AisleDash

Your eyes keep shifting between your budget spreadsheet and your potential guest list. You love your friends and family -- all 250 of them -- but at 35 bucks a head for dinner, you can't afford to invite them all. You could save thousands of dollars by cutting your guest list in half, but how do you decide who makes and who misses the cut? This part of wedding planning is no fun.

So here's an idea: instead of an expensive, fancy feast that blows your whole wedding budget, ask your guests to bring a dish to share instead of a gift. Provide guests who travel or guests who simply don't cook with a list of pre-made items that can be bought at your local grocery store, and appoint someone to field all the phone calls about what to bring. Sure there will be some repeats, but with several dozen guests, you'll surely get a nice variety for your buffet.

Make sure your invitations are clear about this. "In lieu of gifts, the bride and groom request that you bring your favorite dish to serve at our reception buffet. Call Mandy, the Maid of Honor, at 555-5555 with questions." Then you can take the money you saved on food and buy your own wedding gifts, so you get exactly what you need and want. Encourage guests to include the recipe with the dish they bring, so that you can create a wedding cookbook. You can even post the recipes online to share with all the guests.

If you're trying to rein in the spending, and endeavoring to stick to a tight wedding budget, then you you may be thinking hard about where you can shave off unnecessary extras and reduce costs. You probably won't want to do that with your wedding cake - who wants a nasty, poor quality cake? Nobody. But an area where expenditure can easily be reduced is your wedding stationery.

You could make your own invitations or, instead of choosing pricey, customised invitations, opt for a less expensive, standard design.

This doesn't necessarily mean having to make do with something awful. There are some excellent stationery companies who offer very good value for money and one that we've recently come across, and really like, is Fabulous Stationery.com.

They have a vast range of all-occasion cards and notes, and a good selection of wedding stationery too. The cards are good for bridal shower invitations, save the date cards, thank you notes and, even, informal wedding invitations. The designs range from contemporary to retro to bling and are very reasonably priced between $35 and $55 for a set of 25 customisable cards and envelopes.

That's pretty good value. Check out the gallery below for our pick of the wedding designs, or visit the website for the full and fabulous range.

Creating your own wedding invitations is nowhere near as difficult and time-consuming as it used to be in the days before computers, digital photography, and photo-handling software. With just a little time and imagination, you can create stunning wedding invitations, at a fraction of the cost of professionally produced cards. No, you can't do letterpress on your computer, but if saving money is on your agenda, letterpress is probably out of the question, anyway.

If you'd like a little helpful guidance, there are many sites which provide art, text, and suggestions. One such site is Wedding Invitation Ideas, which provides you with over thirty different invitations, each with instructions for putting it together. You have to sign up to the site to receive their down-loadable templates, but if you're not interested in doing that, there are many good ideas here. See how vellum and ribbon add instant elegance, or how card toppers can be used to create texture and depth, or metallic confetti for a little sparkle!

This week it was all about the theme wedding. Renaissance weddings, to be exact. Let's take a look at what we've found for you:

Probably the very simplest way to personalize many aspects of your wedding is with labels. Think about the number of applications for a monogrammed label, or a label expressing your thanks: favor boxes, your very own music mix, place cards, thank-you notes, the order of service, on the invitations, as seals on the envelopes, coasters, wine bottles ... The list could go on and on.

You could probably accomplish this on your home computer with the right software, or you could go through one of the many online printers. Check through the gallery of choices from one such source we found, and check out the website. Google for more. Maybe you've already found other websites you'd like to share with us!

Something as basic as a simple motif repeated on placecards and favor boxes can give a sense of a well-designed wedding, without costing the earth.

Sometimes you really can judge a book by its cover, and this will be true of your wedding invitations if you package them in more than your typical everyday envelope. Found on the Absolute Woman website (a website designed to help you express who you really are rather than tell you), these invitations bundled up in boxes, bags and bottles are sure to stand out from the rest of the mailbox crowd. For more information on how to purchase any of these designs, follow this link to the Absolute Woman website and fill out their contact form at the bottom of the page.

Are you looking for beautiful invitations with a personal touch? If so, you absolutely must check out KenzieKate Invitations.

KenzieKate Invitations aren't just pieces of paper -- they're customized pieces of art. They are fussy about everything, from the paper to the font to the ribbons to the glue, so you can rest assured you're getting a top quality invitation. And, while quality is great and all, we have to say that's not really what drew our eye -- we first fell in love with the designs!

Do you love retro? So do we! A retro wedding is unique and lots of fun - let us help you pull it off!

Scroll invitations are a great way to set the scene for your renaissance wedding. They have an 'olde worlde' charm and add a wonderfully fun element to an already fabulous wedding theme.

We've found an Etsy seller, Handykane, who has masses of enchanting scroll invitations, in many different styles and themes, that would give just the right first impression to your guests, and whisk them back into times gone by.

The invitations are printed on parchment that has been treated for an authentic ancient paper look. They're sold in packs of 50, together with matching envelopes, and most also include a printed seal on the envelopes. Prices are from $49.99 per pack, depending on the design.

Check out the gallery below for a small sample of Handykane's scroll invitations.

Hear ye! Hear ye! Thou can set the stage for your fine affair with these customizable Renaissance-style invitations. You choose one of the outside designs (created by fantasy artist Melissa Benson of Ranting Centaur Studios) and inside message, or upload your own photo into a card "frame." Use one design or choose several to cover your guest list in Renaissance style. The price is the same no matter how creative you get. Complete the ensemble with matching postage stamps. There are no minimum quantities and there are good price discounts for large quantities. For more information on pricing and ordering, go ye to this website.

There are many choices online for African American themed wedding invitations, from ones that express your love and tenderness in an intimate moment to ones that call upon traditions and symbols from the past. Call directly upon traditions of the past with images of wedding couples jumping the broom. Or tie into one of the strongest symbols of life and love with the ankh. Or choose a style with more subtle African design elements and rich colors. These invitations will set the stage for your perfect African American wedding. To purchase any of the invitations shown, follow the links below each gallery photo.

Dear AisleDash,

I just found out that our reception venue charges for parking. It's only a few bucks per car, but I had no idea when I booked the place! Am I supposed to pay for all my guests to park? If not, how do I tell them? What's the etiquette here?

~Urban Bride

Dear Urban,

You do not necessarily have to pay for all of your guests to park, but it would be a very nice thing for you to do. You do have to tell them in advance, so that they're not "hit with surprise charges," as they say. The best way for you to do this is to include an insert with your invitations explaining the charge for parking, and also mapping the area to point out the nearest free parking.

If your invitations have already gone out, it seems to me that you will have to just pay for everyone's parking at this point, because there is no proper way to spring this on guests now. Many of them won't bring cash with them to your ceremony and will be in a bind when they get to your reception venue if there is a charge they aren't prepared for.

Alternatively, have you considered hiring a wedding shuttle? If everyone is staying in the same hotel, a shuttle to the ceremony and reception sites and back can be a very nice way to tackle this problem. With a shuttle available, if people still choose to drive themselves, then the burden of parking fees is on them, not you.

Do you have a question for Ask AisleDash? Use the Contact AisleDash link at the top of the page, or leave it in the comments section. And be sure to look for our answers every Thursday.

We had a busy week, bringing you everything for your beach wedding. So let's take a look back at all the great ideas.

Stationery designer Sarah Meyer Walsh and Erin Miller (whose self-described job is to bring Sarah back down to earth) run couture stationery studio Haute Papier in Washington, DC and have recently launched their first line of of invitations - and we are in love with their style!

The line, called Le Catalogue, is inspired by their love of vintage wallpaper and is available in both letterpress and flat printing. We were charmed that each of the invitation sets is named after a romantic poet and spent way too much time admiring each design on the site to find out what romantic quote they had selected for each set.

We invite you to take a look at our gallery for an introduction to their designs, and be sure to check out hautepapier.com to look at all 15 sets and to place your order.

At AisleDash this week we're talking all about beach weddings -- sand, surf and palm trees! Once you have all the details nailed down for your beach-y wedding day, it's time to let your guests know. The invitations are usually an extension of your wedding theme -- thank goodness! -- and for a beach wedding, the clear-blue sky really is the limit. There are so many beach invites to peruse, you'll have no problem finding the perfect one for your wedding. Should you pick out a fun and flirty one? Or a simple, stunning one? Something different? Or something colorful? The choice is yours but you can't go wrong. Check out the gallery for more than 20 additional invitation styles for your wedding. Send them out and then sit back, relax and dream about digging your feet in the sand while saying, "I do!"