Young couples vowing to cut costs, find alternative ways to tie the knot

SIOUX RAPIDS, Iowa — It wasn't your typical rehearsal dinner, but it was everything Liz Jones and Josh Dilworth hoped it would be — authentic, casual and relatively inexpensive to host.

Guests by the dozens gathered in a barn on the Jones family farm for a simple picnic-style meal. Afterward, they played croquet, horseshoes and badminton, shadowed by towering grain silos and within earshot of lowing cattle.

When the sun set, they returned to the barn for an "open mic” that included guests guitar-playing, reciting poems and the bride's 5-year-old nephew singing "You Are My Sunshine.”

Her father also offered a little advice to the guests, many of them East Coast city folk from the groom's side of the family.

"If you're watching out here in the cornfield tonight and it gets a little later, you'll see some guys come out of there and ask, ‘Is this heaven?” Curt Jones said, grinning. "And you say, ‘No, it's Iowa.'”

Turns out, it was heaven, indeed, for a young couple looking to save some cash.

Why they chose Iowa

They might have have opted for a wedding in Austin, Texas, where Jones attends graduate school and Dilworth works in public relations. But while they'd been saving for a few years — with a working budget of $10,000 — they knew they'd get more for their money in northwestern Iowa, where she'd always enjoyed taking friends after she'd left home for college.

"It also meant we could say to people, ‘If you can get here, it'll be cheap for you while you're here,' ” Jones said.

She and Dilworth, both 28, married on a recent Sunday morning outside a state park lodge on the shores of West Okoboji Lake, just north of the farm. Renting the lodge for the entire day cost all of $200. Brunch for 130 guests, done by a local resident who caters on the side, was the staggering price of $11 per guest.

Looking for ways to save on wedding expenses is an increasingly common scenario for young couples, faced with hefty student loans, credit card debt, a tough job market and ever-increasing living expenses.

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