I found a drawing for a free Bonny Bridal wedding dress. A free dress would do wonders for my budget. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

-L

Venue searching sucks

My fiance and I are from the Twin Cities, but we have friends and family all over the upper midwest and scattered throughout the rest of the country, not to mention the family and friends currently living in China and Dubai, it is so important to us to have the ceremony and reception somewhere that's worth traveling to. Basically, this will be a destination wedding for 2/3 of our guests. However, every venue within our budget seems to offer substandard appeal, and of course, the nicer places rake you over the coals for food and beverages. We've been searching for a place for 6 months now and have had no luck, just heartbreak after heartbreak when we see the bottom line. We are not picky, but we feel that even the substandard places are overpriced, and frankly, if we're going to get married in a dump, we could do that for free...Actually, I'm sure the dump would want to charge some hidden wedding fees since that seems to be par for the course.

Our budget is pretty tight because my parents are unable to help and I'm only able to work part-time due to my college schedule. I know that there are ways to have a nice wedding without losing your shirt, but I'm not finding them. Of course it doesn't help that we want to try to get married on a Saturday in the summer. (I don't want to get married while school's in session...I can't imagine anything more unpleasant than worrying about an exam while I take my vows. Plus, we are already asking so much of our guests to come such long distances, I don't want to ask them to take off work to make a Friday wedding.) I think I need to start thinking outside the box. Any creative suggestions would be appreciated.

Leann