Is a castle a seemly wedding locale only for the lord or lady of the manor? While in times gone by this indeed appeared to be the case, a whole new generation of brides and grooms is emerging who are not looking to the traditional church or rented hall to say their vows but instead are setting their sights on the spires, turrets, and drawbridges of the local castle.

Granted, there are not a lot of local castles to go around in the United States, and so unless you are willing to travel to Europe where they are quite plentiful, you will need to peruse the wedding magazines and bridal shows carefully to find out where the favored locales for castle weddings may be found.

If all else fails, there is of course the Disneyland castle or the old standby: Las Vegas - theme park to the adults and home of the Excalibur hotel and casino which seeks to imitate the look and to some extent also the feel of a medieval castle. Sadly these latter two are just examples of substitutes to be used of a real castle cannot be found or placed within the confines of a realistic budget, and if you are in search of the perfect wedding location that has an authentic castle feel, then only a real castle will do.

For many years this has placed the seemly castle wedding into the list of possibilities for couples where money was not an object, while it all but eliminated them from those who had to plan a wedding on a budget. Sadly, this trend does not show any indication of an immediate reversal and if you are planning a wedding on a shoestring budget, your castle dreams may go by the wayside.

The rental of the castle proper is usually quite steep, and by the time you have purchased the insurance, gotten the accommodations figured out, and also made the travel arrangements, several thousands of dollars have already been spent. At this point you will still need to allocate enough money for flowers, dress and tux, the garments for the bridal party, and of course the reception. All in all, you should look at five to six figures to allot for wedding, reception and honeymoon - and this refers to five or six figures before the decimal point!

Although a favorite of sports greats and the crme de la crme of Hollywood and beyond, the average couple can only hope to be financially well off for their 10th or perhaps 25th anniversary to renew their vows at one of these beautiful and wondrous locations that sometimes seem to come to life straight from the pages of a fairy tale.