I was over in the Pit, reading everybody’s pile-up on twickster in this thread (I only got as far as the bottom of page 1, tho). I found myself reflecting on my cheap marraige, and while I wanted to join the few who had put in encouraging stories of their own cheap weddings to soothe the frazzled nerves of those soon to wed, I didn’t think it’s be prudent to slog all the way through 2 more pages to do it.
So here’s the proper forum.
Mr. singular and I were married way cheap. I had earned 2 free round-trip first claas tickets anywhere, due to excessive business travel. We went to New Zealand, and I decided I’d finally say yes, being on the other side of the world and all. We paid about $30 to a JP in Rotorua, with a couple Maori clerics that worked in his office standing in as witnesses. That evening we spent about $80 to go to a Hangi (sp? Prolly not), which is sort of like a Maori luau, during which the hostess, a former Miss New Zealand, learned from the people we’d been seated with that we had wed that day. She brought us up and made us part of the interactive show, and afterwards all the performers lined up and bumped noses and shook hands and hugged us and wished us well, and sangus a special Maori wedding song. When we returned to our hotel, the innkeeper and his wife had bought us a bottle of pink champagne, which we all dramk together before turning in. We made up postcards and sent them to friends and family back home, announcing the union, which cost about $40. It was the best damn wedding I could’ve ever hoped for!
Well, you’ve got about as much chance of me getting married as you have finding Saddam astride a nuclear missile, but that was a lovely story, ** singular1**. Thank you for that.
Anytime you get divorced, let me know!
Why, thank you, London_calling. To tell you the truth, I had about the same odds for getting married. As a matter of fact, the postcard announcements we made said “On this day in New Zealand, the Moon turned Blue, Hell Froze Over and Mr. and Mrs singular1 got married.” Caught up in the moment, we was.
But if it goes bad, I gotcha bookmarked!
Why, thank you, London_calling. To tell you the truth, I had about the same odds for getting married. As a matter of fact, the postcard announcements we made said “On this day in New Zealand, the Moon turned Blue, Hell Froze Over and Mr. and Mrs singular1 got married.” Caught up in the moment, we was.
But if it goes bad, I gotcha bookmarked!
bookmarked twice, apparently!
You certainly made an impression!
Had me a cheap wedding. About $300 for the whole thing I think. Not as cheap as singular1, but you judge.
Bought the dress (red, not white) for $90 at a poor folks’ dressup store. Brooklyn City Hall for the vows, with only maid of honor present; wedding breakfast at a local diner. Friend’s house for the reception.
Maid of honor made the bouquet out of vegetables. Fantastic thing, broccoli at the center, 3 rows of vegetables, cabbage leaves on the outside. Good thing we all got drunk and forgot to throw it, it would have killed somebody.
Made the cake. Used random pans; the top slid off during the reception. Covered its icing with tiny toys from a local kid’s store. On one side, a plastic groom, back pressed to the icing; on the other, a she-bear wearing a veil, hunting. During the drunken bash (did I mention drunken?), someone said to me, “I understand why the compass (there was a compass in the top in the middle), because marriage needs direction. And I understand why the hammer and shovel (there were a crossed hammer and shovel stuck in the side), because marriage needs tools. But why the goldfish?” I giggled (did I mention drunken?), and said definitively, “Because marriage needs fish!”
There was a pinata, during which some of the kids in attendance almost took out some guy’s groin, and the last photo from the reception is of my new husband wearing the ass of the pinata upside down on his head.
Did I mention drunken?
A grand time was had by all. So far as we remember. We’re never divorcing; couldn’t take the state of drunkenness.
We had just bought this big old Victorian money pit, that we still live in, and got married in the side yard. Guests were her parents, my parents, and a handfull of our closest friends. The Justice of the Peace came up from the county seat to perform the ceremony, and afterwards we had a barbeque in the back yard.
Between the JotP’s fee and the food and drink I think we spent about $200.00. It must have been good enough, 'cause we’re still married 14 years later.
sultana of slash, you just became my hero!
This reminds me of my 30th birthday. So sure was I that I’d never wed that I threw myself a Wedding Deception as a birthday party. Among the guests was every guy I ever dated (that I could track down). All the guys had to wear name tags that said “She wouldn’t Marry Me, Either”. My cake had a top layer supported by crumpled beer cans, and under the bower on the cake was a “Vacancy” sign. All the men held my hand as we cut the cake. Every mind-altering substance known to man was ingested, and we partied well into the night.
Congratulations on your beautiful wedding!
Courthouse, Friday afternoon.
My red-and-black dress (that I wore to several other parties), $70. Old shoes, old hat, old earrings.
His shirt, pants, shoes, tie (He still wears all of them): I dunno, maybe $100 all together
Ice cream cake: $20
5 corsages/boutonnieres at the grocery floral dept.: $20
Wedding rings: ~$700 for all three (mine, his, engagement)
Dinner for 23 people (gift from my mother, but I knew the cost): about $300 with tip for the waitresses
Laser show at the hotel where we all went for drinks after dinner: Free (part of a summer festival)
Honeymoon (weekend in Milwaukee): Financed by cash gifts, about $200, plus a bit on credit cards
13 years of wedded bliss and counting: Priceless 
My husband and I were married New Year’s Day at the end of a fishing pier over a frozen lake. There was actually a covered area at the end of the pier large enough to accomodate plenty of friends. It was New Year’s Day and everyone came as their real selves – radios for the football games, boots and warm clothing, and beer.
Our minister was someone we had met on a BBS (a forerunner of the internet) as was his wife who did our rehersal dinner and reception.
Several of our friends there we had known first over our computers. In fact, that’s how I met the groom.
I wore a dress I already owned and the groom wore his birthday suit. Well, actually, a suit I had given him for his birthday a month before. There was no rental on the pier. The rehersal dinner and reception were gifts. I think my husband gave the minister $50.
We wrote our own vows – what wasn’t borrowed from Robert Frost – and my step-daughter was both my maid-of-honor and my “something blue.”
Everyone gave it a year at best. That was almost eighteen years ago.
Best part of this thread? All these cheap weddings have some serious legs! Mr. singular and I have been together 16 years so far!
Well, ours was pretty pricey by this thread’s standards, but cheap compared to the average wedding.
I found a gorgeous ballgown at the mall in ivory and gold, on sale for $135, and had it altered by a lady Mom works with for $20. We spent another $40 on gold leather pumps, and another $30 on jewelry. A friend made my veil and I made the headpiece, for a total of about $10. Dr.J wore the suit he’d gotten for his residency interviews, with a new shirt and tie, about $50. We bought my ring off eBay for $45, and he bought his at the French Market for $2.
My mother and I did all the flowers, silks from Walmart. We also made the centerpieces for the reception, decorated pillar candles. Total cost for all that stuff–around $80. We paid the minister $150, and the reception, with room rental, tax, tips, etc. was right at $1000.
When the time came, Dad walked me down a path in one corner of Jackson Square, where a group of our family and friends waited. We had a reading from an old Erma Bombeck column, and a handfasting ceremony. Instead of having attendants dressed alike and just standing around, we had our mothers and some of our friends drape the cords for us, and others signed the license. Then we all went down the street to the Acme Oyster House, where we stuffed ourselves with oysters, catfish, jambalaya, and the cake my grandma had made for us.
The trip down to New Orleans was probably the most expensive part of the whole thing, and it was under $1500, including gas, b&b, dinners out, entertainment, etc.
It was a beautiful wedding, and it suited us and our relationship perfectly.
El Hubbo snuck out of PT when he was in Tech School for the Air Force. We drove like winged rats outta Hades toward Wichita Falls City Hall, procured our marriage liscense and made the trek to the only JOP open after 4:00 PM. Judge Billy G. Robinson in Iowa Park, Texas. In addition to hitchin’ folks up, the Judge had his own auto repair shop conveniently located adjacent to his chambers.
After removing the grease from his fingernails with a plastic toothpick from his Swiss Army Knife, he married us.
“I have only one piece of advice for you young’ns…” he said sagely.
“Don’t.”
The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed and Bill Clinton entered office.
“Go.”
OJ was acquitted, the Unabomber was caught, George Bush became President…
“To bed.”
This morning he concluded, “Angry.”
Dave and I figured it out the other day. We spent $3000 and still managed to have all the traditional trappings - I had an Alfred Sung dress (He’s a very well-known Canadian designer) and Dave and the men had tuxedoes, plus we fed 50 people and have nice rings. Sounds like a lot, but the site itself was $800.
Wow according to this thread my wedding cost a ton!
We married in hubby’s parent’s backyard. Rented a tent and some tables, chairs and linens and had a catered buffet. (Total about $2200)
Dress, flowers, tux, cake, favors about $500
Playing croquet in my wedding dress on a beautiful fall day after finally marrying my sweetie was tons of fun. Everyone else dressed down into shorts and T shirts but I figure I only get to be the bride once!
We’ve been married 7 years and together 12.
Worked for us. We had a little hippie wedding all the way back in 1973. I wore a red velvet dress my mother made, the music was on a reel to reel, we had a cake, champagne, some deli and a few bunches of roses. It cost about $500.
Married at the courthouse over lunch. We’d met 6 weeks earlier (woulda been 5 weeks, but none of our friends could show up that day). Wedding ring, I don’t remember, like $150. Judge, $30. Reception was lunch at the West End Cafe for the 8 people (including us) who showed up–call it $100. Everybody was sure we were both nuts and it wouldn’t last a month.
Just celebrated our 10th on 10/13. In the last 2 years we have adopted 2 new kids in addition to the 4 we had when we got married.
We had every intention of having a ‘real’ wedding, but for a variety of reasons, including a bizarre blood test law, we eloped to a neighboring, significantly saner, state.
We probably spent about $500 total, including a manicure, new underwear and toothbrushes, and buying the waitstaff at the inn a couple of rounds of drinks (they were such nice kids), etc. The JP was free, she just asked for a donation to our favorite charity.
We sent letters announcing the elopement to everyone, and got a lot of very useful gifts from most in return (very pleasent surprise).
Mrs. Zero and I spent about $300 on ours. Church was most of that, with one Cake (~$20) and a few other odds and ends. Her dress was about $50, I think, and I already had most of my suit. A few friends showed up, and the Minister of Music did the service. We were the first he’d done, and we’re still together six years later.
Of course, he has gotten so much mileage out of the story of our wedding…
The el cheapo aspects of our wedding were fine - my dress, about $70; his suit, probably the same; cake, deli trays, rent-a-minister, my bouquet - who knows? I bet the whole thing ran less than $400. It wasn’t an ideal representation of our personalities, but we were pinched for time (had to be married when we filled out Hubby’s financial aid forms in order to qualify as independents) and back then I didn’t have the strength to struggle w/my mom. So the details were largely hers, but since she and my father had eloped & I didn’t really want any kind of ceremony, it was fine with me. 15 years later I have no regrets & got a wonderful Hubby in the bargain.
Now as to our honeymoon…I do have a story to tell.
As their gift to us, my parents bought us one night in a very fancy, very expensive downtown hotel where we went right after the wedding ceremony. In the morning we planned to begin our drive to Florida, where we largely stayed with relatives (again, el cheapo).
I realized as we were unpacking in the room that I’d forgotten my camera. What’s the fun of a trip to Florida without a camera? So I called home and my father kindly offered to drive all the way downtown and drop the camera off at the concierge’s desk so that we could pick it up. Sounded good. So we went off to dinner at the hotel, which of course was delicious.
When we got back, still no camera - no big deal, we didn’t need it until the morning. Of course we were young and horny, and I’d purchased some kind of ridiculous getup at Frederick’s of Hollywood (these were the days before Victoria and her secrets). All I remember is a lot of pinching and quite a few feathers. Ten minutes later we were getting very cozy and somewhat indecent when all of a sudden I hear a single knock on the door and the door flies open! So of course I screamed.
Well.
Turns out, my father had tried to give the camera to the concierge who decided to turn him over to a bellboy. Without any discussion the bellboy escorted him up on the elevator, knocked on and immediately unlocked our room door, and upon hearing my scream asked my father (standing there with the camera in his hand & his jaw on the floor) “Was that your wife?”.
Fortunately for all of us, the layout of the room was such that everyone’s privacy was maintained. My father managed to gather his wits and the doorknob. He left the camera in the hallway, from which we retrieved it shortly.
I have always wondered what kinds of carryings on regularly occurred at that posh hotel.