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A lot of couples today are scaling back and searching out small wedding ideas to help them plan a memorable wedding but as a small-scale event. And when you're shrinking your guest list, for whatever reason, laminated bookmark favors are a perfect choice for sticking to a cut-rate budget but still giving your guests a practical take-home thank you gift.
There are a lot of different reasons for having a smaller wedding, the economy being one of the largest reasons. Gas prices have gone up considering in the last couple of years so sometimes even planning a destination wedding for some couples is out of the question.
Some couples actually have small families and only want to invite their most intimate friends to their wedding and maybe they're looking for small wedding ideas that will help them plan the day with a more casual tone and without thinking about a lot of travel arrangements for themselves or their guests.
Easy and Cheap Locations
Backyard weddings or at-home ceremonies with outdoor wedding receptions are very popular depending on where you live, the climate and the season. While you may not want your guests showing up in shorts and tank tops, backyard weddings are great for planning activities after the ceremony where your guests can change up into more comfortable clothing for the rest of the day.
If you or a family member or close friend does not really have the room to set up and accommodate your guests and a buffet and eating area, check with local parks to see about renting a pavilion and space for an afternoon.
Small Wedding Ideas for the Menu
Planning a cheap wedding reception on a small scale is easy if you keep it casual. If you're inviting only your close friends and family, ask each of them to pitch in with a covered dish and have a pot luck buffet menu.
Check with local caterers to see if they offer a lunch or picnic buffet at a lower cost than the traditional "wedding" buffet. Sometimes just adding the word "wedding" to anything will drive up the price.
But if you do not tell the caterer that it's for a wedding and you're just looking for the standard picnic buffet for X amount of people, you can probably save a buck or two a head on the price.
Or keep it really casual by simply having a backyard barbecue!
Cheap Wedding Reception Entertainment
If you're a regular at a local tavern or firehouse, check to see if the house band or regular DJ would have a backyard wedding for a small wedding at a lower cost than a larger wedding.
Cut back on the hours that the contracted band or DJ would play to save some money there. Wedding music is usually contracted for a minimum of four hours but it does not hurt to ask if you can negotiate for two or three hours instead and have all of the traditional dances and other events take place during that time frame.
After the band leaves, you can set up your own stereo system for the remaining time when the rest of the guests would get up and dance.
Small Wedding Favors
Small wedding ideas for favors lean a lot toward home wedding favors because you're doing everything on a smaller scale and if you give yourself enough time, you can easily make 30 or 50 wedding favors by yourself or with the help of your bridesmaids.
Laminated bookmark wedding favors are popular for smaller weddings because they're as practical as the other small wedding ideas you used to plan out your day. You can customize them more easily than other favor options which make them more unique and individualized than anything you can buy retail.
They're all the perfect complement to any other type of favor you put together, like candies or nuts neatly placed into boxes for wedding favors and make nice little decorations around the tables set up for your guests.
So while you're planning a small-scale wedding due to financial reasons, the economy or you just like simplicity, these small wedding ideas should help you springboard more ideas to get the planning in gear for your wedding day.
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Source by Karen S Musselman
