Now, I'm no expert at wedding planning. I, like you, am simply trying to muddle my way through the wedding planning maze. But I'm a little over halfway through and thought I'd gather this wisdom both from my own experience and from the weddings of those close to me. So if you're looking for some practical advice on how to plan an inexpensive-but-perfect wedding, I'm here to help.
If you just got engaged, you're probably wondering where on earth to start. The first thing you want to do is to choose a venue. Seriously, this sets the tone for everything else. How many people will your venue fit? What is the as-is decor? What are the restrictions? These are the things you want to consider when you're looking for that perfect place.
Now if you're like me, you just want to get this ball rolling. So take a word of advice from someone who snatched up the first good offer that was thrown her way: Don't. Take some time on this. Call around. There are a few things that you seriously want to consider.
One place we looked at wouldn't let us have a DJ because it might disturb the other guests. Maybe this wouldn't bother you, but our best man is a DJ, so we definitely wanted one. A lot of places were beautiful, but the pricing put them far beyond our reach. The place we got seemed perfect at first blush... Cheap venue, all linens and some decorations provided, right on the river, and a complimentary bridal suite thrown into the package. After putting our deposit down, however, we discovered the drawback: They had to provide all the food and wouldn't let us bring in any food or drink except for the cake. My husband-to-be worked at a winery at the time, and we can't take advantage now of that half-price wine discount. No shaving costs by having moms prepare hors d'oeuvres. And we can't have anything that they don't have on their menu. For instance, we are having a dessert menu, and were thinking of complimenting the cake with cookies or candies, but can't. Not only that, but the menus are extremely expensive. 120 servings of punch is going to cost us $160. I could make punch for much, much less.
The moral of the story is, take your time choosing your venue. Have a rough estimate of how many people you want there based on the sizes of your families and how many friends you want to have witness your day, and then do your research and find something together with your fiance that is just right for the two of you.
