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Some people want the fairytail wedding with all the bells and whistles, and it costs a lot of money. Practical people know that a big amount of money for one day (if its a bit of a financial squeeze) seems to be foolish and the money could be better used, like the  down payment on a house. But don’t be put off from having your dream wedding on a budget because it can be done with a bit of forethought.  Get everything on paper, split all the wedding catergories up and prioritize them in order of ‘most important’ (to you) down to ‘not essential’, then assign a budget you are prepared to spend on each element. Sure, you can juggle the figures about to suit yourselves, just don’t go over your total budget.  It is your choice, however, one thing I would caution on though is don’t get into debt paying for your wedding. You really don’t want to be still paying for your wedding day 12 months after it.

 

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Eco weddings are getting very popular with the environmentally aware,  its a great way to recycle too. Here are some websites that should help:

http://www.greenweddings.net/home.html

http://www.greenunion.co.uk

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/fashion/11green.html?ex=1328850000&en=94b881812c6d617e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19054513

Here’s hemp wedding attire

http://www.rawganique.com/organic-hemp-wedding-clothes.htm

http://www.threadheadcreations.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=bridal

http://www.ecoparti.com/

http://www.lassodmoondesigns.com/plantable.html

http://littlethingsfavors.com/ecgrwefa.html

http://www.thenaturalweddingcompany.co.uk/

http://www.botanicalpaperworks.com/category/Handmade+Plantable+Wedding+Invitations/1/

 

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You are well on your way to hosting a nice wedding on a small budget. Nicely done! Just reading over your post,  I have some comments/suggestions:
You should still have a aisle or ceremony area. The ceremony is the important part not the reception! And you want good pictures of you getting married. Look in the backyard and see if there is an area that stands out like an arbor or a pretty tree. It doesn’t have to cost you anything, but it should give you a good backdrop for your photos. If you want to add decorations, tie ribbon to tree branches or hang lanterns.
During the ceremony, are you going to have your guests stand? Even for a short ceremony (15 minutes), your guests are probably going to want to sit. You could make very basic benches from wood at Home Depot and give them a quick coat of spray paint to match your wedding colors.
Buy glass vessels in bulk for simple chic centerpieces to go down the center of your long table. You can get roses for cheap at Costco (crazy I know) or at a local flower market. I don’t suggest using garden flowers. You don’t want to have all of the bushes or flowers in the garden cut down. The garden is basically a pretty decoration that you didn’t have to pay for!
Ipod – remember to put music for the ceremony, cocktail hour/eating and dancing on the iPod. Put on extra in case you need more of one type of music than you expect. Also, ask a musically inclined friend to be in charge of the iPod for the night. Lastly, don’t forgo speakers. You’ll be fighting ambient sound outdoors. If you don’t have speakers, you won’t be able to hear the music.
Good idea to go with an ethnic cuisine since it is often cheaper than traditional wedding food, but pork isn’t the most friendly option. You should provide another selection. A safe bet (if you want to still have the pork) is to give a vegetarian option. Cheese enchiladas? Or maybe a fajita station? You could have pork, roasted vegetables, chicken, rice and beans. You could have them all or just the items you like.
I’m a little surprised that your uncle isn’t considered immediate family. In any case, the cake you have chosen is very nice and would be easy to recreate. You won’t need your rounds to be as big since that cake could serve 150 and you only need to serve 30. You may want to get tea roses to surround the cake since they will be smaller and more proportioned to a smaller cake.
Have you thought about your bar? Beer, wine and a signature drink would be a good bet to save yourself money.  Do you have a camera club or art college nearby? Sometimes photographers from clubs and colleges are only too happy to have the opportunity to take photographs of events like weddings.

Anyway, best of luck and I hope your day goes great.

 

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First thing…..DO NOT HIRE A PHOTOGRAPHER UNLESS ALL OF YOUR NEGATIVES AND/OR HIGH RESOLUTION PRINTS ARE INCLUDED! This is not negotiable.

Now, on how to save.

1. Start by cutting out time. I mean, do you really need professional pictures of you putting on your makeup beforehand? I think any of your friends/family could do that just as well. Do you need all 5 hours of the reception photographed? Other than the big moments all the pics of Sue dancing with Joe, then Joe with Mary, now Mary with Sue….etc start to look the same. Schedule your majors like the first dance at the beginning of the reception then let the photographer go home. In some cases people actually get more comfortable without worrying that embarassing dance moves will be forever captured on film…

2. Look for talented amatures. Post an ad on craigslist, check out graduate students at the local art college and photography club.  Check them out the same way you would a pro. Get a contract, ask to see their portfolios, etc. If you are still worried then  strike a deal with a student and let him/her take engagement pics (or some other social event you attend).  Then if you like the work then you can offer the wedding job. Don’t be afraid to ask any friends or family if they want to photograph the wedding too.

3. Ask for a discount, or to tailor the package to suit you. The worst they can say is no. Seems simple, but cutting out things like digital effects on your photos will save you money. You can also try to play them against each other like a car dealership. Stroke their egos. Well “so and so was offering the same package for 1500 but we really enjoy your work, can you match that?” then call up So and So and do the same.  And remember, if you don’t like the deal, walk away.

 

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You can put small smoked sausages and meatballs in BBQ sauce or meatballs in spaghetti sauce, cheese and crackers, finger sandwiches, different salads ( potato, macaroni, fruit and green). You could go with mexican foods (make it a theme) like enchiladas, rice and beans.  Or Chinese -  the pancit, cabbage, carrots, onion, soy sauce, served with the chicken wings. Concentrate on bulky, filling,  ingredients (rice, potato, noodles, etc) if you are worried about guests not getting enough.

Don’t worry about it being fancy or expensive. You will be suprised just how much you can get for $300 if you choose the foods carefully.  If people care about you enough to come to your wedding they will be there to celebrate your special day, not to get a cordon bleu feast.  In truth, the only ones that make a big deal about wedding food are the ones supplying it, the ones eating it are more caught up in the whole event to be overly concerned with the food.

You could try a “pot-luck” style arrangement.  Have family bring a dish from home to serve at the wedding. This way you go broke trying to feed everyone, and everyone will at least like something they ate – because they will have prepared it.

You never stated your food budget, but having a buffet style is far cheaper than a sit down meal. Think how many meals that were served at weddings never get fully eaten? That is just money going down the drain in reality. At least with a ‘help yourself’ arrangement all the food is available to everyone. Choose cheaper alternatives like meatballs, sausage,  even chicken.  Add plenty of  fillers like  salad,  pastry, pasta, etc.  Cheaper foods don’t have to be boring either, you can easily provide many different dishes that deliver a whole host of flavors. Hot & cold dishes, use herbs and spices. Quiche  & flans are popular, cheap, and  easy to make. Really the alternatives are endless. Decide on your available food budget and on how much one person can eat and (in your case) multiply it by 100.  All you can do is your best, if you organize your reception with love, others will pick up on it.

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People seem to like the personal invite, speaking to them direct. Only one drawback is that they ‘might’  either forget the date, or copy the information down wrong. You can definitely get more information across in a posted  invitation, just carefully choose who you want to ask by phone.  Congratulations by the way.

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This is how we saved money on our wedding

- We make our own invitations

- With the help of friends and family we did our own decorating.

- A friend is did our photography.

- One of the bridesmaids worked at a grocery store that had an awesome floral department. So she got us a great deal.

- We shopped around for our wedding venue for the best bang for our buck. ( food and all for approx 150 people was about 3 thousand)

- We’re made our own favours

- we cut down our guest list a bit.

- A close family member baked our cake and a friend  decorated it.

- We didn’t hire a limo or rent a fancy car.

- we didn’t staying in a hotel

- The dress was a hand me down

Decorations, invitations and favours are great DIY projects. I would possibly leave the food, flowers, and cake to people who know what they’re doing (it really depends on your budget). Anything that can’t be done a few weeks in advance I would pass off to another person. If you have friends who can help you out, enlist them. A friend of mine did our pictures and she saved us over a $1000. People want to help you so don’t be afraid to ask, they will love to be asked and get involved.

Centerpieces are super easy to do, and fun. Just make sure it’s something easy for the person assigned to assembling them. You can buy lots of wedding decorating books or use the internet for easy projects.

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We’re having our wedding on a budget of £3,000. We’ve got 40 people coming to a registry office ceremony, and we’ve having our reception in the function room at a lovely local pub.

We’re doing the decorations for the room ourselves, opting for balloons rather than more expensive flowers. The table decorations are crystals from eBay which worked out at £10 for loads of them. See this website for a pic.

Http://www.crystal-wedding-jewellery.co.uk/images/table-decorations-show-3.jpg

Also, I’m making my own veil – it’s a birdcage veil so rather than spend £90 on buying something from ETSY or eBay, I bought my own netting and flower and am going to have a go at making it myself.

We’re getting a lift off of my parents to get to the venue, not bothering with a car.

Also, making my own wedding cake. As it’s fairly informal, we’re going for the hungry caterpillar but making red velvet cake with green icing, it’ll be fun I think.

Http://weheartbooks.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/very-hungry-caterpillar-cake.jpg

For invites, I got them from vistaprint, they do a great selection and really reasonable. You can choose the finish and paper too.

Also, for the wedding dress I got mine from Vivien of Holloway, it’s a gorgeous 50′s style dress which is in keeping with the general theme of the wedding.

Http://www.vivienofholloway.com/1950s-Halterneck-Satin/1950s-Halterneck-Ivory-Duchess-Satin-Dress.html

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If you have the time and patience then homemade ones are quite easy, i had a similar colour scheme (blue and silver) and what I did was got quite thick A4 white card and cut it into quarters, around the edges of this I stuck blue ribbon and then wrote each invitation by hand using a thick silver calligraphy marker, they turned out beautifully and gave the invites a more personal touch as both my partner and I signed them and all of our guests said that they found these far more personal than generic invites, however make sure to have some extras for spelling mistakes and scruffy handwriting!!

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Personally, I would go with a Send and Seal style invitation because that cuts the cost of having to order RSVPS, and reception cards.

Eco friendly wise…check out this site… Prices around $116 for 100

http://www.invitationsbydawn.com/CasPage1.cfm?prev=1&TempPrev=0&blnPreviewRequestSubmitted=0&recordsperpage=32&CompletedOrder=0&sBasketID=0&alogo=1&menu=none&morethanonepage=YES&HostDomain=0&FirstTimeThrough=1&option=CasPage1.cfm&format=SNSCasEnsDD&CFID=41972591&CFTOKEN=96891685

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You do need to get these out quickly, and my recommendation is to not worry about clever sayings. Most people don’t include these in invites, simply because the people getting them are primarily interested in date, time and location. That’s all they’ll need and it’s all they’ll remember. You can put sentiments elsewhere if you want to express them – in the vows, on programs if you want those, as a toast to each other, etc.

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Please have a look at this website:

http://www.cristinare.com/

She has some nice flocked paper patterns.
Congrats =)

http://www.cristinare.com/component/option,com_products/category,10/Itemid,1/

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Absolutely not…just make sure your invitations clearly state what time the reception starts, don’t mention the dinner…that is your way of spending intimate time w/ those closest to you and your fiance’

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I made all of our wedding invitations and I’m really glad I did – they looked great.

They did take forever to do though, so when you’re half way through and you want to give up, don’t! All the effort is worth it.

For the inserts I went to Staples and bought a ream of this really nice cream paper that looked a bit parchment like (I know …. My description is rubbish). When I printed and folded it it was a little smaller than the outside of the card, and i glued just the edge that was going in the fold so that when you opened the card you then had to ‘open’ the insert. I hope that makes sense! It looked great.

We had the following wording:-

Love fills a lifetime
and a lifetime begins this hour
when the two of us
{brides name}
and
{grooms name}
begin a new life together in marriage
on {date} at {time}
at {venue}

Followed by a reception at {venue}

The names of the guests and the rsvp went on the left hand side of the insert.

Try one like this and see what you think. You might have to try a few before you know exactly how it’s going to be.

Best of luck