Well, that’s not possible for most of us. But, that’s what happened at Jenna Bush’s wedding reception.

Jenna Bush and her new husband Henry Hager had a Mexican influenced wedding reception with plenty of Southwestern food for the guests.

A Philippine couple held their wedding reception it what used to be a graveyard for victims of a cholera epidemic: Paco Park. It’s not quite as morbid as it seems. The graveyard has not been used since 1910 and is now a rather beautiful setting.

It’s certainly a great idea for those who want to cut down on travel costs. Hold your wedding in the church and your reception in the graveyard!

Full story here.

Ideas for Cheap Wedding Reception Centerpieces

Flowers make for massively expensive wedding reception centerpieces. Wedding candles make for a much cheaper but equally elegant idea for centerpieces. I actually prefer to see candles used as centerpieces rather than flowers. Sometimes the smell of the flowers rather overpowers the meal.

Cheap Wedding Flowers

If you do want to use flowers at your wedding reception, you can save there too. Make sure you use flowers that are in season at the time of your wedding. This will make them much cheaper. Also, try to buy your flowers from a wholesaler and create the arrangements yourself (and with the help of family and friends).

Cheap Wedding Reception Favors

Wedding reception favors are often far more generous than they really need to be. Even not giving guests favors at all will not likely be a problem. Most guests won’t even notice. But most couples do like to give their guests something to remember the event by. And that is what it should be - its main value is a memento. A simple candle or a small charm make for an excellent but cheap wedding favor. If you really wanted to keep the cost down, you could even go for a wedding reception sticker which can be found for sale at a price so low it’s almost free.

Make sure you get a discount on your wedding reception favors by buying them in bulk.

Cheap Wedding Reception Food Ideas

There’s no need to have a huge, five course meal for your wedding reception. One popular alternative is to host a cocktail reception. Cutting out the food will mean a large decrease in the cost of the reception. It will also take a great deal of the stress and worry out of it.

The catering is one of the trickiest parts to get right when you have to take into consideration vegetarians, people with allergies, kosher and halal meals and any other particular needs your guests may have.

The best wedding reception I ever went to had a cocktail reception rather than a full meal. The meal has a tendency to get in the way of interacting with all the fellow guests. You can also achieve this (whilst saving money) by having a wedding reception buffet rather than a sit down meal.

Cheap Wedding Cake Ideas

Another way to save money on the wedding reception food is to fake the cake. It is possible to hire large, ornate cakes that are non-edible and just for show. They will even have a small section of real cake that the bride and groom can cut into. This means you can serve your guests a much less expensive cake and they’ll be none the wiser. You could even make the cake yourself or rope in the services of talented friend or relative.

Cheap Wedding Reception Decoration Ideas

There’s no need for grand crystal chandeliers at your wedding reception. It’s much better to keep your decorations simple and elegant. Particularly if the venue of your wedding reception is already beautiful.

Some tasteful wedding reception table decorations will go a long way in making your reception elegant and colorful. Lights make an easy and effective decoration for most venues. Again, avoid using too many flowers if possible.

The cheapest way is to create do it yourself wedding reception decorations. This adds a personal touch and is sure to give you a unique wedding reception.

Timing of the Wedding Reception

The time of day and time of week that you hold your wedding reception can have a big influence on on its cost. You can save a fair amount of money with a Friday night, a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday wedding.

I hope this article has given you plenty of ideas of how you can have an elegant and special yet cheap wedding reception.

It seems like a crazy idea to me (and possibly against the very equality legislation which brought the same sex marriage law into being) but who would turn down a free wedding reception?

Last Thursday in Ottawa, a couple got married at Professional Hand Car Wash. The couple had been customers of the car wash for many years and the employees, having heard that they were not planning to have a reception at all, decided they would throw a surprise wedding reception for the couple.

I’m not sure how I would have liked my wedding reception to have been at a car wash, but that’s a really cute story.

The recent wedding of English Soccer star Wayne Rooney to Coleen McLoughlin is all over the news in Europe. What has caused the biggest fuss is the £100,000 ($200,000) firework display which brought the evening to a climax. The show was the talk of guests at the end of the event and also the locals who were lucky enough to witness the wedding fireworks display.

Although you might not be able to afford a display on quite that scale, fireworks make a great idea for your wedding reception as they bring the event to a climax and are sure to wow guests and leaving them with lasting memories. It’s a particularly suitable idea for a 4th July wedding.

The Dutchess Manor in Beacon has updated its look adding a Tuscan flavor to the decor and making it more elegant and luxurious. This is to fit with the increasing demands by brides to be for a higher class, more opulent wedding recent reception surroundings.

The Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel was also renovated to give it a more ‘city feel’ with its decor being based on Manhattan ball rooms. The most striking feature of the new design is a huge fountain in the lobby.

Dinsmore Golf Course is opening a new venue which will have a new banquet hall with a Mediterranean feel.

It sounds like a great place for a wedding reception.

California will allow same sex marriages not just to locals, but to those from any other state. This is expected to see a huge rise in the numbers of weddings taking place in the state. A study has found that $684 million will be spent on same sex weddings and receptions over the next three years with an estimated 120,000 same sex weddings in California in the next three years (with over half of these coming from outside the state).

With the huge influx of gay and lesbian marriages, wedding planners are drawing up their same sex wedding reception ideas.

Source the Food and Drink Locally

The first step towards a green wedding reception is to make sure that, as far as possible, the wine and food are bought locally. So much food we buy today has traveled thousands of miles over oceans and continents. There isn’t really any need for this.

Wherever you are in the world, there is a good chance that there are producers of high quality, local food in your area. Find out which foods are a specialty in your locale. As well as being more enviornmentally friendly, it will give your wedding an extra touch of individuality.

You can also ensure that all the food you use is more environmentally friendly by buying organic.

Photo: advencap

Use Green Wedding Transport

Hybrid cars are becoming increasingly popular and increasingly classy. Using hybrid cars to transport you and your guests to the wedding, from the wedding to the wedding reception and at the end of the day will make you wedding reception much more green.

You could even go one step further. Using a horse drawn carriage to transport you from the wedding to the wedding reception venue is not only more romantic and special, it also makes for a lower carbon method of transport.

Use Recycled Wedding Recption Invitations

In the past, recycled paper tended to be much lower quality. This is no longer the case. These days, recycled paper can be made to a standard which is expected for wedding reception invitations. Recycled paper can also be used for the menus, place cards and any other items you can think of.

You can take this even further and make sure that your printing firm uses soy based ink.

Have a Candle Lit Wedding Reception

Reducing the amount of artificial lighting will make for a more green wedding reception. Using wedding reception candles will reduce the need for a great deal of lighting (it may even eliminate the need for it completely depend on the venue and the time of day). Not only that, but it will make for a more intimate feel to the wedding reception and are the perfect wedding reception centerpieces.

Eco Friendly Wedding Reception Favors

Buying green wedding reception favors will also help make your event more environmentally friendly. If you are giving coffee, chocolates etc. make sure they are organic and, even better, that they are ethically produced by buying fair trade goods. For other gifts, buy reusable items that guests will want to use over and over again.

Offset Your Wedding Reception Emissions

Doing all these things will vastly reduce the carbon emissions of your wedding reception. However, no matter how careful you are, the event will still add to the carbon in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. For a truly green wedding reception, it needs to be carbon neutral.

There are many companies out their who will offset these emissions. They will calculate how much carbon your event is releasing and will ensure that an equal amount of carbon is taken out of the atmosphere to compensate.

Having an eco friendly wedding will make a great statement to your guests about your beliefs and hopefully spread these ideas into their day to day life. You can make a great contribution to the fight against global warming by hosting a green wedding reception.