We just got married in Sept and planned the wedding in 4 months. We made our own invitations and church bulletins. We had the dinner at a supper club that we like. They let us bring in our own champagne.
My dress was $15.00 on clearance. It was a two piece suit. DH wore a suit he already had. He and BM bought matching shirts and similar ties. We made our own invitations. I made the flowers and bouts. My and MH bouquets were a wreath shape and mine now hangs on the front foor.
We had 1 person stand up. I asked what color dresses she had and she had a few navy ones, so navy was the accent color. I borrowed shoes and decorated a pair of cheap tennies to wear at the dinner. My DHs BIL and DS did the pics and they turned out great. We bought cheap cameras in a box and had people take pics throughout the day. They turned out great also.
For favors I bought small hershey candy bars and made a paper wrapper with our names and the date and glued them on with a glue stick. Went over great. Cost about $15.00.
We didn’t do bouquets in church. We had a remembrance bouquet of roses for my parents his Mom and Grandparents. We did register for gifts and struggled with this. We are over 40 and had two households. We found things that we did need though and were happy with our choices.
I guess the best advise is to plan the day the way you want it to be. Just because you stood up in a wedding 5 years ago, doesn’t mean you need to have person stand up for you. I also think etiquette is smetiquette for the most part.
A few things to consider.
How much do YOU want to spend total?
Is your Mother or his Mother demanding? Will they want to do things a certain way? Be ready with your response to them if so.
If you truly want a frugal wedding, stay away from ‘The knot’ and other wedding websites. They focus on keeping up with the Joneses in my opinion.
If you plan it quickly, you stay away from the long engagement and the many months of listening to everyone’s wedding story. I think you will get the wedding you really want.