Hello All,
I want to have a wedding but my fiance does not really care for weddings(in other words, he does not want one). He finally came around and now he says that we can have a wedding as long as we stay in budget which he knows I will do. I am really frugal so I am hoping for a budget no more than $3500-4500 and will be doing a lot of DIY stuff and family will be helping a lot.

We are inviting 125 ppl, pretty sure they all will not come but you never know. I was originally going to have an open bar, but that is not really cost-efficient so I opted to have beer, wine, champagne for toast and then a signature drink. His side of the family drinks a lot so I was really wanting them to have a good time, but then I figured, I do not have to cut liquor out completely, I can just have cut the liquor down a notch. What are your suggestions?

Also, we were wanting to have our wedding in the month that I graduate which is Dec (17) 2011. So we thought that Dec 10, 2011 would be a good date. But then some ppl are telling me that is will be too stressful since I would be trying to study for finals and preparing for graduation and such. So then I thought of doing it Nov 11 2011(if I could even find a location on that date first) but then I would not be graduated yet but it would also be in the middle of the semester so I would not be as worried about finals week. And then he says that that date is too close to his brothers birthday(Nov 7) which I kind of understand. Then I thought about having before the semester started(in the summer) so now I am so confused of when I should have this wedding. For some reason, having it the beg of 2012 is not something I wanted/planned to do. What should I do?

I found a venue that I can book for about $300. So I am trying to think of the food I can serve. Do you think pasta or lasagna and a salad bar good? Is that too cheap for a wedding? This will be at night. I heard pasta would be my best bet.

Is it necessary to have a DJ, am I being to cheap by just having an IPOD?

What about photography? What are ways I can save on this? Thanks for answering.
And I have already decided that I am not having real flowers unless it is my bouquet(if that).