june wedding

[proverbs31woman]

my fiance and i are getting married in june. i wondered if any of you ladies had tips and advice on creative christian weddings.

i'm looking for creative DIY ideas for decorations and flowers. I think of it as a way to save money and have something somewhat unique. did anyone else do this for their wedding? any tips?

also - we're not getting married in a church. We're doing it in a loft downtown. what do you think of this? does the bible teach specifically on weddings in churches or does it matter?

[lyngraphics]

We got married outside at a country club by my husband's Grandfather (He used to be a Minister). Ahhhhhh.. November, 60 degrees outside, only our closest relatives and friends there...
You might have a problem finding someone to marry you if you are not doing it in a church, however.
As for themes and such, I'm not so good at... my Mom planned my wedding LOL! I picked out colors, flowers, cakes and such- but she is much better at planning events than I am!

[Rinji]

As far as I know, you have to vow to one another to become husband and wife. And be considered married by your government (if the government so requires). Once you you two, um, do your business, it's considered a union.

All the extra stuff is to prevent you from having a perfect wedding to stress you out. lol.
I'm getting married March 15th by the way :)


1.) For reception disposable plates and such, you can pick a color that isn't super popular (Mine is yellow & white because we have daisies). Then go to a paper supply company for some cheap eating wares.

2.) You can also get big roll of cheap butcher paper for table cloths. Use a rubber stamp for decoration on the corners and such and/or use scalloped scissors to spruce up the edges

3.) Tables, Down the center of rectangular tables, you can do streams of various party ribbons in your colors, and some confetti. My to be sister-in-law had an outdoor wedding, so they used those flattened marbles on matching colors on the centers of the table cloths for decoration too. You can sprinkle the same type of flowers petals for the aisle, but on the table tops. I recommend going to the dollar store for fake flowers to salvage petals from for this.

4.) Filler, Use fake potted plants (you can try to borrow some from your church or his church if they have them). Get some big plastic white trellis, and twine ivy, flower, and clear Christmas lights though it. Lean on walls, or make stands for them to stay in place.

5.) Guest book, Get a plain cheap white one. I got mine at hobby lobby for 50% ($10). Go to the fabric section and from some pretty ribbons to hot glue on. Very fast and easy! Make sure to get get lots of extra, so you can make a matching garter, and wrap some around your bouquet if you want.

6.) Garter, Find a very cheap white garter at a dollar store. Hand sew on the ribbons you want, and cut off anything you don't like. You can make one to throw and one to keep for yourself!

7.) Flower girl basket, keep an eye out for flower girl anything as Easter approaches. You can get a nice Easter dress for tons cheaper. Look for a basket as well, a hat or garland. This is the best time to shop!

8.) The ring pillow, Go to place like Wal-Mart or the dollar store for a cheap wedding pillow. If the white pattern on it is okay, you can get some cloth lace, some ribbons from a fabric store and stitch it on top by hand and make it look expensive. You might want to put in two long ribbons to tie the rings in place so they boy doesn't drop it by mistake.

9.) Bouquets, instead of the traditional hand held bouquet for your brides maids, you can make a bouquet that is more meant to be held in the cradle of your arm.
10.) Beaded flowers. Try getting a hot glue gun, and some shimmery seed beads. Use a needle and put a bead on it. Wait for a drop of hot glue to just come out of your hot glue gun and get it on the tip of the needle. Quickly Press the glue tip on the flower petal, and push the seed bead on top of it. Hold the bead down, and pull the needle away. If practice, you can take the glue off the gun fast enough it leaves no strings.

10.) More filler decorations, Use the technique for beaded flowers (you can use bigger beads or sequins if you want now, just not too big!) and do it on large long sheets of your tulle. Once you bead it however you see fit (probably not too intricately, just enough for sparkle), you can now use the tulle and wrap it around support beams with ribbon, Christmas lights or fake ivy. You can hang it from rafters if you really wanted. lol

I also have instructions on how to make a veil for cheap, that looks fabulous and like you spent a lot of money on it. If you're interested I can post how to do it in detail.

[proverbs31woman]

those are great ideas! thanks!

yeah the wedding will be fairly unconventional... we already have someone to perform the ceremony where we are holding it, so that's good.

i'm also having my dress made for me based on one i saw in a movie. what are your thoughts on backless dresses? i think its a pretty dress but i don't want people thinking its to risque. i have to let the dress lady know about how low i want it soon.

[Rinji]

Depending on whether you have a veil and it's length, if you were afraid of showing too much skin, it at least would camouflage it.

[proverbs31woman]

thats true... thanks!

what are your plans Rinji? your wedding is pretty soon... are you doing it at a church? whats your reception like?

[Love0702]

Congrats on the upcoming wedding. I just want to tell you to try EBAY. You will be amazed at some of the things that you can get for your wedding for cheap. My husband and I got married in August 2006 and we ebayed all the way. My wedding dress even came off of Ebay and it was absolutely beautiful. We have a Cinderalla themed wedding and it didn't cost much at all. As far as having it in the Church, it doesn't matter because you are still making a commitment to your husband in front of God. Good luck.

[Mrsppmrxky]

Having done 3 wedding for the past 3 yrs...........thankfully it is over!!!

We kept everything and used it from one wedding to the next. What are your colors?

1. If you tell someone you want wedding flowers, they will be triple the price. Sam's has a wonderful selection of flowers for pretty cheap.

2. It is beautiful to have the bridesmaids to have 1 long stemmed flower to carry with a ribbon to match the wedding colors attached. (simiple and cheaper.)

3. $ Store has wedding items that are cheap ...........$1 each. You can get the irredescent clolored confetti to throw out around the table. You could get the small candle holders at WalMart for about 33 cents each and then pick up candles to match your colors.

4. We used the $4 sheet from WalMart (single sheets WHITE) for table cloths. We pinned them so they covered the entire folding tables.

If you are going for a low key (non fancy) wedding, you could get some pretty solid colored coffee mugs to put small arrangements of flowers in on the tables. After the wedding, you can use the mugs.

If you are going more down to earth, you could get some small pails for the arrangements.

I have even seen a beautiful table arrangement made from sod that was cut to fit into a frame. Then take lone flowers and cut them at various heights and place in water tubes and insert in the sod. It fills up the table with greenery and simplicity.

BALLOONS! At our $ store, you can get 3 for $1. We fill the tables with odd numbered arrangements extended. On my son's wedding.

On all 3 wedding, we did a buffet table and place another smaller table on top of that. I used material to cover the table (colord sheets from WalMart) and I put blocks, paint buckets, whatever I could find to make different levels and shapes under the cloth. This allowed me to put the platters of food around on the table. and it looked really full. We filled in the gaps of the levels with fruits.

I bought about $75 of fruit (all shades of seedless grapes, 2 or 3 pineapples, lemons to put in a giant vase (or lemons and limes), apples different colors.) We also pulled ivy that morning and placed it in water buckets and then clipped the roots off and then place it around on the tables and anywhere else that needed to be filled.

For the wedding tulle for decorations, use your Michael's coupons between now and the wedding to pick the tulled up for 40% off.

For one of the weddings, we rented table clothes at $3 each for the tables.

For your wedding cake, to make a beautiful stand, you can cut thick wood out, cover with silver or gold. It should be about 1 inch to 1 12 inch larger than the base of your bottom cake layer. then have a much larger thick piece of wood for the bottom. Nail or screw some blocks of wood to creat about a 2-3 inch space betweent the two board. make sure you fill it up to support the weight of your cake. Then around the edge of the boards that will now be covered with paper, you will take some coordinating material and hot glue it to the borders. Make it look pleated very tightly and then go around the finished glued edges with a string of pearls or matching ribbon to the material. I will look to see if I can find a picture of my dds wedding cake.

Borrow items from friends and family. Plants are beautiful to fill in the wedding. The more simple your plan, then the more elegant it will appear.

For the food table, pick just a few foods (if you do the buffet idea) choose 2 items and go over the top on the food table with those items. On one, we did strawberries, we had about 8 pounds of strawberries on the table. We did huge piles of cheese cubes for one of the others.

On all 3 weddings here is the cheapest dish that got compliments and requests for the recipe. We bought the huge blocks of Philladelphia Cream Cheese and rolled it in the Ranch dressing powder to cover it. Place it on a glass tray and surround it with crackers. It will be the first item to disappear. (It was for all 3 weddings. Total cost was under $10) You go to WalMart and choose their $1 box of pretty shaped crackers. Some will be whole wheat, some can be chicken in a bisket type, ritz, and club. It looks very nicely on the table.

Okay, I will stop for now. LOL

[Mrsppmrxky]

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[Mrsppmrxky]

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