A Great Wedding on a Small Budget

I am planning my wedding all on my own and we are paying for it ourselves.

That being said I was looking for any way to save money. I am in the wedding business and know very much about weddings. I learned that the beach is free to use in most places; some beaches do require a deposit that you get back. This is the best location for a ceremony that I found at no cost.

I ended up looking at some state, county and city parks. I found that if you live in the city you can use the park for a party or get together for free, although they told me that I might want to reserve a pavilion ahead of time so you get the one you want for sure. It requires a small deposit that you get back after all is cleaned up.

So I am planning on having the ceremony early in the morning on the beach. And going to the city park (which is beautiful) and using a pavilion for the reception party. A couple of friends that are not in the wedding party offered to set things up at the beach for us. And our aunts and uncles offered to help with the setup of the reception area that is going to have fabric draped and lights inside of the pavilion as well as the tables and floor for the dances.

Everything else was done very cheap or free including the food, which was a chicken or steak meal with all of the sides. We decided to go to a meat market to buy the meat ourselves in bulk. When you pick it, it is not cut up but they cut it for you. This makes it a lot cheaper.

We have some family members cooking the food on the provided grill that is huge enough to fit food for everyone at the wedding. And family members are making the side dishes the day before.

I even found a photographer that will give two hours of shooting time and the CD of all the photos he took that day for a very low price. I had to talk him down from his price but I feel like we got a great price on that as well.

Everything seems to be working out for us with our very small budget.