The Mad Dash

Now that I am engaged, I can't call him Boyfriend in my blogs any more...can I? So, until I find a new nickname, we'll call him The Man Formally Known as Boyfriend.

A lot of my research has uncovered that the average wedding in this country costs $20,000. I am a teacher, not a dentist, so that's not happening. In fact, I was turning green with envy over the girls online at The Knot that put together weddings under $10K in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Denver, NYC and San Fransisco. I thought, surely, if they can do it, I can. And I can do it without paying a wedding planner.

So far, I've been doing a lot of reading and calculating, but I wouldn't have been able to without some of these tools and tips:

1. Martha Stewart Weddings magazine -- For those people wanting to keep a low wedding budget, she's your queen! Forget anything bad she's done and take her advice on the DIY wedding projects that can save you tons of cash.

2. The Real Simple Wedding Budget Worksheet -- This sheet has a laundry list of "bride dos" (not "honey dos") and the percentage people generally spend in each category. Example: Receptions cost 50 percent of your total.

3. The Knot -- This magazine and website helps with budgets as well as finding local resources for catering, DJ, venues, etc.

4. Anti-Bride Etiquette Guide: The Rules And How to Bend Them -- This guide has been helpful because it gives new spins on the classics. Who pays? What if parents are deceased or divorced? There's a lot of good advice in there for the modern bride.

5. My Wedding -- The site http://www.mywedding.com is great because it's free, first of all. The magazines say that any decent bride makes a wedding website. That way, guests can see blogs, directions, updates, photos, accommodations, local tourist venues and registry information from the comfort of home.

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