Help! My Guest List is Too Long!

Is this something you find yourself saying when taking a look at the prices for the reception vs the people you want to invite to take part in your ceremony and reception?  This is a situation that I found myself in this past week as we worked to finalize the guest list (and make sure that we invited the people my parents knew needed to be invited as well).  While creating our guest list, we started with making a list of everyone we wanted to have at our wedding.  This list was huge!  We knew our limit was around 150 people, but this paper list ended up being around 200.  This was even before my parents' list was brought in.  Adding my parents' list brought the number to about 250, and we needed to start making some decisions.  We started with a high lighter, and went through and high lighted the names of family, very close friends, and people who had some part in the wedding day (my friends doing hair, my hairpiece, photographer, wedding party, officiant, etc).  With the absolute essential people taken care of, we moved onto the people who we would like to see come but may not since they're coming in from out of state.  This ended up being around 30 people; we will send them invites, but we're assuming they're not going to make it out (they are counted in our current count right now, so it won't be a big deal if they actually do come).  The final group of people that we colored were the people who would probably be there (those ones who weren't coming from out of state) for the whole night.  This left around 40 people who weren't high lighted, but we had a plan for a few of these.  After some discussion with my event planner at the hotel, I found out that I could have any number of people at the dance, after the dinner has been cleared.  While there are some wedding sites (The Knot being one of them) that say this is tacky, I don't think it actually matters that much.  It's a great way to save money, and if your wedding is at a time of day where some people might still be working (since we're having ours mid-afternoon on a Friday, this could very well be an issue for some people), it assures them that you still want them to be a part of your big day if you invite them to the party after the fact.  I'm also lucking out in this area because we will be having a hosted bar for an hour after the dinner service, so my guests won't miss out on too much (there will also be some extra cake, so they can probably get some of that, too!).

Guest Book Alternatives

After some lengthy discussions with my fiance, we had decided that we wanted to do something unique for our guest book.  Something that stood out.  After some looking, we knew we wanted to do something with wood, particularly a puzzle.

Picture from: http://www.etsy.com/listing/59278633/wedding-guest-book-puzzle-a-guest-book

  We did some investigating, and discovered that a wooden puzzle guest book doesn't quite fit within our allotted budget, so we needed to come up with something creative.  The alternative didn't come to me until last night while I was pricing out invitations with my mother.  Why not take the concept that we were planning on with the puzzle (people signing them and leaving words of wisdom) and change it into letters for our initials?  It's oodles cheaper, and I think it's even more unique.

Picture from: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&safe=off&q=wooden+letters&ix=sea&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1920&bih=955&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=4361804077919321589&sa=X&ei=p0VdT_mbKYmXtwe3zdGFDA&ved=0CJoBEPMCMAI

These letters, along with our unity painting, will decorate our home and will be able to be on display for everyone, not just tucked away into some box that we won't open until our children talk about getting married.

Photography

When picking a photographer, there are plenty of things that you should look for.  The first thing that many brides look for is price.  I would say that this shouldn't be the first thing you want to look at because there are plenty of times that you're getting only what you pay for (this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we'll go over that later).  Another thing that brides look for is the package details.  This is important, because this details what you're paying for.  There is also the possibility that your photographer won't include a copy of your pictures on a DVD in the lowest package (this isn't common, but it can happen) without paying a fee first.  You will definitely want to find out how many photographers you're going to have on your wedding day.  Multiple photographers means different angles at the ceremony, pictures of the bride AND the groom getting ready (this is especially nice if you're getting ready in separate locations--for a wedding at a hotel, I recommend the groom and groomsmen getting ready in a room at the hotel so that the photographer(s) have an easier time getting pictures of both of you), and two people putting their creative spins on your pictures.
What I'm doing for my wedding is using an amateur photographer.  While there are people who will say that this is a risk, there are plenty of benefits for myself and my photographer.  The benefits to me include  my own creative direction will be taken into account, I'm saving TONS of money, and I know the photographer personally (and we both know what kind of photography the other does).  For the photographer, the biggest benefits are exposure and a direct payment.  This photographer also did my engagement photos, so I know what kind of pictures he takes.

Photo by Alexander King

Perhaps the biggest piece of advice I hope you take away from this is that you need to weigh the risks, decide what you would like to do and how much you would like to spend.  While it is easy to just have someone take pictures with your own digital camera, invest in some sort of photographer, be it professional or amateur.  You don't want to regret the pictures that you have when you look back years later.

What to Look for in a Reception Venue

The biggest suggestion I have is to look at what is included for your precious money.  While you may have found the ideal location, there may be some hidden costs that you're not seeing right away.  You also don't want to go too cheap, because you'll have the same problem of things not being included.  When we were looking for our reception venues, I had two that I was seriously considering going with.  I didn't realize that I had already made my decision until we came home from the second venue.  The first one I looked at was the Embassy Suites.  Their packages were a little expensive but super tempting (not to mention I had a great deal from a wedding fair), but we wanted to check at least one more location before we made a final decision.  Our next stop was the Holiday Inn across the street.  While I liked the interior of the reception venue better than the Embassy Suites (and I did change hotel locations for the Embassy Suites to one I liked much better), the packages weren't as nice--they were definitely cheaper, and that was evident by the things that they included.
The other piece of advice while looking for a venue is their preferred vendors.  While you may have someone who has agreed to make a wedding cake for you at low cost, the venue may not allow it.  This was an issue that I had encountered as I was deciding upon my location.  While I would have loved the cake balls to be my wedding cake, I think it was a good call going with Embassy Suites and using their preferred cake vendor.  The same goes for the reception flowers.  They include different types of center pieces based upon the package that you choose when you go to your tasting.  Now, we've made the decision already about the package, but that's because we weren't able to get the tasting date that we wanted.
Something else you'll want to be careful of is the venue's liquor license.  If the location has a bar, you're usually okay, but if they provide a bar and don't have one on site, your beverage choices may be limited to beer and wine.  This can be a problem for your guests if they don't like beer/wine.
You also may want to ask if the venue will allow you to have more guests arrive after dinner (to save you money).  While a few sources call this being cheap, I call it being smart.  Who cares if everyone isn't invited to dinner?  Are you really that close to everyone that you're inviting?  It will make seating guests much easier, and it means that you can have people come to your wedding reception who may have had to work earlier in the day (this is especially nice for me since my wedding is on a Friday afternoon, and I'm sure a few of the people that I am inviting won't be able to get the time off requested).  It will also help add to the party atmosphere of the reception by having people who are really energized (and not super full after your reception dinner) come in for the best part of the night.
Be sure to ask about what days are cheapest at your venue as well!  All venues have a food minimum and some even have a beverage minimum that will need to be met in order to have your reception at that location. The cheapest day is Sunday, but it will make it a little harder to have a hopping reception unless Monday is a holiday (this is the case with my aunt, so she's in good shape here).  Fridays are also a little cheaper (but not as cheap as Sundays), but sometimes it can really make a difference in the price (there was a big difference at my venue for Fridays vs Saturdays).
When you've picked your location, you're also going to want to make sure that you put in your room block as soon as possible.  In some hotels, blocking the room when the price is the cheapest can alleviate the cost for your guests, since they'll lock that price in for them.
I hope that these small tips can make a difference in your venue choices!

Picture from: http://embassyweddings.com/ceremony-bloomington.html

So Many Weddings, So Little Time (and Money)!

Perhaps some introductions are in order.  I'm the Poor Bride.  My fiance and I decided to start planning our wedding last September, and here we are.  Why am I the Poor Bride?  My fiance and I both work two jobs and go to school, but still don't seem to have enough money left over for anything other than food and a few bills (to be read as, I have a very hard time paying rent to my parents).  We are going to make this work, though, with help from my family and our friends.
I was on the ball right away, acting as if my wedding was only weeks away as I started planning with my mother.  After one wedding fair, I had already picked out my reception venue (Embassy Suites), which also ended up being my ceremony venue as well so we wouldn't have to worry about the weather being a key factor.  Two weeks later, I had my dress (at a cool $100 off from coupons and sales) and about $500 worth of coupons from David's Bridal.  Continuing on, my fiance and I finally agreed on some wedding rings (they're quite beautiful--simple titanium bands with stripes of color).  To save money, I had already started asking friends and coworkers if they were willing to help me out with my wedding.  So far I have one coworker doing my ceremony flowers, two coworkers doing the styling of the wedding party, one making me a head piece, and two making my party favors.  At this point, however, I still hadn't picked out a DJ.  Here I was, stressing out about having to pay the DJ all of the money up front, so I had been waiting for my tax return to do so.  That's when I learned that they only wanted a deposit ahead of time, so I was off the hook there.
Starting at Christmas, my wedding party started going through some changes.  By Valentine's Day, two of my three bridesmaids were engaged, and one of them is having their wedding on June 8th (Elly)!  Now, here's where some of the biggest stress started.  Elly's wedding is in four months.  Some alteration places and bakeries prefer to have six months notice on things like this, so I started stressing out for her.
My goal with this blog is to show other Poor Brides how to extend their budget and have a fantastic wedding for less than $15,000.
Here is my current list of vendors:
Instant Request DJ (ceremony and reception sound)
Embassy Suites Bloomington (ceremony and reception location)
David's Bridal (bridal gown and bridesmaid dresses)
RomasBanaitis (wedding rings)
Kikuike (cake topper)
Buttercream Bakery (cake--sans frosting--provided by venue)
Sweet Pea's Floral (reception flowers provided by venue)
Pocket Full of Posies (ceremony flowers)
Brianna  and Joordan  (hair and makeup)
Amanda and Rachel (cake balls)
Sara H (custom head piece)
Alexander King (photographer)

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