Comments on Souris Mariage: Mouse's Adventures as Bride, Newlywed, and Best Woman: One of my favorite mice sent me this question (I'v...

These are great tips! I think it's important ...

2010-05-02T21:44:30.012-05:00

These are great tips! I think it's important to utilize the talents of your friends. My sister drew us a picture that we used for our invitations. A friend of mine who was studying to be a pastry chef did our cake. My cousin did the photography. Your family and friends want to help you. Calling in a few favors will help you save a lot of cash!

My mother gave me the best advice for my low-budge...

2010-03-05T09:48:34.806-06:00

My mother gave me the best advice for my low-budget wedding: Decide what's most important to you and your sweetie, and ignore the stuff that isn't. Check out your local craft, party or hobby store for inexpensive decoration ideas. Our reception venue handled the centerpieces -- taper candles in hurricane glass on mirror tiles, simple, elegant, and FREE! We printed our own programs; Mom's musician friends supplied the ceremony music and my fiance's DJ did the reception. We didn't do the bouquet/garter thing, so I didn't need a throw-away bouquet.

For welcome bags, how about making cookies for your out-of-town guests, and bagging them up with hand-written "we're so glad you're here!" notes? The personal touch will mean more to your guests than anything store-bought, even if they don't eat the cookies.

Best wishes!
Meg Schneider, author, Budget Weddings For Dummies

@Ellie YES YES about the honeymoon. Why in the wor...

2010-03-04T18:19:56.433-06:00

@Ellie YES YES about the honeymoon. Why in the world should a great trip cost so much? I once traveled for three months on $10k, not that long ago.

@Nicole YAY! So glad it helped!

@Rachel and @EVERYBODY: Rachel makes a very important point about not just designating what you can afford, but what you want to spend. (This distinction didn't occur to me because money is real tight at my house right now.)

@Margaret I KNOW, RIGHT?! Flip-flops are great, but the wedding lady was talking about fifty pairs of 'em tied with raffia (stick a fork in my eye right now). What happened to dancing barefoot? People are SUPPOSED to dance barefoot!

Just to throw in my 2 cents (not re: budgeting)......

2010-03-04T12:50:43.544-06:00

Just to throw in my 2 cents (not re: budgeting)... I think the idea of OOT bags is great and thoughtful, but I've never been to a wedding where they were given out. And I didn't mind one bit. I don't know if that's something unique to my friends/family? Or possibly the blogosphere is making us think it's more of a necessity when it's a luxury. Same thing for flip-flops on the dance floor. Would I use them if offered? Yeah, maybe. Do I expect them? No way. I feel the same way about favors and quite a lot of other "must haves."

Dear Mouse this is awesome. Early on I talked with...

2010-03-04T12:39:43.449-06:00

Dear Mouse this is awesome. Early on I talked with certain people in our lives about how many chickens we were budgeting for certain things (dress, food) and have regretted it since. Everyone has an opinion on what you should spend your chickens on. I shared some figures on the blog because I thought it would be helpful for some brides to see, but I doubt I'll give a full breakdown since I live in one of those 60 chickens will barely buy you a venue places.

For budgeting I use a mix of Excel and Quicken. I've tried Mint with my iPhone and some of other things, but I keep going back to good ol' Excel.

Um, hello. How did I not know about Nice Package? ...

2010-03-04T12:25:19.401-06:00

Um, hello. How did I not know about Nice Package? Wow. New procrastination tool...Thank you, Mouse.

Keeping things general, agree with Rachel: If you think out of the box, it will be infinitely less expensive. A friend of mine is having her wedding at a museum. It is costing her 25 chickens. Our wedding was at an estate, owned by the City, and only cost 5 chickens.

I think it's also good to look at it in terms of percentages. We spent 6% on our cake. Is that too much? Maybe for some people. But, for us it was right. We didn't spend more than 25% on food. Some would balk at that number, but for us it was just right; as I've mentioned, I never saw food as "memorable?.

There's more than one way to feather a chicken. Or skin a goat.

I agree that money talk is always hard. I chose to...

2010-03-04T11:52:21.581-06:00

I agree that money talk is always hard. I chose to give the exact budget break down in my post because I am a numbers person, but I realize that it's all relative. Southern California is incredibly expensive, so if we'd had to rent a venue, we would have had a lot of trouble. But in my research I did find plenty of places that would have worked, if you think outside the wedding box (local women's centers often do affordable rentals as do other city buildings).

I think the main thing is to start saving, figure out how much you are comfortable spending (note that this isn't necessarily the same as what you can afford) and then start working from there. You might have to scrap some (or all of) the wedding frippery that you see on blogs, but that's fine. You want YOUR wedding, not someone else's idea of your wedding.

These links are great! Money is so difficult espe...

2010-03-04T10:46:47.503-06:00

These links are great! Money is so difficult especially with the economy the way it is.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU. All of this is great, and th...

2010-03-04T10:05:43.747-06:00

THANK YOU, THANK YOU. All of this is great, and there are so many other links worth exploring, too. Ahhh, big sigh of relief. It CAN be done, y'all!

Thanks for reminding me to draw from my community. I work for an ad agency, and we have many clients in the city where my fiance and I will marry. Helllooo, trade-outs! It never hurts to ask! The other day, I asked my boss if we could print and produce my save-the-dates here in the office. Her answer: "Sure!"

Mouse, thank you again. As always, YOU ROCK!

@Ellie, thank you for your thoughts on the honeymoon. As much as we'd love to lounge beachside, we are getting married in a mountain town where many people honeymoon. If we can afford to book a couple of extra nights there, and go canoeing or hiking or horseback riding, we'll be happy. There's no need to put MORE pressure on ourselves to plan that "trip of a lifetime" and the "wedding of our dreams." HA! - wedding of our dreams... we just want to exchange vows and party.

I definitely agree with a bottle of water - it'...

2010-03-04T08:12:33.659-06:00

I definitely agree with a bottle of water - it's not too expensive, but it's such a nice thing to have and makes your guests think they were thinking of you. Also, guests aren't going to all eat everything you stick in your gift bag, but they will all drink that bottle of water, or take it with them for the trip home.
I also agree with the less expensive honeymoon - but we're keeping our honeymoon domestic and low-key - wedding-planning-world has definitely started thinking that the honeymoon has to be the trip of a lifetime, and that's not true. With any luck, you will go on a lot of trips, not just this one that you have to spend $10,000 on.
Mint.com is also a great tool for managing your money generally, and reminds you when you've gone over your budget spending in other areas. We use google docs for our budget for the wedding, but we use Mint and Quicken to track our other spending.