Hi ladies, I have to agree with the other posts, where are you ladies located who have found the great prices on venues?

This forum is perfect for me as I am starting to plan very very early for a 2012 wedding and I am loving the posts, ideas and the different forums I am finding.

If there is anyone here that lives near or in Monterey or Carmel, I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts on venues and reception sites.

Please keep posting, I now know it is DEFINITELY possible to have great wedding on a budget!

yeah really! Those prices are crazy good.  Here's mine so far:

*Ceremony Venue comes with DOC - $600.  If we scrap the DOC, the price goes down to $300 if we bring our own.  I'm thinking we might have to, because the DOC that's included doesn't do a whole lot...just the ceremony portion.

*Reception - $27pp for 37 people, including tax, service charge, and gratuity - around $1100

*Wine - $300 right now, but that is only for 10 bottles of wine...this will probably go up. I am going to ask if I can bring my own in and see what the corkage fee is. (its in a hotel)

*Dress - $175 (parents paid for...it was custom made)

*Shoes - a friend gave to me for free from her company's shoe line.

*Photog - $450 (3 hours)

*Video - $400 (3 hours)

*Flowers - $500 (bridal bouquet, 1 MOH bouquet, 5 bouts, 3 corsages and floral swag for our gazebo)

*Invites will be DIY - cost TBD

*Centerpieces will be DIY - also TBD

*Cupcakes - my mom will make who is a pastry chef.

Here is mine so far:

*Ceremony/Reception Venue - $700.  We are getting better deals on things because we are holding the event on a Sunday.

Caterer - $500

*Dress - $298

*Birdcage veil - $30

*Photog - $350 (4 hours)

*Flowers - $500 (or less)

*Invites will be DIY - cost TBD

*Centerpieces will be DIY - also TBD

*Cake - 250.

We are only spending $1500. I only have 3 bm's including my MOH. For gifts i DIY bridal pary t-shirts. I bought 3 Miley Cyrus Tanks from WM for $4 each and then bought Iron Ons for $1 each. Plus I went to the dollar tree and got them some fake nails and lip gloss. LOVE that store!!!

For music we are buying an ipod and borrowing a friends sound system. FIs aunt used to DJ in Vegas so she will be out DJ! Flowers and everything flower related will be taken care of by FIs family. His dad is the manager of Mears, a wholesale florist. So he gets everything like 80% off, plus lots of favors from other florists. I got my Wedding Dress, Veil, earrings, and bracelett from Davids Bridal all for $504. For photography we are having a friend from school who is in photography school right now take our pictures. She is doing the wedding, B-pics, and TTD for $250 plus a cd of edited pics. FIs mom is paying for tuxes. Our cake was $190 for 3 tiers for 82 people. FI's mom wants to invite more people and if so, she has agreed to pay for more cake. I got my ring from WM for $8 and FIs from ebay for $15. We are doing postcard invitations from Vista Print. 100 for free plus $6 shipping. And about $25 for stamps since we will hand deliver most of them. The ceremony fees are only $15 to rent the nature park we want for 6 hours. Food we are spending around $100. For the reception we are having at FIs grandparents AMAZING house. We are spending about $100 on candles and another $100 on decorations. I'm doing my own hair. Just buying a new curling iron for $50. We are getting matching Purple converse for $50. And rentals around $50 for everything we will rent.

My husband just wrote about our wedding budget and how we did everything on the cheap (under $4,000). It turned out beautifully and we had a blast! Check it out here: (link to budget is toward the end): 

http://www.ourmarriageproject.com/06/2010/the-wedding-budget/

I'm doing everything under 1800!!!!!

I'm going to keep a blog going of everything i do for the budget and planning on here and at my blog that I will post on my bio page shortly. (I want to get a few things up to have you read;)

jenbryan-

love that you kept a blog. I'm doing the same thing!

accidently double posted!

forgot to add to above (i used edit but it went all out of format)

invites: i found some on ebay, 100 for $89 including rsvp cards and envelopes. my photographer is going to design me some with our engagement pics on them and she has connections with printers. she promises to get me beautiful, personalized invites, for less than what I would have bought them for on ebay! :D

we are getting married at Springhouse gardens in Joplin its the cutest outdoor venue and only $650 you get it all day from 9am to 12:30am. It also has a sound system with an ipod dock so we are bringing an ipod with our music playlist on it.

We are saving money is my dad is a chef so he will be making appitizers for the reception.

We are going to buy bulk flowers from sams club.

DIY invitations

and also my mom has a friend that owns a limo company and offered us a limo for the day of our wedding.