Real Wedding - Budget Bride Tavon & Kenneth

Today's real wedding feature is on a couple who I heard about on the news last year for having a $6,000 wedding. I was very intrigued to find out how she pulled that off.... later on I saw her feature on Essence.com.

With today's weddings averaging $25-$30,000, finding ways to cut corners and still have a nice wedding can be hard to do. But this bride made it happen and ended up having the wedding of her dreams.

Here are some of the ways she was able to have a $6,000 wedding:
* She purchased Kenneth’s titanium wedding band from eBay.com for $40
* She made her own bouquet with roses purchased at Costco
* She purchased her gown from Craigslist for $200
* Her shoes only cost $29 from Cutesyshoes.com
* Makeup was done by her friend who lent her services to the bride as a gift.

* The bride did her own hair after getting a $20 roller set.
* They only had 75 guests at their wedding. Both the ceremony and the reception were held at Lambert Place in Atlanta.
* They received the food, linen, drinks, chair covers, the cake-cutting, the wait staff and more for $5,500
* Tavon printed the programs herself
* A small portion of the bottom tier of their wedding cake was real for pictures. The guests received sheet cake that was purchased for less than $200.
* They got their photographer and deejay for free. Tavon found the photographer, a graduate student, on Craigslist.com. He was trying to get his name out as a wedding photographer.
So their engagement and wedding pictures were free.
* The groom's friend was a caterer and he hosted their rehearsal dinner for free as well.

The couple wed on July 19, 2008 in Atlanta, Ga. Check out some of the pics: