This cake had a custom made bride and groom and the camp on the side of the cake was the family one.

Hello Susan,Thank you so much again for what you were able to do with the cake.  Everyone loved it; the cake absolutely exceeded our expectations!Take care,Mark

This couple wanted to combine a wedding cake with their love of New Hampshire.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Wedding planners say brides are saving money by changing venues, dates
• The average cost for a wedding was about $19,500 in 2009, a decline from $28,700 in 2007
• One bride spent $5,000 to have her wedding ceremony and reception at a bowling alley
• There were 2.2 million weddings in 2009, with an average of 128 guests, one company says

(CNN) – It wasn’t the dream wedding Rachel Sifuentes, 28, envisioned as a little girl.

No walking down a church aisle. No DJ at the reception. No white dress.

Instead, Sifuentes and her husband followed their attendants dancing down the center lane of a bowling alley where the neatly lined-up pins faded into the background. The ladies didn’t carry flowers, but waved long ribbons. The bridal party relied on an iPod for entertainment. The bride wore a silky deep-blue gown — the groom’s favorite color — purchased at a discount.

“Luckily, everything turned out to be great,” said Sifuentes, who lives in Chicago, Illinois, and wanted to save money because her salary at the law firm where she works had been reduced.

Sifuentes’ bowling alley wedding in January may not have been traditional, but the creative ceremony saved her thousands of dollars at a time when wallet tightening has become necessary for many American families. Her offbeat wedding is representative of a growing trend, wedding experts say, as brides are discovering cheap can be chic, and also inspire innovative party ideas.

“Necessity breeds ingenuity,” said Ariel Meadow Stallings, a writer who runs the online bridal site Offbeat Bride.

She explains what has ushered in the recent trend of frugal yet creative brides: “It’s the combination of the economy with the fact that through the ’90s, there was a big explosion of the wedding industrial complex.”

Necessity breeds ingenuity.
–Ariel Meadow Stallings, wedding writer

Weddings remain a multibillion-dollar industry and summer is the busiest season. There were about 2.2million weddings in 2009, with each event averaging 128 guests, according to The Wedding Report Inc., a research company that tracks the wedding industry.

But the wedding business may slowly be eroding in the fragile economy. The average cost for a wedding dipped in 2009 to about $19,500 from a peak of $28,700 in 2007, said The Wedding Report Inc. So far this year, wedding spending has improved — with the economy — to an average of $23,800.

Sifuentes’ bowling alley wedding was a bargain: She spent about $5,000, which included the ceremony and reception.

Websites and blogs — such as A Practical Wedding and 2000 Dollar Wedding – have surfaced over the last few years to help brides creatively pinch their pennies.

In Maine this summer, one bride substituted a baked potato bar for a traditional five-course meal at the reception. Other brides have replaced costly gourmet cakes from bakeries with homemade Rice Krispies treats and chocolate chip cookies.

Some couples recommended switching from a dinnertime reception to a brunch or hosting the wedding on a weekday night rather than on the more popular Saturday. Other brides have abandoned expensive venues such as private hotels or banquet halls for public buildings, parks and libraries. One New York bride spent less than $600 on her wedding in 2007 by keeping the guest list short and having the ceremony in a public library.

When it comes to invitations, place settings, decorations and dresses, the brides have learned the power of DIY, which stands for “do it yourself.”

But it’s not always easy to have an offbeat wedding. Some wedding experts caution the bride may not have enough time to handle the extra responsibilities. Other brides say they still feel families and friends expect them to throw a lavish, traditional wedding.

“There was so much pressure on everything,” said former bride Meg Keene, founder of the blog A Practical Wedding. “Everything was presented as obviously this is the option you’ll choose, if you want it to be a good wedding.”

For Sifuentes, throwing a bowling alley wedding came with some hesitation. She worried about what some guests would think about her cutbacks.

“I was concerned that I was going to come off as a cheap bride or not having a very nice wedding,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be a tacky wedding.”

But her bowling alley wedding turned out to be classy, she said. About 70 of the couple’s closest friends and family members joined them to feast on an Italian buffet. There was plenty of dancing, but they also found time to bowl.

A Brides.com survey in 2009 also found brides are watching expenses. Four out of five couples set a budget for their wedding. Half the brides will spend time researching financing for the ceremony and reception, the survey said.

“People are being smarter,” said Ali Phillips, owner of a wedding planning boutique firm, Engaging Events by Ali, in Chicago. “They are asking themselves: Do we really need to have the fancy chairs? Do you really have to give wedding favors?”

Phillips, who has been a wedding consultant for nine years, said she noticed clients making cutbacks to guest lists and choosing fewer upgrades this year. For example, five years ago, the average guest list contained about 180 people. This year, the guest lists have about 120 people.

Jennifer Crawford, 30, of Huntington Beach, California, kept her wedding budget a priority. At her wedding in April, she shaved costs by having a seamstress copy the style of her dream gown that retailed at $2,800 at a boutique. Her handmade replica was a fraction of the cost — $650.

Do we really need to have the fancy chairs? Do you really have to give wedding favors?
–Ali Phillips, wedding planner

RELATED TOPICS

• Marriage
• Wedding Engagements and Proposals
• National Economy

“What was best about this idea was being personally involved in the design process,” Crawford said. “I did not want a cookie-cutter dress. I wanted it to be special and fun.”

In Oklahoma, bride-to-be Ashley Heckathorn, 24, estimated she will save up to $15,000 by making her own bouquets, which will save her from whittling down the guest list. She is relying on Craigslist and friends’ talents to find deals for her wedding, set for June 2011 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Some wedding experts say the wedding industry is recovering. Xochitl Gonzalez, a wedding consultant at Always a Bridesmaid in New York, said her guests aren’t as afraid to spend money on the ceremony and reception as they were when the economy initially plummeted.

Rebecca Dolgin, executive editor at The Knot.com, said weddings are recession proof. But Dolgin said she noticed brides are shopping more carefully and comparing deals for their weddings.

“People generally only get married once,” Dolgin said. “There may be ebbs and flows in the economy, but they are always going to look back on their wedding day.”

At Sarah Dixon and Todd Rump’s wedding, wedding favor donations were made to the Wounded Warrior Project.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• More couples are using their wedding day to spotlight social causes
  
• WeddingChannel.com reports 650,000 couples have signed up for its charity programs
  
• Couples who marry later are partly responsible for more donations
  
• Couples can raise awareness through their website, a registry or on their wedding program

RELATED TOPICS

• Wedding Engagements and Proposals
• The Knot Inc.
• Relationships

(CNN) – The collection of wedding favors stuffed into Sarah Dixon’s closet includes everything from customized peppermints to a cup holder shaped like a flip-flop.

When her shining bridal moment arrived in October 2009, Dixon, 26, abandoned the cheesy wedding trinkets for a nobler cause.

She gave each guest a small bag of chocolate truffles to mark a cash donation in guests’ honor to the Wounded Warriors Project, a nonprofit support group for injured veterans.

Dixon’s husband, Todd Rump, 26, a sergeant for the U.S. Army, was deployed to Iraq for an eight-month stint three years ago.

“I figured it would be something for our guests to enjoy,” said Dixon, whose husband will leave this week for duty with the Army in Afghanistan. “I kind of always knew I wanted to do something charitable. When it comes to favors, it’s hard to choose something that won’t just sit in someone’s house or get thrown away.”

A growing number of couples are shifting the spotlight from their weddings to socially conscious causes, wedding planners and industry experts said.

Donations in lieu of wedding favors are gaining popularity. More people are setting up charitable registries via the internet. After all, one Montana bride rationalized, what is the use of a wedding favor during hard economic times?

“It’s so easy to do,” said Anja Winikka, senior editor atTheKnot.com, one of the most popular wedding planning destinations online. “You have so much attention, all the love of your friends and these gifts flowing in. It inspires some couples to give something back with all eyes on them.”

There are no hard rules set for donating to charities for weddings, but some wedding etiquette experts recommend couples avoid putting donation requests on the invitation. Usually, wedding websites or social media can efficiently and appropriately advocate a specific cause. Introducing the organization on a wedding program can also spread the word, they said.

Weddings may be an ideal place to gather attention for a charity. There were about 2.2 million weddings in 2009, with each event averaging 128 guests, according to The Wedding Report Inc., a research company tracking the wedding industry.

Charitable donations at weddings come in all forms. One New Jersey bride this month gave tree seeds to guests to promote environmental sustainability. A wedding next month in Minnesota will ask attendees to bring a nonperishable canned or boxed food item for the local food bank. A Louisiana couple married in March raised $850 to help rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward.

“Beyond all the humanitarian reasons, the need to rebuild the houses, our desire just to do good, there’s real benefits for us in the long run,” said the groom, Max Erenberg, 35, who lives near the Lower 9th Ward. “It certainly helps us having those neighborhoods back.”

Quantifying the uptick in couples trying to donate during their weddings is difficult because there are few experts tracking the phenomenon. According to TheKnot.com, 4 percent of couples in 2009 had a registry connected to a charity, but the figure doesn’t include guests who donate without a registry or couples who replace wedding favors with donations.

In the last few years, more organizations have emerged to cater to engaged couples wanting to donate. More than 650,000 couples since 2004 have participated in charity programs onWeddingChannel.com.

The I Do Foundation, a nonprofit group that helps engaged couples set up charitable registries, reports that about 60,000 couples have established registries through its site. When the foundation began in 2002, couples could select from a dozen charities, said Grant La Rouche, director of the foundation. Today, the agency offers more than 1.5 million nonprofit groups to choose from. Couples can also shop from selected vendors, with a portion of their spending going to a charity. The donations also are tax deductible.

“They want to share that it’s a part of who they are and so much of weddings are about making it about what you love,” La Rouche said.

Nonprofits are also starting to establish their own wedding gift giving programs. Heifer International, an Arkansas-based group known for donating farm animals to impoverished communities worldwide, started an alternative gift giving registry five years ago and has received thousands of donations, officials said.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, launched a wedding program in 2006 and sells posters and mini-place cards for couples to give to their guests when they donate, said Katie Hammett, foundation program coordinator. But Hammett said some brides still prefer a more traditional registry or favors.

“It really depends on the bride — some brides are really into the idea, and some brides really want to go a different way,” Hammett said.

The demand for charitable weddings enabled Mary Ludwig of New Hampshire to start a niche business three years ago called Truffles for a Cause. The company sells chocolates to couples, but a portion of the money goes to a charity the couple picks. The most popular charity has been the American Cancer Society, but Ludwig has had brides request donations go to organizations supporting families affected by the 9/11 attacks and local soup kitchens.

“This generation and probably the next generation — the kids are brought up being more socially aware,” Ludwig said. “They are always thinking about what we can do to save the planet, or helping people when there are earthquakes.”

While a generation of generous millennials may be one reason for the jump in charitable weddings, some wedding experts said they believe charitable giving also represents a larger cultural shift in marriage. More couples are cohabitating and marrying later. For example, in 2009, the average age for a bride was 28 and the average groom’s age was 30, according to a survey of 21,000 couples conducted by TheKnot.com. In 2004, the bride was 27 and the groom was 29.

“By the time they are getting married they don’t need flatware, silverware and candlesticks,” said wedding writer Ariel Meadow Stallings, who runs the blog OffbeatBride.com.

Valerie Manglitz, 36, who married this past month in Michigan, decided to donate to a local agency that serves deaf people. She has worked as a sign language interpreter since she was 20 years old. She hopes her giving will create a ripple effect.

“You want to lead by example,” Manglitz said. “You have to show people what you’re doing so hopefully they will join.”