So how was your cheap wedding?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Not mine, but my parents’.

Dad was in the Army, and Mom was teaching school. (They weren’t even living in the same town at the time, I don’t think–I’m pretty sure Mom was teaching school near Arlington, VA and Dad was in the Army at Frederick, MD.) They’d been engaged for awhile (Dad’s grandma’s ring, so they got it free), and they suddenly realized a few hard facts:

  1. They were broke.
  2. If they had money, they’d rather spend it on something they needed, rather than a wedding.
  3. My grandparents couldn’t afford the expenses of a wedding–even just travel and new clothes–that they would feel obligated to make if Mom & Dad had any kind of wedding.

So they took off from work on Friday afternoon and went to have a blood test. While they waited for the results, they had a beer in a bar across the street from the courthouse. Got the results, went and got married in their street clothes. (I saw Mom’s dress years later–very 1967. Madras plaid miniskirt dress.)

That night, they bought a very tough steak as a “treat” for dinner, and spent the “honeymoon” at Mom’s apartment.

Mom called up her father (my granddad) the next day and said, “Hi, Dad, Bob and I got married.”

My grandfather hung up on her.

My grandmother called my Mom back and explained, “He’s not angry, honey–he just didn’t know what to say.”

On Monday, they went back to their respective jobs. When Mom was asked what she did over the weekend, she said, “Oh, I got married.”

I think the only things they paid for were the blood test, license, rings, and the tough steak. :slight_smile:

42

We spent somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500 for the whole of our wedding, which is pretty cheap concidering how big it was.

We had about 150 people who needed feeding, so the food was the most expensive part of the deal - $1,200.

For my dress, I bought the purple fabric (wearing all white makes me look like a giant marshmellow) and my mom-in-law to be put it together as a 30th birthday gift.

Friends helped with the wedding and reception details rather than buy gifts, which not only saved us money but meant far more to us than, say, towels from JC Penny ever could.

Two pals made the white and purple cake, another group chipped in for a weekend honeymoon in Loudenville, Ohio (supposidly where Bogart and … oh, CRAP, what is her name? THey honeymooned there as well).

We got married outside at Euclid Park under a big tree alongside Lake Erie and then held the reception at a party hall on the grounds. Price of 6 hours rental - $150. Just couldn’t have alcohol at the reception, which was fine by us. Pleasnty of coffee, soda and water to go around.

And since the bride and groom were cutting corners, it seemed unfair for the bridal party to dole out lots of cash for their wedding clothes. The bridesmaid dresses - plain black dresses that can ACTUALLY be worn again - for only $40. FOr they guys, we made matching…oh, I can’t think of words today! Not a cummerbun, but something you wear draped over one shoulder? ANyway, those and we told them to wear white shirts and balck pants an shoes. Simple!

I noticed some of the weddings described here could be classified as non-traditional, starting with the color of bridal dresses. It seems “traditional” has become synonamous with “Paying through the nose.”
Patty in Purple

43

I don’t know the exact cost, but our wedding was fairly inexpensive. We had it in a friend’s garden, with cold cuts as food. Mrs. Chuck bought a gown fairly cheap. I’d guess the most expensive thing was about $300 for a honeymoon in Montreal.

44

What a wonderful offer!

I hope someone takes you up on this! If I still lived in Erie, I’d have you remarry us, just so I could meet you and shake your hand! Please tell us if this actually happens and how it goes. I wanna send the newlyweds something - I get all squitzty inside thinking I might’ve started something that would end up in a Doper Union!

45

“Hello, I would like to buy a man license.”

“A what?”

“A license for my pet man, Eric.”

“How’d you know my name was Eric?”

“No no no my man’s name is Eric, Eric the man.”

“You’ve got a pet man?”

“Yes. I chose him out of thousands. I didn’t like the others, they were all too flat.”

“You must be a looney!”:smiley:

46

Gazelle, nope, sorry chickie, but me and Mr2U win.

License - $30
Rings - $75
Dress - Free - suit I already had
Tux - Free - suit he already had
Lunch - Paid for by mom
Horseracing winnings since we had our reception at Arlington Trackside across from the courthouse - $200.

We ended up unspending $95. :smiley:

47

“Man license.” Hee hee.

I wanted to elope. I was 30, Myron was 33, first time for both of us. All of our other siblings had been married for years so I didn’t think we should have to make a fuss about it. But we did, for our families.

My mom, a professional seamstress, made my dress (put together from three different patterns, the MOH’s dress (she still wears it) and did all the flowers in silk.

My dad paid for our wedding night in the most beautiful B&B in the county.

My aunt, who works in a bakery, made the cake.

My other aunt, who’s a music teacher, did the music.

My FIL, who’s a professional photographer, did some pictures.

My brother, who’s a KC, got the hall for free. The food cost the most - 100 or so guests.

Our honeymoon we went camping in the Northwoods, with some nice new equipment received as wedding gifts.

Total: ~$1200

The only thing that sucked was that we were supposed to have the ceremony in my parents’ back garden, under the grape arbor. Beautiful clear day for the rehearsal, miserable gray rainy day for the wedding. Had to have it in the church instead. Pthhhhh.

-Myra

48

Add us to the list of cheap weddings!

Our church wedding was free, since our priest would never think to charge regular attendees for a simple thing like a wedding. We hand-wrote our invites; about 25 of them, including one for then-president Clinton and his family, who, rudely enough, didn’t show up, even though we assured them that there was room to drop a helicopter in the vacant lot next to the church.

Made my dress myself with remaindered material that was $1.99 a yard (it took 5 yards, IIRC) so that was about $25 with notions.

Got our flowers (3 yellow roses and a bunch of daisies) at the grocers for $7.99, and picked up our 25 assorted balloons (50 cents each, inflated) there too.

Our reception was pot-luck in the priest’s back yard. My new sister-in-law consumed a salad containing sunflower seeds, to which she is allergic, and promptly swelled up. Father Ron made a sangria punch out of his stash of sacramental wine and fruit from the fridge and we all had a terrific time.

We spent our first night on the floor of a friend’s house, where a mouse ran over my pillow while we were consumating the marriage! The next morning my new hub got into the truck, and I took the car, and we drove all day and night to reach Washington State, where we have been living ever since. (We like to tell people we’re still on our honeymoon.)

That’s nine years in October. And to quote Gabriel Garcia-Marquez: “They grew to be so happy that even when they were two worn out old people they kept on… playing together like dogs.”

49

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by look@hergo! *
**Add us to the list of cheap weddings!

We hand-wrote our invites; about 25 of them, including one for then-president Clinton and his family, who, rudely enough, didn’t show up, even though we assured them that there was room to drop a helicopter in the vacant lot next to the church.

]Did Bill at least send a gift?

50

Oops, forgot to add (though it may have been obvious): my parents were married in April 1967, so they’ve been married 36 years.

51

[hijack] I sent Clinton an invitation to my college graduation in 1998 and I received a congratulatory letter from the White House, signed by El Presidente himself (or at least the machine that does the mass signing). Very cool! [/hijack]

52

Mrs Bookkeeper and I had been living together for 10 years. We had intended to get married eventually, but the deciding factor was when the income tax rules changed so that common-law marriages were treated as badly as real marriages (must claim family income instead of individual income for calculating deductions if this will reduce deduction amount), so removing our last minor benefit to not being married.

Mrs Bookkeeper went down to the courthouse to get the marriage licence, and discovered that she had, in fact, NOT been divorced for the last 15 years, as her idiot lawyer had never gotton around to filing the final papers to make it all legal, and was no longer in practice (or in province). Luckily, we were able to track down the lawyer who had his files and get it sorted out in time.

We had wanted to get married on the 10th anniversary of our moving in together (made it easier to calculate anniversaries), but that was a Saturday, so we had to do it the day before. Short notice after the delay in getting the licence, but we had no problem getting a time with the Justice of the Peace (not a lot of people wanting to get married on Friday the 13th for some reason :smiley: ).

Cost? as I recall, about $50 for the licence and JP fee, the rings were free (sentimental heirlooms - mine was her late father’s, her’s my late grandmother’s), and we had immediate family over for a pot luck lunch in the back yard afterwards.

Her first marriage was a traditional one with all the trimmings and lasted about 4 years. The El Cheapo is 10 years + 10 years of living together and still going strong.

53

I still say I had the cheapest wedding out of everyone here :slight_smile:

54

SWMBO and I celebrated will celebrate our 127th anniversary on 11/17 ( I do them every month - keeps her on her toes!). Our relationship has lasted longer than either one of our previous marriages. I think the secret was that we didn’t bother to get married before setting up shop together. So our total expenses are $0.

However, the Teenaged Terror has announced that when she decides to tie the knot, we’re gonna have to fork out some serious coin. So I’ve decided to let her pay for her own college education. Fair trade, I think :slight_smile:

55

Wow, I’m a big spender. We eloped, but had our attendants and still had a somewhat formal affair.

IIRC:
$400 for rental of the estate for 2 nights - a 4 bedroom house and use of the grounds
$300 for photog and all the film (We developed it at Fred Meyers)
$100 for my dress, he already owned a tux
$150 for dinner and drinks after for the 4 of us afterwards.
$20 for ferry fare to get to the island
$60 for his shoes he had to run out and buy the morning of the wedding when he realized he’d forgotten his
$80 for the cake, flowers, and random decorations the estate owner pulled together for us.
$40 for the license.

so ~$1200.

This left gobs of money left over for a kickass honeymoon and downpayment on our home. Suits me fine - I wouldn’t have done it any other way. It was one wonderful, memorable day of my life, but I’m just so glad we didn’t spend all that cash.