*sigh* Wedding planning

[SouthernBelle]

Wedding cupcakes. There are tiered stands to put them on and you can even put the bride and groom thingie at the top.

[matagi]

For our wedding, we had a cocktail reception rather than a sit down meal. A little cheaper foodwise, and if you also restrict the drinks choices then the beverage bill isn't too shocking.

We had a pianist playing music in the background, a few chairs around the walls for people to sit on if they needed to and everyone just mingled and chatted and generally had a nice time.

As a wedding cake, we had a croquembouche (basically a pyramid made of custard filled choux pastry balls, decorated with spun sugar)

As others have suggested, go with things that you want - don't try and do things because that's what other people expect. It is YOUR day, YOU are the one getting married so celebrate it in a way that has meaning for you and your fiance.

[Crankin]

Make sure you do what you REALLY want, and don't just do something because you want something "different." My husband and I met, dated, moved in with each other, and got engaged in a 3 month time span! It was August and we decided to get married in March, but the rabbi couldn't do the ceremony because he was going skiing during spring break... so we moved it up to Dec. 8. I had been married before and both sets of parents moved out of state within 2 weeks of our engagement. We toyed with having a small luncheon at a hotel in Scottsdale (this was long before there were any hotels in Tempe), but I just didn't have it in me to plan this without help. We had the $, but I hate thinking about centerpieces, flowers, etc. So, we had the ceremony at our apartment. There were maybe 20 people there. We each had one attendant; no other friends. My mom made appetizers and we had champagne right after the ceremony. Then we had a dinner at a restaurant that was owned by friends of my husband's parents. We had a very small typical wedding cake. The restaurant was nice, on top of a bank building. I bought my dress at the Limited and it was just a regular street length, off white party dress and my husband bought a nice suit. My mom went to the Japanese Flower growers on Baseline Rd. and we put together bouquets and the men's flowers. My brother, who was 15 at the time, and a talented photographer took the pictures. After the dinner we went into the bar/lounge and danced to the music that was being played by a live band.
I agree that spending thousands is ridiculous. But we regretted not having something where we invited all of our friends. I just was too lazy to do the planning. It IS just a day, but make it yours. When our sons had their Bar Mitzvahs, we did exactly what we had wanted to do at our wedding: we had a luncheon at a local restaurant that is only open for functions on Sat. afternoons. We spent the money on the food and the DJ, because that is what people remember. We did the flowers ourselves and spent little on the invitations. Both parties were really fun and we have no regrets about doing them.