How did you do it?

Question

I was just wondering if anyone had done anything really creative to save a budget for a wedding.

Feel free to share as many stories as you want.

Thanks =D

Answer 1

I don't even know where to begin on this one! Well for starters, i'm not religious and I didn't want to pay a lot to have a wedding somewhere. I really wanted to get married outside. so my dad builds houses and he had just finished his friends house, which was big and gorgeous and had a huge backyard with a pool so I asked his friend if I could have my wedding in his backyard! That ended up being free of course. Then my mom's friend from a long time ago is a florist (he's excellent) so i requested him... he was a huge help with everything. he had tables and table clothes and an arch already so that was all free. he ended up cutting us a deal with the flowers as well. My mom teaches dance so we had her usual DJ be the DJ at my wedding, fairly cheap. For the reception we asked friends and family to cook. my mom and I made the menu and we just went to the store and bought everything, then handed out recipes and ingredients to friends. We had a few things catered but not much. My dress was from David's Bridal and a very reasonable price, as well as my shoes. My hair and makeup was done by the same person (the lady that always does my hair and i trusted her a lot). We didn't do a lot to it b/c it was an outside wedding (in the middle of the summer) so we added some flowers in my hair and it was beautiful. Wow, what else. I found my invitations from Ann's Weddings online at about half the price of anywhere else. I found a local woman who does cakes on the side to make my cake (for only $150 and it was 4 tiers and DELICIOUS) and then had my florist decorate it with flowers instead of icing decor on it. My photographer was one that only charged to take the pics and release them to the bride so it was pretty cheap. I had them printed at a local photography place that didn't charge much more than walmart would. I made my own favors... water bottles since we were outside in the hot weather. I bought normal water bottles, made my own labels with our names and dates, etc and put my new labels on the bottles. I could go on for awhile but that's just some of the things.

Answer 2

#1 thing that has saved me alot of money in planning is just asking for a discount. Many times I have told the vendors I am on a strict budget but love what they have to offer everytime thay have worked with me.

In addition I am holding my ceremony and reception at a reginal park owned my Monterey county, due to it being government owned they cant charge an arm and a leg (averages $50 - $150 an hour) and its a tax write off cause its deemed a donation. My location is only costing $1,500 and is from 10am to midnight.

I am also doing the flowers myself, having a creative side or just a creative friend you can make some beutiful arrangments and save a bundle by doing your research for great bulk flower suppliers.

Select a location that allows you to bring your own beverages, a wine broker friend is helping us witha discuont and the rest will be provided through Costco. Return what you dont use!

Answer 3

We live in philly right next to NJ.... NJ is where the wedding is at and to have a nice wedding cater in a fancy hall... it's cost us about $20,000. We cut the cable, switch to netflicks. Don't go out anymore- no drinking at the bar and dinner out is rare. Brown bag our lunches.... Doing my own hair and nails.... no more fancy salons. Coupons... buy all gifts on sale.... Don't buy any clothing, shoes or handbags :( Switch to some cheaper food.... no good steaks... chicken and rice!!! Buy as much generic stuff over name brand...
Just don't buy anything fun!! It's hard but I really want a nice fancy wedding... it's my dream wedding and I am willing on cutting some stuff out to make it happen. Also I got a seperate checking account for the wedding which really helps because sometimes I short myself and see if I can get through the month on less money. Most of the time I can and that's more I have saved!!

Answer 4

We are having the reception at a place where we can provide the food instead of having an expensive caterer. We also shopped for the dresses in the store, but did not buy, we went home and found them on line at the house of brides, we saved $300 on the wedding dress and $120 on the brides maid dresses, and everything is very good quality. We are also having someone who does cakes in her home do the cake instead of an expensive bakery and we are buying fresh flowers and making the bouquets and bootineers ourselves.

Answer 5

One thing that we did for both of my brothers' weddings was instead of buying fruit and vegetable trays, we made them ourselves. We also made sandwich trays. We also made chocolate covered strawberries.

Another thing that stands out to me is that my friend searched around for sales on toile (the netted-looking stuff used in most weddings), flowers, and items for the center pieces. She made her own aisle runner and she made almost all of the decorations. The centerpieces at her reception were BEAUTIFUL! She took some glass vases of differnt sizes (from Walmart; they cost anywhere from $1-$3 each) and put some flowers in them and then filled the vases with black stones about 1/4 of the way up and added water so that the water level was about 1-2" above the rocks. She then took some ribbon and tied it around the vase. Then she had candles on the tables as well. It was GORGEOUS!

Answer 6

We didn't do anything creative. We sat down and looked out both of our income and expenses to determine how much both of us could contribute towards the cost of our wedding. Then we opened a joint checking account where we had the money direct deposited from our paychecks to our joint account. In the event that any additional moneys become available, we would also deposit this money into our joint account. The joint account was only used for costs for the wedding. All of our personal expenses continued to be paid separately from our personal checking accounts until we were married.

Answer 7

My friends got married a few weeks before Christmas and they asked our church if they would decorate a little early. The sanctuary was filled with candles, wreaths, and poinsettas. And best of all, they didn't pay for any of these decorations!

For my wedding, my husband and I bought our invitations as a box set. They come in a set of 15 or so (you can get them at Target or Walmart) and you print them and assemble them yourselves. We sent out over 300 invitations and only spent about $150 dollars total. If we had ordered them, it would have been much more expensive!

Answer 8

One thing I did was allow the professionals to do their job- If you hire a florist - ask them how you can get the "most bang for your buck" Some flowers are much cheaper than others. I had a Christmas wedding - I used a lot of greenery which is cheap

Answer 9

Put up about $25 each week from each person's paycheck. Have a garage sale or sell things you don't use on e-bay. Try to keep the wedding intimate and close to home (in your home if possible). Do as much as you can yourself.

Answer 10

A fabric store sold lots of cool flowery wedding type stuff and so did a party store save my wedding. They carried lots of stuff also.