Getting Hitched at Home
04 Mar 2010
What better place to have a wedding than your own home, especially if you’re on a budget. After all, home is where the heart is.
![wedding2](/wp-content/boulderhg/2010/03/wedding2.jpg)
Cost-Cutting Tips
If you’re planning an indoor ceremony, consider staging it in the foyer. “It’s a space rarely cluttered with a lot of furniture, so the wedding party can line up while guests watch from the stairs or stand in other rooms to view the ceremony,” Crampton says. Removing the bulk of your main floor’s furniture—couches, coffee tables, chairs—makes way for tables that can be arranged to give your home a restaurant-like feel. But when it comes to topping those tables with floral arrangements, think simple. “The more labor, the more stems, the more money,” says Kristina Sutcliffe, owner of Boulder’s European Flower Shop.![wedding3](/wp-content/boulderhg/2010/03/wedding3.jpg)
Yummy Ideas
One huge plus of a home wedding is the ability to customize food service. Consider serving dinner family-style; your guests will get to pass around dishes and chat—just like at home. And when it comes to dishes you love (mac-n-cheese?) serve them alongside fancier dishes, Vaughan says. With a caterer, you’re also spared the standard menu packages provided by hotels. For example, Vaughan worked with an Asian couple who wanted Vietnamese and Korean wedding hors d’oeuvres, and a caterer duplicated their family recipes. “When you work with a hotel or a restaurant, that’s not really possible,” she says. Vaughan’s also worked with couples who wanted sundae bars and margarita machines at their receptions, although you can save money by skipping or limiting the bar to two specialty cocktails, beer and wine.![wedding4](/wp-content/boulderhg/2010/03/wedding4.jpg)