Brides Can Now "Target" Their Dress Budget

In the realm of weddings, Rudy and I had one worthy of little girl fantasies.

I rode in a horsedrawn carriage like Cinderella...

...to a wedding chapel which "floated" on a lagoon overlooking the Pacific Ocean...

Palm trees swayed, Hawaiian guitar music played, the air was pungent with Aloha's finest flowers. 

The loveliest Hawaiian minister, Hotch Kekoa, officiated ("build bridges, not walls" - we remember, Hotch)

(Yes, my hair was the color of a solar flare, shut up.)

Receiving my favorite piece of jewelry EVER.

   

After the ceremony, we took the carriage to a luncheon where a beautiful cake awaited our knife. 

We then bid our guests aloha and took off for a honeymoon on Maui.

Easily a $10,000+ wedding, we brought it in at just over $500 (favorite piece of jewelry not withstanding).  That included our room service bill, his tux, and my dress.

We like to call it Lifestyles of The Not-So-Rich But Very Well Connected.

Rudy managed at the resort, so we simply picked an open time slot on their wedding calendar - Thursday at 1100am.  The carriage was unoccupied, which = FREE.  The flowers were already in place for an afternoon wedding.  Charge to inhale their beauty?  ZERO.  We slipped the carriage driver, minister, and guitar player tips.  Flew to Maui to stay at the sister property of Rudy's - FREE SUITE.

His tux was a rental from a local company on the island.  My dress, not a traditional white wedding gown, but a floral tea length creation cost all of $50 from a local department store.

Minimal investment for 18 years this coming January.

Memories, priceless. 

Anyhoo - the point of this entry, aside from indulging me in a trip down memory lanai, is that weddings don't have to be expensive for the marriage to stick.

Kendall and I watch all those wedding programs on WE and we especially love the one about bridal gowns.  I laugh every single time.  The stress, the strain, the angst over picking the perfect one.  The stress, the strain, the angst endured by the person (usually the parents) who get to foot the bill.

Thousands and thousands of dollars for what amounts to white or off-white satin, some lace, seed pearls perhaps...

Yes, some of them are extraordinary works of art which truly deserve more than a zip into a garment bag for all eternity at the wedding's end.  Some of them deserve shrines.  Seriously, if I were to spend $25K on a dress?  There would be a darkened room in my home, red carpets, votive candles, a video endlessly playing my walk down the aisle...

But I didn't spend $25K.  Far from it.  But I still love the memory of my dress - yes, just the memory.  The actual dress  is now a shrine in some fish's home at the bottom of the Pacific thanks to Hurrican Iniki.  It was simple.  It was perfect for a Hawaiian wedding.

And it was cheap.

I stumbled upon a little known backdoor today online and lo and behold, liked what I found.

Did you know Target has wedding gowns by Isaac Mizrahi?

And they're not ugly?

Like this beautiful column style - available with a variety of sash colors - only $99.

Or this skirt and shell option - top, $24.99, bottom $49.99?

Or how about this lovely sheath for only $99?  Add a veil for less than $30!

All truly pretty options for the bride on a budget.

After all, in the scheme of happily ever after?  You're not going to remember how many Swarovski crystals were on your dress.

You'll just remember how happy you felt in whatever it was you were wearing.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Crae to share any of your favorite wedding photos?  Email them this way!

Comments

[John in AK]

Hi Linda!!

Long time no blog reading for me! Life has been busy in an insane way!!

Thanks for having an awesome site! I forgot how much I enjoy it! Thanks for sharing the beautiful wedding photo, updates on Shawn, the tradgey of the young man who took his life et al.

I saw a little further on the site you were talking about the internet "family", and I agree. It's fun to keep up w/each and share each others lives.

Glad to see things are kickin' w/DGMS and I plan to visit more often!

CUL!
John in AK

[rj to Linda Sharp]

Great photos, Linda! I don't have any to share, unfortunately. Courthouse wedding the second time, you know...
My oldest daughter had a huge, ridiculous Catholic wedding (she converted). Her father finally paid it off two years ago. Her wedding photo is gorgeous, I must admit.
My youngest daughter eloped to Vegas last January after living with her boyfriend for seven years. She's always been the more prudent one. Chinese tourists took some great photos of her (just kidding, they had a photographer as part of their wedding package!). The tourists DID take pictures of their wedding, though.
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's pics.

[ChickyChick (Kathy)]

Beautiful wedding photos - I especially love your Cinderella Carriage...We did ours on a budget too, but it wasn't half as pretty as yours - The secret to a pretty wedding under $150? Make sure your hubby to be knows the entire town and does favors for them throughout the years.

Phil knows the owner of a lovely little B&B in Upstate NY, she agreed to give us the room and our honeymoon suite for the price of some electrical work from my hubby. We went down the street to a local florist who made me a beautiful bouquet and little bouquets for the flower girls with pretty painted glass eggs hanging from them. She threw in the guys flowers because Phil had done some electrical work for her in the past - cost $90. My mom and sister went to a vintage dress shop and found me a lovely floor length white dress with tiny white daisy's sewn all over it. My sister, armed with her bedazzler, adorned the train with "white crystals" - cost $0. Phil also knew the proprietor of the restaurant where we had our little reception - he made Prime Rib for everyone - cost $0. I homemade the invitations and mailed them out - cost, about $10. Phil did some electrical work for the tux rental guy - so we got the shoes and his tux for $40. Phil's nephew is an photographer, we printed our photos on the Xerox Printer (value of about $1,500 - that I won in a contest - the photos came out beautiful and professional looking) - cost $0. Our entire wedding cost $150. Plus, we planned and got married in 23 days - so I had NO Stress to speak of - it just all came together with the help of family and friends!

[Toni in Dallas]

I did my own wedding flowers and decorations. I don't remember the cost but it wasn't much.
At the age of 53 I am finally realizing my dream of being a florist. I have been taking classes on design, and have scored a job on a call in basis in a shop. I am so looking forward to doing weddings, I just want to do them for the ones who like to throw cash around. LOL

[Michelle in Il]

My total wedding cost was $500. We eloped to Vegas on free tickets my dad gave us- we were going to celebrate my boyfriend's father's 50th bday. As we were landing my bf proposed and we took a cab over to get the license. That was $50. Then we went to the Little White Wedding Chapel and spent $345.00 which included flowers, 18 pictures, a dvd, and a nice holder for our marriage certificate. Mind you I was in a black tank top with a floral print and black capris and had just had a really bad 4 hour flight.

We were going to take a cab back to the hotel (which was free since my father in law had a free room) but the place had an open limo so they took us for FREE!!!

Honestly we have seen so many people get married in the past year spend so MUCH money and have SO much DRAMA with all hte wedding details that at the end of each wedding, people look at my husband and I and say "Now I understand why you eloped." It was perfect for us...neither one of us like being in the spotlight and we feel marriage is about the two people getting married and we wanted it to be about us!!

My family was upset at first but I think they were happy deep down! The money we saved by not having a big wedding, we used to build our "dream" house in Wisconsin and we go there every other weekend. I tell my hubby all the time that I would rather have that then any wedding!!!!

If I remember, i will try to send pictures of our wedding on Monday.

[Marc AKA Slumrville]

Linda, you and Rudy look so much in love in those pictures, it's actually breathtaking!!!

Single here, so no pictures to share. Plus, it's illegal for me to get "married" in 48 states... Whatever!

Seeing what both of my brothers went through (and their wives) when they were planning their weddings, I vowed (no pun intended) to never put myself through that. Then again, there's gonna be drama, regardless of what me and my future husband decide to do. Why make it more stressful? It should be a celebration, and not about which random long lost relatives need to be invited, what flowers to have, what food to serve, what kind of music to play, etc. And so much money is WASTED! Maybe that's the X chromosome in me talking (it rarely surfaces)!

[Nikki]

Your pics are wonderful!

I especially love your dress.

[Irish M]

Thanks for sharing Linda! I especially like the last picture. Happiness abounds, and a beautiful family to show for it (and show off!)

[Jean in MI]

Linda, your pictures are absolutely beautiful!
Thank you for sharing them with us and the dresses from Target are wonderful.

[natala]

We saved a lot of money in our wedding...
http://constantinearts.smugmug.com/gallery/250988_XbdZ3#P-2-15

We played all the music ;) (my husband plays piano)

We also used silk flowers - which not only saved a ton of money, we were able to put every thing together months before the wedding!

I tell so many bride's that they will be just as married the day after their wedding as everyone else.

And... as for all the crazy family stuff, I remember at one point thinking I should just elope and get it all over with - being in a big italian family - um - yeah, it was STRESS. On the other hand, at our wedding, my 'surrogate' grandfather was able to come down from NY, he was like a father to me my entire life... my wedding was the last thing he was able to do, and he died shortly after that. In the end, despite all the stress and the family drama - this picture, was worth every single bit of it all..
http://constantinearts.smugmug.com/gallery/250988_XbdZ3#21483534_s92Kc

me, my husband, my grandma grethe and my opa allen - who passed away weeks after this photo was taken. My Grandma Grethe said he stayed alive just to take that photo.

[audreyf]

I don't get all the drama for a wedding! I bought the first dress (off the clearance rack) I tried on. The headpeice came with it. My mom altered it. My sister's mother in law made three of the bridesmaids dresses for the cost of the material and I bought the other two at a store going out of business for 20.00 each. My sister in law donated the flowers and my folks paid for the invitations. I paid a chef at the local culinary arts school 350.00 for food and the rest was donated by the little old ladies at the church. I did send out 400 invitaions--not sure just how many showed up, but it was quite a few. My mom's best friend's husband video taped it for free and my brother's singing group/band sang for free. My best friend (concierge at the Hyatt) gave us a huge suite and arranged for a horse and carriage--cost, 50.00--only because it was really out of range and it cost extra for that. That's all I can remember (it was 1990) and we did drive to Atlanta for a few days for our Honeymoon. I tried my best to get him to elope, but HE wanted the wedding! Go figure! Will send a few pics when I fix my scanner!

[audreyf]

Oh, I forgot to add that the church venue was donated by one of my customers--she even paid their janitors to come in and clean up before and after the wedding! It is not always WHAT you know, but WHO you know!

[Another Lori in TX]

Thanks, Linda for sharing your wedding pics - you and Rudy look so happy!

I don't know how much my wedding cost, but we did keep the reception cost down by having it in a tent in my parents' backyard.

I'll send pics when I can get on the main computer.

[Kerry]

Another way to do a low budget wedding - Get married near the Christmas holidays! The church was beautifully decorated, and we didn't have to spend a cent on decorations or flowers, other than my bouquet.

I did buy my dress for about $400. My sister was my only attendant, so we were able to buy her an off the rack evening gown for about $40 on sale. Table centerpiece decorations for the reception were the gift of my very artistically inclined sister-in-law. 13 years later, my mom and I still bring them out as Christmas decorations. The cake came from a bakery, but the cake topper was a crystal Christmas tree, which also comes out as a decoration every year.

We had a small buffet dinner; open bar that lasted as long as the assorted 2 dozen bottles of liquor my in-laws bought lasted, so costs were very controlled. We had a local DJ "The Toe Jammer" (I kid you not).

I don't remember exactly how much the whole wedding cost, but it was in the neighborhood of about $1000.

[NH Diane]

My wedding 25 years ago was done on the cheap too. I'm mortified today to think of some aspects of it, like my table centerpieces. They were--honest-to-god--beer bottles wrapped with tissue paper with daiseys in them. At the time I thought they were so clever. Now I cringe when I think about it. No wonder the marriage didn't last.

[Jamie in WI]

My wedding was ORIGINALLY going to be 4 days before Xmas - and it was snowballing into a HUGE affair & waaay over our budget. SO my finace & I sat down & said we need to scale this back - BIG TIME! Ok - no problem. Then he said, well - if we are scaling back & changing things - lets change the date too! Um, ok - what did you have in mind dear? HALLOWEEN! We were married on a friday evening Halloween - 1997. Our Pastor was a bit hesitant to do a Halloween wedding (ours was his FIRST!) but we had to promise to have a traditional ceremony - so then he agreed. I had One maid of honor & one bridesmaid - they wore black off the shoulder dresses from JCPenney that cost about 55.00. My dress was a Alfred Angelo creation that was sold at a designer closeout sale - I got a 2500.00 dress for 200.00! SCORE!
My cake was a three tier confection - 100.00 at the local bakery. The limo for after the service - 100.00. I had a catered buffett at the hall we rented - that was 550.00 & the DJ was 300.00.
My sister made all the flowers & a dear friend video taped the whole thing. All in all my wedding cost around 1700.00 total. It was a great reception - costume optional for my guests. We just celebrated 11 years together. We have had some rough spots, but I love him with all my heart.

[Kelly (KelBel)]

My first marriage we went all out with the church wedding and fancy reception and of course it didn't last. (My poor parents had to pay for it too, amazing how selfish we can be when young and stupid!)
My second (and last)wedding was at the courthouse and the picture is hilarious because of my boots, lol. It was sort of an inside joke for my husband and I. I will send it soon. Suffice it to say it was a VERY inexpensive wedding. We didn't buy anything but the flowers and a disposable camera, but I will never ever forget that wonderful day.
I'll send that pic in a little while, it's funny, don't laugh at my boots, lol!

[Valerie]

Ok I have two. First marriage waaaaay tooo young (barly turned 20, both of us) but my mom went crazy! I think the whole thing cost them about $15K and that was 1989! (which didn't include the honeymoon in Maui his parents paid for) My dress alone was $5K??? Yes very, very beautiful. Six bridesmaids (Linda your pictures are GORGEOUS!!, I had to giggle a little because your dress looks almost exactly what my bridesmaids wore, I wanted the tropical wedding too!) But after a short four year marriage, and thankfully no kids that nightmare was over!!
But Dave and I (paying for ourselves) 1994 at the court house with the justice of the peace. $25 for the license, $0 for clothes, dozen yellow roses from mom....14 wonderful, amazing, fabulous years later!

[Valerie]

oops BARELY,,,I guess barly would be after having one to many at the bar?

[Jennifer]

My first wedding was modest but overly stressful (let's just day I had nightmares about it for MONTHS and that was AFTER it took place) we split up 11 months later, go figure. My husband's first wedding was overdone and he and his wife seperated 4 months later.

For our wedding we decided to keep it fairly simple. We booked a destination wedding. $900 for the lakeside/beach ceremony, limo and photos. Approx $5,000 for the reception- full buffet, still talked about 2 years later, cake, also talked about 2 years later, dance floor and DJ. We kept the reception as an over 21 affair with an open bar. We had a blast and since there were only 35 people there we were able to talk with everyone.

BTW- if anyone wants a destination wedding a recommend Lake Tahoe. Beautiful year round!!!!

[Jennifer]

Uuummm...that should say "I recommend"...