cutting cost?

Question

Anyone know of ways to cut cost on pictures, flowers, food and decoration, etc? paying for the wedding ourselves, trying to budget wisely!!!! PLZ HELP!!!!!

Answer 1

Got my flowers throught FTD/Pricechopper- Saved a bunch, and they were beautiful.

I Waited until last minute to book reception hall. As long as you are not set on a specific place. I called two months before the date I wanted, (already had everything else done except invites) and made a deal. Since the place did not have it booked, it was in their best interest to book with a crazy last minute bride than none at all. Got a 6 course sit down dinner with my choice of 3 tier cake, and champagne included for $27.50/person (down from asking price of $62.50) Cut open bar to one hour instead of 4 1/2.

Cake topper, favors, decor, Card box, seating cards, and do it yourself invites from Craft shop(Joanne Fabrics)

Made a deal with the photographer. They charged me $400 to do pics, and sell me the CD's. I had them printed at walmart, and made my own albums. Would have cost over $1100 to have them make the albums.

Had a family member do my hair and makeup.

Did NOT register for gifts. Hubby and I lived together for 5 years before marrying. I didn't need silver gravy boats!!!. Everyone gave cash.

Did NOT save on Dress cause I fell in love with one, and had to get it.

Did save on shoes, got them at TJ Maxx.

Did save on Veil, Ebay

Did not hire a videographer, but regret it.

Got the rings from an antique jewelry shop in my state.

Instead of a wedding party, I had a Maid of Honor, Best man, and our children were the Ring Bearer and the Flower Girl (got her dress on ebay from a place that sells them for communions. only $20)
The smaller the wedding party, the fewer gifts you will have to buy.

Also, remember to use your family as resources. Take the time to shop around. The more planning you do, the better deals you will find.

Good luck

Answer 2

1. Do it on an off time - there are only so many saturdays of the year, by moving it to Sunday or Friday, you can save big. Also you could mix up the time by having it in the morning. You can have a fun brunch wedding/lunch wedding. This way you can save on bar tab/food/and venue price.

2. Cut the guest list- the more guests, the more mouths to feed. Pick who is really important to you and leave great aunt Edna who you have never met out of the wedding. Also, you can cut the wedding party. This will mean less gifts and flowers to purchase.

3. RENT- you can generally rent decor, a few silk plants or even statues can save big and look great when mixed in with fresh flowers.

4. Shorten the reception. Cutting even an hour off the reception can save big. That means a small venue, dj, bar - bill.

5. Buy some cutting cost books. There are tons out there and they have fsome fantastic ideas.

GOOD LUCK and Congrats :).

Answer 3

Pics - Have a friend do it. At the wedding. Just some great snaps of the ceremony. Or set up a video camera and ask someone to stay with it. After the ceremony you can go to a studio like penney's or glamour shots and have some still shot professionally done. Saves tons of money. We paid $100 for all our photos and have a video of our ceremony.

Flowers - Try growing them yourself. You can pick anything that will grow in your climate. I don't know what your timeline is but it works. It takes patience but not only will you have beautiful flowers, you'll have a sense of accomplishment. Otherwise you can carefully make your own arrangment using the wal-mart flower section. Don't decorate with flowers. Only bouquets and bouteniers (sp).

Food - Do it yourself. Don't have a sit down dinner. Have party foods. Little Wienies, fruit & veggies with dip (You can prepare all of this yourself - no prep trays from the produce section). Sams has tons of appetizers food. Swedish meatballs, cream puffs, baby quesadillas. Large quantities, low price. You can prep a lot the night before and have someone heat it up before the ceremony. Crock pots and warming plates you can borrow from family and friends.

Decor - A few yards of nice fabric coupled with a few yards of mediocre fabric goes a long way. Carefully braid 2 inch ribbon and drape it at the ends of the chairs. Remember in second grade you made those big Mexican looking flowers with tissue paper and chenelle stems. You'd stick a pencil through the first piece and keep layering it on, gathered in the middle till it looking like a giant rainbow poppy flower. You can do the same with craft wire and silky fabrics. Silk flowers are also great in small bunches. Sprinkle faux flower petals and leaves in place people won't be walking for a spring time feel.

Alright there you go. Hope it helps.

Answer 4

Enlist the help of family and friends. And maybe someone personally knows someone that is a photographer or a caterer and can get them to cut you a deal. Some places that you would have the reception at will provide food and alcohol for a price, or you can rent a hall and do it yourself. You can serve just beer and wine, and for food you could order party platters from restaurants and just serve finger foods. Don't go overboard with flowers, you could just buy the bridal bouquets and then do something different for the centerpieces (like floating candles). I know of people that have bought their flowers from flea markets and put together their centerpieces themselves, too. You're going to need a lot of help if you start doing all of this yourself, but it can be done. If you do rent a hall, just buy nice plastic plates and silverware. They have high quality stuff at places like Party City and it will be cheaper than renting glassware. If you know someone that has a really good digital camera, see if they'll take the pictures as their wedding gift to you. Then you can print the ones that you want and enlarge any that you want at a place like Walgreens. We happened to have a friend that is a professional photographer and she put all the pics on a cd and I printed them at Walgreens and they're great. We just got married 4 weeks ago and did a casual, tropical theme, so it was easy for me to save money. And if you're going to do wedding favors, check out Ebay. A lot of times they're selling them for cheaper than other wedding favor websites. You can also make your own wedding programs on your computer. I printed 100 of them in color and still have some ink left. You can find different kinds of paper at Staples or Office Depot. Basically, you'll save the most money by doing everything yourself and with the help of friends and family. Don't try to do it all by yourself, you'll run yourself ragged. And always compare prices and shop around.

Answer 5

You could buy your wedding dress off the rack - that could save you a thousand or more. I did and no one knew it was - I did not really care anyway. You could also print your own invitations, place-cards, thank you cards. Use artificial flowers where possible and buy them on sale. Make your own wine. Have a buffet meal instead of a fully plated one. You could also have the wedding ceremony and reception at the same location to save on the church cost. With some ingenuity and hard work you can pull off a less expensive wedding that is still beautiful. And really I think we overestimate how much people really care about the details our weddings. Remember what the day is about- getting married to the person you love, not impressing your great aunt Ida. Good luck.

Answer 6

Go small. Go with your parent's church if you can. Recruit friends to make the decorations. Also with the food, you pay for the ingredients and organize the preparation. You probably know a friend who knows how to cook and would be honored to put together the recipe and cook the food(not all by themselves). As to the flowers, you should decide how many flowers you need of each kind and call every distributor you can find. Ask their price. When you find the lowest, call the second and third lowest. Tell them what the other offered and see if they will beat it. If they do call the lowest and give them the price the new lowest gave you. Get them to compete for your business. Conrats

Answer 7

Go simple you don't have to have food we just had Cake and a short reception. If you want food just study up on who you get to do you food compare as much as possible. I found a women who made cakes in her home local no shop makes it much cheaper:). She did a beautiful job and was much cheaper than any one else. Ask you family for help in making decorations. Maybe some of them have done something in the past and know a trick with decorations. My husbands aunt was a florist before she had kids. She did our flowers for free. Stick with simple remember this is about marry the person you love and what you want.

Answer 8

Choose someone you know who will give a good discount on taking your pictures. Say, someone who is just starting out in photography would love to have the opportunity to take pictures for your wedding, it would give them good ratings on down the road. As far as flowers go, you don't have to go all out with them, remember its just one day, and they die, so don't spend too much money on them. Second, have friends and family cook for the wedding, maybe have a BBQ after the wedding, or have the family bring one dish, and have a buffet at the reception. You don't have to have the most expensive things to have a good wedding..you just have to have fun, its not about the dress, the cake, the food, or flowers, its a day that you and your husband joined together, and that is the memory that will stand out the most...Have fun, and good luck!

Answer 9

My fiance and I are paying for our wedding ourselves too, and we are on a tight budget believe me its hard. But little by little I'm pulling it together. !st off we gave ourselves plenty of time the wedding is march 31st of 2007. I am buying little by little silk flowers and doing all of the flowers myself. My moms is a fantastic cook and my Aunt loves to bake so the food and cake are covered. I have a really good friend who is a DJ. We are getting married at the church my parents got married at, and having the reception at the local conservation club (I have a friend who is a member). I have another friend who is going to do my hair. I am working on buying my dress on e-bay right now I am the high bidder on one I really want. I have always been artistically inclined so I am designing my own favors, decorations, and invitations. Good luck maybe something I'm doing will help give you ideas on things you can do yourself my entire wedding budget is $2500.

Answer 10

make your own decorations. go to walmart and dollar stores. most of the time they have things that are cheap but nice.

flowers look really pretty but if you do everything real it will be outrageos. So other than the bouquet and coursages use fake ones.

hire someone locally to make the cake. try your lockal grocery stores sometimes the bakery there does them for really cheap.

have the reception outside or at a really nice house of a parent or sibling. That could save so much on rentals.

i knwo this sounds silly but i am in a sorority and when my "sister" said that her future husband was going to iraq we heald raffles all over the city that went to their wedding. We raised almost three grand :) im sure if you did something like that your coworkers or friends would buy them to help out :)