I do...on a budget?

Yes. Yes. And yes.

It is my opinion that getting into massive amounts of debt for a wedding is...ludicrous. Let's focus on the marriage instead, yes?

However, I do believe you can have a great, memorable wedding...on a budget. Now. Budgets vary. I have friends whose budgets included $1000 or more wedding dresses...and others whose entire budget didn't even reach $1000. So, I'm not going to give tips on how to throw a wedding for X amount. Everyone has a different budget and has different resources available. Our church has pretty frequent weddings, and none have had extravagant budgets. Mine was done very modestly, and I recently coordinated a wedding with an almost non-existent budget. ;) Here are some tips and tricks I've picked up:

Catering kills the budget. For our wedding, we did the food ourselves. This was challenging because a lot of places require a catered meal; however, we found a hall at a local park that didn't care. We had our reception in the afternoon to avoid serving a huge meal, and then, the day before, we headed to Sam's and stocked up on different breads, meats, cheeses, and veggies. We borrowed a zillion trays and assembled veggie, meat, and cheese trays for sandwiches while my mother-in-law whipped up chicken salad and jello salad as other options. A friend made salsa and we supplied the chips...and then we borrowed a couple of small chocolate fountains (all you need is some chocolate chips!) and set up a fondue station with marshmallows, fruit, angel food cake, and pretzels. We had a TON of food, and it was much cheaper than catering.

There are also economical full-meal options that are fairly easy for you to pull together for the reception. Some ideas from recent weddings: enchiladas, chicken w/potato salad/veggie/rolls, and lasagna (they used frozen Stouffers! It was great!). These are easy to prepare in bulk and serve and much cheaper than catering. We usually ask people in our church to step in and serve; everyone is usually game. I've done it a time or two myself. :)

Don't spend a fortune on decor. Find crafty people. Seriously. For my wedding, we hit up the after-Christmas sales and bought silver ribbon on sale, and then my MIL made all of our pew bows, table bows, and misc decor out of them.

Even if you're NOT crafty, there is hope. Pinterest? It.is.awesome. Also, there are very easy things to do that, really, are foolproof. See this?

I made it. I'm INEPT with crafts. But, for my friend's vintage wedding, even I was able to help create pinwheels and cut flags made out of scrapbook paper. The pinwheels decorated the aisle and were used as centerpieces, and the flags were draped over the entire reception. It was darling:

Splurge only on what matters. For me, it was the flowers. I.hate.fake.flowers. So. My flowers were real. But I kept them to a minimum. I ordered my bouquet, my girls' bouquets, and bouts for the bridal party from a florist, and then I ordered just plain roses, which J's aunt, who used to a florist, used to construct simple corsages and bouts for everyone else (family, ushers, cake servers, etc). Another friend splurged on a dress that was way more expensive than she intended...but she LOVED it. And she was willing to have a simpler reception to have the dress she wanted.

Keep the main thing the main thing. You're getting married. Truth is...you're the only one obsessing over all of the little details. Don't lose sight of the big picture; when the day comes, you want it to be all about you and your fiance making a lifelong commitment to each other.

Mere Frugality...and a baby? :)

Yup. That's right. Our little one is due November 20, though we suspect he/she may be coaxed into an entrance a bit earlier due to the havoc he/she is wreaking on said author's body. ;) We are absolutely over the moon, and, as you can imagine, I may be posting here and there about how to approach pregnancy/parenthood with a frugal mindset as we work through this.

Unfortunately, as far as pregnancy goes, this baby is NOT starting out with his/her mom's frugal viewpoint, as we are rather wryly referring to him/her as the million-dollar baby with its tendency to make me have to take very expensive medications and treatments just to...um..survive the pregnancy. And, as a precursor to the grand arrival, mom has to take a very big step back from the career field, as I cannot hold a steady job past my second trimester for fear of bedrest/pre-term labor. So, I will be working what I can...when I can..and probably REALLY blogging about frugality again. :)