Wedding Planning Resources Need in Grand Rapids

I have been married for 3 years and even though we were married in the carribbean, I still wore a traditional dress. I found it at Bridal Gallery on 44th and spent around 300. Davids Bridal can have some decent dresses for less, I guess it depends on what you are looking for. A friend of mine bought her wedding at Marshall Fields for 150. Though not technically a wedding dress, no one knew any different. There are always ways to get creative and save some money. Dont worry about keeping up with the Jones'. hope this helps.

couple of ideas....
you can try ebay for a dress.
If you are planning on a photographer, try Karrn Hanson ###-###-####.
I have a dress that has never been worn, but it is a larger size...24/26 I think. It can be alterned down about 2 sizes.

Hi J.,

For my dress, I went to a place at 44th and Division in GR called Bridal Discounts (this was a year ago). They have now changed the name, and I can't recall the new name. There are about three bridal shops in that little strip there. I think it may be the one closest to 44th St. Anyway, I found a beautiful dress exactly one week before my wedding for $275, and she had it altered and ready for me to pick up 2 days later.

Based on my own personal (mostly horrible) experiences with eBay, I just wouldn't risk it with something as major as your wedding dress, but I had a fine experience buying my tiara and veil on eBay. EBay doesn't offer much support to you if you encounter an unfair/deceptive seller...there are a lot of loopholes that make it difficult for buyers to get their money back. I bought my tiara from "cutebride" and it was beautiful and way cheaper than in the bridal stores, and my veil was from "veilsbylana" and again affordable and beautiful. Both shipped promptly too.

We held our wedding outdoors at my grandparents' cottage and only had about 75 guests. I made a few mixed CDs for our first dance, father/daughter dance and background music, but we didn't have a DJ. A family friend made a beautiful cake. In total the whole wedding cost about $2000 - including the dress and catering. The ONLY thing I regret was that we didn't splurge on a professional photographer. DO NOT go with a friend who "does it as a hobby!" Our "friend" needs to find a new hobby! I would either call local colleges and ask for photography students or just plain spend the money on the professional. My 8x10 wedding frame is empty...there was not a single picture decent enough to put in it. It's a shame because everything else went so perfect that day. Anyway, best of luck to you and drop me an email if I can help you with anything else! ____@____.com

-A.

I found my dress on Ebay. It was exactly what I was looking for plus I got it for less than $150. And that included the shipping. As for flowers I got all of mine for like $30-40 at a shop in Dayton Ohio. It was a warehouse. They had all kinds of wedding things in there. I cant remember the name right now but if you could find somewhere around where you live like that you could find pretty much everything there except your dress and cake. I'm sure you should be able to find something. Now the flowers weren't real but I went that way because I had like barely 5 weeks to plan my wedding and was on a budget. I hope this helps. Just go through the phone book and call around about the flowers. You might find a warehouse place that you can get most of your stuff at!