text: any suggestions on how to have an inexpensive wedding? my fiance and i are getting married june 22, 2007. but, we are poor college kids. i would still like to have a beautiful wedding. we live in a small town, so i am not worried about paying for the church or pastor. but, decorations and the reception are going to be expensive.   what can i use to decorate/ eat that is nice, but inexpensive? my cousin just had an average wedding and it was over $10,000! i am looking to spend about $2,000 for all of it. any ideas would be great. thanks! i spent roughly $1,000 for my wedding - and we had enough money to spent a lot more, but i don't see the need!  we got married in our backyard (the minister came to perform the ceremony) as we lived on a lake and the lake was the background for the pictures.  my brother was in college to be a professional photographer, so he took the photos.  i also gave all of the guests little disposable cameras (not digital back then), but you can ask all of them to bring their own and then email you all of the photos - the candid ones are usually the best anyway!  if you need more professional photos, perhaps you can make a trade with a photographer for something they need!    as for food, it was a summer wedding and i didn't want to provide "hot" food or anything heavy. i wanted everyone to enjoy themselves, so i put in the invitations that the reception was going to be at the house and that we were going to have fun afterwards - so bring summer clothing to change into!  while everyone was changing, i had a local deli cater finger sandwiches, fruit salad, various fruits and vegetables with dips, chips, hot dogs for the kids, etc.  everyone loved it and thought it was much more relaxing and enjoyable than a stuffy big wedding!   for music i asked a few friends to bring their favorite cds and we just had a nice stereo set up with speakers outside.  we did not have dancing, but instead we all went swimming and waterskiing.    for flowers, i went to a local flower grower and bought them at cost - and didn't have many, but had a lot of green plants instead that made it more of a tropical feel - and then those could be kept (still have some!).   i'm sure that whatever you do will be nice - it's a special occasion no matter what you serve or how you decorate.  but just remember that it is all over in one day, so if you can cut costs without causing too many problems, go for it! the number one reason people don't like going to weddings is not because they don't want to celebrate, but because they're normally too formal and not relaxing.  make it comfortable and everything will fall into place!  good luck and congratulations!