QOTD 6/14/13

Happy Friday Ladies!! Today's question of the day has to do with priorities and sacrifices when it comes to vendors

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?

2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?

Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?

1. My #1 vendor that I NEEDED was AJ Ingolia- I just fell in love with his videos and knew I needed to be one of his brides. I am also so happy I found Jay Lim because of this site. Obviously my reception hall East Wind was top priority as well but, when I got engaged I wasn't set on a certain place or 'look'

2. Sacrifices I am making is that I probably won't get a DOC unless it gets closer and I really feel I need one and upgrading my cake. Also I may borrow my cousins headpiece and jewelry because it's gorgeous and it will help me save in that area. I had also plained to DIY centerpieces until I went to Burtons and saw the floral centerpieces I quickly changed my mind deciding on high/low so it wasn't too far of a reach

3. I am very fortunate to have many connections. My invitations are being made by my sister best friend so I am designing them in the fall to make sure I have them early. My cousin is doing my makeup because she is a make up artist and my hair will be done by the ladies at the salon I worked at for years. I am SO happy my make up artist and hair stylist will be at my wedding if I need a touch up

1. There were top things that were very important to me. Food/Catering Hall and Music were my top 2 vendors. I knew that had to be perfect at my wedding. I couldn't have ben happier with my two choices in Bridgeview Yacht Club and David Clark and the Renegades. My band also played my sisters wedding so we are very excited to have them again!

2. There was one photographer that I had been obsessed with for quite some time because all of his photos looked like they were from a fashion magazine. Truth is, aside from the price not being within my budget, I also took into serious consideration the personalities of FH and I. We are both fun, quirky people and although I would LOVE to be in a magazine it would not be one of those serious fashion looking photos. We would be the photo where the bride is hanging upside down over the grooms shoulder lol So in the end I made the best choice for our budget and more importantly, our personalities in JayLim!

3. I don't really have many connections... or at least as many as I thought I would have for being a makeup artist in the industry of weddings! I did set up a hair trial with a woman I worked with on another wedding, haven't gone through it yet, so we'll see. I know I am going to have a super tough time finding someone to do my makeup. Truth is, I am super super picky about specific details and I am hoping that I can find the right people that will make me happy :)

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?

2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?

Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?

1. I would say My hall, I'm very set on having a specific look, and have a tight budget, so I was super psyched when we found (and fell in love with) Smithtown Landing CC. Not only do they fit wonderfully in our budget, but work so well with the vintage country look I'm going for.

2. Sacrifice...well I'm sacrificing my free time because I have to DIY everything to stay on budget lol. So far we haven't had to completely give up anything, just amend our vision or compromise in an area. I have not been disappointed at all and with my tiny budget and picky taste- that's a big time plus!

3. We have some great hook ups that Help. My sister is a MoA and Hairdresser so between her and her co worker I get free fantastic day of hair and makeup. Also one of our Groomsmen is close friends with a Jeweler so that helped FH when it came to getting my E-ring. And we will also get the bands from them.
Also I guess knowing my mom is a hook up, since she will be buying my dress for me, which is a big help when we are paying for the rest of the Wedding ourselves.

1. Same as you--we NEEDED to have AJ at our wedding! We also NEEDED Gina Esposito. They work so well together and we seem to have 3/4 of their 'dream team' minus Cheeky Glam! We also hired their highly recommended DJ Marc Bauman.


2. I hate to say it, but our RH is kind of a sacrifice. We went for a place that we loved, but that had a better price than most other places. It wasn't on purpose, we just happened to really like CHCC more than a few others places we went to before that who had higher price points. I don't necessarily regret this choice, but I wish I wasn't so stubborn when people told us to have a Friday night wedding to get better prices elsewhere. We also nixed the DOC because we are paying so much for our video and photo.

3. I can't call this a connection, per se, but when we went to Flowers by Brian, the girl who helped us was a friend of a friend. It was really a coincidence, but we managed to get a 'friend discount'. This slashed about 5% off of our total. We also got an autumn leaf tree limb thrown in for our card table since we couldn't possibly afford the $250 per centerpiece price tag.

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?

2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?

3. Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?

1. I would definitely say photographer was our top priority. We ended up extending our search to photographers in NYC and found one that we loved. It was definitely way over what we budgeted for (surprise. surprise) but we found a way to make it work

2. Umm, i'm not really sure yet! I'm not a HUGE flower person so I won't be decorating the church with them for the ceremony. I feel like the church itself is already impressive and flowers don't make that big of a difference. My way to save a few dollars!

3. Unfortunately we don't have any connections in the industry. This is actually a good thing because i'm super picky about things I would hate to feel obligated to book someone I had a connection with but really didn't love. ...Or maybe this is just my way of justifying paying full price for everything! lol

1. Our top vendors were our venue and DJ. DJ makes the party so we just want to make the best decision when booking one!

2. The biggest sacrifice I made was getting married on a Friday as opposed to Saturday. I always wanted a Saturday wedding but when we found out the money difference from Friday to Saturday I had to go with Friday. All that money we would be saving by having a Friday wedding can be put towards something else like flowers.

3. My dad's friend does Invitations and my parent's best friends daughter is a photographer. (I felt obligated to book with her which I'm not 100% happy about but we will save money with having her...)

I am also an AJ Ingolia bride! Love him booked on the stop. A must have was regular not catering hall food. Super unqiue sips and savors.. we are not duck lorange people and wanted to have a menu that fit out personality that is why we went with a Philip Stone Caterer @ Village club.

Our DJ company is family friends with our inlaws and gave us a TONNNN of stuff for 1/2 the price we are paying we are getting mc, dj, drummer, tv screens, step and repeat, bongos and a saxaphone man.

1. Our top three priorities were food, venue, and photographer. Photographer was probably #1 though and that was a freakin splurge and a half! lol
2. Our sacrafice is probably that we're having our wedding in the winter on a Friday. It's considerably cheaper as oppose to having it in the summer on a Saturday...like half the price.
3. Surprisingly I do have many connections. I was able to save $$$ on the wedding planner and make-up artist since I was already friends with them. Also, I'm a graphic designer so I'm making ALL my own paper goods for the wedding.

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?

The DJ and the food were most important. We picked our venue based on many things, but a large factor was that the food is delicious :) We want people to remember the good music and good food!

2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?

We aren't really sacrificing much. We wanted to go to Bora Bora on our honeymoon, but decided on Sandals in St. Lucia instead. But i wouldn't even consider that as sacrificing, because we will still have an amazing honeymoon and Bora Bora was just ridiculous with prices. I also wanted a custom cake made, but we just decided to go with the free one with our venue- It was too much money to waste when we can get a cake for free anyway.

3. Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?

My sister was previously engaged in 2005 and called off the wedding. My parents had paid 1600 towards her photographer, and they have a voucher saying that whenever someone else needs to book them, they will give us the 1600 towards the package. So we went to that photographer when we got engaged and they ended up honoring it after 7 years :) Other than that, no connections really, just a dad who knows how to argue his way into getting things discounted haha

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?
Band. Of course the venue was of utmost importance, but there was only one band I HAD to have, so it was really important to me that we could book them early enough in advance.

2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?
I haven't really considered anything a sacrifice. I wanted a Saturday night wedding and we're doing a Thursday night instead, but it's on a 3-day weekend so that worked out for the best. I also have lower-than-average budgets for flowers and the dress. With stuff like that to help us save a little, we were able to use what we saved to help us get nice stuff like the band we wanted and a great photo/video package.

Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?
FBIL has a friend who's a florist that I haven't contacted yet but he swears he can hook us up big time. So I'll see what he can do for us. Other than that, I Google the life out of coupon codes and Groupons for stuff like STDs and other stuff to buy online!

1) I didn't really have any top vendors I was interested in because I was just focused on staying on budget. But I did go for a venue that was more than I wanted to spens just because I fell in love.

2) I wouldn't really say I'm making sacrifices. I mean there are things I would do if money were no object but those are only dreams not necessities.

3) I'm crafty so I'm making my own imvitations. My cousins girlfriend is a hair and make-up artist so I'm getting that for free. Plus my mom works with a woman whose husband is a dj and he is giving us am awesome price. Less than $1000. Also we have a family friend who is a photographer so yeah I'd say I have some conmections.

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?

There was no one in particular that i HAD to have. I did want a place with a great reputation & lots of good food. Which I got with Westbury Manor. It was also important to me get my childhood church which I was able to get :)


2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?

Hmmm, I haven't really made any wedding sacrifices yet. There are a bunch of 'extras' I want but haven't really researched yet, so I'm not sure if they will be cut out or not.

Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?

I have some connections from working in the field, but I tend to not like asking people for favors or dicounts because I always feel funny PLUS if something doesn't turn out the way I want I would feel funny expressing my issues with them. KWIM?

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?

Definitely church & RH. Once we got those booked I was happy. My parents were big on having a band, so that was the next thing we booked. Other than that, I have no favorite vendors for anything else, and am still researching photographers and flowers on a daily basis to narrow down my options.

2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?

Nothing in particular. With photography, I see alot of similar styles that vary in price. If it is between two photographers close in price with similar styles, I think I will go with the less expensive one just out of principle. Also I want to do alot of DIY since I got experience with the engagement party. Mostly because after doing it myself, I can't see paying an arm and a leg for a company to do the same things.

Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?
None whatsoever! Lol

1. Most important vendor for us is DJ because FH's family is from Colombia so we don't want a ghetto DJ who speaks Spanglish, we needed someone fluent and classy who really knows there music

2. Sacrifices- ugh I guess you could say venue because we wanted a rooftop NYC wedding or a real southern feeling barn wedding out east, both way out of budget! So we agreed on a very nautical Long Island location

3. Well I work for a limo company! So YES! lol Also my bridesmaid is a makeup artist so I think this will help me out

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?
-Photography: Lighthouse
-Videography: GT Modern Creations
-DJ

2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?
Nothing. We haven't had to restrict ourselves yet. We're very lucky.

3. Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?
Our DJ. FH's brother's best friend owns the company, so we're definitely saving a lot there. My cousin got quoted $12,000 for her Sweet 16 from one DJ, I was like you've got to be kidding!

1. Food, Music, Photography were our TOP priorities. Also.. our date was super important so we booked those three things within like... 7 weeks of being engaged. I KNEW I wanted Ken Hild before I even met Tom. I studied photo in high school and college and we had to do a paper on a local photographer. YEARS ago Ken used to do like landscapes so I did more research and then found his wedding photography... I knew in HS he was my wedding photographer LOL

2. We opted to NOT have a videographer for the wedding in order to save.

3. I don't really have any connections. Except for hair and make up. My friend is a MUA and stylist so she is doing everything :)

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?
The RH, DJ and Photographer were VERY important to us. Most memorable thing for guests are good food, a good party and someone there to capture it all. We picked WM which we are beyond in love with and SilverFox Photography and Entertainment.Opera Steve was a must have too. His resume is top notch and know he will keep our party going!

2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?
We aren't sacrificing anything to be honest. Everything we have envisioned we have gotten and are budget is pretty good.

Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?
We didn't have any connections that led to us saving but my FH has the gift of gab and reads all the fine print so he sometimes throws out some babble that lead to knocking some money off.

1. Who were the top vendors that were important to you?
The photographer was very important to me. I got mono three days before my sister's Bat Mitzvah but no one can tell looking at the pictures. However, one of my BMs is a photographer and I've modeled for her. I usually hate cameras but I love every second that she is taking pictures of me. Luckily, we found a way to have both without it being overwhelming.
I'd also love to have a rabbi/cantor officiating even though FH is a Baptist.
The last thing that's very important isn't a vendor, but an overall look. My Grandpa and I were very close before he passed away 11 years ago. So, a lot of aspects of the wedding have to do with him- the something new, day (three days after his birthday), and CPs (the sand that'll be used from them will be from our family's summer house which was his favorite place).
2. What are you sacrificing in terms of budget?
No video or engagement party. We also won't have the MC I really wanted and are only having 40 guests which means we're excluding a lot of important people. The hardest thing though is that FH and I will most likely have to go three months between visits. We haven't seen each other since April and probably won't until next month.
Do you have any connections for certain services that help you save?
One of the BMs is a photographer, another has artistic skills like no other so she'll probably do the invites, a friend makes eco-friendly jewelry, and my mom is a very good Google searcher.