Sponsored Wedding.. Anyone?

After being together for 10years, Drew and I have decided to get married.


Now this revelation poses a few problems:

1. We are not really 'wedding' people
2. The kids want a 'big' thing, so that they can be centre of attention as our bridesmaids..
3. (And this is the big one) It's fucking expensive!

Neither of us are religious in any way, so a church wedding is out. Not only because we'd feel hypocritical, but also because the long ceremony would not be personal to us with all of it's religious content.

In an ideal world, I wouldn't get hitched in a registry office either, but as point 3 has already clearly stated, it's expensive. So registry office it is.

If budget could stretch, I would love to hire a celebrant, who would conduct a non-official 'wedding' for us (after the legal requirements have been taken care of at the registry office, of course!)

This would ensure a perfectly personal ceremony tailored to us and our children and would be absolutely amazing, my 'dream wedding'.

Like many young families, we don't have any savings. We are not lucky enough to have financially supportive family members either. So this wedding falls squarely on our shoulders (and to be honest, I wouldn't want it any other way, we want, we pay)

We won't and can't get into debt to do this, so it's going to be a long time coming, which upsets me tremendously, as there are personal reasons as to why we have decided to get wed now.

So, I started doing some research online, thrifty wedding ideas, that kinda thing.

It was during this search that I stumbled across an American article regarding 'Sponsored Weddings'

It apparently, is becoming a growing trend in the US to get companies to sponsor your wedding, enabling the Bride and Groom to keep costs to a minimum.

Advertising is offered throughout their big day to companies willing to participate. Sponsorship deals cover everything from the invites to the rings and even the dress. And the couple in return, place their sponsors 'ads' on their invites, menus, thank you cards etc..

Now, I know a lot of people would deem this as tacky, but I think it's an amazing idea - in theory.

In practice, however, I would think that it would take hours of hardwork, dedication and writing, emailing and 'phoning etc..

In the UK, I would be doubtful that many couples would be able to achieve the objective and make this work, and I'm not suggesting that I would be one to try this, however I am very excited about the idea of it all.

You get a wedding for a very small budget, and your sponsors get a happily captive audience!

I guess it just extends the whole asking family and friends to exchange their talents as their wedding gifts to you, it's just on a much bigger scale.

I have to say that whom ever came up with the idea is a marketing genius!