U.s.a.: More Couples Are Saying 'i Do' To Diy Budget Weddings

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Wedding dress - Budget.

Venues - Budget.

Invitations - Budget.

Flowers - Budget.

 

That's what's floating around in Amy Morse's mind these days, nine months into her engagement. Though she's trying to be practical, Morse, 24, says there's still a little part of her that wishes she could have the lavish wedding she dreamed of as a little girl.

 

Though Morse's $35,000 budget is still higher than the average Chicago wedding, Morse says she feels like she's making some sacrifices so that she and her fiance, Jon D'Souza, 24, can save for their life together.

 

"I wanted to have the nice dress," Morse said. "I wanted it to be an affair. ... Sure, if I had all the money in the world, I'd love to spend all my money there."

 

So long: ice sculptures, platinum parting gifts and stretch Hummers.

Hello: DIY bouquets, consignment dresses and iPod DJs.

 

In the current recession, more and more couples such as Morse and D'Souza are ditching their dreams, slashing budgets and scaling back plans. The expected cost of a Chicago wedding is down 6.5 percent to $22,642 for 2009, according to The Wedding Report, a Tucson, Ariz.-based wedding research company. According to a survey in January by wedding retailer David's Bridal, 75% of brides-to-be said they are shaving their wedding budgets, with a quarter cutting their budgets in half.

 

Weddings big and small seem to be on a downward trend. Last year, the number of Chicago weddings performed by Cook County Circuit Court judges dipped to 10,510 from 11,434 in 2005.

 

Robyn Bruns, owner of locally based Red Letter Event Planning, noted that a growing number of her clients are postponing their nuptials. "They're kind of saving up for 2010, essentially," she said.

 

But for some lucky couples, a contest entry could be the ticket to making the dream wedding a reality. Us Weekly and weddingchannel.com are holding their second annual Dream Wedding contest, receiving thousands of submissions from couples across the country.

 

"Weddingchannel.com hopes to provide the winning couple with what their version of a dream wedding is," said Charli Penn, weddingchannel.com's managing editor. "Whatever it is, we hope to make their vision of a dream wedding come true."

 

Usmagazine.com began taking votes Friday for the favorite of 10 final couples, each with their own compelling stories. The bride of last year's winning couple, a cancer survivor, was told she had a year to live.

 

For the bride and groom, their $100,000 dream wedding was what they called a "celebration of life" with 150 guests at a Hollywood, Fla., beach resort. The same vendors who have worked with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes as well as Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore also were behind making this dream wedding come true.

 

Yet for the many who haven't won dream-wedding contests, creativity goes a long way toward saving money. As a cost-cutting measure, Lisa Stecher and Eric Brislane, of Harwood Heights, decided to get hitched in Savannah, Ga., where they once vacationed and jokingly talked about getting married.

 

With money as a key factor in their wedding plans, the couple looked for alternatives to big, expensive affairs, Stecher said.

 

Destination weddings are growing in popularity because couples assume fewer guests will make the trip, said Beth Dalton, a South Loop wedding planner who organizes ceremonies in Chicago and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. According to theknot.com, one in five couples planned an out-of-town wedding in 2008.

 

"Not only does it cut back on the number of people who attend, but Chicago is a very expensive city," Dalton said. "Whether it's location, fees, food and beverage prices--with destination weddings, you tend to get the better [deal]."

 

According to a 2008 survey by theknot.com, Chicago is one of the 10 most expensive cities in which to wed. For Stecher, 33, and Brislane, 39, an out-of-town wedding means a small ceremony with 40 guests. Even after factoring in travel expenses for themselves and six days of accommodations for their guests (which the couple is covering), the tab came to about $8,000--a fifth of what a Chicago wedding with about 200 guests would've cost them, Stecher said. Even eight years later, Stecher says she still remembers how stressed out her sister was at her wedding, where Stecher served as maid of honor.

 

"I saw the stress and headaches and all the money they were pulling out of their 401(k)s," Stecher said. "I knew the happiest day of my life didn't need to be that stressful."

 

Kate McVey, 30, says she doesn't understand why her friends make such a big deal about the dream wedding.

 

"I have girlfriends who have envisioned their weddings since they were 2," she said. "I had a girlfriend who freaked out about chair covers. But are chair covers going to make your marriage work?"

 

Even though McVey, a Bronzeville resident, hopes to squeeze her wedding next year into a $12,000 budget, she said the dream is alive and well.

 

"This is my dream wedding because of who I'm marrying, not how much I spend," she said.