Nine and ten years ago this summer, my daughters got married back-to-back summers. Here's how we managed to have beautiful weddings on minimum budget!
1.) We have been members of the same church for (now) 22 years. There was no charge for using the sanctuary or fellowship hall, where reception was held. Our pastor does not accept money to marry members of our church, feeling that is his privilege and duty (we didn't know this until we tried to pay him!). We offered to contribute to youth fund, if they would do clean-up and moving all chairs and tables back to original spots for Sunday morning services; our youth pastor headed up the clean-up crew, composed of teenagers.
2.) My mother is an excellent seamstress, who does custom wedding dresses. Her gift to both brides was their wedding dresses, handmade by their grandmother. I believe the most expensive of the two dresses cost less than $100, but didn't lack for bridal finery, as my mom hand-sewed 20,000 beads on to the dress! She also made all of the attendants' dresses, charging them $20 each to custom-fit, ring bearer's pillow, flower girls' dresses, garter, wedding book covers, and hand-crocheted much of one daughter's bridal bouquet!
3.) Each daughter wanted a meal with the reception. Enter the parents of their step-mother, who run a catering business as a sideline job! They smoked all of the briskets, cooked beans the morning of the wedding, and hand-peeled 125 pounds of potatoes for home-made potato salad! Their family members served and cleaned up all of the food with a minimum of fuss! We purchased the briskets and sausage, but the rest of the work was their gift to the wedding couple!
4.) Both wedding cakes and grooms' cakes were hand-made by the brides' aunt. She has done custom wedding cakes for years and offered to do all of the cakes as her gift to the brides. She transported the cakes from her home, which was 150 miles from wedding site, then finished decorating the cakes on the morning of the wedding, even bringing her KitchenAid mixer with her to mix up extra frosting--ha!
5.) The wedding pictures of one couple were done as a gift by some pastor friends, whose hobby (and sideline business) was wedding photography.
6.) One daughter's flowers were done by an employee of a hobby shop, whose sideline business was wedding flowers. The other daughter's flowers were done by her sister, who is an art teacher.
7.) One daughter requested her attendants to wear silver shoes. Some of the girls (my niece included) did not want to spend a lot of money on shoes for one occasion, so bought inexpensive sandals and spray-painted them silver. They were beautiful!
8.) All of the music was done by the brides' family, who all play and sing. Included in musical selections were the bride's uncle singing the Hawaiian Wedding Song in HAWAIIAN and the bride's aunt doing the interpretive dance (hula). Also, the bride's cousin, two aunts, and two uncles singing Shania Twain's "From This Moment" in five-part harmony!
9.) A friend of one of the groom's family offered to video-tape both services as her gift to both brides. They turned out extra-special!
10.) One of the groom's family was able to contract the printing of the invitations out to a printer utilized by his employer--great discount for beautiful invitations! The other daughter's invitations were ordered online, but all reply cards were stamped, printed post cards to save on postage.
11.) As a wedding gift, one couple received two free airline tickets to anywhere Continental flies in mainland USA. The giver was a Continental employee, who receives X amount of free passes per year. EDITED TO ADD: Of course, the free tickets were utilized on the honeymoon trip, thereby saving in travel costs!
12.) One aunt had hosted a 50th wedding anniversary for her in-laws the previous summer. She offered to let the brides use all of her big glass bowls as table decorations. We used them with tinted water with floating candles. All of the tablecloths were the property of our church; we just had to return them freshly laundered.
My encouragement to parents who have daughters is: begin NOW to prepare your daughter to understand that her wedding day WILL NOT BE the day that her parents take out a second-mortgage on their home. Help her to appreciate the spiritual aspect of a man and woman being joined together in a holy ceremony before God, family, and friends. Let her know that her wedding day will be the day when all of her family and friends will utilize their time and talents to make her day extra-special.
One thing I did make very plain to both daughters as we began our planning: If we had to choose between one or the other, we would choose PEOPLE over DECORATIONS every time. Therefore, both girls did not have to cut guests!
Hope these tips help--Miss Paula in Texas
