Did you hear about the couple that raised $3,800 for their wedding by collecting empty aluminum cans? Spokane, WA residents Peter Geyer and Andrea Parrish needed approximately 400,000 empty cans to meet their goal (which they met with a little help from donations by Alcoa and United Recycling Co.).

Peter Geyer and Amanda Parrish collected $3,800 worth of empty cans to help fund their wedding.

This got us to thinking. How many cans would it take to pay for an elaborate celebrity wedding? If you break down the value of each single can from the Spokane wedding, it comes in at just under a penny (.0095 cents to be exact). We checked ‘The 20 Most Expensive Celebrity Weddings’ and determined how many cans would have been needed to be saved to pay for the top weddings on the list.

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston – $1 Million Wedding – 105,263,158 cans

Madonna & Guy Ritchie –$1.5 Million Wedding – 157,894,736 cans

Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes – $2 Million Wedding – 210,526,315 cans

Paul McCartney & Heather Mills – $3 Million Wedding – 315,789,473 cans

Liza Minnelli & David Gest – $3.5 Million Wedding – 368,421,052 cans

Think that’s a lot cans? That’s nothing! The world’s most expensive wedding ever was held for Vanisha Mittal (daughter of European steel tycoon Laxmi Mittal) and her fiancé Amit Bhatia in 2004. The tab came to approximately $60 Million USD!

That equates to 6,315,789,473 cans! That’s right – over 6 billion cans.
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What creative methods are you using to raise money for the wedding? We want to hear from you in the comments below!

Fiverr.com: simplifying your wedding planning.... maybe.

By now, many of you have probably heard of Fiverr.com. It’ s the website where people post odd jobs and tasks that they’ll perform for $5. The concept got us to thinking, maybe Fiverr could be a new outlet for brides and grooms to discover wedding savings. We perused the site and came up with the following ten top wedding deals currently available.

Keep in mind, we’re using the term “deals” very loosely.

I Will Provide Tools to Plan a Carnival Themed Wedding

I Will Write Heartfelt Wedding Vows

I Will Give You 20 Great Ideas to Plan a Bachelor Party

I Will E-Mail you the Secret That Will Make Your Marriage Last

I Will Be Your Marriage Referee

I Will Give a Woman’s Opinion on the Engagement Ring You Bought

I Will Tell You If Your Wedding Plans are Classy

I Will Plan Your Wedding

I Will Help You Plan the Perfect Proposal

I Will Look at a Photo of a Newly Married Couple and Tell You Which Person Could Have Married Better

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Wow, I didn’t realize that the economy had gotten so bad that you could hire a wedding coordinator for $5. Our reader challenge is to actually hire one of the services above and then report back on the results. We expect hilarity…. and a lot of it!

By Guest Blogger OneWed.com

The champagne toast, a must have of every wedding, right? Um, why? How many times have you been handed a glass of champagne for the toast, taken a sip and then put it back down to go back to your drink of choice?

Unless you or your bride really likes champagne, why not skip it and let guests toast with whatever glass they’re holding in their hand? You’ll save time since the waiters won’t be trying to get everyone a glass in time, and you’ll save money. Money that can be spent on something you really like, such as a good glass of bourbon!

By Guest Blogger: OneWed.com

People planning weddings spend a lot of money, and that of course, attracts a lot of scammers!  Think about some of these basic tips for avoiding wedding day scams:

1. Avoid paying large fees up front. Often scammers will pose as legitimate businesses and disappear on your wedding day.

2. Talk to friends, family and trusted sources about what wedding vendors and wedding planners they used and their experiences.

3. Monitor your credit, get in the habit of getting credit reports.

4. You’ll be getting a lot of e-mails from new and unknown sources, consider anti-virus software.

5. Many people sign contracts with vendors without reading through them with a critical eye. Read everything and make sure you understand what you’re agreeing to before making it legal.

6. Pay with a credit card. Disputing a transaction is easier with a credit card than with a check. Just be careful not to let the credit card become a vehicle for spending more than you can afford.

By Guest Blogger: Kyle Paterik of Dow & Associates

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a client’s wedding and reception at a posh South Pasadena mansion. The event didn’t cut any corners. It offered delicious appetizers, a top shelf open bar, hand rolled Dominican cigars, live music, even celebrities –  oh, and a drunk guest dancing on the roof precariously close to the ledge! My heart, and my client’s, skipped a beat envisioning the treacherous fall and liability claim before the security staff swiftly ushered her off the roof and into a cab. We breathed a collective sigh of relief, remembering that we signed a wedding insurance policy a week earlier. This would have covered my client for up to $4 million in liability and damages… if only there was a rider to repair the embarrassment of finding out the woman on the roof was his aunt.

I find that as many clients prepare for their weddings, they hear about the horror stories that occasionally coincide with the big day yet fail to get an insurance policy to protect against them. Some examples are rain at an outdoor wedding, photographers deleting negatives, lost/damaged/ stolen gifts, wedding rings or rental property, a runaway spouse and, of course, the occasional drunk aunt dancing on the roof (what good party doesn’t include that?!).  The great news is that wedding and private event insurance can be put in place for your wedding and tailored around your particular event. Even better, it’s relatively cheap! Ever try to find the best life insurance rates? Well, finding wedding insurance is no more difficult than that. Plans range from just $95 to $300. When many individuals’ nowadays are spending $20,000 to $50,000 and more on their weddings, doesn’t it make sense to insure that you will be made whole – at least financially speaking – if you hit a few potholes? On top of this, most venues require that you have some form of liability insurance to rent their space (especially if alcohol is served).

There was nothing more gratifying at the end of a great wedding reception than when my client made his way over to me and said, “All I was thinking about when I saw my aunt on that roof was “thank God Kyle helped me get that insurance in place. Thank you, I’ll sleep well tonight!” Find five minutes to contact us or your personal adviser to get a quote for your wedding, and cross one more worry off of your list.

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Kyle Paterik is the Senior Consultant at Dow and Associates Insurance Agency, an industry-leading private insurance planning agency with more than 40 years of combined experience.  Kyle believes that it is essential to create a strong foundation and team strategy before walking down the aisle to help sustain a lasting relationship. Dow and Associates aims to inform and educate its newlywed clients as they embark on one of life’s biggest milestones.