If you're planning a spring or summer wedding, you're probably sweating the details now.
I recently received a question from a soon-to-be-married reader that I think will be useful to you in your planning.
The reader, David, wrote: "We are planning to have [our] wedding in California. We have a number of guests traveling anywhere from 4 hours to 12 hours (maid of honor is from Switzerland). We are determined to keep the price down, but at the same time we want to show our guests a good time since they are investing so much money and time to attend."
David went on to write that, given the distance the guests are traveling, he and his fiancee would like to have a sit-down dinner at a restaurant with a couple of glasses of wine per person.
But such a reception for about 100 quickly balloons to about $7,500, he wrote.
The groom-to-be added: "Making the wedding party small is not very likely because of the size of our families. We are actually closer to just eloping at this point! How can we show respect to our guests' efforts but still keep our budget in line?"
Obviously this is a thoughtful couple. I'm far more accustomed to letters from couples asking how they can get people to give them money instead of toasters so they can pay for a wedding they can't really afford.
And, man, does a wedding cost these days. Fairchild Bridal InfoBank, a research service, found that the average wedding costs $22,360, most of that going for the reception.
I'm tempted to launch into a lecture about spending that kind of money, but that's not my mission here. I could even suggest a number of low-cost alternatives to accommodate a large wedding guest list.
However, I am not going to do that either. I want this couple, and others faced with the same dilemma, to consider something more drastic.
