Originally Posted By mickeymeg Hi Everyone. We are finally getting serious about planning a wedding. We have chosen a date (the last weekend in August) and are starting the task of actually organizing things this week. We are going to have it in my Mum's garden and are thinking of having a potluck style meal. We are trying to keep costs down so we are not going crazy with extra frills. We want to avoid any awkward formalities as much as possible as well, we were thinking of an inflatable ball pit to keep things fun =) jk. As we have not planned a lot of weddings we are not sure what we need to think about. We need to rent chairs and tables, tents if it rains but how will we know this before hand. We need to find the wedding person, though I have no idea how to find or choose this person. What else do we need to think of ? Any thoughts and creative suggestions are greatly appreciated. And for my slightly odd ball question. I remember when we were in Disneyland for the 50th we saw Fantasmic ! from the riverside seating area, they had clear plastic disposable plates with the Castle etched on them. Does anyone know if there is anyway that something similar to this is still around and how I might go about getting a bunch of them ? It would be so much classier than paper plates and a great Disney touch =) thank you so much for any thoughts. -Megºoº
Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove Despite my name I am no help when it comes to planning weddings. I just want to wish you and your sweetie the very best of life together always.
Originally Posted By Stacers76 Congrats MickeyMeg! Is your wedding date this August or next? While I was planning for my wedding last month...the internet was my best friend...and google. If nothing else you can get an idea of where to start or look for the things you're after... My only bit of "do it now" advice, if you're getting married next month, is to check on the legalities (marriage certificates etc depending on your area) and make sure you have that part done. For other things, check with family and friends....for the officiant, photographer, whatever you need...you never know who might know someone ) Best of Luck and Congrats again!
Originally Posted By mickeymeg Is your wedding date this August or next? This one. I couldn't handle planning a year in advance. Which is what I am running into with all the internet searching I have done. There are plenty of resources for planning a big formal frilly event, but not much talking about a small budget sized event.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP mickeymeg... I didn't do much to plan my ceramony, because of my religion, it's pretty much just done one way, so you have very few descisions to make. However, when it come to the reception, this is my advice: Stop planning a "wedding reception" and start planning a party. Just plan a fun party for everyone to celebrate your happy day, and I think you'll come out ok.
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS I agree with Mrs ElderP! Just remember to take into consideration who you will be inviting...if they are the type of folks who are happy to hang out with you most of the time then whatever type of reception you plan will be just fine. Potlucks, or having your immediate family chip in and order a big, large sandwich, works very very well for a wedding reception. You'll find that most people don't mind serving themselves..that way they don't have to pretend to eat what they don't like. Congrats and don't be afraid to have fun with it!
Originally Posted By momofbuzzfan mickeymeg... We got married in my Grandpa's backyard (in August too!) with just under 100 guests. We did it very cheaply but it was very nice. I agree with Mrs ElderP's advice about planning a party. We had such a good time. Will this be an evening wedding? One of my favorite touches was the little white Christmas lights we hung in the trees and bushes throughout the backyard. We didn't have to buy any....we just collected them from friends and family in advance (and labeled them so we could return them.) So it was free! Also, rather than order flowers from a florist, someone ran to Costco that morning and bought 24 red roses, which I tied a pretty bow around for my bouquet. My sister was my maid of honor, and we bought her pink roses flowers from Costco as well. Super cheap and very pretty. Good luck getting ready for next month!
Originally Posted By tiki tiki tiki tiki First of all, congratulations on your wedding! This kind of news is always nice to hear. We were married 2 years ago in October and were against the whole celebration banquet, we wanted just our nearest family members and close friends. There ended up being about 40 people at the dinner. That´s exactly what we wanted, to have a nice family and friends get together. I started out by making the wedding invitations by hand (and later the thank you notes). The lilies from my bouquet were from a friend´s garden which I tied with an old lace ribbon. I did my own makeup and hair and wore a 3 piece ivory dress suit which was lovely and cost me less than $50 on sale. Bargain! The photographer was a friend of ours and that turned out to be pretty cheap. I can´t give you advice on the banquet itself since a week before the wedding dad said he would pay for it as a wedding gift. And that actually turned out to be not too much money, we celebrated it at a nice, quiet restaurant in town, not at all fancy quite the contrary, very casual which made the dinner more informal. But wait, that´s not an option for you since you´ll be celebrating at your mum´s! Finally, instead of having wedding cake, I ordered a big variety of little bite size pastries which came out to be so much more less expensive. Hope I´ve been of some help, good luck and happy planning!!
Originally Posted By momofbuzzfan Like tiki^, I also made my own invitations and thank you's....and spent $50 on my dress! Too funny. I made my own wedding cake, (what was I thiking?!?) but like her idea about the bite size pastries better. Much less stress than making it. (tiki...I read your post in the 7 Wonders thread....would be a great place to get married - ey?)
Originally Posted By tiki tiki tiki tiki ^^Ohhh, it would be just dreamy. Make you feel like a princess!
Originally Posted By LVBelle Congrats MickeyMeg! I planned my wedding in about three and a half months and I definately agree that the internet will be very helpful! We found a wonderful , cost effective photographer online. I got quite a few favors and presents for the wedding party on ebay. We got food at Sam's Club, sandwich and fruit and veggie trays and it was very affordable. I found my dress at Dillard's. It was actually a prom dress and, best of all, it was on clearance! It was a larger size than I wear but it was easy to alter. We had issues finding an officiant. You'd think it would be easy here in Vegas but I had trouble finding a Christian minister that would agree to do it without counseling beforehand (just my personal preference not to have it). At one point we were going to meet with someone I found on the internet but I realized at the last minute that I wasn't comfortable with the situation so I canceled. I was starting to think we'd be married by Elvis. Finally, a few weeks before our wedding my hubby's grandpa found out about the problem and called someone who ended up being perfect....except for the fact that he had pneumonia and fell out of his chair at the reception. If he didn't already have a fake hip, he would have broken it. Again, I was sure that I was going to end up being married by Elvis. In the end, he pulled through and performed most of the ceremony sitting down. He looked and sounded awful but I ended up married so that was the important thing! So ask around and see if you know anyone who knows anyone, that's how we ended up with our officiant and our cake!
Originally Posted By Rebekah mickeymeg, I noticed <a href="http://www.4yourparty.com/" target="_blank">http://www.4yourparty.com/</a> has a variety of plastic plates that look fancy. I don't know if they have good prices but it would offer you a look at some of the various types plates available. Then you can use the Net / ebay to see if better prices are available. One way to add Disney fantasy elements -- small plastic slippers similar to Cinderella's are popular to hold little mints or mms on the food table. R
Originally Posted By murfsmom congratulations !! i have a friend whose daughter got married last year, she wanted something simple but fun with a touch of disney, like some one said before the tiny clear lights in tress and bushes make a world if difference(if the wedding is at night) she just typed in things like, disney wedding supplies, or disney wedding party and etc and came up with a lot of stuff. also they (the bride and groom had a small 2 tier cake of their own to cut and the there was at least 4 tiers( depending on how many your serving) of cupcakes, stacked like a wedding cake with fresh flowers for decorations, when it came time for the guests to have cake it was so simple, grab a plate and a cup cake, no mess with cutting a cake and no plates with half eaten cake in the trash !!! hope this helps you out a little !!
Originally Posted By mickeymeg Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and suggestions. I am really happy to have some support in the 'lets just make this a fun party' camp. I have had a lot of people tell me I am crazy fro trying to put this together in a month and a bit, but I really don't see the problem =) We are in the process of tracking down an officiant (LVBelle, while I am sure your story was stressful at the time, it makes for a great story to look back on. That is the stuff movies are made of =) Once we find this person, I think I can be more comfortable in planning the rest as the important part will be dealt with. I like the twinkly lights ideas, I will keep this in mind. I think we are going for an afternoon thing, but it might run into evening. Thanks again for all your thoughts. talk to you soon -Meg
Originally Posted By chickapin Planning a wedding? My mind is basically mush as my daughter gets married this Saturday! Like Mrs. Elderp the religious ceremony takes place in the morning and there is no planning really to be done. The reception that night is ourdoors and fairly simple. You covered tables, chairs, and food. Are you going to have music? A dj? Friends usually offer to help--let them! My DD is young and the first of her friends to get married. They all want to be involved and help with flowers, decorations, etc. We are letting them and it is taking stress from us and letting them have fun as well. We'll see how I feel about all of it next Monday!
Originally Posted By smedley All sounds like great advice We wanted a Mickey theme to our wedding too, for the wedding cake we took 3 plain round wedding cakes, one slightly larger than the other 2, and then stood the 2 on inverted champagne glasses slightly behind and to each side of the larger one. Thus producing a mickey shaped wedding cake, simple but it looked really effective. Another thing we did was buy a ton of bottles of bubbles and handed them out to people beforehand, we have some lovely pictures with people blowing the bubbles all around us, and they doubled as favours too as we had our names printed on them I seem to recall they were pretty inexpensive, I bought those online (possibly from ebay) I love the idea of the twinkly lights and think either a pot luck or sandwich platters would work fine
Originally Posted By DJ7K Ya know you might wanna contact Ophellia... word has it she's a wedding singer (See, "Where do you work?")
Originally Posted By DJ7K Although I've been refered to as "DJ" on here countless times, I still think you're better off with a wedding singer Congrads again, hope all turns out great for the wedding and have a blast!
Originally Posted By essbeeboyd I don't know what state you live in but I live in CA and my old boss' husband was ordained as a minister for a day so he could perform a marriage ceremony for some friends. Something to think about if you can't find a minister you are comfortable with.
Originally Posted By disneymum One thing you might want to splurge on is photos. I've heard so many stories of people being disappointed after because their photos were taken by a friend who really didn't know what they were doing. And they wished later they had gotten someone more professional. Other than that, have fun!
