Last weekend Malcom and I got engaged and we haven't set a date yet but I'm already beginning the wedding planning. I would love to hear different ideas and how you ladies had your wedding.

Neither Malcom or myself are "flashy" people. We like simple but elegant. I have looked into places like Savannah, Gatlinburg, Williamsburg, etc for little chapels or bed and breakfast weddings. What do you think? Has anyone done this before or have known someone to do this? Any pros or cons?

It will be a small affair with just family and close friends. Thanks!

I had the big church wedding so I am not much help with that aspect, but we did have silk flowers instead of real ones. The price was cheaper, and if it had not been for my stupid cat, I would still have them to this day. He use to get up on my hutch and knock them to the ground and pull out the flowers and chew on them.
Best of luck on your planning. I had a lot of fun planning mine.

Congratualtions on your engagement Daphne!
I've been married a long time so I think things have changed a bit since those days! :o)
I'm sure you'll get some good advice off the ladies who have only been married a short while!
Julia :)

Congratulations to you and Malcolm, Daphne! Planning a wedding can be so much fun. You can always go to a local "Bridal Fair" for inspiration. The living history museum where I work sometimes has weddings on the grounds. We depict Wichita, Kansas from 1865-1880. Bridal parties can rent the church, saloon, cafe, or the WHOLE TOWN for their event.

Daphne, Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I am so happy for you and Malcom. Is the weather there nice, I attended a wedding that was held at a botanical garden and it was absolutely gorgous, the flowers and foilage gave the most incredible backdrop to the ceremony and the bride was able to save money on her flowers because she did not have to buy to decorate a church or other location. She went with a simple white rose and pale yellow rosebuds for her bouquet and it was beautiful. Her wedding was understated and elegant.

We got married at a Justice of the peace, so it wasn't all that fancy at all. We didn't have a honeymoon. when we renew our vows we will have a more fancy affair. Best of luck to your wedding planing, it'll be wonderful!

I and my husband just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. In our case, we kept the wedding small, as for us, it is mostly a private religous ceremony. I sew, so I made my dress and veil. This might seem like an intimidating task for those who do not sew, but if you have some sewing experience, or others in you family do, a simple and elegant long dress pattern can be made into a lovely wedding dress and certainly is more often cost effective than buying a new one. We had a small formal dinner arranged by friends after our wedding, as this is my second marriage, we kept the guest list small and did not do a 'reception'.

I also did my bridal bouquet. I, too, recommend silk flowers, they last nearly forever, and are not hard to arrange if you'd like to do it yourself or have family do it and can be done far in advance of the wedding, to free up your time as the wedding gets closer.

Its wonderful if you can use a 'carefree' facility like a garden, or park. If you do, try to have a back-up indoor location in case the weather is not co-operating the day of your wedding. And if you use a hall, B&B, or other indoor facility, shop around! Costs for renting or using these places vary widely.

My daughter's wedding was some 10 years ago. We used the auditorium of a local church at no cost... so long as we did the clean up afterward, for the wedding and reception. The decorations were all made by family members and we had started discount shopping and bargain hunting months before the wedding for decorations and ideas. Also the cake was done by relatives, as was the wedding luncheon. I made my daughter's wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses, which all turned out lovely. Another realitve did the flowers. Friends of ours who are in a local string quartet provided the music. (you may want to look for local talent if you would like a reception with live music, our friends who played are all senior citizens, and were quite happy for the opportunity to play at a wedding and short reception for a very affordable fee).

It helps if you have family and friends to help and participate in the preparations. With that said, it can also be a very hectic and tense thing to co-ordinate. That is why some people hire weddng planners and so on. My daughter's wedding was wonderful, but I didn't know if we would all survive it! With having others help you, you do have to accept that this will come with their artistic license, small hiccups in the plans, and the occasional unplanned disaster. Be prepared to take those things in stride! They are just a part of the 'character' of a "hometown" wedding... lol.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you have a wonderful wedding and what is more important... an even more wonderful marriage. I wish you and your future husband every happiness!

Susan King

:hearts:

Congratulations Daphne! Wedding planning can be so much fun. We had ours at a Tea Room inside an antique mall. My aunt owns it though! But it might be something to look into. Good Luck!!

Congratulations!

Keilley

Check out the TLC (or maybe Discovery Channel) shoe for Better or Worse they do some nice weddings and pretty cheaply but you might get some ideas..

Good luck, I would say so what ever you and Malcom want it is your wedding and you are the ones who should be happy....

Eileen

Congratulations!!!! DH and I have been married 4 years next month and we went down to Gatlinburg and got married. Very lovely place to be married especially if you like the mountains.

We had a lot of help from my sisters for our wedding. My younger sister had the wedding and receiption at her home, we had an outdoor service, she also did all the food planning. My older sister made our cake and the bridesmaid outfits, all of our flowers, our wedding favors (small woven baskets with our color of silk flowers), she also helped me find my dress, shoes and made my vail. I don't know what we would have done with out them! DH's sister's and mother didn't lift a finger.
We hired a disk jockey and rented a tent and dance floor. This was 9 years ago and I didn't even spend $2000.00 for it all.

You can see some pictures of my wedding at our site: http://www.thedelanosofminnesota.com/OurWedding1.html

Susie in MN

I made my veil and my mom made my dress when she flew in 6 days before the wedding. A good friend of my husband's family made our wedding cake and my MIL made the mints for it. We had the formal reception at the church and another informal one back at my MIL's house with potluck foods.;) I was blessed that my family and friends in Hawaii donate most of the flowers and most of the Hawaiian foods for the reception and my parents brought them over with them. We decorated the church ourselves that morning (I do not recommend this though, too tiring).

Congratulations!

We got married at a local B&B with about 80 people in attendance. In hindsite I would either elope or do a very small ceremony. The hardest part about getting married at a B&B was arranging for someone to officiate. We didn't have a church at the time, still don't, so we couldn't ask our own minister to perform the ceremony. We looked into hiring a JP, but could not find one who was willing to do it. Luckily someone who worked with DH was married to a minister, so we hired him.

Wow! Thanks for these wonderful ideas. Malcom arrived last night so today we will be talking about what we should do. I'll keep you updated. Thanks! :D

Daphne, have you checked into a chapel on any of the military bases that are close to you. I don't know much about the cost, but you would think that they might not be too bad.
You might be able to find a dress at a consignment shop. I know the ones around here have lots of wedding dresses. Some of them even have bridesmaid dresses and also flower girl dresses. And of course they have shoes and stuff to match. You might even be able to save on the cake if you go to a trade school or vo-tech school for the high school kids in your area. Some schools will give you a great discount by letting the kids do the decorating.
I did all the favors that we gave out at the reception myself. I got all the stuff I needed at a craft store, and got the mints at a bulk candy store in the mall. We decorated the tables at the reception with balloons, I am sure that you could probably come up with some stuff at a craft store and do the center pieces yourself if you wanted to.
I would go to the bridal shows in your area as well. You might be able to get some ideas there as well.
Most of all, have fun doing it. Don't let it stress you.

We have checked into the getting married at the base but no luck! It is booked for months and months. I might call to see if we can get it booked for an "off" day - not a Friday or a Saturday. We'll see what they say and since we have about 5 or more bases from my house I'm sure I could fit something in - right? Thank you for the ideas.

Congratulations!

Our wedding (we celebrated five years on Saturday) was a huge, formal church affair with about 200 people.... just the way I'd always wanted it. :) I'll be glad to tell you all about it but I don't think that's the direction you are planning to go.

Two friends of mine have gone to the Gatlinburg area to get married in the past few years. One had an outdoor wedding by a stream with just her and her husband there~ the pictures were beautiful. Another had about 20 people attend, and they rented a small mountaintop chapel, and then the everyone had dinner at a nice restaurant.

I spent a lot of time at The Knot website when I was planning my wedding~ they had tons of ideas and plenty of message boards to trade ideas with other brides.

Good luck!

We eloped, at least that's what my mother said...
The one thing I can suggest is:
Get someone to take a wedding picture is sepia tone. That's the old fashioned, brown toned photography, it can be done with a filter. We had our pictures taken at an old fashioned photo studio, in a state park. This was after we were married, and we used the studios clothes. I used the same photo, on the front of our 20th anniversery invitations and they turned out great. I'll try to see if I can scan the picture, later...We've been married over 25 years now...
Mother told me for the first three years of my marriage, that I could have it annuled, 'cause...I was a good cathlic and didn't get married in a church... Boy, she was surprised, when I didn't listen to her...ha...
lacyj