Or did you manage to find ways to have everything you wanted at less than first quote?

Hello,
Even though I had a civil ceremony (legally married for 2 years now) I always wanted to get married in a church or outdoors...a nice religous ceremony. I had my wedding set until we found out we didn't have enough money to cover the costs for the reception venue and food . We had about 75 guests. It was so stressful that we ended up cancelling the wedding which was three weeks away. I was relieved and felt the weight lift off my shoulders. Weddings are so expensive! We are replanning the wedding but only making it a small simple affair of 50 people or less (close friends and family). I wouldn't mind having a destination wedding but not all my family members have that kind of money to travel. We are going to remarry on our 5th year anniversary. That will definitely give us plenty of time to save up to have a nice wedding.

With a small enough wedding, you could always hold the wedding and reception in someone's backyard as a barbecue or even a potluck event. That could still be a fun festive occasion without forking out $100 a plate!

Hi, Im new to the forum; We are civily married but we want a garden wedding, do you guys know a cheep place in Los Angeles? that are less than a thousand for both ceremony and reception?

The backyard is a great idea. I went to a wedding where they had the ceremony at a really nice church and then had the reception at the brides parents house. The decoration was minimal, but looked very chic (sheer white fabric cascading from the trees in the back yard). They made it a cocktail reception and had gourmet choices like peanut chicken skewers. They also had young guys from our church youth group (17-18 yrs) as the waiters serving the food. They were all dressed uniform in black pants, white dress shirts and black vests; if I hadn't known the guys serving, I would have thought they were from a catering company. Anyway, hope this helps!