wedding ideas

Hi gals, are you planning a wedding and looking for ways to have an awesome wedding without braking the bank? Here are five ideas to help you save some money on your wedding and still have an unforgettable time!

Prioritize
The bride should ask herself questions like, “What is most important to me, the entertainment or the flowers?” This will help you determine how much money to devote to each category.

Make a must-have list, and a not so important list and budget them accordingly. A little extra money should go toward your top three elements. For example, if having great music is most important to you, cross off something from your not so important list like a chocolate fountain.

Cut The Guest List
One of the most effective ways to lower wedding costs is to trim down the guest list. Of course, you want to invite everyone you’ve ever known to share your big moment, but that may not be practical once you understand the cost per head: At $100 a person, taking 10 guests off the list saves you $1,000! If you’re struggling with whom to cut, follow these simple guidelines.

Rule 1: If you don’t know them, cut them.
Rule 2: Kids can be cut; their parents should understand.
Rule 3: If your friends aren’t engaged to, living with or in a long-term relationship with their so-called “plus one,” they don’t get the option to bring a guest.

Follow these and you’ll be amazed by how quickly the list whittles down.

Substitute Flowers
To save money, choose blooms that are in season and grown locally. Or substitute less expensive flowers in the same shade. If you trade black magic roses for deeply colored dahlias, you’ll save about $4 a stem.

If you’re going to have five roses per bouquet and 10 per centerpiece with a bridal party of five girls and a 150-person guest list, you could save as much as $700 by cutting back on this one small element.

Slim Down The Catering
Limit your dinner to three amazing courses and keep the menu basic. By choosing specialties that are in season and local to the region, you’ll save tons. When it’s time for the big toast, it’s OK to break out the fancy champagne - just switch to less-costly brands for the remainder of the evening.

You can also save on dessert by using a small cake to cut for the photos and having sheet cakes in the back to cut for guests.

Another good idea is to skip the handmade sugar flowers, special molded shapes and fondant, buttercream tastes better anyway.

Skip The Extras
Why splurge on things most guests won’t even notice? Stationery is another area where extras can really cost you. Stick to simple, single-color invitations. Two shades of ink can be pricey, and oddly shaped invites require extra postage: think square.

Another unnecessary extra is fancy transportation opt for traditional black or white town cars.

Are you planning a wedding in this economical crunch and don’t have the budget for a fancy wedding? A wedding is nothing but a celebrating of love and commitment between to people. You can still have a wedding celebration on a low budget, here are some ideas:

• If you must have a religious ceremony, go ahead and book your ceremony for the evening. After the ceremony you can go for a walk under the moonlight and then meet up with your guest at your parents’ house for some cake and champagne!

• Do it the Sex and the City the movie style! Go to city hall and get married, after the city hall ceremony, your reception would be brunch at your favorite restaurant with your family and close friends!

• If you are looking for a much more wild and fun wedding celebration, consider a Vegas wedding. Get married on a drive thru chapel, or even better have Elvis married you!!! Your guests would be a few close friends with which you can ride in a limo for a few hours enjoy the city and some champagne. After the limo ride you can party all night long at your favorite club. Just remember that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

Regardless of what you decide to do, remember that you must look and feel your best. Therefore, wear a modern, glamorous, and sophisticated wedding dress!

Are you a “green warrior”, an environmentalist or just someone ready to give the total effort to making your wedding as Eco-active as possible, consider the tips below:

The Cake: A green wedding begins at home. Rather than contracting professionals to bake your cake consider creating it yourself in your own home. Baking your own wedding cake in your home stove expends less energy than the commercial ovens used in professional bakeries, and you can control the ingredients.

You can use free-range eggs, whole flour, organic milk and sugar, and other all-natural ingredients, creating a cake free of additives and preservatives. Transporting the cake to the reception yourself also prevents the bakery’s delivery truck from consuming fossil fuels and releasing exhaust fumes into the atmosphere. Of course, you need to ask a friend or relative to help you!

Favors:Give guests a favor that keeps the wedding spirit going, giving unique wedding favors such as seed packets allows them to create a growing memory of your special event. Seed packets are quickly becoming one of the more trendy wedding favors on the market, exactly because of their lovely finished product!

Flowers: There is an online company called Organic Bouquet, which sells certified organic roses and exotic flowers, all grown without chemical pesticides and insecticides. Organic roses are naturally fragrant and, because they are free of chemical pesticides, they’re also edible.

You can safely use them to decorate cakes or cupcakes, sprinkle on salads, or to make rose-scented sugar (just toss a few petals into a bowl of sugar). Or save your organic roses and make potpourri; fill cellophane bags with the mixture and send them to guests with your thank-you notes.

The Gown: My opinion on wedding gowns is to choose the dress you love! The one you envision passing down to your children. This is the greenest thing any bride can do: Invest in an exquisite piece to be shared with future generations.

Invitations: Look for seeded paper that germinates when planted, tree-free paper alternatives made from hemp or bamboo. Or choose 100% post-consumer recycled stock produced from discarded newspapers, office paper and magazines. Also, ask your printer to use a soy-based ink; it’s a greener choice made from renewable soy beans, and the end result can be brighter, clearer printing.

Lighting: Let there be natural light conserve resources by getting married outdoors or in an area with plentiful natural light. Getting married in the temperate months of spring, when the days grow longer, allows for maximum lighting time available.

If you’re getting married during warmer months, build a tent to offer shelter to your more heat-sensitive guests, decorating its sides and poles with fresh wildflowers. If your wedding goes after dark consider lighting up the night with bee wax or soy bean candles, solar lanterns they charge in the sun all day long and cast a soft glow at night.

Hang them in the trees, or use them to line the lawn to create pathways. Since they need no special wiring, you can put the lanterns wherever your heart desires.

Place Cards: Pluck leaves from trees and hand write with a permanent-ink pen the guest’s name on each leaf; add an extra-skinny ribbon at the stem and tie the leaf around the napkin. Stamp large river rocks with guests’ names using an alphabet stamp set available at any craft store; rest a rock at each place setting and ask guests to return the rocks to a river, or add them to a garden or planter in their own homes after the reception.

Use what you have: Lemons from a backyard tree could be marked with guests’ names using a sharpie. Pieces of broken terracotta pots or ceramic tiles make lovely place cards as well.

Recycling: Ask caterers to recycle cans, bottles and aluminum foil and insist on a no-Styrofoam policy.

Wine: Organic wines, which are made from grapes grown without chemical pesticides, have improved by leaps and bounds over the years. Bonterra which translates into “good earth” is a high-quality, reasonably priced line available nationwide.

An all-organic and biodynamic wine retailer in New York City: Appellation Wine and Spirits, offers a mind-blowing variety from both large and small winemakers around the world.

Food: Work with caterers and bakers who use organic and locally grown ingredients. If you were to use disposable dishware consider using biodegradable flatware and other earth-friendly items.

If you are a bride to be and planning a green wedding? I would like to hear the journey of your green wedding!