What are some tips for saving some money while planning a wedding?

Question

I'm trying to plan a wedding but am realizing that it is way more expensive than i realized. Does anyone have any tips on saving some $ while planning a nice wedding? Thanks!!!

Answer 1

There is a great book out there called Bridal Bargins. It has tons of money saving tips and areas to watch out for. It even lets you know where you can negotiate the prices of items and services (something I didn't know you could do). Most libraries carry them but I got mine from Barnes and Noble. Congrats!

Answer 2

Hi

You're a few tips to save money on wedding preparation.

1. Plan ahead of time. Time is gold, so they say. So if you are lacking time you tend to spend more. This is especially true when you are preparing for a big event area as the wedding date draws closer, you will find yourself spending more than you are waiting to just to be able to get things accomplished in time.

This can be avoided if you start preparations earlier. The earlier, the better. This gives you more time to prepare and make sure things are all right. If you are lacking time, you will find yourself overpaying just to have workers rush to complete your needs. Unfortunately, rushed jobs usually are of inferior quality.

2. Do it yourself. While not all things are applicable here, you can still save a lot from doing some of the decorating and preparations yourself. This goes for wedding gifts, decorations, handicrafts, and other stuff that can be done at your own home.

Materials you will need for the wedding traditions can be handcrafted by you and your friends in your spare time. This is why you will also need to plan ahead of time so that they have ample opportunity to do some of the stuff you need for the wedding yourself.

3. Employ the help of your friends. Friends are there through thick and thin-and during weddings too. If your friends can lend some manpower to help you with your wedding preparations, that would be a big boost to your efforts to save money.

This is especially true if you have friends who are skilled in some of the areas critical to weddings-areas such as design, catering, and dressmaking. If they are able to give you their help for free, or for a reduced cost, that would constitute a big savings.

4. Expensive isn't necessarily better. When purchasing materials for your wedding, make sure that you keep in mind that expensive isn't necessarily better. They are generic materials you can purchase that are as good as or even better than branded ones. So do a little shopping before purchasing your materials. You could very well find some that would do the trick without denting your wallet.

Hope that helps and have a wonderful day!

Take care

Paul

Answer 3

Keep your guest list to close family and close friends. Serve a light meal, instead of a heavy one. If you are choosing to have alcohol, set a limit on how many drinks per person, or bring your own rather then having it catered. Rent out a community center type place for the reception. Some places have package wedding deals, which sometimes can be a cost saver. Good luck! Just remember to stick to your budget and not to let people talk you into more than you want! :)

Answer 4

Not sure if you've already planned your wedding or not, but here are a few more really inexpensive tips I have learned after planning many weddings. For cake, get a cake from a place like costco in your wedding colors to have in the back, then hire a cake decorator to decorate an elaberate cake made of foam (saves hundreds of doallrs), only the part you and your groom will cut should be real. What's funny is that everyone complimented the cake all night. Second get disposable cameras for the tables on ebay. I got them as cheap as $2.00 a camera. For party favors we made CD's or pencils from Oriental Trader (personalized)and added bells to the erasers with pins and people used those instead of throwing rice (they rang the jingle bells). For invitations for my brothers wedding we bought vellum paper printed the date info on the outside (went to an invitation website for wording) and then took a picture of them glued to cardstock and placed the vellum on top tied with a ribbon (we actually took a picture of little kids in wedding clothes and transposed their faces as children on them. We used silk flowers from a outlet store that looked great and were only $250 to decorate everything. Tons of compliments. Also if you find a photographer or videographer outside of the big city they are so much cheaper. As far as centerpieces my sister-in-law used her vows and put them on pretty card stock and put fake petals around them. There $15,000 wedding cost them $5,000, no joke.

Answer 5

First, save your change. It really adds up fast to buy the little extras that you will inevitably forget about. Plus, it doesn't hurt as much!

Second, use as many coupons as you can find. If you purchase an Entertainment Book in your area, you will find tons of coupons for flowers, dining (think rehearsal dinner, bridal shower) and travel. You can also get some great deals just mentioning that you are the bride (especially when travelling).

Most importantly, develop a budget and stick to it! There are many Web sites that will help you in doing so, such as www.theknot.com.

Answer 6

Ebay. I found brand new collections online (guest book, flower girl basket, ring pillow, etc) Sales. I found the perfect table cloths and matching utinsels on sale at the party store. Doing alot of it yourself. Tulle and ribbon from the craft store. And things like bubbles and votive candles from the dollar store. I am not rich. That is how I am getting through mine. And SAVE! If it's something I can't buy right away or it's not on sale, I work towards it, then move on to the next item. Also my fiancee and I have been planning much further ahead for that exact reason. We set the date and now buy pieces at a time. So it doesn't feel like such a dent in our pocketbook. There is lots of research you can do online.

Answer 7

You can have a nice wedding w/o spending alot of $$$$$ if you cut out alot of the frills (sit down dinner ,big and elaborate cake, live band ,etc. ) better yet, ELOPE! and put the $$$ you saved by not having the wedding to make a down payment on a house ,save yourselves the stress of planning,etc. Get the the picture!!!!!!

Answer 8

Networking, when I got married I was on a budget. I asked all of my friends and family for help. A lot of my friends were able to get me connected with people who were in the wedding catering and consulting businesses who could actually get better prices on things than I could just by going in places myself. Another thing is to make a budget and stick to it. It may seem hard, but in the end, you'll be happy with the results.

Answer 9

Weddings

My daughter and my wonderful son-in-law had a GREAT idea and the best wedding I have ever seen.

They decided the wedding preparation was to be shared.
- I got to organise and pay for flowers
- his Mum did the cake
- my daughter chose and paid the dress
- a friend did vehicles etc
My son-in law organized but did NOT pay for the reception
He also did and paid for the honey-moon
(at home with cleaners, flowers, gourmet food delivered daily so they could just relax)
Then they sent an invitation to their friends.
It said something to the effect.

They wanted NO presents (you only get lots of toasters)
Their friends PRESENT to the couple was paying for their food.
My son-in-law organized a nice restaurant. Booked the whole place. The restaurant made 4 menus -
one chicken; a vegetarian, an Italian one & one seafood.
All same price.
Friends then came chose as in any restaurant and PAID for themselves.
ADVANTAGES
- Cost was spread around
- Friends did not have to eat what bride decided
-friends paid not for gift but for some-thing for them-selves.
-A good time was had by all
Those who could not attend did send presents

So do NOT IMPOSE YOUR wishes on your guests.
Let them choose for them-selves
Please your family by paying NOTHING; NO DOLLARS; ZERO for the reception

Answer 10

A wedding can cost as much or as little as you want. The more guests you have the more it will be--but really it could be rather inexpensive. It all depends on what you envision. However anything can be achieved on a budget.

DO as much yourself as you can. For example, a cake. If you have a friend that can make a cake, ask her if she would do that for your wedding. Buy a cake stands yourself and buy a cake to fit--much of the cost comes in stacking the cake. Buy a smaller cake and use a sheet cake for the majority of your guests. Many brides do that and sheet cakes are a good deal cheaper. Consider using someone new to the business. My cake baker made lots of desserts but was just starting in the wedding cake business. Also the cake costs extra for multiple flavors, fillings, fondant icing and edible flowers. No one really notices these things. You can use regular icing and it will be just as smooth--and real (or silk) flowers instead of edible ones.

We arranged the flowers ourselves. I ordered from the florist at Sams Club. I used glads. Try picking a multi-bloom flower or a flower with big blooms so that you can use a lot less flowers. The flowers came in and we placed 6 stems in a vase as centerpieces ourselves. No need to pay a florist a ton of money to do an arrangement. I had a friend float 1 hydrangea per table in a bowl of water and it was beautiful. Also you can just order a dozen roses for any of the bouts you need. Just cut the stem and place it in the lapel. Men don't like the greenery and babys breath arrangements.

No alcohol. Alcohol is a huge expense.
Don't bother with favors. Favors usually get left behind b/c guests don't really want them and brides spend several hundred on them. If you do want favors, consider something small. A bag of M&Ms in your wedding colors, a lil bit of tulle wrapped around 2 Hershey hugs and 2 kisses. "hugs and kisses from the new Mr and Mrs". That is a lot cheaper.

Negotiate! Many caterers charge far more for beverages but if you negotiate they will allow you to bring your own. I bought water and made tea--sweet and unsweet--for my wedding. For the caterer to have 3 beverages it would have been several hundred. I spent about $100 on sugar, tea bags, and a couple cases of bottled water. They often charge a cake cutting fee as well. You can easily negotiate that out.

Look for invites online. I saved a lot at www.invitationsbydawn.com and www.annswedding.com than every bridal show I looked for.

If at all possible, a Friday wedding is much cheaper than a Saturday one. If you get married in a church, you can have it much cheaper by using the churches fellowship hall instead of renting a seperate reception hall. It is also much much cheaper to have a punch and cake only reception than hiring a caterer. You could also have a cheaper food at your reception--if it is a country wedding, you could have a BBQ which would only be $100-200 for food.

You can spend as much or as little on your wedding dress. A friend of mine had hers made on ebay--she ordered from China. She sent every measurement and it fit perfectly and looked gorgeous. You could look up graduation dresses, communion dresses, or quinceanera dresses--all are usually white and could be a wedding gown as well for much cheaper than the word "wedding" makes anything.

Plan in advance. Each week I got a coupon in the paper from Michaels. As I knew we would buy a lot from there, and they were just one per item, a cut it out and asked neighbors to cut out theirs. That way I got 20-40% off every single thing I bought. That saved a ton!

Figure out your budget first and start from there. EZ Wedding Planner www.ezweddingplanner.com and the checklists in the back of Modern Bride were excellent hints in how much of your budget should go to what.

Hope these suggestions help. Just start with your budget. Then work out the guest list. Until you have an idea of how many people, you can't negotiate for anything else. And you don't want to pay for a reception hall that is twice as much room as you need. Nor start negotiations with a caterer for 200 people when you'll only have 100.

Good luck! and feel free to write me. Congratulations.