfortunately, she got drunk but even that didn't spoil it. We had to go back the next day to clean the place up but it wasn't the end of the world and it makes a great story! I had 4 kids already so we wanted something kind of fun and relaxed. There are folks who still tell us, 33 yrs later, that it was the best wedding they've ever gone to!

Despite the fact that I have a MASSIVE family (there would have been over 300 people at my wedding) because of a family issue 1/4 of them would have laughed at coming to my wedding... THe rest live very far away... and would no have been able to travel to MI($ is tight in Mississippi) :-)
So Our wedding was small... wedding and honeymoon was about $2000.- ... I did the flowers, aunt did a cake, we did the wedding and ceremony at a small country church, a couple people took the pics for us, my MIL and sisters and I made all the food and set it all up... etc. Our wedding was one of those odd stories... Out of state, I had never been to the church or met the pastor before... The pianist was about 100 yrs old and played the wedding march backwards... Our video is useless since the lens wasn't working so we could have just audio recorded it and got the same effect... The cake was too small(just enough for the guests but I didn't get any and there was none left over)... But it was awesomely simple and relaxing...

My sister had a beautiful outdoor wedding using a public park by a waterfall in PA... It was on a hill so we arranged it so the guests were sitting on the hill and the wedding was at the bottom. We did not put up chairs... But spread around blankets and sheets for people to sit on. FOr the older/ physically handicapped we did have some camp chairs that we could set up...
My uncle did the ceremony... No music... We just listened to the waterfall in the distance, the birds, and the water as it flowed past.

She rented a hall (they use it as a farmers market on fridays and saturdays and rent it out on sundays... ALOT cheaper than a banquent hall. Her MIL cooked and cooked and we all helped set it up... My sister burnt cd's of music to play and put our one uncle in charge of it... My aunt did her bouquets with flowers from joannes...

Make a list of what people in your group can do... Do you know someone who is or knows a dj? They may do it as a wedding present to you or at a discounted rate... SOmeone who knows how to decorate a cake? Anyone who works for a caterer? A florist, etc... Or just people you know that are crafty types...

My family is blessed since in a small part of the family we have pastors, cake decorators, my oldest sister was dating a dj who had all his own gear, and since we have large families we know how to cook for an army...

Just remember... some of those you invite will not be able to make it...

A lot of what people say is "necessary" really isn't. Either have a nonalcoholic wedding or make the guests buy their own... That will save you ATON!!!

Hi D.,
I got married 9 years ago and I to have a large family and so does my husband.
We got married at a wedding chapel and had the reception at the hall that was attached to the chapel. It was very nice cuz the chapel was already decorated and the hall already had all the table and table coverings, chairs, center pieces(all thought you could of brought in your own) plates glasses and flatware. We did have it catered but got a discount cuz we used the one that the chapel/hall had some kind of deal with--they took care of all the details only thing we had to buy ourselves was the alchol, cake and pictures. which not counting the pictures we spent around $2,500.00 and had a GREAT time, we had a certain time we had to be out of the hall by so that helped with people leaving and not hanging around. plus all we had to do was take our things and leave, no clean up. for the flowers the girls carried (had 4 girls/guy stand up with us) a friend of mine made them, we went to Gilbrator trade center and bought everything CHEAP. We had a little flower girl and ring bearer but because my daughter was already born (16 months old) and I wanted to include her, she walked down with my brother(he gave me away instead of deciding between father and step dad) and I. It was really cute plus she still talks about the day You and dad and I got married. I think the only thing I would do different if I got married today would be skip the photographer. I got great pictures, but now days everyone has a digital camera and you can do so much with the pics on the computer I thing that cost us as much as everything else.

My best friend just got married last June and we did everything real cheap. we did the center pieces with flowers we bought at Micheals and we did the food ourselves in the hall of the church she got married in, there was no drinking, music or dancing. and she to had a certain time we had to be out by, but then we had to stay and clean up.

sorry so long, I could go on and on, there are a few people in my family who have been married multiple times (sad but true LOL) so I have lot of weddings I could give you ideas from, if you want more let me know

D. -

We had a cruise ship wedding and it was simple, elegant, affordable and incredibly easy. The cruise line handled everything. (Seriously - I made zero decisions.) We were married on the beach in Key West, the first port for the cruise. They told us to be ready at 11 a.m. and we were driven to the site, I was handed my bouquet (which was gorgeous,) the pastor was there with our marriage license, the photographer was there and there was a beautiful little cake and champagne. The ceremony took all of 10 minutes. The photographer knew the area well and took bunches of amazing pictures, then handed us the film when he was finished. (Yes, actual film :0) We ate the cake and sipped champagne, then got back on the ship and spent a relaxing day on deck. That evening, we had an elegant dinner in the dining room. The only people we really wanted to be there came with us and had a great vacation, too. It was PERFECT and exactly what we wanted. Follow your heart and do what will make it memorable for you. Don't worry about what anyone else wants or thinks. They'll get over it.

Congrats and best wishes for a wonderful wedding - L.

Hi D.,
Our wedding had 42 people including us. One way we avoided the whole roster was by having an out-of-state wedding. Everyone we wanted there made it except for about 6 or 8 people. Our parents and siblings and their kids were there. We just explained to our parents that we wanted to keep it simple because we were paying for it. I can't say they understood but they abided. I only used daisies for flowers throughout (my bouquet and decorations) because they are our favorite and because they're cheap! We made all the favors ourselves (I have advice on this, too). My husband is a musician and his friend acted as our stand-in DJ, but we wanted him to have fun, too, so we made all the CDs for him to play. The most expensive thing for our whole wedding was my dress ($700) and food (can't help that). We had a beautiful wedding and it probably only cost about $5-6,000. If I were to do it again, I would do a few things differently but not the overall planning--we liked that it was small. Oh, we also got a cheaper package at both the ceremony site (on the lake) and the reception site (on another lake) because our wedding was on a Thursday. Yes, someone is bound to be upset with you, but remember it's your day. People get over things. Good luck!

I planned my wedding in three monthes and with the dress included it was $2000. I spent 700 on my dress alone :) I got married outside on the lake, at a friends house and had the reception right there. I just borrowed different tables from friends and chairs, so nothing matched, but no one cared. I bought all my food from Sam's club or GFS, and just had a couple of friends make sure there was food on the table. I didn't have music or sound at the wedding. A couple of friends help park cars, tape the wedding, were my photograhers, and that helped keep the cost down. The big thing was the food, mostely because I wanted really good food at my wedding :) My sister in law made my cake, nothing fancy, but it was good cake. We had a total of 100 guest, and about 85 of them were my hubby's side!! The whole wedding and reception was from 2pm-4pm. It was short and sweet. My hubby and I planned on leaving at 4, so we had a boat (driven by a friend) come pick us up, so we didn't get stuck at the reception for longer than we wanted :) I got all my flowers from the farmers market and they were just amazing. I just went a week a head of time, picked something out, asked the person if they could just make the same thing fresh the following saturday for my wedding. I paid him in advance, and got way more than I expected. HE was so excited I was doing it for my wedding he make huge bouquest for myself and brides maids and it only cost me $24!! I got all my decorations, like table clothes and center pieces from the dollar store. I did get lucky and have a friend of the family marry us, so we saved there. MOst importantly, just have fun with it. We wanted something fun and cheap and in the end it worked out that way for us!

There are several wedding chapels aroudn town. They are inexpensive and a nice simple place to get married.

There is one in waterford that offers outdoor weddings. We did this and I think it was $500 all together..

The first step is to put together a list of how many guests you will have... count parens siblings etc... you might want to make a second list including cousins and other more distant relatives.. figure out how many people you have to invite and then find a place that can accomodate them. Tere are some halls that are much cheaper than others. You might want to do a lunch instead of dinner that is cheaper.. also friday or sunday is cheaper than saturday.

Halls charge by teh person so the less guests the cheaper.

the gazebo at 13 mile and mound is pretty cheap and good.

Hi D.,
I planned my BFF's wedding under $800.00 with a limited guest list. (she has a huge family) and a huge extended church family so we really had to pick n choose who should be invited without hurting anyone's feelings. We were able to get all the decorations, cake etc very cheap, we got all our deco's at the dollar store and jazzed it up, it looked quite beautiful when we were finished. I also made all the bridesmaids bouquets as well as the bride's and the groomsmen's buttonaire and coursage's. We had the reception dinner at the Outback Steakhouse which was not so good because they wouldn't let us make reservations so some of our guests had to wait along time to be seated and some weren't able to sit in our section. The church was decorated beautiful with silk flowers and lights around the altar. MY BFF made all the dresses and I helped her make her dress. I handmade her train and veil as well and like I said all of that cost under $800.00. It can be done, PM me and I can give you more details if you like. I'm great at planning weddings and parties...

My sister got remarried a few years ago and had a small wedding. I think there were about 30 or so of us total, and our family is enormous! They had a church ceremony, and then afterwards we had a luncheon at the cafe where they had their first date. Nothing elaborate, just a nice lunch and cake.
My brother in law is getting married next week. The only people attending are his and her immediate family. They are having a non-church wedding, and then we are all going out to dinner.

My daughter had a small wedding. I designed the invatations on the computer myself and had them printed at kinko's. She was married by a judge in the city garden with close friends, family, and witnesses during the weed and on the weekend. We had the reception at a near by lake. I was talented enough to have taken cake decorating classes and did the basic tiered cake and bought fancy thing like roses and other delicate add ons to make it look professionally done. With a little talent and searching you can make you wedding beautiful yet not expensive.

We had 22 people total at our wedding (including me and my husband). Both of our immediate families were included (both of our parents, his brother and his three kids, my sister and her husband, my three closest friends and dates if they chose, my two grandmothers and his grandmother, a close family friend and her husband, and one or two relatives who came to the ceremony ONLY). Then we had a nice dinner at Portofino in Wyandotte. It was nice, relaxing, and my sister (who is artistic but by no means a pro photographer) took black and white photos and then mounted them in a small album with the scripture from our ceremony on the cover and a special message to us at the end. The album is beautiful, the wedding was relaxing and stress free, and I have nothing but WONDERFUL memories about this day.
Best wishes! The only people who gave us any flack about not inviting them were my husband's two best friends (both single guys at the time!). Looking back, we probably should've invited them, but my husband was thinking they wouldn't want to go to a small wedding where there was no free bar and it was his call.

D.,

Your request made me smile. We will have been married 17 years this October. Our wedding consisted of The Groom, The Bride (me lol), my parents, his parents, 2 Grandmothers (the only ones left living at the time), my cousin (who happended to be one of my husbands best friends) as best man, and his girlfriend as maid of honor. 10 People total. My husband and I are both only children so that explains why no siblings were there.

We married at my moms church, we all went out to dinner, then back to my parents house for cake, champaigne, and presents (although we reqested no presents, they brought them anyway!) It was in October and the weather was perfect! High 70's. Everyone just kind of chilled and visited at my moms all afternoon.

It was a very pleasant and intimate day. When I hear all the stories about the stress, and fighting, and hard feelings that come from wedding day horror stories, I would do it the same way all over again. Plus we did have money saved up and still decided to go small. So we ended up starting married life with $3,000 in the bank, after we paid for everything else.

None of my relatives were offended because we kept it so small and I planned it out a good year in advance and had a chance to see everyone and explain how and why we decided to keep it small, and everyone was very supportive.

One other thing we considered doing (because we both have very large extended families, his father had 14 siblings, my mom had 6 siblings, and my dad had 5 siblings) was renting a spot and having a potluck, and wording the invitation something along the lines of ..instead of a gift please join us and bring a dish to pass... I have friends and cousins who had done this as well and it was ok too, I just decided to keep it small and stress free.

Good luck and God Bless!

We didn't have the problem of lots of family, but our wedding was less expensive than most! We got married on a Friday night, and then had a picnic the next day. We had National Coney Island cater (one of our faves),and it was only $11 per person (they have higher or lower packages). We had it at a small hall that our church owns and set up a tent next to it. we had a dj, but asked for their party package rather than the wedding package, since we didn't need all the fancy stuff (they double or triple their prices for weddings). We bought and borrowed some games like bocce, badminton, and some stuff for kids. We skipped favors, and rented or borrowed a popcorn machine, cotton candy machine...

cutting back on the fancy stuff allows you to invite more people, and having the reception the next day cut down on all the greeting. it was more informal. we still hear that our wedding was the best from people, especially because it was so relaxed. people liked that.

Congratulations! I bet your have a wonderful wedding day! I didn't have one quite this small (120 people), but the key is to have it just far enough away that you don't feel obligated to invite everyone, had I had it in town it would have felt bad about not inviting neighbors and parents church friends. We had our wedding at Maumee Bay Resort in Oregon, OH. On the patio in front of the lake and the reception in the hall at the resort (about 50 feet from the patio. Really, any lake with a nice gathering area. I have been to a few amazing weddings on Mackinac Island. If you want something more sophisticated, a nice hotel in the city, you can also get married in most art museums, and they cater, no decoration needed since your are surrounded by priceless art and wonderful architecture. Best wishes to you!

i had my grandfather marry us it was very sweet my grandfather is an ordained minister. he does wedding for relatively cheep it may save you some money. he performs weddings cheaper than any minister than we could find we were going to get married in a church but any minister wanted like 200-300 dollars for a wedding that was outraguos his number is ###-###-#### his name is reverand james r lang saving some money on the minister may make it easier to invite more family. he lives in ovid. we got married at there house with our family there it was beautiful. he has done a few weddings and is a very open man. also unlike other ministers he does not require any church couseling or other b/s that churches require. good luck and best wishes. he is also willing to marry couple were they want to get married he doesnt request any locations or any thing like that.

We had a small wedding (aprox 80) and had a really good time. The church we rented (which we aren't church people, just REALLY loved the location) was very old and required no decoration as it was all beautiful old wood. We did add two vases of wildflowers up front just for fun though. When I was a little kid my grandmother used to drive around and pick wildflowers in the ditches on the sides of the road to decorate the tables for the dining hall at the camp we lived at. We used that as our inspiration and she was happy to put together the vases for the church and the small vases for the reception site. Which is where we really saved money. We know some people who keep bees and plant a field of wildflowers for them and our flowers were free. My grandma also used sassafras leaves that she picked off a tree outside where she was staying. We bought vases at Michael's but when I was a kid she used beer bottles with the labels peeled off. It actually looked nice too.
Sweet peas grow all over the place and if you can get a hold of someone who keeps bees or go somewhere where you pick your own flowers you really do save a lot.
A friend who is a baker made the cakes as his gift to us. My grandfather who is a retired Presbyterian minister did our ceremony. We had beer and champagne for toasting but nothing else alcoholic. I'm trying to think what else...
As for what I would change - I would have made more of a point to get photos with everyone. We didn't hire a photographer because everyone in my family is pretty good with a camera and while we got a lot of really nice photos people were missed. When I went to my brother in law's wedding recently they had a photographer there who was making sure to get shots of everyone. I don't know that I'd have hired a professional like they did but I do wish that I would have had someone there who's job it was to just take photos. I should have asked at one of the colleges to see if there was a photography student who we could hire for the day. Also I wish I wouldn't have let my mother talk me out of having a pig roast. Not only would it have been cheaper than the caterer we hired but I think it would have been more fun. Nothing says wedding like a pig in a pit! But maybe that's just me.
Oh, and we hired a traditional Irish band and did contra dancing. We had a wide age range in our guests and that's something that EVERYONE can do and do together. It's like square dancing only without the twang.
All in all it was a simple country (not with the big hats and belt buckles, think more Little House on the Prairie) wedding.

Hi D., My husband and I were married 6 years ago, May 30th. There were 32 people at the wedding including us. We had it at Fox Hills, we found a preacher online, my girl friend and I did the flowers, I found a bakery that made a 3-tier wedding cake and set up costs an whole $75. Make the wedding yours. People now adays know that things are tight and that not everyone can be invited. Just our immediate famiy came to the wedding and then our close friends. Its your day, don't put yourself in the red for it. Have a picnic, with everyone bringing a dish, afterwards. The people who spend thousands of dollars are no more happier than you are and the only thing different is that someone is in debt for it. Congratulations.