Want to plan a hillbilly hoedown? Here is a great link!

The blog, titled ‘The Big Wedding Money-Wasters’ was posted to Yahoo blogs in the Food section, and seemingly featured as well. The authors were two women - Rita Mauceri and Elicia Rubin - who call themselves ‘Entertaining and Style Experts’ but judging from their blog, nothing could be further from the truth. Apparently they also author books, which after reading this blog I would suggest brides steer clear of wasting their money on because if their books are anything like their blog, they are likely filled with equally worthless advice.

http://food.yahoo.com/blog/foxyfestivities/19773/the-big-wedding-money-wasters/#post

My friend Craig over at cutting edge DJ's had a great observation from the above link...

The Dress
By suggesting spending $300.00 on your wedding dress they are in fact suggesting that your wedding dress be reduced to what many girls spend on prom dresses. I don’t even think a bride would consider this ‘advice’ in the first place, so no need to waste time on the foolish suggestion. Brides, this is your magical day that you have dreamed of all your life…Nuff said.

Band (and DJ)
The prices they list for a band of DJ are quite unrealistic on the low end (that is being kind) and they go on to suggest either having a friend DJ for you or using and IPod in combination with renting a sound system.
Please don’t believe for a second that a random friend or an automated IPod could replace a band or DJ with experience at reading a crowd, the IPod being the worse of both options. So when people aren’t dancing because the auto-play IPod isn’t playing the correct sequence of songs are your guests expected to shuffle through songs making wild guesses? Just go to YouTube and search ‘Ipod DJ’ to see a plethora of horror stories regarding this option.

Cake
As they say, cupcakes can be nice… but remember, the ‘Etsy’ featured cupcakes were likely made by a bakery and the photo taken by a professional photographer hence making them look so good. Do yourself a favor, don’t bake Betty Crocker cupcakes in your kitchen and bring them to your wedding. By cutting the cost of a wedding cake or bakery presentation you aren’t cutting enough money to compromise the look of your wedding cake and reduce it to the look of something you bought at a bake sale.

Photographers
I was married once, and my former mother-in-law did just what this blog suggests… went with the lowest low-budget photographer available. What we got was low-budget photographs. Bad lighting, bad angles, bad pictures. If the photographic memories of your wedding day are of little to no importance to you, just ask an art school student or better yet a guest with a camera to take those important photos and hope you get something worth framing. A camera in the hands of someone with little to no experience is no different than you or I trying to paint a masterpiece on canvas with oil paints… trust me, you wouldn’t want to hang it on the wall.

Flowers & Food
I don’t suggest picking your own flowers or skimping on the food. I know I’ve used this term already, but once again it just sounds ‘ghetto’ to me. A cocktail type party or a reception with stations can be nice, but to say that a professional caterer makes ‘rubbery chicken’ is just propaganda to scare you away from doing things the right way. As for making your own flower arrangements, good luck with that… florists are called florists for a reason.

In a nutshell, these two women tout themselves as ‘professionals’ yet their advice would suggest that using professionals on your wedding day isn’t the best course of action. Look up the word ‘hypocrite’ and you may just find a link to their blog. Remember that before you consider buying their ‘professional’ book or seeking their ‘professional’ advice.

Or perhaps they are trying to start a new trend called ‘Ghetto Chic.’

Let’s face it… I’m not sure if it’s a certain social responsibility or just an unspoken expectation, but if you are going to have a reception at all and your plan is to serve store-bought cupcakes and play your favorite tunes on your IPod to entertain your invited guests, does that somehow absolve your invited guests from giving you gifts, or for that matter skimping by giving you the bare minimum from your bridal registry? One spoon or one plate perhaps? If you’re going to throw a reception, do it the right way… otherwise you might as well just elope.

I’m surprised they didn’t suggest a CZ over a diamond for the engagement ring. Maybe that’s in in the book, or they’re saving it for a future blog.