Our One Heart
In the US, the average wedding costs around $27,000. It’s as much as a downpayment for a house. But of course, it’s the most special day in your life and if you’re got the dough, why not splurge?
However, if you’re on a really, really tight budget. You can still have the wedding of your dreams for $150. Mary Beth Baptiste shows us how.
You might call me a minimalist, or just plain cheap, but when I set out to plan my recent wedding I didn’t want anything elaborate. My husband-to-be, Richard, agreed, although he did harbor a wish for a Vegas drive-through wedding with an Elvis impersonator as our witness.
While nearly $30,000 may buy more glitz, it can’t buy more joy or romance. Our own wedding in the woods was intimate, dreamy and definitely one-of-a-kind. We snow shoed a short distance into the trees and found a pine alcove for our chapel. Our Unitarian-Universalist minister read some inspirational passages we had chosen, we exchanged our own vows and we kissed. Two friends photographed the ceremony with a digital camera and surprised us by popping open a bottle of champagne they’d carried into the woods in a backpack. Throughout the ceremony, light from the sun and clouds patterned through snow-laden trees. The usual Wyoming wind was absent.
Afterward we enjoyed a simple dinner at a cozy caf, complete with wood stove, in Centennial, a town of 100 at the base of the Snowy Range. A few weeks later, we ordered a special cake from a bakery and e-mailed an open invitation to our friends for a potluck dinner, minus gifts. We have a marriage certificate and an online photo album to share with family and friends. The final rundown: Marriage license: $25. Dinner for five: $60. Minister’s snowshoe rental: $15. Flowers: $25. Champagne: $10. Cake: $15. Online photo album: free. Total: $150.
We even had a flower dog.
Cool eh? What about you? How much did you wedding cost? Did you have a tight budget? How did you manage to have the wedding of your dreams with your tight budget?
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Image details: Daily Life In The Carribean served by picapp.com
When we think of honeymoons, we think of going to a specific destination for some R&R and of course, for some alone time with our beloved. I have found recently that honeymoon cruises are gaining popularity as an alternative. I’ve had friends and relatives who have experienced a holiday cruise and they said that contrary to popular opinion, there are heaps you can do aboard the ship while sailing from one island to the other!
Why don’t you try it?
Groom Groove gives you the low-down on honeymoon cruises:
Cost: Cool
The cost of a honeymoon cruise can be less than a traditional honeymoon, with 7-9 day, all-inclusive packages starting at about $600. Included in the price of many cruises are: meals, accommodations, entertainment, and activities aboard the ship. The cost of a non-cruise honeymoon would include airfare, accommodations, meals, subsequent travel arrangements at the arrival destination, and activities, all left up to the busy groom. Even many all-inclusive couples packages cant match the value of a cruise with multiple destinations.
Multiple Destinations: Cool
The non-cruise honeymoon has a bit more freedom. This may seem to some grooms and brides like a plus, but it can be very easy to waste time trying to figure out which destinations on one particular continent or island are worth visiting, and how exactly to get there. On a cruise honeymoon, the just married couple is able to research each stop on the cruise ahead of time and rest assured that everything will fit into the cruise lines itinerary. Gulliksen tells Groom Groove: A cruise is a great and affordable way for couples to see the different countries in Europe, especially with the Euro being so strong compared to the U.S. dollar. Gulliksen explains that the Eastern and Western Caribbean are also some of the more popular routes.
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Image details: Salma Hayek served by picapp.com
Did you know that Salma Hayek’s fiance, French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault is planning to spend $3.5 million on their wedding in a ceremony in France next spring.
Wow, crazy! $3.5 million for a wedding! How will Salamat and Francois-Henri spend their dosh:
- The couple is having a Cinderella wedding theme
Obviously, an expensive theme if you ask me!
- Salma’s wedding dress will cost $500,000 - a customised wedding gown made by Nicolas Ghesquiere, who previously designed Nicole Kidman’s wedding dress.
What will be in it, diamonds? How can a wedding gown cost that much
- The couple reportedly plan to fly in 400 guests on private jets to join them for the five-day celebrations, which will be held at a chateau near St. Tropez.
The couple is obviously not feeling the crunch of the rising price of oil. If you’re a billionaire, there’s no financial crisis you can feel I suppose!
- The ceremony and the reception will be off the charts. Guests will eat Beluga caviar, fresh lobster and Kobe beef from Japan. They will enjoy the finest French and Italian wines and champagne. The total food budget for food and alcohol is more than $1 million.” The couple are also said to have ordered an impressive seven-tier wedding cake which will cost around $100,000.
Perhaps they’ll also have money trees as table centerpieces for the guests to take home or they’ll have $10,000 worth of wedding favors!
- The flower budget alone is almost a million dollars.
Wow, a million dollars for things that will wilt the next day. Maybe they are flowers that last forever that’s why they cost that much?
I’m blown away with the wedding budget. I wish I can witness a wedding like that just so I report here at Our One Heart!
Anyway, best of luck to the gorgeous Salma and Francois-Henri. May your marriage last forever. If not, it’s a waste of $3.5 million!
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Nothing surprises me anymore. Engaged couples find unique ways to raise funds (or save for their wedding). This time, a bride got the idea to auction a spot in her bridal party to raise funds to pay for her wedding in eBay.
It worked.
The winner paid more than $5,000 for the opportunity! The person doesn’t even know the couple! Weird!
Being a bridesmaid can be expensive, as any woman who has been fitted for a dress she did not pick out, or spent hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket, can attest. But, then again, most bridesmaids know the bride.
Then, there is Kelly Gray and her fifth bridesmaid.
Ms. Gray, a Virginia Beach hairdresser, auctioned off the chance to be a bridesmaid in her April 2009 wedding on eBay. The winning bid on Wednesday was $5,700.
Ms. Gray, 23, had long dreamed of being a bride, but she and her fianc, Karl Gau, could not afford the $7,000 wedding they have planned at the Virginia Beach Conference Center.
While other children would say they wanted to be a teacher or singer when they grew up, I would always say that I wanted to be a beautiful bride! Ms. Gray wrote on eBay.
She said she did not want anything fancy, no horse-drawn carriages or ice sculptures, just a three-layer cake and dancing. I want a wedding, Ms. Gray said in an interview. Normal is expensive.
Ms. Gray said she had tried entering contests, saving money and writing to talk shows to help pay for the wedding, but nothing worked. Her boss, Gwen Lala, came up with the idea to auction off a spot in the wedding party.
I thought it would be fun, said Ms. Lala, who said she had trolled eBay and realized people would pay for bizarre things. They just have to stand up in the bridal party, and we hope somebody wants to come and do it.
The winner, whom Ms. Lala would not identify, must also pose for pictures and the wedding video and join in any other wedding activities. The bridesmaid will wear an apple red dress and shoes of Ms. Grays choice. The dress is likely to be A-line and floor length, Ms. Gray said.
She might be renting a tux, however, as she is willing to have a bridesman. The winner can eat from the still-to-be-chosen buffet, but must pay all travel expenses.
Ms. Gray realizes she is taking a chance, but she and her fianc are undeterred.
I know some people out there are crazy, she said. We just want anybody who is willing to have fun. Were fun, and were hoping someone wont come in and ruin it for us.
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