Remember the old saying, "A wedding is a day, but a marriage is a lifetime."
I am getting married on April 21st. We have both been married before and both done the big church wedding thing and unfortunately we both got to find out the real meaning of "till death us do part" and we found out first hand what "in sickness and in health" really means.
This time we are having a small gathering of family and friends in a historic park in the downtown area here where we live. Then we are having a pot-luck picnic/dinner right there in the park at a restored 1920's train station that has been fixed up super nice, it is in front of a really big nice lake and waterfront park area and if we can just have good weather that day it will be a very nice time for all of us.
It only cost me $115.00 to rent the train depot for the afternoon and have the service in the park. We put a bunch of wedding and reception songs on her Ipod and will play them on her sister's Ipod docking stereo system, no need to pay an expensive DJ to play a bunch of bass-heavy music none of us would like anyway. I have already bought plenty of Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite on sale at CVS for 4 12-packs for $10.00 last week. I bought bottled water too and will pick up several gallons of iced tea from the grocery store that day and keep it all iced down in coolers, but we have no need for alcohol, none of our guests expect alcohol and the park won't allow it anyway. Even if they did we still would not waste money on a bunch of beer or an open bar. We also had a garage sale last week and raised $100.00 that paid for chicken wings from a great local BBQ place, and that includes delivery and the warming pans/sterno gimmicks.
She bought her dress on Ebay for less than $150.00, her mother is making the alterations to it for us for free, and the future Mrs. Jimmy9190 also found very good deals on the rest of her outfit - shoes, flowers, undergarments, etc. She also found great deals online and at the dollar store for table cloths, paper plates, cups, plastic forks, napkins, vases for the tables and all of that. She shopped around and got phenomenal prices. We spent about $50.00 on my shirt and pants, I already have my own nice dress shoes.
We are splurging a bit and will spend about $1,200.00, meals included, to stay for a week at Disney World, we are doing a few days at Port Orleans Riverside and a few days at Coronado Springs. Disney is only about 25 miles from our house. We are already Florida resident annual season passholders and we got a deal on the resort room rates too. Both resort rooms have fridges so we are bringing our own food for breakfast, drinks and snacks in the hotel room so we can save more money on the honeymoon.
This is just our example but you don't have to spend a lot to have a nice wedding. And it does not matter if the guests "expect an open bar". Have the bar if you and your wife want it, not based on what is "expected". My soon to be wife and I both agreed early on that we would much rather have a simple and cheap wedding and then have a nice vacation/honeymoon at Disney for a few days. We made our plans and set a budget and are sticking to it.
To the OP, congrats and good luck in your wedding and marriage.
