The Dundee Bridal Expo will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday Nov. 8 at Old Mill Museum Banquet Hall, 242 Toledo St., Dundee, Mich.

Admission is free. There will be vendor displays, food and cake samples, door prizes and live music.

Brides and bridegrooms age 21 and older can enter to win a grand prize wedding package.

No strollers, please.

This event is sponsored by WLEN 103.9 FM Radio in Adrian.

I do recommend attending at least one bridal show when you are planning your wedding. The vendors, options and packages change so much that a show is the quickest way to get up to speed on what you can expect to spend on wedding services.

The Links at Lake Erie, 14727 LaPlaisance Rd., Monroe, Mich., will hold a bridal expo from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Sunday Oct. 25.

The cost is $5 per person. Sample food from the menu selections and soft drinks will be served from 1 to 3 p.m.

There will be door prizes, giveways and discounts from a variety of bridal services and vendors.

For information, call (734) 384-1177.

A note from your blogger: It’s a smart investment for brides on a budget to attend at least one larger bridal show or at least two of the smaller shows like this one on Sunday. The more you learn about the businesses that provide wedding services, the better choices you will make for your money.

The CostOfWedding.com site has this estimate for the 48162 zip code (Monroe MI / Frenchtown Township): $14,228 and $23,713.

I learned about that web site when a The Detroit Free Press printed a story Sunday from McClatchy Newspapers – Brides on a budget cut back. In that article, we learned the cost of a wedding in Detroit ($11,474-$19,123) and Birmingham ($60,123-$100,205) with reference to the CostofWedding site.

This estimate focuses on the cost of professional services, jewelry and attire for the wedding ceremony and reception. It does not include the cost of the honeymoon or any parties or festivities that are traditionally part of the engagement time.

You might not realize it by looking at those numbers, but the amount spent on weddings is dropping drastically. The news article reports the average wedding cost in the U.S. was $21,800 in 2008 – “a drop of almost $7,000 from the year before.”

I have attended some very thrifty, but still lovely, weddings in recent years. I share some of those stories and other tips for frugal brides in my Weddings on a Budget collection.

There are two area bridal shows announced for Oct. 18 – one at Frenchtown Square mall in Monroe and one at Flat Rock Community Center.

If you are a bride-to-be on a budget, you want to attend at least one bridal show as part of your research into professional services such as catering and photography. You’ll see a lot of vendors and get a feel for current price ranges and packages, even if you sign up with someone else.

The Aug. 11 edition was hosted by It’s Frugal Being Green. Here are some of the posts you will find:

• Sound Money Matters presents Affordable Wedding Photography: “Ask your friends to take the photos? Unless your friends are professional photographers who are offering your services as a gift, you will probably regret this. First, there is an art to wedding photography and capturing the right moments. Our friends sent us their digital snaps, which were lovely, but our professional images were better and higher-quality.” I see this situation in newspaper photography too. Although my main job is a newspaper reporter, I also used to shoot pictures and a lot of my photos made it into print or won local awards in Ohio during the 1990s. The problem is, one needs the right equipment to make professional-quality pictures happen. My 35mm camera is not repairable, I can’t afford to upgrade to professional digital equipment, and pocket digitals aren’t going to do the job.
• The Homemaking Helper presents Bridal Shower on a Budget: “The theme for the shower was “A Year of Firsts”. Basically, each person had a gift assignment to go along with the theme. For example, one of the bride’s friends was assigned “first house cleaning”.” The traditional gifts of a bridal shower are not old fashioned or demeaning to women, they are practical. Regardless of a couple’s social status, careers or income level, there are still homemaker duties that need to be done by one or both people.
• Simply Saving presents Saving Money on Clothing and Personal Care:  “Buy only because you need clothing and buy only those items that will fit into your present wardrobe. If you are choosing between two outfits, buy the one that goes best with what you already have.” One of my tricks is to buy solid color shirts that will dress up to a variety of seasons and occasions with a hat, scarf, necklace or pin. A solid blue shirt, for example, can be worn on a patriotic holiday and to celebrate your favorite sports team.

A snippet:

Heather Strickland fashioned her bridal bouquet from wholesaled pink roses. Ashley Butler and Kevin Cohea catered their own cheese and veggie plates for their wedding reception — with the help of Sam’s Club. And Tina Czech is planning her big day for the holidays, when her local church already will be outfitted with glittering trees and more than 300 poinsettias.

Now, while we don’t keep statistics on such things, The Monroe Evening News staff is noticing a shift in the number of wedding announcements that are being sent to the social desk. This isn’t quite synching with the number of marriage licenses we know are being applied for at the courthouse.

Local readers: you don’t have to have a guest list of 200 people or a destination wedding in order to get your special occasion listed in the newspaper. It’s perfectly OK to submit a social page announcement if you got married at the Monroe County Courthouse or had a reception in the back yard. We’ve run many such notices over the years.

Besides, the wedding and engagement announcements run in the newspaper free as long as our format is followed. I did have to tell a mother yesterday that if her son and his bride-to-be really wanted the engagement wording changed from the newsroom’s standard format, the couple could do that via a paid advertisement. But I always say in response to such questions, “They’re not going to like the price quote.” We see an occasional wedding anniversary notice go to paid advertising, but the younger couples almost never do that. After they meet with the advertising department, customers who have social page announcements typically come back to the newsroom and say, “Run whatever you can for free.”

In the meantime, if you are planning a wedding on a budget, I do have a blog archive and link list at “Weddings on a budget”.

My biggest tip to anyone planning a wedding is this: Pick the one thing you really want to focus on as part of your wedding day.

What do you want to remember, what have you always wanted to include in your wedding, or what do you want your guests to talk about? Is it the ring? the dress? the location? the religious service? the honeymoon? special people to be among your attendants? the cake? the dinner? the photography? the music?

Make arrangements for that detail first.

It will then be much easier to make budget-friendly decisions for the rest of your wedding.

A snippet:

A little creativity goes a long way toward hosting a memorable graduation party, open house, wedding or baby shower on a tight budget.

She’s got some ideas that will get you thinking, but consider them to be a starting point for further inspiration.

For example, the price she quoted for a computer-made invitation kit is more expensive than you would probably spend at a discount store on “old school” pre-printed party invitations.

Here are some posts from the Monroe on a Budget archives about hosting a party with limited funds:

• Budget-friendly “retro” baby and bridal showers.
• Family birthday dinner on a budget.
• Graduation parties can be done on a budget.
• Patriotic flags, dishes, decor – here are some ideas.
• Birthday parties on a budget – how to avoid the madness.
• Birthday “sushi” cupcakes.
• Weddings on a budget: the flower budget.
• Weddings on a budget: reception sites on a budget?
• Weddings on a budget: the do-it-yourself cake.

We should instead focus on making an accurate impression. That way you can tell fairly early on whether this is a dating prospect you should be spending much time with – or not.

Trent at the Simple Dollar has written a series based on how to set up reasonable financial expectations from dating through marriage. Here is his first part in the series.

The network location nearest my local readers is Hope Closet in Livonia, Mich. Here are the details from the Hope Closet web site:

Hope Closet is a non-profit organization working to provide young women with the opportunity to attend special High School events with a dress of their choice regardless of financial constraints or limitations.

The boutique will be open April 25-May 2, 2009. The boutique will again be located at the Royal Oak First United Methodist Church in Royal Oak, Mich. Get address and map information on the Special Thanks page of this site.

Appointments are required and can be made on April 13th and after.

Appointments are made by phone (248) 347-1309, M-F, 9am-5pm. Please be patient as some times the line may be busy.

The church cannot make dress appointments nor do they have the staff to answer questions. The church provides this space as a generous community gift – please do not contact the church as we hope to be invited back as good guests.

If you have any questions, would like to make a donation or volunteer please send us an e-mail at hopecloset@yahoo.com.

There is also a Becca’s Closet contact for the Detroit area listed on Donate My Dress. Here is the information from that web site:

We are currently working on reopening our Detroit location. We do have dresses though if someone is in need. Please email us if you are looking for a dress, would like to volunteer or donate, or have any questions. If email is not possible, call the Advisor Jennifer LoDuca at 517-449-3449.

(Sorry, I didn’t find any locations for the Toledo area on the Donate My Dress web site list.)

Thanks to Julie’s List for this heads up!

In the meantime, if you live in Monroe, Mich., do check out the dresses at the Humane Society of Monroe County Thrift Shop in the Monroe Factory Outlet center on LaPlaisance Rd. The staff e-mailed me last week to report they have brand new bridal dresses and other formal wear in their inventory.

The Humane Society of Monroe County Thrift Shop, 14500 LaPlaisance Rd., suite B50, Monroe Township, has wedding gowns, bridesmaids’ gowns and formal attire in its inventory.

The four beaded wedding gowns are $125 each. The other formal dresses range in price from $70 to $100. All of the dresses are new, resulting from canceled orders.

The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. For information, call (734) 240-0562.