For brides on a budget…

Hi. FI gave me a number that I had to stick to for the wedding so I’ve spent the better portion of the past two years trying to figure out how to have a $50K wedding for tens of thousands less. So, I thought I’d post this for all of us who are trying to plan a wedding on a somewhat tight budget. It’s a list of all the ways I was able to save money on big ticket items. I’ve cut cost on smaller ticket items in ways that have added up as well, but didn’t get into those details here. I hope that some, or all, of it helps out at least one bride-to-be. One disclaimer: this information is based solely on my experience and research.

· Ceremony & Reception: Have your ceremony and reception in one location. I know this is not always possible and is dependent on your beliefs, but if you aren’t committee to having the location in a house of worship, on the beach, out a meadow or whatever the case may be, have the ceremony at the same location as the reception. You may have to pay a set-up and/or break-down fee to the venue, but it may be worth it. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars to my parish church, we were able to save $650 by having our ceremony and reception in the same location. Plus, think of all the money you’ll save on transportation!

· Location & Food: Find a venue where you can either bring in your own caterer or you are given a selection of caterers to choose from. I found that caterers are often more flexible with customizing your menu and working within your budget then halls. We worked with our caterer to develop a beautiful menu and compared it to the menu that we weren’t allowed to customize from one of the wedding vendors who is a staple in the industry and is one of the options for our location. We opted to go with the caterer that catered to us and, even with paying a site fee for the location, we were able to save $23 per person using this method. Also, book as EARLY as possible. We booked our venue and caterer almost 2 years before our wedding date and thereby locked in pricing. If we were to have booked the same caterer this year, we would be paying $33 per person more than we are paying now. I don’t even want to imagine what the other vendor we had looked at is charging now!

· Alcohol: If possible, find a location or caterer that allows you to bring in your own alcohol – but make sure there is no corking fee! Buying large bottles of alcohol at places like Costco or Sam’s is much more cost effective than utilizing the alcohol packages offered at halls. Or, if you find a caterer like ours where you work with their liquor vendor, you might be able to make use of the discount the caterer receives and/or be able to return any unopened bottles. $20 per person savings for us on this one!

· Photography & Videography: Ok, I don’t want to knock the studios that seem to be the most commonly used – they all do great work. But, they also charge an arm and a leg. They need to do this in order to cover their overhead costs. Plus, heck, if you’re a reputable vendor and you know customers are going to flock to you because your name is mentioned all over industry boards, wouldn’t you try to charge as much as you can? I did a lot of research/price comparison in this area and I found that independent artists are not only just as good, but cost significantly less. Also, I found that they don’t lock you in to buying everything up front. In other words, you don’t have to commit to/pay for parent albums as part of your package costs. You can wait until after the wedding (a.k.a. after all those gift checks are cashed) to make those purchases. By working with independent artists, so far we have saved well over $1,000.

· Flowers: Unfortunately for my girls, but fortunately for me, a few of them are allergic to flowers. To save everyone from watery, itchy eyes and sneezing, I opted to make bouquets and boutonnieres out of silk flowers. I also opted to do them myself because silk flowers afforded me the luxury of time – time to figure out how to assemble them. Since I knew I was going the silk, DIY route, I didn’t even contact florists about this. So I don’t even know what the going rate for these things. But I will say that I spent under $200 for 6 bouquets and 11 boutonnieres. Once I decided to bite the bullet on this, I figured I would do my centerpieces and other décor on my own. I was quoted $150-$250 per table for the branch centerpieces that I wanted. I was able to purchase all the materials I need to make 15 centerpieces for under $300. That’s a savings of about $2,000-$3000! I decided to keep the rest of the décor simple, and inexpensive by using lots and lots of candles. I haven’t purchased these yet but based on my price shopping I expect to furnish my venue with candles for under $400.