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"Bryan Rafanelli&amp;amp;#8212;Chelsea Clinton&amp;#x27;s wedding planner and a celebrity favorite&amp;amp;#8212;has merrymaking down to a science. Steal his secrets! You were a well-known event designer before the Clinton wedding made you a household name. How did you get into the biz? I come from a family of lawyers; that&amp;amp;#8217;s what I was supposed to be! On rainy days, my parents would send us to the basement to watch reels of their wedding. The grandness of those images captured me. I joke with my mother that they didn&amp;amp;#8217;t do table flowers&amp;amp;#8212;there were bottles of vodka and shot glasses instead. You do a lot of at-home tented weddings. People sometimes assume that&amp;amp;#8217;s a budget-friendly option. Getting married in your backyard presents all sorts of amazing challenges. If you think it&amp;amp;#8217;s easy, watch the first part of Steel Magnolias. Where do you trim costs to make room for splurges? Cocktail hour should be gracious and lovely, but I don&amp;amp;#8217;t believe in putting too much money into it. Three to five passed hors d&amp;amp;#8217;oeuvres are fine, and you don&amp;amp;#8217;t have to play live music. Who&amp;amp;#8217;s really going to hear it besides the 20 guests standing in front of the trio? And at the reception? Don&amp;amp;#8217;t do a champagne toast. Why pay $15, plus gratuity, plus tax, times 200 guests for something people insist on because it&amp;amp;#8217;s tradition? Music is always worth the expense. In New York, Vali Entertainment is number one. With so many interfaith and multicultural couples marrying, what&amp;amp;#8217;s the key to pleasing everybody? Choose the best traditions from each culture, and look for similarities. We did a wedding where the bride was Middle Eastern and the groom was Jewish. Both cultures get married under a canopy, so we did that. And since dancing is super-important to both, we had this dance-off, where all the brothers from one side competed with the brothers from the other. It was sensational. --Written by Denise Penny Shepard for Brides Brides-to-be, what do you think of these expert tips? Do you have any of your own budgeting tips to share? More from Brides: *Eight Ways to Make Your Engagement Ring Sparkle *Sexy Summer Wedding Dresses *42 Outstanding Wedding Cake Designs *The Hottest Wedding Dress Trends Right Now *How Much Do Wedding Bouquets Cost? *Celebrity-Inspired Wedding Hair and Makeup Photo: PERSON + KILLIAN"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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