Just updating everyone on my wedding planning progress!

My fiancé and I are getting married in May of next year. We're shooting for May 24th but still have to meet with the church to see if that date is available. We're pretty sure it will be - our church is pretty small and has less than three weddings a year. So we're not too worried but obviously can't book anything until we know!

I'll go by category to make this easier to read Our budget is $5000 for 100 guests in New Jersey. Do we sound crazy? I guess we kind of are! But thankfully we have a lot of people who have offered to help us out - one of the great things about living in a small town where everyone knows each other!

Venue:
Our ceremony is going to be at my parents' church. Originally we wanted to have it at his church but decided against it. His church is really far from every possible reception venue that was within our budget. But most importantly I really want my handicapped brother to be included in the ceremony. He would feel much more comfortable in his church and therefore would be less likely to have a tantrum or panic attack. So that is the main reason!
Our reception is going to be held at the clubhouse on my lake (we haven't booked yet but we're 99% sure). It's actually really nice - hardwood floors and paneling, a screened in deck, and a full service kitchen. We would have full use of the grounds and may even be able to leave the reception in a pontoon boat! Here's a typical view at night from that section of the lake:

And it's affordable! That's the best part

Food and Alcohol:
This is obviously going to be our main expense besides the venue rental. But we have it pretty much figured out! One of my mom's friends is an extreme couponer - just like the show on TLC, if anyone has seen it. She is going to help us purchase the food at low prices or possibly even free. Then another one of my mom's friends and her daughter are going to actually do the catering. The mother owns a really delicious Italian restaurant and the daughter has a culinary degree so we're not worried! They will also help us purchase anything that we can't get ourselves. We're going to pay them of course but it will definitely be cheaper than working with a caterer we don't know.
As for alcohol, my parents are going to just purchase throughout the year and hope for the best. Alcohol is expensive! But if we don't have it, my extended family will probably riot. Cue my rolling eyes.

Entertainment:
I'm extremely lucky here. My brother has an excellent band. They are locally well known and have played weddings before. While they do have to charge us (which makes sense - we're taking up a Saturday night that they normally play!) it will be much cheaper than hiring another local band and my brother will us back his portion as a wedding gift. Two of the members (my brother and the piano player) will be at the ceremony and then all of them will be at the reception. I'm very excited for this. It is a great way to include my brother and we have similar taste in music!

Apparel:
This is going to sound weird. But hear me out.
There is a very expensive bridal shop near my house. One that I can't even step foot in most likely. But once a year they donate all of their sample and discontinued dresses to a local thrift shop. They often still have the tags on! So we're going to go thrift store shopping (cue Macklemore song!). If we don't find anything we'll go to David's Bridal.
Regarding his apparel, we will probably just have to try to get a discount!

Paper (Invitations, Save the Dates, Thank You Cards):
One of my mom's clients (she's an accountant) is a church. They have already said we can use their nice printer to print our invitations. And one of my mom's coworkers there is really good at graphic design so she's going to help us design them as well!

Décor:
My aunt did the decorations for my Sweet 16 (which honestly wasn't that long ago... hehe). She has a knack for all things crafty. I'm planning on asking for her help. I know she will love to help - if I didn't include her she would probably be offended! This is what we are thinking about in terms of colors:


Photography:
We're currently in the running to possibly win free photography! You can see my thread about it here. If we don't win, we're just going to go for a student photographer. I am not looking for incredibly fancy photos and just cannot afford a normal photographer here. They all start at $2k and that's without prints or albums!

Flowers:
We're going to mostly likely bulk order our flowers from Sam's Club and then do the arrangements ourselves. I'm lucky in this aspect as well - my mom worked at a flower shop for years. While she was a manager there, she hired my Oma. My Oma liked it so much that after my mom quit, my Oma quit as well and started her own flower shop! So I'm not too worried about this :P

Honeymoon:
Okay so I have to admit, I'm really excited about this part :P I can't wait to go on our first vacation as a married couple (and probably only our third vacation ever!).
Originally we really wanted to do a Disneymoon like Lyonsgirl. We priced it out. While we could afford it, we wouldn't be able to really do it up like we would want to We would probably only get to go for two days. So we may end up waiting on Disney until we have the money to really enjoy ourselves for a week or so. We're considering it for a "after graduating from grad school and working for a few years" trip :P I wish we could go for our honeymoon though because I really want to wear the bridal ears and the "Just Married" pin!
So now we're really considering a cruise. I loveee cruises. Chris has never been on one but likes the idea. I found a cruise from Miami to the Bahamas for four nights for less than $700 total. We may end up going this route. I have family in the area who could drive us to the cruise which is good since neither one of us will be old enough to rent a car... While it's not Disney, we do think it would be fun and romantic!
Thankfully I have a voucher for $600 worth of plane tickets (yay for airlines overbooking their flights!) so we don't have to worry about that aspect!

Sorry this is so long! So much to say!