I'm just here with my calculator ( ) and wanted to know if you splurged in one area (or several) what did you scrimp on? Flowers? Invites? Any advice on what I can cut corners on?
Thanks!
Jackie&Justin
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
Centerpeices---Saved thousands by doing candles instead of flowers....
omg i love those... i wanna do soemthing ilke that too..i feel like centerpieces are a waste of money
SFP0214
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
I cut out the video (regret it though), Got invites online (they were great), I didn't scrimp on my gown, but I only spent 600$ (It was by dumb luck that I FELL IN LOVE with my gown. I was prepared to spend much more!) I Splurged on the photog, and the hall.
SomethingBlu
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
My gown - my mom made it and it was free!
My flowers - my aunt did them and they were cost (under $1K)
The hall - booked a Friday night cancellation under 7 months
Invites - fell in love with ones that were way over my budget...decided to design them and print them more economically from Rexcraft paper
Tiara and veil - eBay baby!
Backinneyork
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
I splurged on a lot of things, but the one thing I scrimped on is my photographer. I really like their work and I am sure I will be totally satisfied, but it's the one thing I feel like we 'cheaped out' on.
Oh - and my shoes were only $35! Quite proud of that!
Dooodles
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
I did not want to go overboard on my invitations - ordered them online and saved $
I did a small upgrade on the centerpieces included with the hall - we had a simple wedding so simple centerpieces were on order
My dress cost under $300 (Phyllis at gownfind) - I wish I had known about the other women using her for alterations. She has a $150 cap but I went somewhere else and paid $250 to have sleeves added onto the dress and the alterations - just under the amount I paid for the dress
romameansamor
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
Invitations - ordered online but DIY so I printed them myself - got tons of compliments!
Church flowers - doing pew bows made by my mom and w/ some metal flower cones added (6) that I bought 75% off at Michaels and spraypainted them. We also bought two urns and my mom bought two beautiful flowering trees we are putting in the urns on the altar instead of buying from the florist. SOOOO easy and now the florist does not have to come decorate the church - she just has to deliver our flowers and decorate the reception.
Bouts for the guys - just simple, save a few $$ there and also only got in season flowers.
Making favors, programs, bathroom baskets, veil (yeah - so I go to Pat. floral and all I want is a PLAIN cathedral veil - no pencil edge or ANYTHING! They tell me I need 6 weeks for that! WHAT??!!! AND it cost $50!!! To sew fabric off the bolt onto a plastic comb??? Well, good thing they sell the fabric there (the same fabric they were going to charge me $45 for!) so we bought that and my mom is making it! For less than $10!!!!!)
BUT - we totally splurged on the photographer. We feel like that is what we will have the rest of our lives!
STUF04
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
We are saving money by using candles with a little amount of flowers for the CP, but we are splurging on the honeymoon. For me theres no limit on money for that.
ChrissynRicky
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
STD - did them myself.
Hall - booked a Sunday night, and came in at $90 per person w/a 7 course meal w/choice of 7 entrees' and a vienesse hour and with a ch of 1.5 hrs.
Dress - is originally $5,500 - having it made for $500
Flowers - got High CP's and still came at $1,200 as opposed to $2.5K as other florists quoted.
Tuxes - free b/c it's FI's client.
Invites - ordering them online.
Videographer - skipping
Photographer - under 1.5K
samnjenna
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
HALL: booked a Sunday night (but its a holiday so that makes it a little easier for our guests -- we were really lucky that our hall doesn't bump up thier Sunday prices for holidays like some other halls) (Picking this hall also allowed us to save on flowers and cake -- both come with our package -- even with upgrades we are paying less and worrying less than if we had to find independant vendors.)
INVITATIONS: even though this is one of our $$ saving items its one of my favorites -- my aunt is a printer so we were able to have the typeset done totally professionally (Thermography). We were also able to design them -- we decided to hand paint each one (and they are just about done!!! come see our hand-painted invitations
FAVORS: they aren't totally cheap (about $1.50/guest), but they are half the price of what I originally wanted: godivas. We chose to use a local candy-maker and package them ourselves using supplies bought on the web!
DRESS: again, not cheap, but half the price of the one my mom wanted me to get
VIDEO: FH put his foot down on spending thousands for a videographer -- he was just totally against it. Instead we bought a videocamera (about $600) and are going to give it to some friends (one who happens to be a professional film director/editor) to record our day. This choice also means that we have a camcorder for our RD, honeymoon, etc. (I'm looking forward to taping a msg for my FH that he can watch just before the ceremony!)
HONEYMOON: since we travel a lot, we are taking a short and simple trip after the wedding and saving a European trip for our 1-year anniversary (when we hopefully will be out of grad school and gainfully employed).
And many, many more items . . . its all been done on a budget!
MissingTheBGene
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
I may have to think of scrimping on flowers (mostly the centerpieces) and the invites. I can also see about borrowing or finding on eBay a veil and maybe shoes.
suven
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
scrimped on my gown. scrimped on photo- we didn't get an album, but we have the negatives, so we have LOTS of framed wedding pics around the house
Mrs. dleeny
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
A LOT!!!!!!!!!!
Invitations - $200! bought them online
Flowers - less than $1000! my florist is giving us a huge discount
Veil - $40 (from Barrons) no need to spend more when they're pretty much all the same, IMO.
Tiara - $25!! it's just as beautiful and sparkly as the $200 one's I saw at a bridal salon
Limos - we're only getting 1 limo for a pick up and drop off
foofy
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I'm not having church decorations... I figure where only there for an hour and everyone doesn't go to church..
lishbone
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Posted by foofy
I'm not having church decorations... I figure where only there for an hour and everyone doesn't go to church..
me too!!!! no one really pays attention to the church which is sad..because thats the main part of a marriage..but everyone cant wait for the big party afterward!!
marymoon
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
I was going to scrimp on invites. I think I might make them myself, but I don't know if this will be a 'scrimp' area because the invitation sets the tone of the entire wedding and I'm having a very formal affair.\, so we'll see as it gets closer to the date. It doesn't seem like we'll be able to scrimp on anything! Maybe just having a DJ instead of a band counts, also, we have a medium/small BP...
MissingTheBGene
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Re: What's the one thing you scrimped on?
Posted by lishbone
Posted by foofy
I'm not having church decorations... I figure where only there for an hour and everyone doesn't go to church..
me too!!!! no one really pays attention to the church which is sad..because thats the main part of a marriage..but everyone cant wait for the big party afterward!!
Same here, in all honesty, it never even crossed my mind to decorate for the ceremony!
