Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Great list, Melissa!!!!!!!!!!! Even if it is 38 weeks old!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never saw it before. Mary MOB

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

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Posted by Mimacat

Oh Melissa, I still have your last FM sitting in my email box. I'm such a lazy writer-backer.

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I hope you got coal for Christmas....

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Thank you for putting some things into perspective for me.

I don't try to keep up with 'the Jones's' in real life but I am losing my mind with this wedding. I already bought crystal bouquet jewelry, personalized photo stamps, fancy placecard holders and I'm planning an 'after-party' for my bridal party... all not in my budget... all things I suddenly couldn't live without!

p.s. I almost got the crypacks! LOL

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

wow what a great post! thanks so much for starting this!

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Thank you for the great advice...I've been going back and forth about having live music during the CH, but after hearing from more and more real brides and some very honest friends, I've nixed that idea. It seems like everyone on LIW is havinglive music, but in reality so few people will even notice.

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

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Posted by Annoulak

Thank you for the great advice...I've been going back and forth about having live music during the CH, but after hearing from more and more real brides and some very honest friends, I've nixed that idea. It seems like everyone on LIW is havinglive music, but in reality so few people will even notice.

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I always notice the choice of music, but maybe its b/c I'm a musician. Nothing beats live music!

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Bump for PrincessBride09

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

I consider myself a budget bride even though I spent 40K on the wedding....but that is for everythign and anything wedding related...including tips, raw materials and gifts etc.....and on almost 300 guests.

We couldn't get around the guestlist...DH's family was almost 100 in itself and they all came. I grew up in a small family church of about 100 and they are basically like my family (I don't have much family in NY). Our parents were great and didn't invite ANY of their friends. We ended up with about 260 adults and about 15 kids (mostly family). So since we couldn't cut the list down any further, we saved money in other ways.

1. We had a daytime winter wedding. What we paid per person was literally half of what you would pay in the peak season. And Westbury Manor is gorgeous in the winter, so i didn't have to worry about decor too much.

2. Friends, friends, friends. Whatever talent our friends had, we used. All these people offered their services for free (except the DJ's, but they gave us a really low price and we had lights and everything). We gave them monetary gifts, of course, but it didn't come anywhere near the price of hiring pro's
-Our invites were designed by a friend
-our DJ's are friends
-our string quartet are friends (they all went to julliard or laguardia HS, so they sounded pro)
-our videographer is a friend...also an amateur filmmaker
-Since AG couldn't stay that late, my cousin, a pro photog shot our bowling after party (she brought her 1 year old baby, so i didn't want her shooting the wedding)
-all the DOJ...made by my dad

3. We used potted plants for centerpieces. I found really great looking urns at jamaligardens.com for $5. I saw that Westbury Manor used a lot of cylamen in the floral arrangements in the winter. I asked my florist if she could get her hands on some potted ones. She did and my centerpieces were $40 including the flowers and the 12 votives I lined on the table. People loved the plants...every single one was snatched up. We didn't even get one for ourselves.

-no bouts for the guys....they hate wearing those things anyway.

I did, however, splurge on my own bouquet....i think that's allowed :)

4. We DIY'ed almost everything...programs, table numbers, place cards, guestbook pages. We paid maybe $70 on paper and printed everything at home. It was a lot of manual labor but worth it!

5. Found my dress at a consignment store. It retailed for over $4000...and I got it for less than 1/4 the price.

6. We did donations in lieu of favors....we didn't actually save money here since we donated quite a large amount...more than favors would normally cost. But people LOVED it and thought it was so thoughtful. But it saved us time because we didn't have to wrap or tag stuff.

7. We made postcard RSVP's to save on postage (even the post office thought that was a great idea!)

We pretty much figured out early one what was a priority to us. We allowed ourselves one big splurge....and that was photography (our top priority). Everything else we cut corners on.

At the end, only the people who knew our budget knew that it was a budget wedding. No one else had a clue. We wanted just really simple and elegant....like a nice dinner party. We had a lot of people tell us it was one of the classiest weddings they've been to.....because it wasn't like this huge production.

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Great post!

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

thank you so much for this info I needed that I am trying to save as much as possible

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

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Posted by jenlen

I consider myself a budget bride even though I spent 40K on the wedding....but that is for everythign and anything wedding related...including tips, raw materials and gifts etc.....and on almost 300 guests.

We couldn't get around the guestlist...DH's family was almost 100 in itself and they all came. I grew up in a small family church of about 100 and they are basically like my family (I don't have much family in NY). Our parents were great and didn't invite ANY of their friends. We ended up with about 260 adults and about 15 kids (mostly family). So since we couldn't cut the list down any further, we saved money in other ways.

1. We had a daytime winter wedding. What we paid per person was literally half of what you would pay in the peak season. And Westbury Manor is gorgeous in the winter, so i didn't have to worry about decor too much.

2. Friends, friends, friends. Whatever talent our friends had, we used. All these people offered their services for free (except the DJ's, but they gave us a really low price and we had lights and everything). We gave them monetary gifts, of course, but it didn't come anywhere near the price of hiring pro's
-Our invites were designed by a friend
-our DJ's are friends
-our string quartet are friends (they all went to julliard or laguardia HS, so they sounded pro)
-our videographer is a friend...also an amateur filmmaker
-Since AG couldn't stay that late, my cousin, a pro photog shot our bowling after party (she brought her 1 year old baby, so i didn't want her shooting the wedding)
-all the DOJ...made by my dad

3. We used potted plants for centerpieces. I found really great looking urns at jamaligardens.com for $5. I saw that Westbury Manor used a lot of cylamen in the floral arrangements in the winter. I asked my florist if she could get her hands on some potted ones. She did and my centerpieces were $40 including the flowers and the 12 votives I lined on the table. People loved the plants...every single one was snatched up. We didn't even get one for ourselves.

-no bouts for the guys....they hate wearing those things anyway.

I did, however, splurge on my own bouquet....i think that's allowed :)

4. We DIY'ed almost everything...programs, table numbers, place cards, guestbook pages. We paid maybe $70 on paper and printed everything at home. It was a lot of manual labor but worth it!

5. Found my dress at a consignment store. It retailed for over $4000...and I got it for less than 1/4 the price.

6. We did donations in lieu of favors....we didn't actually save money here since we donated quite a large amount...more than favors would normally cost. But people LOVED it and thought it was so thoughtful. But it saved us time because we didn't have to wrap or tag stuff.

7. We made postcard RSVP's to save on postage (even the post office thought that was a great idea!)

We pretty much figured out early one what was a priority to us. We allowed ourselves one big splurge....and that was photography (our top priority). Everything else we cut corners on.

At the end, only the people who knew our budget knew that it was a budget wedding. No one else had a clue. We wanted just really simple and elegant....like a nice dinner party. We had a lot of people tell us it was one of the classiest weddings they've been to.....because it wasn't like this huge production.

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Love the post card RSVP idea!

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Everytime I read this tread, I am motivated to not splurge on my wedding. Like some girls said it all matters on your budget. Some have bigger budget than others and to me using that mone towards a house is more important.

This tread was well posted.

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Bumped by request...

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Here it is Michelle

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Great post. I just have to add one thing though, keep in mind that if you have a wedding with 100+ (for brides who are doing almost everything yourself). It is a good idea to have a coordinator on the day of your wedding. Although, the MOH, BM's, family or friends can do small gestures for you, they can not follow up on everything. This is coming from experience. It was difficult to manage the schedule on our big day. We worked with many vendors that were coming in and out, ex. the florists delivering CP and personals to the site, vendors leaving after their work was done- ceremony musicians, etc. MOH was in the ceremony (things were left with her- tipping envelopes labeled with vendor's name & accessories) and passed all of the stuff from one person to another. As a result, we end up wasting time locating the people that carried our things. If we had a coordinator it would had made it so much easier. Of course, I didn't like the fact of shelling out $500+ for a coordinator who is running a few errands here and there for the day. However, it is worth the investment not to have to stress or worry yourself with things here and there. Leave it to someone else to take care of everything. You'll already be doing a lot running back and forth btwn photographers and dancing on the floor. Just giving my two cents.

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Def one of the best threads on LIW..

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

I love this thread, im def adding it to my notebook

Re: Official 'How to save money on your wedding' thread!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.....I love this thread....I will def follow and learn from this.