HELP! For a budget wedding (North or South CALI)?

I am 19 years old (bride 2 be) and my fiance is 18 (groom 2 be) we do not have alot of money and need to do a budget wedding in either southern-nothern california (VERY expensive) %26amp; preferraby northern. We need a cheap but nice reception place w/ dance floor. Outside catering allowed. 150 - 200 ppl seating. Nice surrondings for pictures... I also need B/M dresses and affordable floral choices for a bouquet. Suggestions %26amp; Ideas would be great for anyone that has done this before!!! Budget: $1,000 - $3,000. Thanks!

HELP! For a budget wedding (North or South CALI)?
http://www.houseofbrides.com/home.php


for dresses
Reply:I suggest visiting wedding directory such as http://www.weddinglenox.com





Unlike most yellow pages, they have price comparison for the vendors (DJ,videographer, florist, and photographer) you can choose.





You can also try their matching system http://www.weddinglenox.com/f-membersign... that will match you up with local vendors. I tried it and have good result as I only recieved responses from vendors according to my request.





One problem I had with my wedding is that it is hard to locate vendors in most website as most likely they group by states and there are too many of them that's too far from me and I have to look at each site to figure out.





The sites I provide above have a easy to use layout to show you pictures, pricing and location in one page plus, you can send out your inquiry for matching vendor to contact you. That save me lots of time to locate the best vendors with the right price.
Reply:Gosh that's tough...I don't know if that is even possible with that many people. I'm having a hard enough time staying under 5k with 50 people. You may have to rethink some things to stay on a budget that small. Maybe not do a formal reception and do finger foods and punch or something. Try eBay for dresses, rings, and decorations...that's what I'm doing and you'd be surprised how cheap you can get good things for. Congratulations and best of luck.
Reply:there are alot of books on this subject. the one i had: How to Have an Elegant Wedding for $5000 (or Less) : Achieving Beautiful Simplicity Without Mortgaging Your Future ( http://www.amazon.com/Have-Elegant-Weddi... ) there are tons of good ideas in there and i believe there are ones for less of a budget.





the first thing you'll unfortunatly have to do is limit your guest list. i know that sux, but wedding are priced per person. you could also try having a champagne and dessert reception, instead of dinner. in northern cali, try some vineyards--maybe even a wine and cheese reception.





the best advice i can give you is to do much of the work yourself to save money, and have a great time. best of luck.
Reply:you can click here to view some cheap and beautiful wedding dresses.


http://www.weddingo.net


http://www.weddingo.net/weddingdresses.a...


they support custom dress for customer and free shipping.
Reply:Wow, that was our budget 20 years ago and we used our church social hall on a Saturday morning ($100 for the church and the hall). We served a light buffet, tiered wedding cake, punch, no alcohol (except one toast), no dancing. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's what your budget buys for 100 people.





For the bridesmaids, if you have a friend or family member who sews, you can save a ton of money. With their consent, I chose the fabric and asked my three very differently-shaped bridesmaids (sized 4, 8, %26amp; 20) to choose one dress pattern or three! (I was amazed that they found a simple dress pattern they all liked and it looked great on all of them.) Please don't ask them wear dresses that don't suit them, don't fit perfectly, or that scream "bridesmaid." (My mother made my dress - it was exactly what I wanted and couldn't find in any bridal shop.)





To save more money, the caterer dropped the food and I hired some college student friends to help serve. Another friend sang and another played the organ. (We paid them all, but not much.) Also, we moved the flowers from the sanctuary to the social hall and used the bridesmaids' bouquets there too.





Simple CAN be lovely - and remember it's about the marriage and not the party. You don't want to start the marriage in debt from the wedding.





Good luck.
Reply:You aren't going to have a 150 person wedding for 3,000 anywhere in Cali hon. Even if you served Mcdonalds in the backyard you are looking at $7 a person on just food. You would still need something to eat on and chairs for butts. As much as you might not want to you are going to need to trim your guest list. DIY are the best three letters in your alphabet when trying to keep costs down too. TheKnot.com has plenty of budget friendly tips and project ideas.
Reply:Budget Queen here at your service! First you want to check out some wedding websites like the knot.com. Great place to start looking for a reception spot. See if you can do the ceremony and reception in same spot. House of brides.com is great place for b/m dresses. Also check out jcpenney and sears. Make your own bouquet with silk flowers from Michaels. With a budget like that...personally, I would get married at a park and just have a big family cookout. Save yourself alot of money because the catering alone will take up about 50-75% of your budget. The knot.com also has a budget you can plug numbers into. Start there, it helped me out alot! Good luck and happy planning!
Reply:Go to http://weddingsuppliesunlimited.com for all wedding needs