Frugal-Wedding-Tips
Cheaper Wedding Day Plans

Using some frugal-wedding-tips and low-cost-wedding ideas unintentionally made for a much greener wedding day. This is very true and it wasn't planned that way at all.

When we were married over ten years ago, green-living was not on my mind. Having some extra money was, and not one for formalities, we decided that this was how we wanted to have our day.

My husband and I got married at his mom's cottage on a small island. That was the first of the frugal-wedding-tips we decided on I guess, no paying for accommodations.

No Church, no Hall either, just a bit of shoreline and cottage property to wander around on.


It was really a long-weekend holiday celebration at the time.

The closest people were informed of the date, an ad was placed in the local paper for those who wanted to show up in the evening, and being small town, word quickly spread very quickly anyway. More frugal-wedding-tips for you - No costly wedding invitations.

Quite honestly, it was more like a giant BBQ with a wedding ceremony thrown in on a beach first, and needless to say, the kids there couldn't wait to go swimming after it was over, because it was so warm.

Many family members contributed salads, fruit trays, cheese and pickle trays, and dessert trays. There was a beautifully decorated sheet cake, and a friend of mine even made a wonderful Mexican Wedding cake.

In the evening, there was a huge mixed grill of barbecued foods to pick from. We provided alot of drinks, and people brought alot of their own as well.

The group was moderately small and we all arrived by boat, which meant accommodations for only a few, and minimal transportation arrangements.

A Minister performed the ceremony around Noon, and boy was it brief. Felt like forever at the time, but actually it was short and sweet. From that moment on, it was just a big party.

Everyone dressed fairly casually for the ceremony, and for those of us who were a bit dressier, we quickly changed for the remainder of the day and evening. That of course meant shorts, shirts, sandals, sweat pants and sweat-shirts as the evening cooled down. Now this I guess would be another "best of the frugal-wedding-tips" and that would be no formal wedding attire.

We supplied our own mix of music, which just played continuously in the background on a stereo system.

Lots of people took great pictures; one guest put together an album, which was awfully good of her.

This really was a low-cost-wedding, as we were not paying a photographer or a DJ. The food was actually contributed by so many other people. Families and friends do love to contribute, and when you are feeding a fair amount of people, every little bit helps.

We didn't generate alot of waste, garbage or use much electricity simply because of where we were, how many of us there were and how the evening was celebrated, which mostly consisted of sitting on lawn chairs around a fire, or scattered around different parts of the cottage on the deck, or inside the cottage just mingling and socializing.

There is an etiquette to "cottage life" and it's just understood that you don't litter and always clean up after yourself. And no, it's not just because of attracting animals, it's just not how you treat "nature" or someone else's property no matter where it is.

Most people left quite late to go to their own homes, and the rest of us just stayed at the cottage for the night. Another cheap-wedding-idea I guess, though quite unintentional really.

We really had no desire to go on a trip anywhere. We had time off from our jobs, and hung around out there just enjoying the Bay and being "cottagers" for awhile. And, we could have done that regardless of whether or not my mother-in-law had a cottage. We could have gone camping on the Bay if we wanted to.

We had fun, enjoyed ourselves tremendously, and though at that time nobody was thinking at all in terms of this being any type of an eco-friendly event, I guess it kind of just turned out that way.

We wouldn't trade that day for what we regularly think of in terms of a formal "wedding day." I don't think anyone felt like they missed anything. I know for a fact my husband did not object to not being in a suit and tie all day, and neither did alot of other people. I certainly didn't miss a pair of high heels for at least 14 hours straight.

Certainly the informality and casualness of the day contributed to alot less stress, making for a much more relaxed atmosphere and a good time had by all.

If I had to choose from any of the frugal-wedding-tips I know to tell anyone, it would be this - Keep it simple, keep it very casual.

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