Emily Taffel-Schaper and Fritz Schaper

With a price-tag of  $20,000 for the average American wedding, I am ecstatic to receive emails from creative brides who create fabulous celebrations for far less.  Emily Taffel-Schaper sent in the following article about her wedding with loads (I mean loads!) of valuable ideas on how she executed her wedding for $3,500. Emily, her husband Fritz Schaper, and her 125 guests had a wonderful time and there are no leftover bills endangering their newlywed bliss status. Here is Emily’s story in her own words…

“When my husband and I got engaged I was thrilled, but the excitement was tempered because neither of our families were in the position to help us pay for a wedding.  I didn’t want to give up the wedding I had dreamed of, so with a little creativity, a year of smart shopping and a lot of help from our friends and family, we had a wedding that looked like a million bucks, but only cost $3,500 (not including the rings).

It all started with a donation of invitations from my Aunt’s shop, Pushing the Envelope CT.  They did our invites for free and that sparked us to see what else we could find discounts on.

After several trips to bridal stores that left me in tears over the prices, I found a local boutique that rented gowns. They had brand new, never before worn dresses and offered a free altering service as well. I got married in my dream gown for only $300 and bought my veil and tiara ($40) to have something to remember it by.  My husband picked up his tux at AfterHours Formal wear for $150.

The ceremony and reception were held at Shall We Dance, a ballroom dancing hall in Deerfield Beach, Florida.  Everyone thought we were crazy to book a “hole-in-the-wall” location, situated above a golf shop, but by choosing “off-the-beaten-path” and trusting in our ability to make it work, we got floor-to-ceiling windows lining each wall, hardwood floors and a location equipped with tables, chairs and a full kitchen for only $500 (5 hours plus 3 hours of set-up time).  Linens and chair sashes came from Fabulous Events, and were almost our most expensive purchase at $650.

We covered the ceiling with twinkle lights and tulle, bought at an after-Christmas garage sale for $10.00.  A friend had pictures of us blown up to poster size, to cover some ugly framed paintings on the dance  studio’s walls. It really personalized the location for us.

Friends decorated our chuppah with silk flowers, tulle, twinkle lights and hanging crystals. The poles came from Home Depot and the buckets that housed them were found for free from a local ice cream shop, Kilwin’s. Total cost: $30.

Roses for the bouquets and centerpieces were bought from a local farm. We bartered our time in exchange for a discount; once a month we helped them tend to the garden and they let us buy 200 roses for only $200.  

Our centerpieces were branches collected in the woods behind a friend’s house, sprayed gold, placed in dollar store vases and accessorized with leftover roses from the bouquets.  My brother folded 100 origami birds for us as well. We sprinkled dollar store gold glitter on the tables, surrounded the centerpieces with candles and adorned each window with hanging candle-holders we created using ribbon hot glued on.  Tea lights were bought for $2 per 50 at Party City.  By turning off the overhead lights and just using the twinkle lights and candles, the entire room was transformed. Total cost: $150.

We had a candy buffet for our favors. Chinese food containers from Oriental Trading cost less than $10 for 100 and we sourced candy from many locations – local grocery stores, ethnic markets and even the Cracker Barrel. Total cost: $100.

Food & drinks were a little harder, but after researching caterers, we hired a chef/friend.  We held the wedding late, 7 p.m. on a Saturday, in order to serve a buffet of just hors d’ouevres and desserts, which kept the cost down. We hired another friend to bartend, bought bulk soda and water at Costco, negotiated with a local liquor company on bulk wine and beer and had a “Stock our Wedding” party for liquor.  We hold a ton of parties for our friends and normally we provide the food and wine, but this time, we asked everyone to please bring 1-2 bottles of liquor that could be used at our wedding. We had a great BBQ dinner and thanks to our friends, stocked our wedding bar.  Total out-of-pocket cost for food and drink at our wedding : $800.

No one missed the full dinner service since the entire night was spent on the dance floor.  We negotiated with a local DJ company and they exchanged their services at a discount rate provided they were able to put out flyers at the dance school. Total cost: $200 for 4 hours.

After all that,  we  had some money leftover to buy groomsmen and bridesmaid gifts from etsy.com.  It was a magical evening that I wouldn’t have done differently, even if we had a million dollars to spend.

Planning our wedding had an added benefit; it motivated me to start a business, Pretty. Useful. Stuff., where I work with brides to help them create one-of-a-kind weddings and events of their own, without breaking the bank to do it.”

Thanks Emily for sharing all your useful ideas. We’d love to showcase the wisdom and creativity of other Experienced Brides as well. Email us your pictures and posts at info@bridesknowbest.com.