Wow. I never thought of that. I just figured it was the same everywhere. With the tightening of the drinking and driving laws and the soaring costs of weddings, people have gotten away from open bars. Much too dangerous and no one wants to be responsible. When people aren't paying for the alcohol, they tend to drink more. It also gets wasted. I for one, had no intention of paying for booze. At our wedding, (we had a brunch but it started at 11 A.M. so there was drinking eventually) we supplied a champagne toast and I think a bottle of wine at each table, but we had the hotel set up a bar in the ballroom, paid extra for the bartender, and anyone who wanted mixed beer or drinks, etc. got their own.

When I went to find a photographer, I was in shock What I thought would be a few hundred dollars turned out to be about $1200 and we didn't need mothers' books, etc. and there wasn't a church. It was all in the ballroom at the hotel. I thought it would be easy, but it was very expensive. But, I love pictures. We didn't get a big album either with 8x10s. Just 3 8x10s and a lot of smaller pictures, plus the throw away cameras and my own digital ones. My daughter got the same photographer for her wedding. She did an awesome job. Gina's wedding pictures cost more than twice what mine did, but they are beautiful. I bought my own and made up a mother's album of my own.

I wrote an article for the paper about a year ago on ways of cutting the cost of weddings.

I made my own invitations on the pc. Made my daughter's too.
Louisa