How to Have a Big Wedding on a Small Budget: Cut Your Wedding Costs in Half

Great Book! I used this book for my wedding & it was weddings Great!!!! I was even told: "Your wedding is the best wedding I've ever been too." AND....I ONLY spent $1,500. My husband and I needed a lot of help from friends and family, which we have a lot of. It also took a lot of time and hard work, but it was well worth it. We learned to work well together, learn to deligate and saved a ton of money. If your short on time, you'll probably spend more then us but my sister used this same book. She was short on time, & they spent $3000 and there wedding was amazing!!!! When it comes to buying anything in life we all want it: Fast, Good, Cheap. However, the fact is you can only have TWO. If you need it fast and good. It won't be cheap. If you want good and cheap. It won't be fast. If you want it to be fast and cheap. It won't be good. So keep that in mind. With a little imagation and this book. You'll save some GREEN!

I've used this book twice to plans my children's Bar Mitzvah festivities. Not all the ideas are suitable, but many are and help the planner get out of the rut of what "everyone does." Basically, reading this book helps you think in a new and creative way. So, for the same price as balloons, for our next kid's luncheon, I'm going to carry through with a "trees" theme and for example, rent ficus trees $15 - $20 each) for the buffet tables which will also be used in the sactuary to decorate the front of the synagogue before the luncheon. More bang for the buck. It also works that "Trees" figure in the Torah (Bible) portion that my son will chant that Saturday. I think the result should be elegant and a breath of fresh air in dreary March. Why not use some hand-me-down clothes -- some other boy's outgrown, once-worn Bar Mitzvah suit tailored to fit my kid? Or borrow friend's indoor plants to decorate my house that weekend? Or hire a high school kid who is a piano virtuoso to play music at the house? The book gives a good organizing scheme and has lots of ideas from which to pick and choose.

The previous review is a bit harsh. To be fair, the book has a number of different price catagories with suggestions on how to achieve them. You can go for the full boat and they give great high end suggestions. You can also cut corners in places and they have those suggestions as well. I didn't go for a foam cake, but if you don't care about the cake why the heck not? If it saves you money and you have a great wedding, who care? And as for using amatures: florists, photographers, DJ's, etc., they are very clear about getting recommendations and checking out their work BEFORE hand. Saving money means putting in extra work, that is the deal.

Hopefully the more recent editions of this book have more accurate prices. Otherwise, it is an invaluable reference for anyone who is on a very strict budget. Note that this is not a book about how to save a little money. It is most useful for the under $5000 budget range, with ideas for do-it-yourself, rental and other very low-cost options. If you want to work with a consultant, use full-service vendors, and not do a lot of work, this isn't going to help you much. But for those with extremely low budgets, it is probably the most useful book published.

While reading this book, I couldn't help but think that the first line should have been "if you're looking at this book in a bookstore, put it down and try to find it at your local library". Almost all the rest of the advice in the book is like that. Much of it is really clever. Some of it is downright tacky. However, I'm certain that just about all of it will save you money, just as the title boasts.