WEDDING PLANNING ON THE CHEAP
PEGGY BECHKO
*****
Wedding Planning on the Cheap
To make Your Wedding Memorable & Affordable
Joy Without the Debt!
Peggy Bechko
Published by Peggy Bechko, Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 Peggy Bechko
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author
Discover other titles by Peggy Bechko, aka P.A. Bechko at Smashwords.com:
Stormrider - Fantasy
Blown To Hell - Western
To Hell And Back - Western
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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CONTENTS
WHERE IS THE FOOD & WHAT IS THERE TO DRINK
*****
Welcome to your source for inexpensive wedding ideas. This little book is going to cover it all, from music to flowers to Presider to location and much more.
Weddings are wonderful, happy events, so why is it we so frequently think we have to spend a fortune on them? If a person is lucky enough to have millions to play with, then blowing out the bank doesn't seem to matter, but if you're like the rest of us, hoping to have a little money left over for a nice honeymoon or vacation or that down-payment on your house, then why not experience the joy without the debt; which will, in turn give you even more joy.
It doesn't matter if you're getting married late in life for the first time after believing it would never happen for you, if you've been widowed and are beginning again, or if you've tried it more than once, but you're still willing to take the plunge again, or if you're a young couple just starting out. Creating a memorable and affordable wedding will make that day even more special.
There are several basic rules to putting this together and seeing it through, and they are, in no particular order:
* You and your spouse to be must work together; here's a good training ground for your evolving relationship.
* The wedding can be planned on the fly if necessary and you're facing a tight schedule, but it's best if it's planned well ahead with lots of lists and time to compare costs.
* Ask friends and friendly relatives for help.
* Allow for emergencies.
* Don't allow someone else to tell you how your day should go. Be gracious, but do it your way.
If you keep those simple commandments firmly in mind as you prepare you'll be amazed at how well things flow; and even when at times they don't, keep your sense of humor. This isn't the end of the world, it's a very special day for you and your soon-to-be spouse. Not someone else's day, yours! It should be special and fun, exciting and maddening, filled with love and a touch of hysteria. And it should belong to your and your new partner. Absolutely. Totally.
Loving each other has brought you to this wonderful day, so remember the love and the romance as you prepare to celebrate your joining with friends and relatives.
Birds are singing, music is playing, the sun is shining down from a blue sky, now we begin. So, how do you plan a wedding and not break the bank, hand Mom & Dad a giant bill or deprive some future kid of yours of a college education?
To begin at the beginning, it's imperative that you keep your guest list relatively small if you plan to host the wedding and a reception. Believe me, you, and your guests, will have more fun at your wedding if you do anyway. So, right now, before you move on to the many ideas, hints and helpful weblinks to follow, sit down with your significant other and think about who you want to invite. Not who you think you must invite, but who you want to have celebrate with you.
It's not part of your wedding planning to worry about hurt feelings, there are always going to be some, it's the nature of the beast. Knock out a first list, let it sit, and go at again, together, paring it down to a nice, tight group. You'll have more fun on your special day, get fewer gifts, but spend a whole lot less money.
So, how are you feeling now? Excited? Eager? Hopeful this could be a whole lot more manageable than you ever thought?
Good, then let's start at the beginning - Invitations
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CHAPTER 1
Invitations are important, right? If you don't invite people how will they know to come? But, invitations can get mighty expensive as well. So, how do we trim costs at this initial point; the invitation that will start it all?
Think About The Kind Of Invitation You Want To Send
Do you want it to be very friendly and informal? Do you want it to be extremely formal? Very fancy or friendly and fun? Some combination? However you want to do it, there's a way to do it and save a few dollars at the same time.
It depends partially on who you're planning to invite, so make sure you and your soon-to-be-spouse have talked it over thoroughly and have narrowed that list down as tight as it's going to get. That's your first cost-saving measure. It will filter throughout all your preparations and plans. It affects how much food you have to get, drinks, how large a space you need to have for ceremony and reception, how many disposable cameras you may buy and pretty much everything else.
How long is that list? Do you have all the information needed to communicate with those on it? Physical address, Email address, telephone number, you need it all there at hand.
Okay, with list in hand, how do you plan to send the invites?
Go Electronic
This is a great way to sent out invitations these days. Also an easy way to get your RSVPs back. You can do it as easily as designing your own email and sending that out to all recipients, or there are plenty of online resources where you can find an e-card, personalize it and have it sent to your list. One place I really like is www.care2.com. Not only do they have nice cards you can send for free, but it's a 'green' site as well and using their service you help others. There's also 123 Greetings.com and Hallmark Ecards. There are a whole lot more if you want to look around.
Don't forget to include your RSVP request in your card and provide the email address and/or phone number where they can respond. You need to get a good idea how many people from your list are actually going to show up.
There are lots of other locations online where you can find free Ecards. Throw in a search and come up with about four million listings. Throw the word wedding into your Free Ecard search and cut it down to about a half a million. Refine it further and no doubt you'll find exactly what you're looking for.
The electronic approach saves you buying cards and the necessary response note cards that go inside. It save you all the postage to mail them, and the courtesy stamps you'd normally put on the response note card for the recipient's convenience.
Of course not all your friends and family may have Email. Aunt Ellen, who's 103 probably doesn't, and no doubt there are some other stubborn hold-outs. They may well be on your list.
Inviting Via The U.S. Mail
Fondly known these days as Snail Mail, this may well be your choice to go for all your invitations, or maybe just those few you can't reach with an Ecard. It's perfectly workable, takes a bit longer to be delivered and to receive back the RSVP, but presuming your planning ahead just a bit, should be just fine.
There are a few ways to approach the 'hard copy' invitation. There are resources online, one of which is www.vistaprint.com. You can get individual invitations or complete wedding packs. Prices are reasonable, usually much more so than if you purchased them from a high-end, wedding specialty store or printer. You can decide your text (make sure you triple check it when working online), they print and ship to you. Remember to include a phone number to ask your guests to use to RSVP (check and recheck for accuracy) and you save on the reply notes and postage and just might get to have a chat with a friend.
If you prefer to do it locally, try checking out the blank cards in a local store. If there's one you like, ask if the store can order the number you need, and possibly get a price break on volume. Then work out the text you want in the invitation and take the cards to a local printer and price the cost of printing your invitations. Don't forget to ask friends if they've had any printing done and who they might recommend for quality work at a reasonable cost.
And remember, even thought I've begun with Invitations since they're the starting point of your wedding planning adventure, the REAL starting point is location, and you have to know that before you send out the invitations.
Location of wedding and reception and time. So, since location is something we need to know before we really kick things off, let's talk about Location.
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CHAPTER TWO
There are many wonderful locations where your wedding can be held. In fact the list is almost endless. Almost but not quite. So here's a list of possibles and if you use your imagination you'll come up with many more to add to it.
* Your own backyard
* A friend's yard
* A park
* Church
* College
* Museum Grounds
* Foundation
* Audobon
* Club facilities; i.e. Kiwanis, Masons, Elks, other
* Zoo
And all of those are just for starters. Search online under something like Local wedding Tucson AZ (insert your town in place of Tucson AZ) and you might come up with a lot more suggestions.
Many of the places listed above (with the exception of your friend's house) frequently offer their facilities for weddings for a fee. Of course how much that fee is is something you'll need to check out when considering various places as a possible location for your wedding. So once again, you'll have to have your guest list nailed down so you can tell folks just how many people the venue will need to accommodate.
What Do You Both Want?
That's a question you have to put your heads together to answer before the great location search begins. Are you both for a casual, hands-on, friends wedding? Do one or both of you require a formal, church wedding? Are you willing to negotiate and compromise or is there some aspect that simply can't be compromised on? Through all of this try to keep firmly in mind that this is your day and while suggestions are helpful, don't allow someone else to run your day. With that in mind you need to consider: