In My Opinion
A Fantastic $4700 Wedding -- Believe It!
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By Patch Rose
November 13, 2001
Most of you have probably been to one of these weddings that costs over ten grand, haven't you? I worked as a singer in a wedding band for a while, and some of these folks were downright crazy! They had a professional camera crew with three mobile cameras cutting through the crowd, filming the whole thing, and that was just the beginning. I have seen weddings that have cost $50,000. I'm not kidding.
It seems a new etiquette has sprung up as a result of these expensive affairs. Many new couples expect you to pay for the cost of your seat at this affair, and they usually expect you to pay cash! So you pay $100, $200, $500 (I've heard that number, trust me) for a bad meal and a headache from a noisy band. In addition, the married couple, or their parents, get to spend the next few years dealing with the huge bill.
This didn't seem right to my wife and I. To be honest, we didn't have fifty grand to begin with. But even if we had, we didn't feel it was right to be so wasteful, and worse, to pawn that waste off on our invited guests.
Following then, is a short list of how we did our entire wedding for $4700. Let me say first that almost everyone who came to our wedding said it was the best wedding they'd been to in a long time. Now some of those people may be gracious liars, but some of them must have spoken the truth. This proved to us, and should prove to you, that money is not what makes a wedding great.
Here are some of the things we did to reduce the costs:
1. We used the reception hall in our church for the reception. As members of the church, it cost us $0 for rental of both the church and hall for the day. Our pastor would not accept payment for the service, so we gave her a very nice gift. Ditto our pianist.
2. We didn't use a photographer. We went to Sears and had our portrait done at their studio. It came out very well. For the ceremony, we bought a dozen disposable cameras and put them on the tables. We asked our guests to take candid shots of the event. They came out great. Also, our Pastor's husband took a video of the event, which came out very nice as well. So we have all our photographic memories for a couple hundred bucks, between purchase of cameras and developing.
3. We didn't use a caterer. We asked our guests to not give us gifts, as we will be traveling a lot in the next few years and didn't want to carry around a ton of stuff. Instead, we asked our guests to bring a tray of food. As a result, we had double the amount of food we would have needed with such variety! Greek food, Chinese food, Czech food, Norwegian food (this was in New York City), American food, etc... and tons of deserts, too. All we had to buy was wine, soda, and a case of champagne for the toast. It cost about $300 bucks for the entire food bill. At the end of the night, we wrapped up the extra food and brought it to a homeless shelter. (Well, we didn't -- we were on our way to our honeymoon -- but our family did).
4. My bride went to David's Bridal in January when they have their annual sale. She got a beautiful gown for $300. I already owned a tux, so we just had to get tuxes for her two sons and the best man. The maid of honor wore a lovely gown that she already owned. So the other clothing costs were minimal, around $200 or so.
5. We didn't hire a band or DJ. My wife and I both come from musical families. So at the ceremony, our families and friends serenaded us with songs. Some they made up for the occasion, others were just well-known favorites. No one left the party with a headache, and everyone commented on how they loved being able to talk without shouting. During the meal, we plugged in our stereo and played classical CDs. Total cost for music: $0.
6. The flowers were the most expensive item! But we wanted fresh flowers for the church and reception hall, and then we donated them to the church to use for the next day's service. It cost $700 for flowers, but it was well worth the money. Some things you must splurge on!
7. We got our wedding rings at Macy's. A plain gold band worked for our parents, so why do we need a platinum diamond monstrosity? Total cost for rings: $200.
8. We printed our own invitations. Most people's computers are powerful enough to run a small country -- why not put that power to good use? We went to staples and bought the blank invitations and software to print them out real fancy -- nice blue script, etc. We saved a bundle on a professional printer.
I could go on, but I think you get the point. We had been saving for over a year, and I am happy to report that we don't owe one red dime on our wedding! The entire thing was done with cash, and we have two grand left over! That goes to our house-buying fund, maybe a bit of it in extra payments on that darn credit card debt.
The moral of the story: You can have an unforgettable time and not lose your shirt!
Patch Rose
P.S. We went to Virginia for our honeymoon (It's for lovers, isn't it?), and we spent ten days hiking, going to amusement parks, and visiting friends and relatives. Total for the honeymoon: $1300. So our entire event -- wedding and honeymoon -- cost us six grand.
The above was posted on the Living Below Your Means discussion board on Nov. 8, 2001.
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