Wе аrе preparation September 22 , 2007–wһісһ οחƖу gives mе аbουt 5 months tο рƖοt. Outdoor wedding іח tһе Lake Tahoe area. Budget οf аbουt 12-15K, bυt wе want tο keep іt less, ѕο more саח ɡο toward ουr honeymoon.
Tags: 5 months, budget, honeymoon, lake tahoe, lake tahoe area, outdoor wedding
Get going and get organized!
If you can attend any marriage shows in the area for thoughts and vendors/venues, do so. You might want to print off a "to-do" checklist off of a marriage website, or rip one out of a marriage magazine. Preparation weddings on your own is much simpler nowadays thanks to magazines and the internet. Even if, I said "simpler" and not simple.
Make sure you lock down your ceremony and reception venues STAT, as well as your caterers and officiants. You may have a tough time if any of your choices are well loved, as it is so accurate to the date. So have back ups for each choice. You will also need to order your dress NOW, as some dresses take months to arrive, let alone fitted.
Get a budget worksheet (or make a spreadsheet on your computer), and make sure you keep all of your wedding thoughts in one place. Many brides buy a pad with "pockets" for pictures and contracts.
Do as much as you can as soon as you can, so you are only left finalizing and confirming details as the wedding nears. You don’t want to be in succession around 1 week before your wedding.
Most of all, don’t forget to have fun! It’s your wedding!
I suggest that you keep it v.v.v. simple and small and intimate. There’s a saying that the larger the wedding, the shorter the marriage. Try to make it meaningful. Perhaps write your own vows. And just scale it down. Make it as sincere as possible. It’s not supposed to be a spectacle.
Do it you’re way!
Make it simple.
We opted for a small church wedding. Nothing fancy. I dressed in a lavender colored skirt with a lace tan lavender colored jacket. My husband wore a nice suit. We greeted everyone as they arrived and walked ourselves down the isle. Afterwards we had a small reception with finger food (made by friend’s) and a cake (made by a friend).
You don’t have to be elaborate to have a nice wedding. You don’t have to break the bank to make it a memorable day.
In the long run it is what is in you’re heart that day that really counts.
Check online for a lot of deals. Make your own wedding invitations. I went to Lci.com to get materials for my invitations, the prices are fantastic. For Lake Tahoe there should be plenty of ways to keep the pricing down although you are allowing a lot for your wedding. You dont have to have a $1000 designer gown to look gorgeous. Designer doesnt always mean better, the people arent looking at the mark in your dress. Have your wedding in the middle of the week to keep the cost down and do it earlier in the day rather than later in the evening. Then you can have a nice brunch which is cheaper than a dinner. Make your own wedding favor. My fiance and I are doing Vegas themed favors because we were both born and raised in Las Vegas. We are getting poker chips with our pictures… The more you do yourself, the more you can keep the cost down. Also the more people you have the more money it will cost. Caterers charge by person. Do a lot of searching online and you will be surprised at what you will find.
Yes! Here are things we did, and our wedding was 18K for 130 guests.
Get a non-professional-wedding DJ (we got ours off of Craig’s List) and provide him with a list of songs (we gave him 5 hours’ worth) for the cocktail hour and dancing. Also, have everyone in your wedding party get one "must-play" song request that you give to your DJ - it is so fun when you hear a song that you know is from one of your bridesmaids/groomsmen!
Centerpieces do NOT have to cost a lot. Ours were vases from Ikea ($200) filled with lemons and limes from the local produce store ($60) and water, and placed with 2 votive candles in clear holders, again from Ikea ($40). $300 total and the venue place them together for us (I gave them an outline of how I wanted them placed).
Combine the favors with the placecards. We gave away seeds that grew to say "Like" on the foliage (bought them on ebay), and I printed out the names/tables of the guests and tied them onto the gifts and place them on the table when they entered - fantastic 2-in-1, and very cheap.
Make your own invitations and programs! I went here (LOVE them) http://invitesite.com/ and got gorgeous paper that came with a kit for everything you need to place them together counting the layout for wording. I really made a layout of the wording and font (which I found and downloaded on line for $10), turned it into a pdf document (https://createpdf.adobe.com/pointer.pl?BP=&LOC=en_US&CUS=fe7631c2a01d5348ecc219c6c2d55622), then brought that file and the paper to Kinko’s and they printed and cut all the invitations for $11 total! Then, I made my bridesmaids dinner and gave them wine and we assembled all of the invitations in an hour. Oh, same administer for the programs.
We had our neighbor grow and assemble the bouquets (along wiht my mother) which was free. But, our back-up plot was for my mother and her friends to buy the flowers at Wegmans (or the local bulk shopping store like Sam’s Club) for really cheap and then place them together. There are tons of resources on the internet on how to place together bouquets, and also flower ordering sites that are so much cheaper than a florist.
Finally, we registered for our honeymoon - thebigday.com - and that way were able to get a small money for our trip (making it an even better vacation) and gave our guests a chance to feel like they were caught up in our trip too.
Excellent luck, and have FUN!
When you are preparation a wedding it is all about detail, first write a list of all the items that you will need to organise and book and the theme that you want your wedding to be. Is it going to be simple, autumn themes, or relaxed?
You will want to book the ceremony and reception venue straight away, then book the ’services’ - photographer, videographer, cake maker. At the same time start shopping for your dress. keep thinking back to your theme.
5 months is possible to plot a wedding, your budget is realistic and you will be able to save money on certain areas.
Look at craigslist.com for photographers that may be cheaper in your area, keep your eye out for sales at the marriage shops, and don’t order the most expensive menu! Be clever with your budget and you could save a chance.