Paying for our wedding

We paid for our entire wedding ourselves...here are some things we did

1) Made a budget & stuck to it! Our wedding was important but we were not willing to spend $$ on something that would only last 5 hours.

2) Put away a certain amount each week into a joint account to be used ONLY for the wedding

3) shop around on vendors & also bargain with them! It really does work!

4) we picked an 'off' month to get married! Just so happens, the day after our wedding, most halls charged $20 more a person

5) We only invited people that we knew & also eliminated kids & cousins we haven't seen in years. We used the motto 'If I saw you on a street & you didn't know it was me, you are not invited'

6) Make a list of what vendors you are willing to splurge on (Ie, ours was photography, only memory once the day is over)

7) If there are things you can do yourself, like programs, menus, DO THEM

A lot of great advice here. We paid for our wedding ourselves, and had a tiny budget. What we did:

~Got married on a Sunday morning, and had a brunch instead of dinner. We saved big bucks doing this.
~We had a relatively small guest list. I think we had about 85 people (including us) at our wedding.
~We didn't use limos
~We have a lot of talented friends who were able to pitch in and do things that we didn't have to pay others to do (photography/music).
~No flower centerpieces (we used oil lanterns and pictures as our centerpieces)
~I made my bouquet, my MOH's bouquet, bouts and corsages
~I made our invitations, response cards, etc.
~I made our programs
~We had a small wedding party (just MOH and BM, no flower girls or ring bearers)
~I bought a relatively inexpensive (but beautiful!) dress
~Ebay, Costco/BJs, and Oriental Trading Company were my best friends!
~We did a donation favor, and then gave out small chinese food boxes filled with Hershey's kisses as our favor (probably cost .50 each)
~I bought toasting glasses (which we never ended up using) from BigLots for $1.99 each, and got my cake knife and server at the Mikasa outlet in Tanger for about $10.

Good luck!

The two most important things you can do to keep your costs down:

1) Book during off season (Nov-Mar) and/or book an off day (Friday or Sunday night or weekend afternoon)

2) Keep your guest list as small as possible

Also, look on this site frequently for help with vendors and DIY projects.

Good Luck!

We are paying for our entire wedding ourselves and were not able to keep it small due to huge families - we are having 300 people!!! But, we are having a two year engagement and have set up a budget for ourselves. I have also created an Excel spreasheet to track all our payments, etc.

You really have to give yourself time to negotiate w/vendors and time to do things yourself instead of paying someone to do it.

Your not alone!

Good Luck!!

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Posted by Sunrise813

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Posted by sarahradio5

ING Direct! You can build some SERIOUS interest from now until then. And you get $25 for opening an account! (FM me for the link). Just keep feeding money into that account and you can make 4% interest! So, if you put $10,000 in an account, you'll make 400 more bucks in a year... that can pay for your invitations!

Also, if you have to cut corners, do it on something that isn't forever. Don't cut back on photography or videography since that's the stuff you'll have forever.

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So funny I was jsut going to suggest the same thing, except we used Capital ONe. Although I hear that HSBC has the best rates right now. its worth checking it out.

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I just heard the HSBC commercial this morning... you get 4.5% with a minimum of 10,000 deposit (wish I had that much! lol). Otherwise, it would be a 6 month cd with a minimum of $1,000. With ING, it's 4%, and you have access to your money without it being locked in a cd. Plus you get the $25 for opening the savings account. As long as they're all competing with this high interest, it's good for us!

Consider having your wedding at an 'off' time during the year....Feb/March will be less expensive than May/June.

Buy your gown at a trunk show, you will get a percentage off.

Cut out things you don't really need, like Vienesse Hour, menu upgrades...most likely there will be so much food anyway at your wedding, you don't need anymore!

In terms of saving together....get a joint savings account immediately and don't touch it. Have a portion of your paychecks deposited each pay period and only use it for wedding related items.

HTH!

Im a total beleiver that you can bargain the price down ......my fiance and i figured we probably saved $7,000 because he bargained them down....remember everyone is negoitable.......hope that helps

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Posted by MayBride06

bring a bag lunch to work and stop eating out!!

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PB&J for me today!

You're right... this REALLY makes a difference. 5 bucks 5 days a week... 25 bucks four times a month - $100... $100 12 times a year... $1200. All adds up!

Don't worry, you have plenty of time too save. It's tough, but have faith. Try not to make it extravagant, but a nice memorable day. I am trying to do that myself. We are paying for our own wedding.

Good Luck!

i agree with a lot of the ideas on here.

start saving NOW. it's never too early.

ask vendors about paying cash and saving on tax. most will do this for you but not all of them will tell you upfront.

bargain with the vendors as much as possible. they want your business. i was able to get the reception hall to throw in all the extras i wanted without paying for them (chair covers, chocolate fountain, ice cream bar, etc)

do lots of research. there are plenty of highly recommended vendors on here. some are cheap and some are not.

and lastly, make a realistic budget and stick to it. it's so easy to get carried away but every little bit helps. you can still have what you want, but can always find it cheaper. plenty of brides have found things cheaper online.

Book off-peak, avoid Saturdays. You can get a lot of good deals on Sun afternoons, esp if they are off-peak.

You can start off by saving your tax return! Then start a wedding fund. Make sure you put $1000 a month or whatever amount you decide.

Also, what has helped for us, especially since all of the final payments are 1 month before the wedding , we have been paying as much to the vendors as possible so that now, at 33 days before the wedding, we owe very little! Honestly, its a lot less stressful b/c of it! Even though you could put the money aside and collect interest, how much interest is it really going to collect in 6 months? I have peace of mind knowing that I don't have too shell out tens of thousands of dollars in the next few weeks!! Good luck!! It's tough, but you will do it!!

All the girls already gave you great advice! Not much I can say. One thing though, DON'T BE AFRAID to bargain!!!! I've gotten a lot of deals because of this!!!
XOXOXO
Kitty