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I received a great question recently from a reader, and since I couldn't come up with many amazing tips on my own, I figured I'd hand it on over to you! Here's Danielle's question:
Do you have any tips on having a Fabulous and Frugal Destination Wedding?
We are running away to get married, but planning on having a family celebration/reception once we return. Is this too far out of your realm to post on FB or your blog to get some suggestions on how to do this while not spending$ 1,000's?!
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How fun! One tip that I do have is to definitely check out VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner). We rent through them just about every time we travel, and have had fabulous experiences every time. (And gotten some great deals!) For today's giveaway, I'd love to hear your suggestions on this . . . and just for fun, take a minute to share where you went on your honeymoon! Or, if you're still looking to meet the right someone, where your dream honeymoon would be! 🙂Â
Here's how to enter to win a $10 Target Gift Card this week:
1)Â Leave a comment with a tip on a fabulous and frugal destination wedding.
2) Share where you spent your honeymoon, or where you'd like to honeymoon when Prince Charming comes along . . . .
2) Like Passionate Penny Pincher on Facebook and leave a comment here to let me know (if you already like Passionate Penny Pincher just leave a comment letting me know! We’re inching closer to 2500 Facebook friends, so I’d love to get there soon.)
3) Encourage your friends to join Passionate Penny Pincher on Facebook and leave a comment here too!Â
4)Sign up for my Feedburner feed (see sidebar at right) and your name will be entered for another chance to win (just leave a comment here to let me know).Â
5)Complete a few of this week’s five minute challenges! For each challenge you finish, you can leave a comment for an additional chance to win.Â
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This giveaway will end 3/19/11 at 9:00 AM. Thanks for your tips, everyone . . . you all make my job so fun!
Photo courtesy of WELS.net on Flickr.
Book your cruise on off months and save tons of Money : )
Follow on facebook… thanks for the wonderful wedding advice… Listening carefully
Pick a cruise any cruise depending on where you want to go. The best $2,000 wedding including dj, food cake, drinks and pictures. The sooner you book the better they have group discounts and payments can be made. We got married in St thomas 7day cruise $479.99 pp with $150.00 down. The sooner you let your guest now the better so they can make a down payment and budget little by little. You can have lunch or dinner with either family the day before and rehearsal dinner the night before for free because thats all you do is eat lol. Have inexpensive welcome bags with sun block, chapstick etc.
My tip is to spend money on the things that you care about (if you care about pictures – get good ones, flowers – get ones you like) and let some of the things you might not care about go, that is one way to cut expenses. We went to Ireland for our honeymoon!
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My husband and I had a very frugal wedding. We decided to take the gift funds from our parents and make a downpayment on a house. We were married on a Friday at my husband’s parents home. My dad, who is a minister, was the officiant. My mom made all of the food including a beautiful white tiered wedding cake with live red roses cascading down the sides. We had miniature pecan pies instead of a grooms cake, and hand pressed cream cheese mints, chocolate covered strawberries, and a hot ham dip and punch. We used in season wildflowers hand tied with lace. My dress came off the clearance rack at a local bridal shop and cost around $200. I made my own veil from a kit available at craft stores, and I took a plain pair of shoes and added embellishments to the toes. We only had our parents and grandparents present. Our photographer was a retiree who did photography as a hobby. We never went on a honeymoon. Our whole wedding was planned and occured in three days’ time and cost less than $500! My husband’s sister had an elaborate wedding two months before us that cost over $15,000, and lived in an older mobile home for the next ten years because of this financial mistep. While we did not have an elaborate wedding, we are still just as happily married as anyone else! We have been married going on 12 years now, and I wouldn’t have traded it for the world!
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After the wedding, we sent the wedding dress, tux, and everything that wouldn’t fit in our 2 backpacks home with my parents. We traveled to Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. We took trains and stayed in hostels/guests houses every where we went. We loved staying in hostels because you get to interact with the locals and other travelers more, and because most of them include breakfast! We booked all of our hostels/guest houses thru hostelworld.com and they were all as good or better than we had expected.
Wow Xela – that’s one amazing honeymoon!
After the wedding, we sent the wedding dress, tux, and everything that wouldn’t fit in our 2 backpacks home with my parents. We traveled to Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. We took trains and stayed in hostels/guests houses every where we went. We loved staying in hostels because you get to interact with the locals and other travelers more, and because most of them include breakfast! We booked all of our hostels/guest houses thru hostelworld.com and they were all as good or better than we had expected.
I suppose “frugal” is a relative term, but we spent about $7000 four years ago for a castle wedding in Prague and a European honeymoon. We used pragueweddings.com and they were wonderful! At the time, it cost about $5000 for the ceremony, flowers, wedding cake, and a photographer for the entire day. (We got all of the images from the photographer on DVD and film negatives, with rights to print included in that price.) My parents paid for the wedding dinner, which was only about $150 for 12 guests, and it was a 4-course meal! We didn’t pay for our guests flights or hotels, but we did pay for a van to transport everyone the 2 hour distance from Prague to the castle and back. We used sky miles to pay for my flight and we paid about $700 for my husband’s flight (which was pretty good, considering it was August and a peak travel time). I know pragueweddings.com has changed things a bit, but they still have some great all inclusive packages and they are WONDERFUL to work with! They took care of all the legal paperwork so we were legally married when we got home. They now do weddings in Paris, Switzerland, Italy and a few other places in Europe. The whole thing was like a fairytale and I highly recommend pragueweddings.com to anyone considering a European wedding!!
Wow! I’m loving all the feedback. I’m certainly going to use some of these tips! Thanks for posting, Laurie!
I’ve enjoyed reading them too Danielle – I’m so glad you asked 🙂 Its giving me some great ideas for anniversay trips . . .
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Always recommend your site to friends and family!
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I would love to go to Australia for my honeymoon!
I have never been married but I figure if you are flexible on a wedding date and place then you could get some awesome deals!
St. Augustine has tons of beautiful cheap places.
I’ve done all of the 5 minute challenges 🙂 and my favorite part: My husband and I went on our honeymoon over the New Year 07-08 on a cruise to Cabo, Mexico. It was a fabulous to way to get to know my new hubby even better! The best part is that my new father in-law paid for it all. It was so generous of him and a great help for us.
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I didn’t do a destination wedding but a great way to save money anywhere you have your event is to consider buying a dress used. I got my dress on CraigsList and I don’t regret a thing! It was beautiful and so inexpensive!
We got married in Vegas…We found the cheesiest chapel, but it had a beautiful outdoor area so only we knew how cheesy the outside was. We booked for a weeknight and saved over $400.00.
I don’t really have any specifics on money saving tips, however, I would recommend focusing on the relationships rather than the stuff. In my experience, it is the time spent with friends and family during this very special time of your life that will be treasured most! Rarely will people remember what the cake looked/tasted like, what the favors were or how things were decorated. What they will remember are the experiences that were had there! If you can keep it relational, it will be a huge, memorable event no matter how much you spent! 🙂
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We went to Maggie Valley, North Carolina for our honeymoon. It was such a lovely time that we are planning to go back this year in honor of our 20th wedding anniversary!!!
Congratulations Alycia (how exciting!)
It might not seem thrifty up front, but buy a REALLY nice camera and bring along an artsy friend to take pictures. Not only will you use the camera in the future (think kids, pets, vacations) but the pics are all yours to print as many as you like!
subscribed to the feed burner! 🙂
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By saving money on the wedding, we were able to go to Paris for two weeks!! So wonderful!! 🙂
Have your wedding during the week…much cheaper!!
Get craft store coupons from the SWunday paper and put the word out to everonr you know to get their’s too.
Barter and haggle!! 🙂
I feel that by just having a destination wedding you are already saving lots of money on venue rental/food as you will have less people since many people won’t be able to travel far for your wedding.
For our wedding my husband and I went to Florida where I grew up. We were able to get friends to help out with decorating and making food. Most of the food was bought at Sam’s and we made all our flower arrangements with flowers bought at Hobby Lobby. My dress was considered a bridesmaid dress that I was able to buy in white…made it a whole lot cheaper. Our cake and pictures were gifts from friends.
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Find a local Sam’s or Costco. It will be a lot cheaper than catering. Find used items on Craigslist and Ebay. My ring was bought secondhand from a friend and we did all our own food. Our photographer was a friend who charged us only his costs. We splurged on my dress, but then my sister wore it too. Our bridesmaid’s dresses were $10 at an outlet! Get creative and find an outdoor area that’s beautiful and doesn’t need any extra decor (beach, park, gardens, etc) Oh, and we honeymooned on a cruise to Mexico!
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We could not afford a honeymoon when we got married but have taken many trips since. I am hoping for an anniversary we will be able to cruise to Alaska.
You can save money on the venue by not having it on Saturday. You can get discounts for having it on an off peak day. Skip flowers decorate with candles, natural items, pictures….
Skip the limo, use vintage cars (we did this at my daughters wedding). Call a local car club. Most members are willing to drive their cars for you for free or just the price of gas.
Ohh can I add a few things? Lol I bought my dress on craigslist (it was never worn) and my wedding ring (also never worn). We had an “engagement party” which was like the reception before we went. People brought cards with cash! We made food for the party and did a beach theme to match the key west destination theme. My friend and I used things from our home to decorate the rented apt clubhouse. We used a sheet for a table cloth and shells from her bathroom and repurposed things like mason jars. I could give so many tips on tbhis topic. Ohhh and use vistaprint when they have invitation deals! I have soooooo many ideas on this! Yeaaaaaaa
I would love to honeymoon somewhere in Europe, maybe Spain, or island hop in Hawaii (every time I’ve been I’ve stayed on the big island). Or I’d take a cruise to Hawaii or Alaska.
Sorry, no tips on frugal wedding planning, but hopefully I’ll be needing what you all are sharing some day 🙂
Don’t worry Kailin, you will! 🙂 Honeymooning in Europe sounds like soooo much fun!
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For our honeymoon we went to Hawaii! We stayed in Waikiki and then went to the Big Island. It was so pretty over there!
We saved money by doing our own flowers. I shopped sales for the fake flowers I wanted and made the bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages. Also, for the reception ask friends and family for serving platters, decorations, etc. to borrow, that saves a ton of money!!
We took a cruise and the first stop was key west. I had our wedding on the beach and paid less than $600 for the ceremony flowers champagne and photos. I believe I used key west weddings to go. I was very happy and was able to slip shorts and a tube top under and over my dress afterward. After that we enjoyed key west and then got back on the cruise ship! I spent less than $1500 on everything. Including the cruise
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My frugal tip is one that we used on our honeymoon: we packed our own snacks and a few bottles of water, that way we did not get tempted to spend tons of money once we were at the resort.
We went to Sandals in Jamaica for our honeymoon. It was wonderful and all inclusive, which helps with spending extra money once you get there.
My hubby and I did the same thing, we got married and then had a reception for family and friends later on. My advice would be find the things that are really important to you for your day and do a budget. My in laws owned a Bed and Breakfast up in washington state where my hubby was from and we had the reception there for free! Also good friends of the family owned a wonderful italian restaurant in their little town and we were able to get them to cater our reception for $10 a person which was a great deal! We had pastas and salads and bread. We spluged on the cake because that was important to my hubby and I and got it from his favorite bakery and it was well worth it. We did all the decorations ourselves by borrowing things and buying stuff cheap at craft stores. My mother in law bought flowers from store and arranged them herself. We did have a DJ and we made a deal with him for a cheaper rate. We took a cruise for our honeymoon later that year and used the money we were given as gifts. I loved our reception and had such a wonderful time, best of luck to you!!!
We got married in the morning which made everything less expensive. The wedding was small. We had a luncheon and did not serve any alcohol. Since my husband and I were in our late 20’s we really didn’t need/want much stuff so we bartered/borrowed with/from friends and family for their services in lieu of gifts. Flowers, cake, organist, linens and services/food were “gifts.” I also reused items from previous weddings in our families, cake servers, aprons, bridesmaid dress (I had only one bridesmaid). I made my own gown which saved a bundle. I also made other items for the wedding/decorations as well.
We didn’t have such a low budget for our Honeymoon to St. Croix 🙂 But that was OK. We didn’t feel the need to spend $$$$$ on a wedding/reception that only lasted a few hours but didn’t mind the money spent on our trip.
I guess the best advice is don’t be too picky. Just enjoy it! It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Well, for my husband and I first of all we got married in the church we were members of which made it FREE to do!! We also had the reception there which was also FREE! The wedding photos we actually left for a little bit and went to an art gallery (we got permission from the gallery to do so) We got all of our pictures done there which was all FREE!!! The photographer was a friend at church so we bartered with things instead of a huge amount of money. Which was awesome. Our cake we got from a small but wonderful cake place which that was a little bit of money we paid about 350 for it but it was amazing and beautiful!!! My reception was a beach themed reception so everything we bought we looked for prices and coupons 🙂 Micheals and other art stores have amazing coupons sometimes even 50% off one item!! But, all in all it’s what you want. I mean my dress was only about 500 bucks which isnt too bad 🙂 You’ve got to know when to splurge and when to save! Also, get a budget out and don’t go over it! Why go into debt before you get married!!! Don’t worry about “impressing” anyone with lavish things!!! We had finger foods but they weren’t just bought at a store we had a caterer do it. My advice is do what you want but be cautious you dont go too far! Like I said if you go into debt even before you get married you will be paying on it awhile! So coupon your way through the planning and then really seek out whats best for you and your soon to be hubby! 🙂