I have a fun idea for an outdoor wedding - say in a park. It would be a BYOB party, which would stand for "Bring Your Own Blanket" to sit on and watch the wedding, instead of using chairs which are so boring. I have never seen a wedding ceremony in this way but thought it would make sense, be inexpensive and fun just the same. You see people bringing blankets all the time to outdoor concerts, picnics, and Fourth of July festivities during the summer.
A Day to Remember - Lora This could be under why you need a consultant as well!
1. Late night wedding w/champagne, coffee bar and dessert reception. The couple would exchange vows at the very elegant hour of 8:30 p.m. (always better to be married on the half-hour because the hands of the clock are in forward motion... as should a marriage be). Following the nuptials, is a great celebration of dancing until midnight. Refreshments through the evening would be champagne, a coffee bar with interesting coffees served, wedding cake and other decadent desserts offered. This way, the entire evening would be 3 1/2 hours, the food cost are low, the feel to the evening is very sophisticated, and all this falls under the heading of "SIMPLE, BUT ELEGANT".
2. Summer country wedding - everybody likes to go back to the Good Old Days. Find a quaint country church, or historic grange/hall/barn. The invitations would be to come to a country wedding and invite the guests to bring Pot Luck. Have catering/hostess staff available to transfer the delivered foods into matching attractive buffet dishes containers. A name tag with description of the food and who created it would be hand printed and placed in front of the dish. Every cook loves to show off his/her cooking ability. The entire feel to the event would be old-fashioned family unity and fun. The music would be more country then present day and the decor would include simple cotton tablecloths with sunflowers, garden cut flowers in jars rather than expensive vases.
3. Finally... no theme here, but common sense - the more people invited, the potential for a more costly wedding. The cost of the wedding is effected by the head count since food and beverage are "per head" costs. A DJ, photographer, ceremony musicians, etc. are flat charges with no consideration to head count - only the food and beverage is the variable as it brings the costs up and up based on the head count. DROP NAMES FROM THE GUEST LIST AND THE MONEY WILL LOWER!
The biggest way to cut cost for a wedding is to serve only Champagne and cake, both these items can be quite fabulous. Have the wedding and reception in one again fabulous place, time it sometime after lunch and before dinner. The setting should be spectacular as should the music, flowers etc. This tip will save the couple (or parents at least 40-50% of what a wedding normally cost) as the cost of food and beverage normally run 40-50% of the total overall budget.
Even by just cutting out 1 ~ 1.5 hours you can save a lot of dollars. RECEPTION TIME. Think about having your wedding reception in the afternoon this too can sometimes save you dollars. Also people tend to drink less in the afternoon than in the evening. Also may sure that you only pay for wine, beer and non-alcoholic drinks, you can even limit this amount. Make people pay for their own top shelf drinks. Some people tend to become a bit greedy with alcohol if some one else is paying.
1. Check with reception hall about serving a lunch instead of dinner.
2. Bar service. This is always a debatable subject. Yes, you should have it but the days of the bride and groom hosting it for the
entire reception rarely happens anymore.
3. Hire a coordinator. They have the skills and contacts to stay within your budget.
4. Check out the reception hall's centerpieces (if any that are complimentary). If they provide them, are they nice or can
you add things to them to personalize them?
5. Book everything at Boomtown. We still have the best deal in town!
Donna A. Bankhead is the author of Last Minute Weddings, plus the book Cater Your Own Wedding Career Press Email
Assemble a group of family and friends to help you pull together a do-it-yourself reception. Depending on the size of wedding you're planning, you can save literally thousands of dollars by skipping the caterer. Cater Your Own Wedding has complete plans for a variety of different wedding receptions and includes menus, shopping lists, job descriptions for helpers, and placement diagrams.
To cut your reception costs, consider having a morning wedding with a brunch reception. You can serve lighter (and less expensive) fare and offer a champagne punch instead of a full bar. If you’re not a morning person, go for a mid-afternoon wedding. Your guests will have already eaten lunch and will not require or expect an extensive meal. Light hors d'oeuvres will be more than adequate.
To calculate how many guests will actually attend your reception, take the total number of people you have invited and multiply by .66. Multiply that number by 1.15. Example: 300 invited x .66 = 198 x 1.15 = 228 people expected. This formula has a 90% accuracy rate and can help you avoid over-spending on reception food.
To avoid the high cost of liquor, beer, and wine, serve an alcoholic punch (as well as a non-alcoholic punch) at your reception.
Save money by offering a buffet instead of a sit-down meal at your reception. When arranging the food on the buffet table, put the most expensive items (shrimp cocktail, ham, roast beef, etc.) at the end of the line and place the less expensive items (fresh veggies, fresh fruit, salads, etc.) at the beginning. Your guests will fill their plates with the less expensive items and won’t have space to take many of the high-dollar items.
1001 WAYS TO HAVE A DAZZLING SECOND WEDDING author Sharon Naylor
Limit your dessert options. While it may be impressive to surround the wedding cake with a veritable buffet of desserts - bananas flambé, mousses, pies, cakes, and petit fours - you'll spend way more than if you provided a simpler dessert menu including cake and chocolate-covered strawberries. Everyone's so full by then that the desserts are just 'icing.'
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