In '93' when my daughter got married her wedding was planned for September. However, her best friend couldn't make it to Denver from California at that time and none of her plans were working out. So she decided to move it up to June. Mind you this was May when the plans changed and so we had so many things to plan in a short time.
I found her dress at a yard sale. The gal who sold it never used it because they broke off the engagement. It was beautiful. The original cost was $800.00 and I got it for $150.00 that day. Wow! Or you can be logical and buy an elegant dress you can wear again and again. The same goes for tuxedos, just buy a nice suit you can wear again and again. Now you can try craigslist and ebay and if you want to you can try preownedweddingdresses. Their website is listed below. (I just went on craigslist and found a beautiful wedding dress size 10 for $150. never worn originally $500.)
Now you need a place and if you have a wedding coming up in June, you had better find and reserve your spot now or you won't find one later. If was very rare to find place when my daughter got married because it was May and she was getting married in two weeks. I called everywhere and finally found the recreation center in Englewood. They had a cancellation for the weekend we wanted it.
The nice thing about renting a room at a rec center is that they have the tables and chairs and so that eliminates the need to rent some. Plus they usually have a kitchen available for the food. But you still need to find out if they have any table linens. If not you can rent them from most any rental yard. They rent everything for weddings. They even have the dishes if you want china.
As for centerpieces, you can do something simple and elegant. Try getting some tall cylindrical vases and put some clear marbles in the bottom and about 3 or 4" of water. Then put one orchid stem with blooms inside each vase. The flower blossoms fill the vase and are so pretty. Or you can just buy an orchid plant for each table and then put a sticker under one persons plate. At the end of the evening ask the D.J. to announce that whoever has the sticker under their plate takes the orchid home as a gift. That's easy and you don't have to take home any centerpieces.
Photographs, if you are not too picky, can be a real easy fix if you have a pretty nice digital camera. I bought mine at Sam's Club a couple of years ago and have been having a blast with it ever since. It is a Sony Cyber Shot with a Zeiss lens. Just get a friend to take them for you then upload them to your computer and edit them with picasa google. It is one of the most user friendly photo programs out there. I have cropped, and re-cropped, changed lighting, etc. all with picasa. It is free to upload and the photo's can be stored on a disk and then you can easily take them to Walmart or Sam's Club or wherever and get the exact ones printed that you want. A cute idea for some candid shots is to put a disposable camera on every table and let your guests take some photos too.
Cake. What to do about cake. Most people have cake at their reception. It is tradition. Ordering cake from Sam's Club would be alright. A couple of sheet cakes and just a small round one for the wedding party will work just fine. That gives the opportunity for variety. I have been to a few weddings where that was done and nobody seemed to mind at all. In fact you can even jazz it up a bit with some small orchid blossoms tucked around the outside of the cake edges.
Then just hire a D.J. for the music. Or you can have a friend D.J and get the music you want put onto a computer program.
Sometimes simple is best. So keep it simple. Don't let your wedding make you crazy. Too many details can do that you know.
If you plan an early wedding you don't need food. If you plan a dinner time wedding people will be hungry. Catering will run the price through the roof. If you have family that likes to help you can make your own food ahead of time and put it into the freezer. I had a friend who made all of the food for her daughter's wedding and put it all in the freezer in aluminum trays. Then for the wedding the trays were warmed and put into the chafing dishes and served. You can get the chafing dish racks at Sam's Club for a very reasonable price. They also sell the Sterno cans to keep the food warm, and the aluminum trays for the food. You buy the large trays and put a couple of inches of water in them, then you buy the shorter ones and put two of them on top of the larger one containing the water. The water is heated by the Sterno cans and keeps the food warm. Then you just hire a couple of people to make sure the trays are kept filled and that's it. You can do turkey in one tray and ham in the other. That way people have a choice. Then just serve a simple Caesar salad and some dinner rolls and some mashed potatoes and that's it. Easy huh? Well....maybe not but it doesn't have to get too complicated. In fact, Sam's Club sells some instant mashed potatoes that are down right yummy. All natural too. You could even cook the meat a month ahead of time and slice it up thin and put it into the trays and freeze it so that all the food is taken care of before hand.
The punch is easy. Buy a couple of large punch bowls from the second hand store. Get some lemon lime soda and some frozen berry juice and lots of ice. Add the lemon lime soda to the frozen berry juice and dump in a bag of frozen berries. Have one person in charge of refilling the punch bowls. It is delicious and not too expensive, especially if you get the juice and soda on sale.
Plan on going to the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show, if you get your tickets online they are$2.00 off the regular price. Click on the link below for more information. Dates are: April 26th at the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show Colorado Convention Center - Korbel Ballroom 700 14th St., Denver, CO
And: Sunday, September 20, 2009 11:00 am ? 4:00 pm at the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show Embassy Suites Hotel, Spa & Conference Center 4705 Clydesdale Parkway, Loveland, CO
And: Sunday, January 31, 2010 11:00 am ? 4:00 pm also at the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show Embassy Suites Hotel, Spa & Conference Center 4705 Clydesdale Parkway, Loveland, CO
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