Planning a Cheap But Nice Wedding

You are going to be your own wedding consultant, aka wedding supervisor, wedding coordinator or professional bridal consultant. Usually such a person provides variety of services and charges a variety of fees. By serving your own wedding consultant, you'll not only save money, but you'll provide something the regular consultant probably won't and it's love.

Now you will need five things for planning:

1. Big fat binder
2. Lose leaf paper
3. Twelve notebook dividers
4. Twelve zippered inserts for three ring binder
5. Notebook

Now divide your notebook in twelve sections. These are:

1. Budget
2. Calendar
3. Ceremony
4. Clothing
5. Flowers
6. Video and Photography
7. Reception
8. Guest and Gift List
9. Other Food Service
10. Decoration
11. Music
12. Incidentals

This are the sections of your wedding notebook. Personally I prefer to use computer software instead of paper. There is a perfect a cheap but nice wedding planner software you may want to check out.

As you know the budget gets the top priority since everything else will revolve around the money you are going to spend on your wedding.

The first page of the budget section gives you the overall picture. It will show you the amount you of each category. Put the dollar limit for each section. Then keep track of your actual expenses by recording each one. It is known fact that cost of small things quickly add up into large sums. That's why you need to keep track of each one no matter how small it is.

I put the percentage usually spent for each category. Keep in mind that this percentages only guidelines since every wedding is different.

Reception food and drink .....................50%
Bride's attire ...............................10%
Photography/videography ......................10%
Music ........................................10%
Flowers ......................................10%
Invitations and postage .......................4%
Miscellaneous (decorations, transportation
parking attendants, thank-you notes,
guest book,clergyman's fee,etc.) ..............6%
_____________________________________
Total 100%

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Now here is the section you've been looking for! Here is the approximate dollar value for each category. Again each wedding is different and these values are only the guidelines.

Always remember that this is your wedding and you are making the choices - not your friends, not your aunt or sister. You will need to make choices that suits you best.

For example I personally couldn't care less about having a wedding gown around my hose for the rest of my life, so I decided to rent one. Keep in mind you ultimate goal is to look fabulous in that dress only for one day - wedding day. I figured I'll let the photographer to make pictures of fabulous me and save the money for the honeymoon.

But the ultimate choice is yours. Pick whatever feel comfortable to you. Keep in mind that these numbers are also guidelines and depend on number of factors.

Bride's Dress
Something Borrowed .......................$0
Rent It ......................................150
Prom it .......................................140
Bridesmaid's Gown in White ..............150
Free Seamstress .........................190
Hire a Seamstress .......................415
Buy From a Resale Shop............ 50-75% off retail
Buy Discount ............................150+
The Bridal Suit .........................160

Bride's Headpiece and Veil
Something Borrowed ........................$0
Rent it ...................................20
Distress Sale .............................20
Free Seamstress ...........................23
Hire a Seamstress .........................60
Buy Discount ..............................75

Bride's Slip
Something Borrowed .........................$0
Rent it .................................30-40
Free Seamstress ............................90
Buy Discount ...............................60

Bride's Shoes
Something Borrowed .........................$0
Buy Discount ..............................20
Buy Skimmers ...............................30

Flowers
Free Florist ..............................$206
Fool Them with Silks .......................364
Supermarket Wedding Package ................400
The combination plan .......................750

Reception Food
The family plan ............................$400
Cake and beverage only ......................900
Amateur Hor d'Oeuvres .....................1,500
Amateur Breakfast Buffet ..................1,800
Amateur Lanchoen Buffet ...................2,200
Amateur Dinner Buffet .....................2,500
Hire the Parish Crew ......................3,600

Wedding Cake
Dummy Cake + Donated Sheet Cakes ...........$120
Dummy Cake + Bake-Your-Own Sheet Cakes ......150
Buy a Supermarket Cake ......................200
Buy from a Private Party ....................250
Smaller Wedding Cake +Side Cakes ............350

Ceremony Music
Free Recital ................................$0
Canned and Fresh ...........................100
All local Talent ...........................250

Reception Music
Free Recital ................................$0
Piped-in Music ..............................$0
Amateur DJ ..................................$0
Party Tapes ..................................0
Two-for-One Sale ...........................200
All Local Talent ...........................450

Photography
Amateur Photographer .....................$130
Amateur With Rented Camera ................230
Artistry Only .............................600
Find a Reasonable Photographer ..........1,000

Videography
Amateur Videographer .......................$30
Amateur With rented Camera .................120
Two Amateurs With Rented Cameras ...........240
Find a reasonable vidographer ..............450

Making combination of choices you actually can have your wedding budget under $5,000. Knowing that average wedding costs around $25,000 this is like winning a lottery.

These are only few tips. If you are really serious about having great wedding on small budget I highly recommend you the wedding planner with software. It really helped me to save tons of money and avoid headaches of planning my wedding.