Last month I promised I'd write an article on planning a simple wedding. However, unless the bride and groom just show up on a pre-planned day with two witnesses and stand before the minister, who says traditional vows, I've decided there is no such thing as a simple wedding. Let's change it to say unless they elope.... This wedding, though labeled "simple," was far from what I was thinking as simple. It was lots of hard work...but oh so worth it. It was a beautiful wedding and cost probably less than $1,000, which included the cost of the dress, tuxes and the gorgeous three-tier cake on a pedestal with a working fountain. This allowed the newlyweds to have more to spend on their Mexico honeymoon. The wedding color, which for us meant what color the bridesmaid was wearing. This was a little difficult because she was coming from out of state and we wouldn't see the dress until the big day. There are lots of shades of purple so we accented with pink. The bride needed her dress which she found on clearance for under $300.
The bride ordered the cake from a fellow Church member who gave her a wonderful price. Flowers cost retail, but one sister who is a gifted barterer was able to BORROW a trellis and three rolls of white mesh netting (tool, as florists call it) from the floral shop to decorate the church at no additional cost. We purchased silk hanging flowers for the trellis and intertwined it with the borrowed white netting.
Beautiful! Our Church has seen many weddings and we've footed the
bills for many, so over the years we've acquired lots of silk plants, flowers and various wedding decorations. One talented former member made bouquets and hair rings, which we've used over and over and used one more time for this wedding. A little soap and water will clean silk flowers inexpensively and easily and they can look as good as new. Another member of the Church whose daughter just got married let us borrow two large trash bags of large white bows. All this cut down on expenses. We used pieces of all these plants, flowers and decorations in the Church and reception hall.
This is a great opportunity to pool friends and relatives talents and gifts. The three of us working on the wedding, the bride's two sisters and I all work to get the best bargains we can everyday. So off we start and remember we only had once month from the announcement to pull this together.
First we got together and decided what the bride wanted to have for the reception. Simple meant cake, nuts, mints and punch. We then proceeded to make a list of other ideas she had. We wanted to make this a dream wedding for her.
We started by making a list of the brides' desires and went from there. Our list included:
Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Planning a Simply Elegant Wedding For Less in Organizing Tips is owned by . Permission to republish Planning a Simply Elegant Wedding For Less in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
