GRM Style Wedding Ideas

Congratulations! I just got married myself:

As for keeping the costs down, you need to consider what is important. No one, and I mean NO ONE, is going to remember what the dang centerpieces look like. Or the decor. Or what the food tastes like (unless it's horrible).

There is one thing you should not skimp on: photographer. Do NOT hire the cheapest one available. Do make sure they have a second photographer and/or a backup in case of an emergency. Photos are the one thing that you'll have forever.

Next on the list is food. Find something inexpensive. Honestly, I'd go with Chipotle. Seriously. They cater.

As for liquor: don't bother with open bar. That will be ludicrously expensive. Pick 2 or 3 wines, 2 or 3 beers, and both of your favorite mixed drinks. Buy the supplies yourself. Hire a bartender. Return unopened booze products to the store, checking with the store to begin with. (We spent ~$500 on booze for a 75-person wedding, and returned just over half of it afterwards!)

Do you have younger and/or fun people at the wedding who would like to dance? Get a decent DJ who will get people up and dancing. That makes the reception more fun. But if most of your guests aren't into that, just hire someone cheap.

But like I said, a lot of the stuff people fret and stress about at a wedding DON'T MATTER. Centerpieces, decorations, flowers, table linens, plates/silverware. Forget all that. No one will remember them in a month.

Also, someone said printing your own invites. Yes. Do that. That's what I did, and all it cost was about $30 in nice-looking cardstock and paper and another $18 for a toner cartridge on my home laser printer.

And as for using your car in the wedding...

Halloween. I'd do Halloween. If only to see my Grandma, and old man in costume.

Another vote for the big backyard wedding/reception. I officiated one like this last fall (yeah, I can do that) and it was great. Kids didn't have a big budget but they had fun. They did it all in kind of a vintage carnival theme without it being too "circusy" if that makes any sense. Big tent, catered by a local BBQ joint. Vintage carnival games for everyone to play and a crazy dude they never met officiating the wedding. Their officiant had an emergency last minute and my wife is cousins in law with one of their relatives so I got the "what are you doing Saturday" call. I actually wish I had known their theme better so I could have tailored the ceremony to it. But they knew I was a Dudeist officiant and actually embraced the idea of a Lebowski wedding so it was fun ;)

They even made the whole wedding party watch the movie the night before so everyone was tossing movie quotes at me the whole day.

Sky_Render wrote: Congratulations! I just got married myself: As for keeping the costs down, you need to consider what is important. No one, and I mean NO ONE, is going to remember what the dang centerpieces look like. Or the decor. Or what the food tastes like (unless it's horrible). There is one thing you should not skimp on: photographer. Do NOT hire the cheapest one available. Do make sure they have a second photographer and/or a backup in case of an emergency. Photos are the one thing that you'll have forever. Next on the list is food. Find something inexpensive. Honestly, I'd go with Chipotle. Seriously. They cater. As for liquor: don't bother with open bar. That will be ludicrously expensive. Pick 2 or 3 wines, 2 or 3 beers, and both of your favorite mixed drinks. Buy the supplies yourself. Hire a bartender. Return unopened booze products to the store, checking with the store to begin with. (We spent ~$500 on booze for a 75-person wedding, and returned just over half of it afterwards!) Do you have younger and/or fun people at the wedding who would like to dance? Get a decent DJ who will get people up and dancing. That makes the reception more fun. But if most of your guests aren't into that, just hire someone cheap. But like I said, a lot of the stuff people fret and stress about at a wedding DON'T MATTER. Centerpieces, decorations, flowers, table linens, plates/silverware. Forget all that. No one will remember them in a month. Also, someone said printing your own invites. Yes. Do that. That's what I did, and all it cost was about $30 in nice-looking cardstock and paper and another $18 for a toner cartridge on my home laser printer. And as for using your car in the wedding...

Sir, we think remarkably alike. Unfortunately, I got shot down on most items in here. The one thing I did win was the cake. We are getting a small cake to cut, then Costco cake for the guests. Everything else is stupid expensive because wedding is stupid and brides and mother of the brides are indoctrinated in a way of thinking that is stupid.

I can't say our wedding wasn't particularly grassroots as our parents paid (may sound terrible but they kinda insisted). We had a wedding planner as well.

But some suggestions. Don't let your mother or mother in law get involved in making the guest list (the size will balloon).

I will echo the good photographer thing. We did all our pictures before the ceremony so we could go straight from ceremony to the reception. I would highly recommend this as long as you don't mind breaking the whole don't see the wedding dress before the ceremony.

Also if you can swing it and are having dancing, a band is worth it over a DJ. It isn't terribly grassroots but I'd say it was worth it. That was easily the favorite thing about our wedding reception.

I have to be honest I don't even remember the food or for that matter the alcohol. I was to busy talking to people or dancing or doing some part of the ceremony (like first dance or whatever) to even get more then a half glass of beer. So I wouldn't blow your budget there.

The whole day will be an absolute blur. Even now there are parts of the day I can remember but it was still an amazing day.

We went on a destination wedding. Everyone we know goes somewhere every winter anyways and we all went to Jamaica. 60+ people attended and our parents paid for us and the wedding, really only about $8k as the food and drinks were included with the resort. My wife is thrifty, got her dress bought and tailored for about $7-800, her maid of honor/bridesmaids dresses only cost them about $80. Myself and my groomsmen, light dress pants, white shirt. My cousins were in charge of photography. Not bargain basement cheap, but not super extravagant either.

Thanks for all the great suggestions so far. We have decided on a couple of things. She wants a winter wedding, prob. January, so outdoor is out. We both want an industrial/rustic type setting. We're going to a beer/wine bar with local selections, and a few bottles of good scotch. Looks like about 150 invites (prob 100-125 will actually come). So far we're both completely on the same page!