Budget-friendly venues in Southern California

It amuses me that my friends now come to me as a sort of sounding board for upcoming wedding planning. One of those friends includes Bryan Frank, a news photographer for my station and a fellow blogger. Turns out his oldest daughter is engaged and is turning to mom and dad for help finding a wedding venue that only an economist (the daughter) could love.

So he stopped by my desk the other day and picked my brain about which, in my experience, wedding venues in Southern California give you the most bang for the buck. Now, seeing as how I didn’t exactly get married in a traditional manner, I don’t exactly have a bride’s experience with shopping wedding venues. But I do have secondary experience with brides on a budget. My mom’s clientele was in general all budget minded, but they all liked things to look nice, too. So, I’m going to share with you an alphabetical list of the venues I’ve decorated at least four times or more, which indicates to me all these venues are budget-friendly.

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Poll: What to cut on a tight wedding budget?

I work in news, and probably 50% of the stories I’ve been putting online lately have had to do with the economy, gas prices, food prices, housing prices. With all the belt-tightening going on, I’m sure some brides have had to make hard decisions when it comes to their big day.

So I got to thinking…if things were all of a sudden more expensive than you had budgeted for, what would you do? Would you start asking relatives for money? Would you take out a loan (please, don’t!)? Would you consider cutting down on stuff?

Ah, there’s the million dollar question! I know that a wedding day should be THE big day, but the reality is, sometimes, there are some hard choices to be made. So what hard choices would you make? Vote to let us know!

If you had to skimp on one thing in your wedding budget, what would it be?
( polls)

I’ll revisit this post later on. In the meantime, if anyone has any real-life stories or tips they’d like to share, by all means, please do so. The comments go right to my email!
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Wedding and money horror stories

Photo by Flickr’s dkcameo

Personal finance guru Michelle Singletary wryly noted in her Washington Post column last week that wedding season can often bring family and money together with disastrous results. In fact, aren’t there cardinal rules about that, akin to don’t talk religion or politics at the dinner table? Something along the lines of don’t mix business with family or friends? There should be. Anyway, she pulled together just a few horrific stories.

Another egregious money story started in a Las Vegas wedding chapel. The bride and groom decided to go it alone and didn’t invite any guests. Then the bride’s cousin decided to get married. A friend of the cousin was throwing her a bridal shower. So how did the bride who had no guests at her wedding respond? Since she never had a bridal shower, she suggested that everyone at her cousin’s shower bring a gift for her, too.

Wow! That woman had some serious balls, asking people to bring a second gift for her to someone else’s bridal shower. I think, in a case like that, I would have said no. What’s the lady going to do? Not invite me to her wedding? Oh, wait, she already did that!

During a reception, four members of the groom’s family decided to order a dish that was different from what other guests were eating. This was not for any religious or health reasons. They just didn’t like what was being served. So these rogue guests bullied the waiter into bringing them ahi tuna entrees. The bride’s dad got stuck with the tab — in addition to having to pay for the meals the pushy guests didn’t eat.

Wow. Not only did they not eat the dinner served, they made the waiter bring them ahi tuna — often one of the most expensive dinners you can get at a restaurant, never mind a hotel catering kitchen. Obviously, this is just plain rude. If you don’t like the food, don’t eat it and just make plans to go somewhere else for a late dinner! Sheesh. Talk about no class.

Usually, the easiest way to avoid these kinds of money-grubbing stunts is to pay for everything yourself. That way, if you don’t want to listen to your mom or your aunt or your mother-in-law-to-be tell you how this photographer is the greatest and that florist is just to die for, you don’t have to. Easy. Yeah, I know, easier said than done.
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