Wedding Elves Elegant Weddings On A Realistic Budget

Weddings Bliss Welcome to the Wedding Elves homepage! This page came about after we came across an article citing the staggering $28,000 price tag of the average American wedding, which left us absolutely floored. After some poking around on the 'net looking for the costs of a typical wedding in a mid-sized city and realizing that number is rather easy to reach in a short period of time, we were left determined to find a relatively painless way to pull off an elegantly simple affair without breaking the bank. Let's face it, one of the leading causes of divorce is money troubles, and for most people, that $28,000 figure can translate into years of crushing debt for a day-long party. We Wedding Elves are also a little bit sentimental; we don't like to see anyone put their marriage behind the eight ball from day one, and we don't like sad stories of avoidable money troubles breaking up a romance. On the other hand, we also don't like hearing stories about crushed fantasies, family strife, or other tales of woe that sometimes pop up when a couple decides to elope. (Disclaimer: We've got nothing against elopements. If that's your thing, more power to you! But this is a site for people who want some kind of a party to celebrate their union without having to worry about paying it off on their tenth anniversary. Please hold off on sending us angry e-mails on the subject.) Anyway, we put our little pointy elfin thinking caps on, perked up our pointy little ears, and compiled this list of sites where you can get all the typically expensive goods and services (i.e. dresses, flowers, music, invitations, food, etc.) for your wedding at a tiny fraction of what these items typically cost. And of course, if you choose to eschew any of these items, so much the cheaper! This site is full of tips, tricks, and sites that you can use whether you live in an expensive metropolitan area or a small town; we've done our best to make this site as all-inclusive as possible! We also wanted to illustrate that "inexpensive" shouldn't have to mean "tacky" or "ugly"; the sites, vendors, and tips we list here are all excellent, lovely, realistically-priced versions of their retail-priced cousins. So click around, enjoy the site, and feel free to e-mail us with any questions! Happy surfing!

~The Wedding Elves

By far, the most expensive part of your wedding is going to be the food and/or drinks for your guests. We're of the mind that there are plenty of fabulous catering venues in any town/city that should be able to serve a lovely lunch/dinner for your guests at $30/each, including tip. Look for various tasty mom-and-pop ethnic restaurants (Italian, Greek, Indian, Chinese, etc.) that also cater; they're not hard to find in just about any town or city in America, and they should easily be able to meet or beat that $30/head figure. Booze is a bit trickier; without obtaining a liquor license in many states, (including the Wedding Elves' home state of New York,) it's very hard to legally serve booze at a large party without hiring someone. An open bar with a bartender tends to run about $20/head... on the cheap side. One of the easiest ways to painlessly slash costs without coming off as a tightwad is to have a lovely brunch reception after a morning ceremony, instead of the typical afternoon or evening lunch/dinner wedding affairs. You can easily eliminate the alcohol costs right off the bat with a brunch ceremony, and the food costs for brunch typically drop to around $20/guest, saving you thousands. And instead of a wedding cake, consider having tiered cupcakes, cookies, donuts, or a combination thereof instead! They're cheaper, delightful, and the guests are sure to love them! Plus, you can get a variety of different flavors without too much of an added expense; it's really a win-win situation! The chart below starts with what the average American spends per item on the left, goes to what the Wedding Elves can save you at a wedding with a lunch/dinner reception in the middle, and what we can save you on a morning wedding with a brunch reception at the far right. To get an idea of what you can afford, think of what you and your beloved could realistically afford to pay for a car. Your wedding budget shouldn't exceed that. Enjoy!