Buck and I had a wonderful wedding. About 125 guests at an historical 1700s-type home that was used as an event facility. We had a live band, wonderful food, lots of champagne, etc.
After it was all said and done, I made my gown, all the gowns for the bridesmaids, all the flowers, all the favors, and the cake and the non-alcoholic punch. I bought the invitations at a discount, we paid the photographer for his film only (developed the pictures ourselves), paid a local high school home ec class to do all the serving at the reception as well as the clean-up, found a liquor store that sold champagne (not $$$$ kind, but good) at a fine price, and paid a local grocery store to prepare the food for the buffet reception.
All the tuxes for the men in the wedding party were rented from a big department store and, because there was a certain number of men, we got them at a substantial discount and received Buck's for free.
When it was all said and done, our total expenses for our wedding, including paying the minister, was less than $2,000. That was in 1983 in Washington, DC, so I think we did okay.
After it was all said and done, I made my gown, all the gowns for the bridesmaids, all the flowers, all the favors, and the cake and the non-alcoholic punch. I bought the invitations at a discount, we paid the photographer for his film only (developed the pictures ourselves), paid a local high school home ec class to do all the serving at the reception as well as the clean-up, found a liquor store that sold champagne (not $$$$ kind, but good) at a fine price, and paid a local grocery store to prepare the food for the buffet reception.
All the tuxes for the men in the wedding party were rented from a big department store and, because there was a certain number of men, we got them at a substantial discount and received Buck's for free.
When it was all said and done, our total expenses for our wedding, including paying the minister, was less than $2,000. That was in 1983 in Washington, DC, so I think we did okay.
We wanted meze/tapas style food on the table all night long but we were only 45 people so it wasn't too expensive(hired a caterer who was just starting out) and we had an open bar but we could buy our own liquor and take it to the reception venue. We e-mailed our invites, I didn't have a wedding cake or a bridal party, a friend did the photographs as his wedding present to us(came out beautifully) and we compiled a playlist of songs on DH's laptop. I bought a dress that wasn't a wedding dress but looked like one - thus a LOT cheaper(+/$300) - and we made my bouquet the morning of the wedding by just tying lilies and greens together with a chiffon ribbon - looked to me exactly like a bridal bouquet. It was SUCH fun - we got married at 2 in the afternoon and the wedding ended around 2 in the morning - most people stayed over as you could hire chalets at the venue - everyone says it's the best wedding they've ever been to - and it cost around $5000 (which was of course more than we budgeted - never knew things like hiring table linen and cutlery cost so much :-0 - it's amazing that when the word "wedding" gets uttered vendors just doubles their prices 
