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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Wedding Bliss on a Budget

Today's blog comes from author Pamela Ford, author of The Wedding Heiress, in stores now!

There's something about weddings that makes little girls (and grown women) dreamy-eyed. I think it starts the first time they hear the story of Cinderella and only gets more entrenched with time. My three teenage daughters are romantics through and through, and I like to say they learned it at their mother's knee! With the cost of the average wedding now in the neighborhood of $30,000, I hope they're also learning some frugality at that knee.

For the heroine of my latest release, The Wedding Heiress, frugality is the order of the day and happily ever after just a fairytale. Delaney McBride is an upwardly mobile career woman who is forced to go back to her hometown and take over her aunt's wedding planning shop in order to get her inheritance. Add in four other heirs, all of whom must perform unusual tasks in order to inherit, and Mike Connery, the girlhood crush Delaney never got over and, soon, she's up to her elbows in white satin, buttercream frosting, rosebud bouquets…and romance (read an excerpt at http://www.pamelaford.net/).

While writing this book, I read lots of articles about wedding planning and soon discovered that brides today are doing all sorts of creative things in order to cut costs and still get the wedding of their dreams.

One woman, upon learning the cake cutting fee would be $4 a slice, decided to serve cupcakes. Others are opting for Friday night or Sunday afternoon weddings. Still others are making the favors themselves, using candy kisses instead of truffles. A bride I know had her flowers done by a big grocery store's floral department - they were stunning and much less expensive. I even read about a couple who found it much less costly to bring in their own wine and pay the uncorking fee, rather than pay the per-bottle price charged by the reception hall.

So did you use any creative ideas to trim your wedding expenses?
Please share! I'll be taking notes because…have I mentioned I have three daughters?

Pam Ford

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pam, I read The Wedding Heiress. It a fun, funny book with just the right amount of "well, now, who did that!?"

Wedding savings? Get your girls to thirty plus before they decide to say I do. Thirty-somithings are less likely to ask the parents to pay for the whole thing.

Mary Brady

October 30, 2008 at 7:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Funny you should mention age 30. Just last week someone told me they offered their three children each a nice sum of money if they wait until after 30 to get married.

Pam Ford

October 30, 2008 at 7:52 AM  
Blogger Isabel Sharpe said...

I loved The Wedding Heiress, it was a really fun read, lots of funny lines and great secondary characters. And mmm, nice hero, too, Pam!

As for cutting costs at weddings, the most fun ones I went to were the least formal, a lakeside cookout in MA, and a BBQ in the middle of a Texas field. Those big country club receptions? Zzzzzz.

Isabel Sharpe
www.IsabelSharpe.com

October 30, 2008 at 8:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Isabel,
Thanks for stopping by. I'm glad you liked The Wedding Heiress; it was a fun book to write!

Pamela Ford
www.pamelaford.net

October 30, 2008 at 11:49 AM  
Blogger Brandy said...

I have no cost savers, sorry! And I have a teenage Daughter myself. *G*

October 30, 2008 at 7:09 PM  
Blogger Shirley said...

I have a teen daughter, too, Brandy! My husband keeps pointing out great places to elope ;-). But seriously, we did our own wedding for $7500 (though that was 18 years ago) so I'm hoping we can be equally frugal when it comes to hers. I'd like to give her the money towards something more essential, like a house, if she's not going to spend it all on a big bash.

Shirley

October 31, 2008 at 7:24 AM  
Blogger Melissa McClone said...

Thanks for blogging, Pam! I have two daughters but they are younger so have a while before weddings come up! Still this blog has made me wonder what will be in fashion and the expense in the next twenty years!

Melissa

October 31, 2008 at 8:13 AM  

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