Our Wedding - Frugal and SOOO Fun!

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today, FMF, and saw this post.  All of the comments were interesting, but the ones specifically about the cost of the engagement ring and wedding brought me to this post.

I met my hubby during our freshman year of college.  I was bored during a midnight shift on the 24 hour help desk at our dorm and he kept walking past.  By his third pass, I asked him to keep me company and didn't find out for years that he was hoping I'd want company...that still makes me smile!

He proposed less than a year later with the ring I picked out (with him of course) - white gold with a diamond chip for $125.  I love that ring.  We got married 3 years later on a gorgeous early-summer day.  It was an awesome day!  Even though the ceremony had to start a little late, my hubby was waiting patiently at the end of the aisle with a huge grin on his face.  I happily cried through at least half of the thing, we had a great reception, and then we hung out in our miniature apartment with our closest friends until 3am.  We opened gifts, wrote down the info for thank you cards, laughed alot, and just generally hung out.  Ahhh...memories.  :-)

Best of all (to the cheap side of me), the whole thing cost about $3000.  Here's how it worked out:

• Apparel: $300 ($125 gorgeous David’s Bridal special, a $150 tux with tails and accessories rental, and my mom spent $25 on all the materials to make my 5 foot long veil…it was amazing and decorated with shinies and fake pearls…the patterns were awesome against the back of my dress and went great with the train)
• Rings: $250 ($250 for hubby’s band and my bands are from his mother)
• Music: $0 (my mother set up a sound system with CD’s)
• Miscellaneous: $500 (reception decorations and the fake flowers used for bouquets and decorations)
• Ceremony Site and Officiant: $250 ($150 for chapel and organist and $100 for the preacher)
• Flowers: $50 (the roses that my youngest sister handed out as the flower girl were from Sam's Club)
• Cake: $125 (3 tier Kroger's cake decorated with our light blue wedding color)
• Reception/Catering: $500-$800 (reception hall for 60 guests and linens were $125, my mother bought trays from Sam’s Club of shrimp, vegetables, meat, and fruit, my MIL baked and decorated an awesome groom’s cake, and my aunt-in-law and my MIL decorated the tables with glitter and little reception souvenirs)
• Photography: $500 (he was fantastic, stayed until we left, and took over 400 photos)
• Videography: $0 (But please get one…this is my only regret)
• Invitations: $100

If we could do it all over again, it would be exactly the same except we'd hire a videographer and I'd try not to cry through the whole last darn part.  What can I say, I'm a girly girl when it comes to emotional stuff...

Do you have any wedding tips?  Any great deals we missed?  Come on people, someday a soon-to-be-married person is going to be looking this over and wishing everybody had replied (I know that's how I feel when I find an interesting old blog).  :-)  Thanks!