Catherine Sabino - Stylish Weddings for Less How to Plan Your Dream Wedding on a Budget

Copyright 2009 Filipacchi Publishing, a division of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.

First published in 2009 in the United States of America by Filipacchi Publishing

1633 Broadway

New York, NY 10019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Source material and recommendations are not intended to be comprehensive, but rather representative.

First eBook Edition: December 2009

ISBN: 978-1-933231-75-4

W elcome to Stylish Weddings for Less. Even before the recent economic downturn, couples looked for smart ways to maximize their wedding dollars. And for good reasonwith the average cost of a wedding at $21,814 last year (dropping from $28,704, according to The Wedding Report), thats still a hefty price tag for an event that lasts just a few hours.

Excitement, tension, frayed nerves and unintended melodrama frequently come into play when planning any big event, and if that big event is a wedding, well, expect double helpings of all of the above. So its easy to see how the bottom line, or wedding budget, gets lost in the whirl of emotionssense yielding to sensibility, with guest lists growing, and sudden sticker shock when presented with the final tab.

We hope Stylish Weddings for Less will help you avoid unnecessary wedding-cost stress and budgets gone amok. As many planners and brides will tell you, once the word wedding is used as an adjective (as in wedding reception, wedding dress, wedding cake), prices soar! In each chapter of this book there are dozens of ideas on how to get the most for your wedding expenditures. We help you find the best pricing for everything from bridal dresses to reception sites; suggest the most cost-effective ways to buy flowers, rings and invitations; and get the inside scoop from top wedding and honeymoon planners, caterers, lighting specialists and photographers on working within a budget. For the DIY-er, we have ideas for making bouquets, invitations and reception decorations.

There are plenty of cost-saving ideas online, of course. The millennial wedding experience is a most interactive one, with brides reaching out to one another for information and blogging about their planning experiences in extraordinary detail. And it only takes a few seconds of Googling to see the wedding category is an extremely vast onetheres almost too much information to digest, as many a bleary-eyed, Web-surfing about-to-be-married couple can attest. With so many sources, which to check out? In addition to our experts and real couples advice, we point you in the direction of many of the most useful wedding sites to save you time, moneyand eyestrain!

If theres one thing you should take away from this book, its that you dont have to go into debt to have a stylish wedding. Even celebrities are practicing the fine art of scaling back for their march down the aisle.

We extend our best wishes for your upcoming nuptials. May your wedding day be everything you hoped it would be: chic, fun, memorableand affordable!

CATHERINE SABINO

Say celebrity wedding and the words huge bash come rather quickly to mind. And for good reason: Who can forget reports of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmess three-day destination wedding in Rome that ended with a ceremony and reception in a castle, and a tab of about $3.5 million?

When Nicole Kidman married Keith Urban near Sydney, there were many boldfaced names among the 230 guests, with no less than the Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, providing the reception entertainment. Catherine Zeta-Jones wed Michael Douglas in a million-dollar extravaganza at New York Citys Plaza Hotel that forced even jaded Manhattanites to take note. When youre living a red-carpet life, how can your wedding be anything but over-the-top?

But in these cautionary and eco-conscious times, the bling patrol is on alert. And too much may well be too much. Amy Sultan, editor of CelebrityBrideGuide.com, points out that more and more celebs are opting for low-key, and often less pricey, nuptials, for a number of reasons. The desire for privacy is huge, so guest lists are cut way down; the presseven family and friendsare often told after the fact. With the economy being what it is, many dont want to look insensitive with a showy event. And celebrity brides are into green and eco-conscious weddings. So this also plays into the more subdued vibe thats popular now.

Marcy Blum, an event planner in New York City who has coordinated weddings and events for a number of boldfaced names, adds, Celebrities are choosing to spend their money in ways that dont make outrageous statements. They keep their weddings small, but then pick up the hotel and airfare for all the guests. Its a quieter way to be lavish.

Sultan says the lower-key celebrity wedding now takes on one of four forms.

The surprise wedding Guests think theyre just going to a party. And thensurprise!the couple ends up getting married. Thats what Julia Roberts did.

The courthouse wedding With just the bride and groom and witnesses in attendance. (See Jessica Alba, and others, ).

The green wedding Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia had a nature-themed wedding at Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu. The bride told InStyle she wanted their wedding to produce as little waste as possible.

The restaurant wedding Keri Russell married Shane Deary in New York City on Valentines Day in 2007, followed by a small reception at The Harrison restaurant in Tribeca.

Julianne Moore wed her longtime beau, director Bart Freundlich, in a simple ceremony in the backyard of their Greenwich Village, New York, townhouse, where a reception for 36 was also held.

Singer Mary J. Blige married record producer Kendu Isaacs