You are currently browsing the archives for October, 2006

Budget Wedding Headpiece / Veil

  • October 31, 2006 at 1:03 pm

The headpiece is one item that is simple to create for yourself in order to save a lot of money. If you want to know how much the wedding veil typically costs, click here.

Bet those prices make you more interested in making your own wedding head piece!

All you need to do is go to your local crafts store and get a tiara or headband and attach some tulle to it. It’s not really that difficult to make a beatiful veil or headpiece for about $15 or so.

Want more great ideas and the principles that allowed us to plan our wedding for just $2,000? Download our book for step-by-step guidance!

Christmas Wedding

  • October 30, 2006 at 10:07 am

Any of you up for a Christmas wedding? Here is a great way to get away from the overdone pastels and into some of the richer colors. We do not have rights to any photos (have any to share?) of a Christmas wedding; but just imagine a background of forest green trees filled with sparkling lights, red bows, and then a bride in white. It doesn’t get better than that!

Now imagine that you are marrying at a church that is already decorated for you! Most churches are all decked out for Christmas so you can use their beautiful sanctuaries as a background for your special occasion.

Another bonus is that Christmas is not a high season for weddings so you can probably get a better rate during this off season.

Christmas is a joyous time of celebration full of symbolism for the giving away of self and new life. Can you think of a better time to get married?

Have you ever been to a Christmas wedding? Tell us about it!

Romantic Honeymoon Music

  • October 29, 2006 at 12:07 pm

Want to add an extra touch of romance to your honeymoon? In preparation for our honeymoon, Lisa compiled a couple CD’s of romantic love songs to enhance (if that were possible!) the romantic mood of our honeymoon. Truth be told, we barely used those CD’s during our honeymoon but they have been brought out from time to time for a romantic evening together. Can you think of anything more romantic than dancing in candlelight to a selection of your favorite love songs?

Do you have any romantic ideas to share?

Tired of Wedding Commercialism

  • October 28, 2006 at 11:32 am

As a wedding planner, do you ever get tired of the never ending advertisements and commercialism so rampant in the wedding industry? Do you wish you could visit a wedding website without feeling like you are gazing at an entire mall trying to cram itself onto your computer screen?

Unless you are new at this, you are probably tired of everyone trying to tell you what your wedding cannot do without.

If you have ever wished that there was a way to bypass the commercialism and just plan your wedding, then you will be relieved to discover that there is a way. Not only will you bypass the commercialism but also much of the expense of wedding planning.

Since there is no financial incentive for a wedding website to tell you how to stop spending money on their products, you will not find this information shared on wedding websites.

We have literally written the book on this hidden path to planning your dream wedding while bypassing the expense and commercialism. We hope you consider this wonderful, liberating option to planning your wedding.

We planned our own wedding by means of the instructions found in our book and not only did we not have to deal with endlessly trying to find a low price at the “webding malls” but we also saved thousands of dollars on our wedding. Believe it or not, our beautiful wedding (see the photo slide show) cost us less than $2,000.

Wouldn’t you like to know how this can be done?

Go to our book’s webpage and get it! Selling today for $12.95 — small change compared to what you will spend without its guidance!

Click the image of our book to learn more and make the most important wedding purchase ever!

Odds and Ends

  • October 27, 2006 at 8:20 am

Happy Friday blog readers!

We want to take a moment to say thank you for subscribing to this blog! We have received many subcriptions as of late and are glad that more and more people are discovering the Wedding Planning on a Budget blog.

You will notice that we have made subscribing even easier by adding the new subscribe button. Just click the button and choose which account you want your subscription sent to – and if you’re wondering: Subscribing Is FREE!

We have also recently changed the appearance of our main website. You will notice that our About Us page has some added resources and features to help you as you plan your wedding and it also provides you some easy ways to help us get the word out about this blog and our website.

We remain committed to bringing you great blog posts and keeping the price of our book as low as possible.

Also, if any of you have something that you would like us to share on this blog – could be your wedding pictures and story about how you stayed on a budget or a great cost-saving idea – please share your ideas with us via our Contact Page.

Wouldn’t it be neat to use our blog to share your wonderful ideas and wedding photos / story?

Thank you again and have a great day (smile because it’s Friday!).

= )

Wedding Cake – Top Tier Taste

  • October 26, 2006 at 5:59 pm

Traditionally, the top tier of the wedding cake is kept frozen and then thawed as a sweet treat for the newlyweds on their first anniversary.

This great tradition is brought to you by Mr. Freezer.

Our wedding cake designer put a yummy twist on this tradition. She gave us a coupon to be turned in on our anniversary in exchange for a fresh mini wedding cake. That way, we did not have to worry if we lost electricity and the freezer food went bad, nor did we have to deal with the loss of freezer space, and we did not have to suffer through s0-so-freezer-burnt-left-over-wedding-cake.

You should see if your wedding cake designer will give you a coupon for a fresh piece of wedding cake on your wedding anniversary. It will be a win-win situation. You get fresh delicious cake on your anniversary and your cake designer gets to give you the best reminder of how good that wedding cake was (hey, you can always keep a piece of leftover cake in your freezer but with the coupon you don’t have to count on that piece of frozen cake).

Any other great wedding cake suggestions? Go ahead and share with the other readers of this blog.

Wedding Photography

  • October 25, 2006 at 1:10 pm

As you plan for your wedding photo shoot, think back to your experience as a guest at a wedding reception banquet. The bride and groom were not even there yet and you are starved. Not sure how much longer you can fake your way through this conversation, you silently wonder when the food will get here.

You remember that the bride and groom aren’t there yet. The food is probably ready to be served and getting cold while you are sitting there starving to death. You notice that one of the other wedding guests is starting to nibble at her finger nails – probably going to eat herself, you think.

Before long, the conversation turns to “whatever could be keeping the wedding party?”

Fifteen minutes later, a murmer arises near the doorway and you see a fatigued wedding party smile and wave as the guests applaud and hoot. The poor wedding party seems to have smiles permanently etched on their faces — must have froze that way from constantly smiling at the camera for the last hour.

Suddenly, a flash of brilliance and you realize that wedding photos should be taken before the wedding – not sandwiched between the ceremony and the reception dinner.

That way the wedding party will be fresher looking and the guests will not have to wait for the photo shoot to wrap up before celebrating at the reception.

Only two obstacles need to be overcome to have a successful photo shoot before the wedding:

1) The entire wedding party and the family members being photographed need to be able to arrive early at a prearranged time for the photo shoot.

2) The superstition regarding the groom not being allowed to see the wedding dress until the ceremony needs to be dealt with.

We personally had our photo shoot before our wedding and then the reception took place immediately after the wedding. It went very well and, if you can deal with the two obstacles, it is recommended.

Dream Weddings on a Budget

  • October 24, 2006 at 12:52 pm

We have added Dream Weddings on a Budget to our blogroll today. Be sure to check it out. The blog showcases beautiful weddings with lots of pictures.

Be sure to check out their recent blog entry mentioning our ebook. We are thrilled to see the blog editor call it one of the best wedding planning ebooks on the market.

Theme Weddings

  • October 23, 2006 at 8:25 am

One excellent way to make your wedding a really memorable occasion is to give it a theme.

You could, for example, have a western theme wedding with everyone dressed like cowboys and cowgirls. You could do square dancing or line dancing – or both – at the reception.

Try to pick a theme that you feel reflects you and your partner’s personalities. It also helps if your family can identify with the theme.

An added bonus is that this can help you get out of the strangle hold traditional wedding planning often exerts on the planners. You will no longer feel compelled, for instance, to by that overpriced lacey wedding table cloth – instead you can buy something more appropriate for your wedding theme.

A great website full of resources for the wedding planner who wants a theme wedding is Wedding Themes and More.

Zelda’s Cheat Manual

  • October 22, 2006 at 4:02 pm

Planning a wedding on a budget isn’t the easiest thing in the world; but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world!

Keep your chin up and make the best of it! Planning your dream wedding on a budget will be a challenge – just like playing Nintendo’s Zelda – one of our favorite adventure games. It will be a great adventure and against all odds you could come up on top!

Okay, okay so maybe you aren’t interested in playing the wedding planning game for the sheer pleasure of it! That’s fine, even Zelda game players sometimes give in and get the cheat manual for game tips, tricks, codes, and so on to help them beat the game.

If beating the “Plan Your Wedding on a Tight Budget” game is your goal, then go ahead and get the downloadable cheat manual! It is available for instant download at www.weddingplanningonabudget.com

Wedding Bargains on Ebay

  • October 21, 2006 at 11:14 am

Be sure to search Ebay for the items you need for your wedding. If you don’t you may pay dearly!

As a wedding planner on a budget, you must be on the watch for alternative ways to get what you need for less or – better yet – no money.

We cannot share our very best ideas in this blog but they are all in our book. We hope you take advantage of our work in compiling the very best budget savers in Wedding Planning on a Budget.

Have you found any bargains on Ebay recently? Let us know about your find!

The Dating Restaurant

  • October 20, 2006 at 5:44 pm

This evening, we, like so many other Americans, are going out to dinner.

But we aren’t going just anywhere… we are going to Yen Ching.

Yen Ching is our “Date Restaurant.” In other words, it was our favorite restaurant to eat at when we were dating and engaged to be married. All the wait staff knew us and what we wanted to order and they knew that we wanted hot tea and chopsticks. They also knew that we were generous tippers.

We don’t go there as often anymore but anyone who waited tables during our dating / engagement remember us.

This evening, we are going with another couple – a couple who is dating. We have become more social now that we are married and don’t have to constantly scheme to find time together!

In about an hour, we will be placing our standard order: Two dishes of beef fried noodles and hot tea and all the happy memories of snuggling and gazing into one another’s eyes will waft through our minds like the smells of sweet brown sauce wafting from the swinging kitchen door.

Do you share a “Dating Restaurant”? Tell us about it!

Marriage Doesn’t Pay

  • October 19, 2006 at 1:37 pm

One of the most ridiculous things we have ever heard was someone claiming they were getting married not for love but for the tax break.

Such nonsense is closely related to those claiming that gay men and women are advocating legalized gay marriage primarily because they want to enjoy the tax benefits of marriage.

Whatever tax advantage marriage brings is quite overshadowed by the expenses of married life. A married person needs to start thinking about retirement, all sorts of insurance, mortgages, a bigger chance of medical expenses, the expense of raising children and numerous other marriage-related expenses.

Staying at your parent’s house or friend’s apartment is no longer much of an option for the married couple.

For a great article on the expenses of married life as compared to single life published by Yahoo!, visit this link.

When planning your wedding, try not to deplete your savings account. When married, a healthy savings account is a huge help when unexpected surprises like a medical emergency or a car needing repairs pop up.

Let us know your thoughts on the article and this post. We hope you have a great day!

U.S. Cost of Wedding – Current Stats

  • October 18, 2006 at 12:39 pm

So, how much, on average, does the bride and groom spend on a U.S. wedding?

The answer is astonishing: $27,490

Of course, some people have weddings that cost much more. In fact, celebrity magazines seem to play it off as a contest to see who can spend the most on their wedding day!

At the other end of the scale, there is our wedding that cost us less than $2,000 – about $1,800. What is amazing is that we spent less on our entire wedding than many people spend on certain categories of their wedding planning. See the breakdown for the U.S. average:

Current Wedding Cost by Category

Wedding Attire $2,587

Wedding Ceremony $2,507

Wedding Favors & Gifts $1,113

Wedding Flowers $1,955

Wedding Jewelry $2,051

Wedding Music $946

Wedding Photography & Video $3,662

Wedding Reception $14,067

Wedding Stationery $841

Wedding Transportation $407

If you have seen our wedding photos, you know that we had a very classy wedding. There is simply no reason to spend that much money on a wedding when you can get similar results at much less expense.

The problem is that most people just don’t know how to get great results without paying the big bucks. That is where our book comes in!

We would love to see more successful $2,000 weddings out there! Or even a $5,000 wedding would be a rarety!

Hop onto the road of wedding savings with Wedding Planning on a Budget!

Want to know how much the average wedding costs where you live? Check it out!

Don’t let your wedding become a statistic! Get our book for tried and true cost saving advice!

A Word to the Wise…

  • October 17, 2006 at 9:25 am

Just a quick note to let you know that if you have not yet purchased the full-length version of Wedding Planning on a Budget then you should not wait another day!

Due to overwhelming demand and preassure from our sales team, we have agreed to increase the price tomorrow, Wednesday of October 18.

This will be the first of several major price increases. Get your copy now while the price is still less than $10.

To purchase and download your copy, CLICK HERE!

We hope you do not miss out on this bargain. If you are reading this post late and have already missed out on the chance to get the book for less than $10, please realize that the current price is also subject to go up without notice. You really should purchase now before the demand drives the price up further.

Truth is that this book will always be very inexpensive compared to the amount of money it will help you save on your wedding. The price of Wedding Planning on a Budget should not be an issue to you since it will pay for itself many times over.

That being said, we will always strive to keep the price as low as the market permits.