Wedding Needs
As we all know, planning a wedding can be very expensive. There are so many things to take into account and the costs all start to add up. Quickly!
You have your dress, the venue, flowers, cool wedding invitations, tuxedos, the food…. the list goes on and on. And the bill just keeps adding up.
Some couples follow more of a traditional plan where the bride’s parents pay for specific things and the groom’s parents have their responsibilities. But it seems more and more that a sign of the times has the bride and groom footing much of the bill themselves.
Share your tips and pointers. Where did you cut costs and where did you splurge? Was there anything you did yourself instead of hiring someone else to do it for you? Have you helped any of your children plan a wedding? What advice would you give when involving yourself in the details?
We skipped the fower centerpieces on each table for the reception and used votive candles, a mirror, and a single fully bloomed rose in a martini glass as our centerpiece. This cost around $7 a table which was a huge saving!
We also skipped the save the date cards. We splurged on a good photographer and dj and had a family member do the video. In the end, we realzied that it was one day and we wanted to have fun and not spend a fortune.
We sent out some 400 invitations for my wedding and invitations can get REALLY expensive, so using a michaels and Joanns 40% off coupon we bought printable invitations for about $12 for 50. That included the invite the envelope, response card and envelope! we jsut used a pretty font and printed them at home. Plus they only took 1 stamp to mail. That saved us a ton of money. We SPLURGED on the reception. WE did the DJ, open bar, sit down dinner…everything! We picked a reception place that for a flat fee included flowers for the tables, the cake, a sit down dinner, an open bar, all the linens etc, We made out party favors and dropped them off at our venue and they took care of all the set up and clean up. It was a turn key operation! It was the way to go esp since we were having so many people!
I did pretty much everything myself to save money. We skimped on the smaller stuff that no one really cares about/gets thrown away, like invitations and favors, so we had money for open bar, good catered food, and a beautiful venue.
– made my own save the date cards and invitations using stuff from Michael's, all bought with the weekly 40% off coupon
– bought glass vases from Michael's and resold them afterwards. Did submerged orchid centerpieces so I didn't need to use a lot of flowers but got an elegant look
– made bouquets and corsages for family/wedding party using silks. Used real flowers for my bouquet, husband's boutionniere, and centerpieces.
– found husband and wife guitar/violin team on Craigslist. They played for like 3 hours for $250.
– made my own favors (could have skipped altogether)
– chose a venue where we could supply our own liquor and bought stuff on sale during the holidays. Had a fairly top-shelf open bar for 5 hours for about $1000, including professional bartenders.
– found a cheap seamstress who altered my dress for only $40
– bought a basic veil on ebay
Those are just off the top of my head! You just need to set priorities, get creative, and use your crafty and talented friends/family.
I just went to a wedding reception where they did oragami birds as centerpieces. The bride and all her family spent a day folding them – it was really beautiful and inexpensive.
We had a wedding with 400 invited guests on a $4000 budget and I wore a $10000 gown!
~I rented my gown for $200,
~My groom's family owns a music store so all the teachers got together and formed a 15pc orchestra for my ceremony.
~We had our reception in the church fellowship hall and made a donation to the youth group for acting as servers, decorators and clean-up
~Our food was all platters from Publix
~The church women's group helped me make all of the decorations
Most of my money was spent on my photographer, my flowers and my invitations
Well, I'm not even engaged yet. However, I love hearing about others weddings so I can start getting ideas together for my future wedding.
Made my own favors and made our own centerpieces too.
I did a lot myself, but it has been so long ago. I made the most fo the favors and centerpieces.
I'm actually getting remarried but we haven't started planning anything yet. Since this will be our second marriage for both of us, we want to go low key and maybe go away somewhere just the two of us and tie the knot.
As for money saving tips, I would say have an evening wedding after dinner so you don't have to feed everyone. That's what we did for my first wedding.
There are some great ideas here. One thing we did was my grandma and I made our own programs. It was special to have her help me and it saved us some money. I had a friend do my flowers (artificial) and she gave us a great deal and I got to keep them and not have them die on me. Most decorations I got on sale or clearance at Walmart.
Shanaka @ Mama Bee Does
I helped my daughter plan her wedding which was just about 1 and half years ago. We gave her a budget, but she and her husband were very good staying under it. In fact way under it! Some of the things they did to save money – made their own Save The Date cards, set up a website with info about the wedding because there were a lot of out of town guests coming in, kept the guest list small, used a hotel for the ceremony and reception, and decorated the room themselves except for the flowers. The wedding was beautiful and you'd never know that they cut corners.
we went to the courthouse… doesn't get any cheaper than that!
Our biggest savings were on the dress and the food. We chose a venue where we could choose outside catering, which afforded us menu options as well as budget friendly alternatives. As for the dress, I went to a closeout store and took the time to go through all the dresses in my size. I paid $250 for a $1350 dress. The alterations cost about $70 from a local seamstress.
I’m amazed at how much weddings cost – I’m going to encourage my daughter to elope!