[honeychile]

I've been married once, and am planning a second (once we decided on a city where we'll live!). My own recommendations:

1) Decide what's important to YOU!! If you love flowers, you are not going to be happy with an expensive cake and tacky flowers.

2) If you have friends who do certain things for a living (baker, florist, etc), you may luck out & have one of them give you either the item or a discount for a gift. The downside of that is, you can't be quite as demanding as to what you want that way.

3) Some churches have beautiful social halls, and you can have the reception right there. Of course, that means no alcohol, but that can save you a small fortune, too.

4) Friday night/Sunday weddings are cheaper than Saturdays.

5) Last but not least (from me), there are a gazillion books out there on saving money on a wedding. Find one or two that you're comfortable reading/using, and USE it!!

ps - Congratulations!

pps - Wanted to chime in on the Thank You notes! Smart wedding attendees have the gifts sent to the house prior to the wedding, which means those notes can be written prior to the wedding (but dated the day after). There is NEVER, EVER a good excuse to not have ALL of your wedding thank yous out, unless there is a death of someone VERY close ON the wedding day!!!!