Also any money saving ideas !!!!!
the wedding is in england and any money saving tips would be appreciated!!

The average cost for a wedding toda is $20,000-$28,000. Ridiculous, for the average couple. There are so many ways to cut the costs of weddings, you just need to decide on three things that are paramount to the day, and compromise on the rest. For example, photography, ceremony venue, and reception venue were the three where I put the most money. Add up your monthly earnings, subtract expenses, and then see what’s left. From there decide how much each of you can afford to save.

Just keep in mind that you don’t have to spend your life savings or go into debt to have a beautiful wedding. I have seen beautiful and elegant weddings with a $2,000 budget. It’s in the planning, the chosing, and the execution. I myself am having a $5,000 English Garden wedding, and while it is sometimes difficult, I can already tell it will be beautiful =]

Here are some of my money-saving tricks:

Ceremony: Have an early ceremony (around 2 o’clock).

*Your guests will have already have eaten lunch, and won’t be expecting a huge meal. You then can serve light food such as finger food and desert. This is the only way that my fiance’ could manage to feed our 180-200 guests without going way over our budget.

Wedding dress: I found a beautiful gown at http://www.groupusa.com/ for a little more than $300 (my splurge). They have beautiful gowns by wonderful designers from affordable to extravagent.

*Try places like GroupUSA, David’s Bridal, and even eBay for knockout deals.
I just found this eBay store http://myworld.ebay.com/gianinarbridal
One dress is $39! Brand new. Add $89 for shipping from China and you have some knock out deals.

Bridal Jewelry: I found my crystal wedding jewelry at no other than Wal Mart. Originally I had been looking at genuine jewelry from big name stores, but decided to scrimp here to save money for the wedding gifts my fiance’ and I plan to get each other.

*Don’t forget retail sortes like Wal Mart and Target. My headpiece, earrings, and necklace by Crystal Collections came to $21.

Wedding location: I have four choices, a lovely place on the property of a family friend, the beautiful garden of a local inn, a church that has a SMALL fee and goes well with my wedding style, or on the mountain where my grandparents’ grew up, married, and live.

*Look for unconventional venues; they’ll be cheaper or even free. I opted for the for the garden for my English Garden theme.

Reception Site: I have two options here, one of which is the brand new mansion-style library in our town. It would cost only $199 ($100 refundable damage deposit, and $40 for a library worker to stay on site). The other would be our local arts building of the town center. They have several large and beautiful rooms and are roughly the same amount as the library.

*The same rule for venues applies here.

Caterer: My friends and family are fabulous cooks, and are going to provide a buffet-style meal for the wedding guests.

*Friends and family can really cut down on wedding expenses!

Cake: A friend of my fiance’ and I is a baker, and would only charge us the price of the ingredients.

*If you don’t have anyone who can provide this. Go for a two or three tier cake, and then have sheet cakes to cut for the bulk of the guests. That way you end up saving several hundred dollars. You can also have a two-tier cake, serving that only to wedding party, parents, and grandparents and serve guests with a cupcake tower.
I’m simply having a three tier cupcake tower and forgoing the cake.

Flowers: I am making my own bouquets. Flowers for a 30-stem wedding bouquet, toss bouqet, six 20-stem bridesmaid bouquets, arrangements, and 18 centerpieces (five flowers a vase would only run $288 before shipping costs from http://www.theflowerexchange.com. I am having a family friend do the arrangements for a fraction of the cost.

*Do as much as you can on your own! Http://www.theknot.com has videos and step-by-steps on how to make your own bouquets and arrangements.

Favors: For get then! Most of the guests toss these expensive trinkets.

*Instead I am making a candy buffet–something even my smallest guests would enjoy. You need a small table, glass vases shapes and sizes, candy from a bulk store like Sam’s (in your wedding colors, if you like), scoops, and little bags or favor boxes. Mine will come to about $60.

Children: Do you want children at your wedding, but want the adults to enjoy the reception worry free?

*If so, enlist a teenage niece, cousin, or friend. They may help as a wedding present, or simply be happy with $50 or so. They can keep the children happy and occupied with toys or color books in another room. Alternatively have the kid’s table covered in a paper table cloth with crayons at each place setting.

Invitations: You can purchase nice paper, envelopes, and an emblam, and an ink cartridge and make your own for about $50. OR you could go to http:///www.invitationsbydawn.com.
She has great deals and some of them come to a total as little as $100.

*Instead of $250-$350! Do what you can on your own, or look for budget-conscience resources like the one above.
I am making my own invitations using beautiful, old postcards from the early 1900s. One-of-a-kind, over a century old, and inexpensive at a total of $90.

DJ: My fiance’s brother is a DJ, and will save us $975 by doing the reception as a wedding gift.

*If you don’t have someone like this, consider cutting the cost by having premade CDs of the music you want, and have someone man the player.

Attendant Gifts: Try places like http://www.exclusivelyweddings.com

*I found my 7 attendants gifts for $35, because they were having a sale on freshwater pearl and silver bracelets =]

Centerpieces: Something simple. If you’re having a fall wedding, vases filled with slender branches painted gold or silver is beautiful and inexpensive, and branches of berries can be added for winter. Spring or summer, simple vases with a few flowers.

*I found short, square vases and am putting five gerbera daisies in each. Total cost for 18 tables is $99, and they look gorgeous!

Have your bridesmaids’ pay for their dress and shoes, and have a family friend who’s good with hair or makeup help with that on the wedding day. Be sure to get them nice gifts!
If your attendants are on a budget, go to a place like http://www.groupusa.com for dress ideas. My attendants dresses cost $119 each, and they’re something they can wear again and again.

GO TO http://www.theknot.com It has everything you could ever need. Also get these books: Wedding Planning for Dummies, The Knot’s Guide to Wedding Planning, and Priceless Weddings for Under $5,000. Your local library should have at least one of them.

Good luck!

How much was your wedding?

How much a wedding costs depends on a lot of factors.

Mine will cost $15,000 when all is said and done (including the honeymoon).

I am getting married in 5 months. My mum is giving us a budget and we dont know how to ask if his parents intend on contributing to the cost of the wedding. Please help, how do I bring this subject up? What do I say?
P.S I have a fantastic relationship with his parents and have known them for over 5 years. I dont expect them to contribute a lot, more looking to ask if they plan on contributing at all. We are able to do the wedding on the budget mum has given us, but would like to know what their plans are.

Well, in most cultures the bride’s parents tend to pay for the wedding ….but in this day and age, everything is 50/50. So perhaps…depending on your budget u can bring it up to ur fiance and say….my parents are contributing this much…how much are your parents willing to contribute. Note, it also depends on how much the wedding is too, plus how much you and ur fiance intend to put into the wedding as well. Another thing to do is say this is the budget, this is how much we have, and this is how much we need, ( do it during a family dinner or something) and then ask if people can pitch in to help cover some of that…and perhaps they will help.

Her cost is lower because her overhead is little to none. I can’t believe some of the costs I am seeing out there. Brides, what did YOU pay for your wedding photographer????

That sounds about right. My photographer is $1000. It includes two photographers and $500 credit towards the pictures that I choose. I picked them mostly because they give me a cd of all my pictures. This way I have all the pictures even if I don’t buy the actual print.
A little tip: Look at there prices for the prints. For my bridal pictures I chose a lady that only cost $75 dollars. But I didn’t realize that for a 5X7 it would be $15.00. My wedding photographer only charges $10.00. It adds up. Just look around and check everything out before you decide.

I live in Dallas, TX. I’m wondering what you think is a typical/reasonable amount to spend on a wedding these days (not including honeymoon, rehearsal dinner)?

i live in WI and was just horrified to see that some people are sending 20,000 + on a wedding that is just plain crazy…..those are the type of people that have the most extravagant of everything and want to be some sort of princess and crap like that….i am having a private wedding in a park with just close family and a huge reception of more than 200 people and so far it is less than 2,000 and that is including my dress, flowers and etc and the food and everything….the only thing that is left out of that price is the hotel room for our honeymoon…..

I Want to marry my girlfriend sometime in the future and was just wondering how much I should be saving. I’m serving in the millitary rite now and would like to have somewhat of a millitary wedding.

the average is about $15000-$20000. depending on where you live. A "decent" wedding, I would say at least $10,000.

I want to do a candy bar at my reception instead of the regular favors. Has anyone ever done this at their wedding? How much candy did you use and how much did it cost?

We are having one this weekend at my daughters wedding. We purchased 12 containers all the same shape but different sizes and spent a total of $75.00 on them. She is having 85 guests.

Airheads $10.00
Sour patch $10.00
Swedish Fish $20.00
Fruity gum nuggets $15.00
Pixie stix $10.00
Peanut M&M’s $15.00
Hershey’s Kissables $15.00
Starburst Twizzlers $10.00
Smarties $10.00
Jolly Ranchers $15.00
Tootsie Pops $15.00
Skittles $15.00

We also got some cute take out boxes and put thier names & wedding date on them for people to fill.

We also have this cute sign that I made, it says:

Step right up
to our candy buffet
a sweet addition
to a wonderful day..

As you help yourself
to this special treat
Remember this…
Love is Sweet!

I live in N.Y

It depends on what services and products you’re looking for. A photographer can run from about $4000 down to……free! We are putting disposable cameras at our reception table and for our ceremony and other important pictures we are having a friend take our pictures. We don’t want to spend money on pictures we can print out ourselves and make copies of ourselves for our family. You can make your own photo DVD as well. No need to pay someone else thousands of dollars. But it’s completely up to you. Be sensible though, try not to overdue it. Congatulations on your wedding!

im kida strapped for cash but i want my fiancee to have a great wedding how much does you r average wedding cost

My wedding costs are $20,000 after tax and tip and everything. But there are definitely ways to keep these costs down. You could always try a themed wedding. I know a friend who had a country music themed wedding and they did the whole thing as a picnic with barbecue. All the guests wore cowboy hats and shorts and they all loved it!

i think i am going to make all the bouquets and centerpieces and decorations, basically everything myself. If you did the same thing, how much did your whole wedding cost: including *everything*?
oh, but i’m not making the cake by myself or anything.

We spent approx 8000. We did the everything except my the flowers for the bridal party (Safeway $500) and the cake $425. The church and reception hall we got for a steal $300. My dress I got off ebay $350. The kids tuxes ebay $50.