Some topics of interest to the DIY bride may be:

Catering Display: How to Design the Perfect Buffet: Find out how you can create a buffet line that will be appetizing but will also dazzle the eye.

Decorating Your Own Wedding Reception Hall: Whether you are holding your wedding reception in your own house, an outdoor tent or a reception hall, learn how you can save money by decorating your own wedding reception.

Wedding Menu Ideas & Tips: Most couples want their wedding reception to be memorable. Learn how to develop a unique wedding menu that both the wedding party and the guests will love.

What You Need to Make & Decorate a Wedding Cake: Find out what tools you need to make and decorate a wedding cake, as well as steps detailing the entire process.

Off-Site Catering Menu: Choosing Foods that Hold & Travel Well: Some menu items will transport well while others will become stale, overcooked, soggy or dry. Here is a list of what works and what doesn’t, as well as some tips on how to transport tricky foods.

Designing a Wedding Table Centerpiece: Whether you are a caterer or a do-it-yourself newlywed, you can benefit financially from designing your own wedding centerpieces.

Chocolate Fountain Recipes: Find step-by-step instructions for how to make your own fondue chocolate that will flow smoothly in a chocolate fountain.

Do you have experience in catering a large event? Let us know what you think is crucial to success!

Save on Alcohol

• Instead of providing a full bar, serve a signature drink, such as punch or a favorite cocktail, instead of providing a full bar.  Another option is to limit alcoholic beverages to wine and beer, choices that will satisfy most of your guests.

• Rather than pouring Champagne all night long, serve just a single glass to each guest at the appropriate time to toast the bride and groom.

• Technically, Champagne is sparkling wine that’s from the Champagne region of France. But you can find plenty of substitutions that don’t come with the high price tag.  For example, Cava, the Spanish take on Champagne, or Prosecco, from Italy, which is smoother, sweeter, and a better fit for a small budget. Even French sparkling wine is cheaper; it’s made the same way but isn’t actually from Champagne.

• Buy your own wine wholesale. You may pay your caterer a corkage fee to pour it, but wine purchased through him can cost twice as much.

• Most merchants offer a 10 percent discount for buying wine by the case, and they’ll often increase that if you purchase several cases at once.

Save on your Wedding Cake

• Hire an outside baker to provide the wedding cake, if your caterer’s contract permits. You may have to pay a cake-cutting charge, but you will likely pay less overall.

• Want a tall cake but don’t want to pay full price? Have your baker make just enough to serve each guest one slice.  Additional tiers can be made of Styrofoam and iced to match the others.  No one will know!

• Alternatively, you can order two cakes for the reception: a small fancy one to be used for display, and a large sheet cake, which does not need to be elaborately decorated.   The bigger cake gets sliced and dished up in the kitchen.

• Or, order a very plain (and moderately priced) cake, and make the focal point the cake topper. Vintage toppers and classic symbols can make a cake memorable.

• You don’t need a whole separate dessert course. Just present the wedding cake as dessert, with coffee and tea, to end the meal.

Save on Ingredients

• Have your caterer use local fruits and vegetables that are in season. They’re tastier, fresher, and more economical!

• Use expensive ingredients, such as lobster, in hors d’oeuvres rather than in a main course.

• How you serve dinner affects the price. Regular plate service and French service, in which guests are served by waiters from a platter at the table, are the most expensive. Family style, where diners help themselves from serving dishes brought to the table, is more economical.

Save on Flowers

• Many popular bridal flowers are available year-round, but some traditional ones — peonies and lilies of the valley, for example — can be expensive out of season. Consult with your florist about what flowers are in season and easy to obtain.

• Mix berries, pine cones (for winter), and other economical non-floral embellishments  to fill out bouquets and displays.

• You don’t need to deck every pew with flowers. Get the most bloom for your buck by asking your florist to design two lush altarpieces, which will direct everyone’s eyes exactly where you want them to be: on you and your groom.

• Make floral arrangements do double duty: If designed properly, your ceremony flowers can serve as centerpieces at the reception, or decorate the guest-book, seating-card, and favor tables. Place bridesmaids’ bouquets on the cake table.

Saving on Centerpieces

• Floating flowers: Instead of decorating tables with large arrangements, float a few flowers in shallow bowls or glass cylinders filled halfway with water.

• Economical flowers: Floral standbys like daisies and carnations are available year-round, are quite affordable, and when arranged en masse make delightful centerpieces and bouquets.

• Flowering bulbs: Flowers like amaryllis, narcissus, and hyacinth often cost less than regular flowers and are dramatic rising from a layer of stones set in clear containers.

• Fruits: Bowls or compotes filled with seasonal fruits from a farmer’s market can take the place of expensive floral presentations.

• Candles: A single pillar candle in a hurricane lantern is a wonderful centerpiece, as is a casual display of votive candles in the middle of a table.

• Vases: You’ll save money if your florist doesn’t have to supply vases for your centerpieces. if you have a collection of containers, such as jelly jars or milk jugs. Filled with flowers, just about any type of vessel will make pretty displays.

Save on Favors

• Use favors as place cards to save a bit on stationery costs. For seating cards, write guests’ names and table numbers on strips of paper, affix them to the favors, and set in order on a table near the entrance. For place cards, put favors with names attached at guests’ places.

• Handmade favors (especially edible ones like cookies or candies) and decorations are appealing and usually cost less than store-bought.

Save on the Season

• A winter date may come with lower fees, rather than scheduling in the summer, when rates are at their highest.

• Weddings scheduled during holidays or vacation times are more popular and therefor more expensive. To cut costs, plan your wedding during an uneventful season.

• Fridays and Sundays are generally less expensive than Saturdays for renting a venue.

• For a destination wedding, book a date that is not as popular for travel in the region.

Downsize

• Wedding Party: Try to keep the number of attendants as small as possible.  The larger the bridal party, the more you’ll spend on gifts and flowers.

• Transportation:  Use a personal car rather than a limousine to get to and from the reception.

• Wedding Highlights:  Hire a videographer to work just from the ceremony through the first dance rather than for the entire wedding.

• Photographer: There are many talented photographers who haven’t made a name for themselves yet, and their lack of fame can save you a fortune. If you fall hard for a photographer who’s in high demand, ask if she’ll refer you to a lower-priced colleague (just make sure you like his work before you commit).

• Location: If you are considering two locations, small towns are more economical than big cities! One bride moved her wedding from Brooklyn, New York to a beach town in Michigan, and watched catering quotes drop from $140 per head to $40 — a savings of $15,000!

• Guest List: To minimize the guest list, refrain from inviting children and coworkers. Include your friends’ significant others but not casual dates.

• Extras: A venue that comes with extras built in, like a wedding coordinator or an on-site ceremony location, means significant savings.

• Negotiate: Before signing a contract with your caterer, photographer, or florist, try to negotiate a lower yet still reasonable price.

• Celebrate in Public: The nicest wedding sites — parks, museums, public gardens — may be the most affordable.

• Music: For your reception, remember that a deejay can be less costly than a live band.  To avoid hiring two bands and paying two separate fees, ask if just a few pieces of the band can play during the ceremony and cocktail hour, as well as at the reception.

Save on Your Wedding Dress

• Look for a dress at sample sales, trunk shows, and outlets; you can sign up for some designers’ sample-sale listings online. Most wedding-dress designers allow you to sign up for news and updates.  Even if you dislike this type of spam, getting on their e-mail lists will keep you informed on time-sensitive info such as sample sales and trunk shows.

• Consider wearing your mother’s gown. The costs of cleaning and alterations will likely be far less than the cost of buying a new wedding dress.

Use your Friends

• Borrow accessories from family and friends instead of buying them.

• Ask talented friends or relatives to help with your wedding. An artistic friend, for instance, might design your stationery, or a baking enthusiast could make cupcakes or cookie favors.

Hope these tips are helpful! For the complete list, visit Martha Stewart Weddings: 65 Ways to Trim Your Budget.

Homemade cookies: Do you like to bake? One bride and her mother made homemade cookies the week before the wedding. They include an old recipe (Christmas cookies they make together every year), a new recipe (chocolate cherry cookies), a borrowed recipe (chocolate chip), and a something blue (sugar cookie sprinkled in blue).

Drinks: One sophisticated couple (via The Knot) featured drinks such as Gin & Tonic, Blushing Bride, French Kiss Martini, and Blue Moon beer. Another ideas is to choose four well-known cocktails such as a dirty martini (old), a mango (new), a French martini (borrowed, say, from a friend’s wedding), and an electric lemonade (blue). (image from chakpak.com)

Wedding Cake: Embellish your cake according to the classic formula. For something old, use your parent’s cake topper or a family heirloom like a broach. Something new could be fresh flowers or decorative crystals. Then decorate your cake with blueberries, blue fondant flowers, or blue piping.

(images from flickr consumed by cake and the funky cake co)

Ceremony: Choose “something old” that is meaningful to you, such as a passage from the Bible. For something new, you can select a newly published poem, or something you’ve written yourself.  “Borrow” a passage, song, or prayer from the wedding ceremony of a couple that you admire. “Something blue” calls for a creative touch, like playing “Love is Blue” or “Blue without You.”

(image from millitaylor.com)

Favors: Give your guests “something old, something new” with these adorable favors from American Bridal. Your guests will be charmed by these cented soaps, tied with a blue satin ribbon, and tied with a charm that reads “Something…”

Have you heard any interesting twists on “something old, something new?” We’d love to hear about it!

feature image from the knot

Looking for something nontraditional?  CakeGirls also has “luxury cakes” for that once-in-a-lifetime event, and unique and artful cakes for special occasions. How bout ordering one for your bachelor/bachelorette party? Or, you can really create a sensation at your wedding with a personalized, themed cake. Can you believe that these are cakes?!

And I’d like to bet that they taste almost as good as they look! Not only are these cakes a feast for the eyes, but with the following menu to choose from, guests are sure to be licking their plates clean…

Thanks to SMP for sharing this great wedding cake site!

Simply desserts points out that some bakers charge by the “serving” for decorating fake tiers (about $2.50 per serving) so this can actually add a significant amount to the final cost of your cake. Explore all your options to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible!

Take a look at the two cakes below (I got this picture from the savvy event, via  Rachael Ray’s website)… One cost $250 while the other was $2500. The fake cake has a real bottom layer, and the top three layers are fake. The couple cuts from the bottom layer for pictures, then the cake is moved to the kitchen where the bottom is served in addition to a cheaper sheet cake. (One website I looked at pointed out that if you use an entire real cake, much of it gets wasted in the kitchen anyway, since it gets messy and falls apart while being cut.)

You can also create an entire fake cake, and serve sheet cake from the kitchen. If you want to do it yourself, you can find tips on faking a cake here at thrifty fun or party pop. They suggest using styrofoam “cakes” that you can find in craft stores, in all shapes and sizes.  Use a Royal Icing (egg white based icing) that dries hard to cover the styrofoam and decorate as you would a real cake.

Aside from fake cakes, there are other ways to cut costs on your wedding cake. A great source for ideas is big-wedding-tiny-budget. They point out that much of the cost of decorating wedding cakes comes from the labor involved: applying icing or fondant and creating intricate designs. Keeping your cake design simple can save you a bundle.

1. Add fresh or fake flower:

2. Add a Swiss dot pattern and simple piping:

3.Add a jeweled monogram cake topper (which could be a fun do-it-yourself project):

4. Create an elegant, textured look by applying “messy” icing:

Click here for more creative ways to save! Check out Ultimate Baker, Wilton.com or SugarCraft.com for all your DIY wedding cake supplies.

Invitations: The first whiff of fall comes to your guests in the mail. Decorate Save-the-Date cards and invitations with vines, leaves, scroll work, and flourishes for ultimate autumn elegance.

A gold leaf seal on the envelope or a sprinkling of colorful silk leaves when they open the invitation is a pretty touch!

Decorating ideas: Glittering maple leaves will help give your reception a magical autumn look, whether displayed on a wall or as part of your centerpieces. A unity candle or bridal bouquet wrapped in gold satin ribbon is pretty and sophisticated, especially trimmed with bows and pearls. And what do you think about those precious flower girls scattering baskets of autumn leaves or dried flowers instead of rose petals?  This taupe rhinestone basket will be just the thing!

Centerpieces and Table Decor: A simple vase of flowers surrounded by red and gold flower petals becomes a lovely tribute to fall’s beauty.  To wake things up even more, use eye-popping table linens in orange or crimson. You can also engage the stunning contrast of dark green tablecloths and bright flowers and accessories. Incorporate maple leaf garlands, pumpkins, fruits, tree branches, and of course fall-colored flowers such as yellow sunflowers and red roses. If you want to go with a fall harvest theme, use baskets overflowing with flowers, fruits, gourds, pumpkins, and berries.

Bouquets and flowers: Speaking of flowers, there are so many glorious options to chose from! Gerbera daisies and roses in autumn colors, calla lilies, dahlias, sunflowers, mimosa, delphinium, gladioli, bouvardia, orchids, birds of paradise. Intertwine these flowers with fruits, berries, ivy, grasses or twigs and finish off with soft ribbons or metallic accessories for a look that’s unique and gorgeous!

Wedding cakes and cupcakes: For a final taste of fall sweetness, decorate your cake with colorful frosting, ribbons, and scroll work, adorned with candied flowers, leaves, acorns, and berries.

If you want to celebrate your heritage and showcase the beauty of Asian cultures, it can be featured in a wedding that reflects your personal tastes, whether it’s more trendy, classic, or a mixture of both! Incorporate elements like cherry blossoms, brocade, saki cups, and chopsticks, all embellished with Japanese calligraphy or Chinese characters.

The photos above come from Manolo for the Brides. The decor is from Social Couture, but MftB points out that the look can be easily and inexpensively replicated with accessories from the craft store, eBay, the Oriental Trading Company, and Amazon. These favors below are from the Oriental Trading Company:

American Bridal also has a selection of Asian-styled favors such as these, for something a little more upscale:

Paper lanterns, like these pictured at MftB and Paper Lantern Store, add a delicate, colorful touch:

The Paper Lantern Store also sells hand fans and parasols in a variety of colors and patterns. How pretty your bridal party will look in pictures, carrying these lovely accessories! Here are a few of their parasols:

And here are some of their pretty fans (in all colors to match your wedding!):

To put the perfect finishing touch on your Asian styled wedding, you’ll need a cake adorned with cherry blossoms, of course!

No thanks, not for me! I’ll gladly eat sushi as an appetizer or an entre, but I want my cake too!!  And how, exactly, are you supposed to serve this interetsing creation?

1. Inappropriate wedding music choices. Wedaholic remembers cringing as a band played Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.” A lovely song but, after all, this Oscar-winning Titanic theme tune is about a couple separated by death. I recall sitting next to the Rabbi’s decorous wife when the band broke out with “It’s getting hot it here, so take off all your clothes…”

2. Long-winded wedding speeches: You just can’t hold any one’s attention for more than five minutes. Don’t make the guests suffer any longer, no matter how wise or witty your speech may be. The shorter, the better!

3. Sand Ceremony: In this superfluous wedding custom, the bride and groom each have a container of sand that they pour into an empty vase.  It’s an alternative to the candle-lighting ceremony, both of which are meant to symbolize unity. As if the guests have forgotten what exactly marriage is all about anyway.

4. The chicken dance: “I hate that dorky Chicken Dance. It’s not a nice thing to put your guests through. I have never heard someone say that they … missed doing the Chicken Dance; but I have heard people speak with dread about the impending possibility of being subjected to this ‘tradition’…” (Laura, theKnot) The same goes for other such “interactive songs” like the Macarena and the Electric Slide. If you must include them, save them for after Grandma and Grandpa go home.

5. Receiving line: The line generally consists of every member of the wedding party (bride, groom, parents, grandparents, bridesmaids), and each guest is required to greet and congratulate each and every one of them. AskMen notes, “It goes without saying that this is an incredible waste of time for everyone involved; an informal approach and the directions to the bar would certainly suffice.”

6. Rumbling tummies: Large time gaps in between the ceremony and the food are bound to make your guests grumpy.  Always provide drinks, snacks and even consider entertainment, if there is going to be a long wait before the meal commences. Alternately, transportation should be provided by the bride and groom if the venues for the ceremony and reception are located far apart.

7. Baby ring bearers and flower girls: How many weddings have been held up by small children kicking and screaming and having to be whisked off out of hearing range?  We love ‘em, but kids are unpredictable, and even the most attention-loving child is apt to come down with performance anxiety. My own flower girl had to be carried down the isle by her daddy, who was gracious enough to strew the rose petals as well.

8. Throwing stuff: Rice and confetti are two of the most popular materials that are flung around with reckless abandon at weddings,” AskMen observes.  “Is this really a good idea? Do the newlyweds really need to be pelted with food and covered with silly string for the rest of the evening?”

9. More throwing- Garter and bouquet toss: What could possibly be more humiliating than being forced out to the center of a parquet dance floor and being expected to demonstrate your desperation by diving for flying flowers?” queries MentalFloss. “How about grasping in the air for a lacy piece of undergarment that until moments ago resided uncomfortably close to the crotch of your buddy’s wife?” These traditions are seriously out-dated (read about their shocking origin here!) and don’t add much to the celebration.

10. Cake smashing: I don’t think anyone really enjoys this gaffe.  Perhaps it was funny the first time a bride and groom smeared each other in icing, but as a “tradition” it leaves guests feeling uncomfortable. ”The whole cake-smashing-in-the-face event makes me wonder if the couple is just getting out their aggressions from all those pre-wedding quarrels.” (David, theKnot) And most newlyweds would rather keep their faces clean anyway.

Chicken dance photo compliments of Truly Wedding Blog.

Well, my sweet tooth will have none of this cheese instead of cake business. But there are people out there who have a “real passion for cheese” and obviously this dessert would be the perfect ending to their elegant celebration. Throw in some crackers and fruit, maybe some complimentary wines, and some will go so far as to say that it’s “a much better thing than a conventional cake in the end – much more enjoyable and much more interesting.”

What do you think?