Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

BAL5-9-05 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 04:52 PM

Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

I'm looking for creative suggestions & great finds across the board!!

Thank you!

lredhead79 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 04:59 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

I refused to pay a lot for wedding invites. Did my own makeup. we were getting married at the RH so we only got 1 limo for FH and I to take us from where we were getting ready to the hall. Everyone else took their own cars. I didnt do a guest book and didnt buy toasting flutes...IMO it was unnecessary spending.

BoxOfRocks Posted: Jul 04, 2007 05:42 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

Online BM dress and wedding gown. (Although the wedding gown order didn't work out so well. The manufacturer lost my gown.)

DIY programs, favors, and guestbook. Combed clearance sales for BM gifts.

angl2001 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 05:56 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

we booked all of our vendors thru wedding world for about $5000!!!!!!!!! limo, invites,photo , video,boquets all that stuff. I made simple CPs and got all the stuff at michaels ( doing candles is so much cheaper than flowers) i got the HM 50% off from a sandlas promotion, and my friend and I went to all the vendors together and that helped. we got a bonus because they look at it as getting 2 brides!

if you want more info on wedding world FM me

erin05 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 06:29 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

We printed our own invites. (pics are in my album) also we are doing our own flowers. Right there are 2 big expenses. So I am proud of my savings!!

EJSD2006 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 06:32 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

i made my own programs. but i was too exhausted to do any other DIY projects so i'm really no big help.

Jumbles Posted: Jul 04, 2007 06:46 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

we are not having programs

angl2001 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 06:53 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

there are so many ways to save $$. Use fake flowers instead of real ( they are just gonna die) buy blank invites at staples or office max and print them yourself that saves lik 100's of $$, think about candle CPS instead of flowers. Remeber you dont have to invite your 3rd cousins twice removed lol invite the people closest to you. Alot of people have the mind set of 'you get what you pay for' and thats not always the case i know people who paid 6000 for photo and the pics werent that great or the company wasnt too nice. I am saving soooo much $$ and i got an awesome price and they do really good work (i have friedns that have used them) Negotiate with your vendors!!! they dont wanna lose you cause they said no you cant havean...ice sculpture ( or whatever) diont go crazy with favors either get something small and useful and look into lots of different places for the best deals! I love oriental trading!! i am getting stuff from them and my friends got their favors from them and saved alot of $$

CMaria81 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 07:49 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

I bought my veil on eBay for $21 (shipping included). I'm not doing flowers at the church (the ceremony is only 30 minutes) or programs, and we are using 12th Night photography and making our own photo albums.

drpepper318 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 08:11 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

I've cut corners in pretty much every way possible.. not one thing in particular, but I just tried to get the best deals I could on everything, and didn't really splurge on anything. My dress, flowers, invites, limo, etc. And I'm not really doing a lot of 'extra' stuff.

NowAndForever2012 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 08:13 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

Lets see I used Ebay, candles for centerpieces, wedding day shoes off the rack $22.99. Searched every site for coupons.

iwannabmrsD Posted: Jul 04, 2007 08:39 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

i made my own std, and will be making my own invitations and programs and oot bags.. i made my own will u be my brifesmaid gift bags.. and will be finding their gifts on the clearnace rack of some store..
i will spend money on the video and photography but not so much on flowers.. i hate flowers so if my mom doesn't pay for it, we won't have it..

i brought my dress at a saks fifth ave sale (got an 8k dress for 1500 ) my shoes will be from wildpair.. already scoped them out..$30.. girlfriend from work sells mary kay and will be doing my make up.. will prob do my own hair..

no wedding favors.. im making a donation to the american diabetes foundation instead..

hmm.. OH!! i'm getting married in FEB!! that's a HUGE ONE! catering hall is $120 in the summer costing me $62 per person!!

BNBride60 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 09:00 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

FH runs a graphic art studio so he will do all of our invitations, save the dates, programs and anything else that needs printing!!!

Went on ebay for my Chinese Slippers ( came to $1.15 each ).

No videographer.

GettinHutched Posted: Jul 04, 2007 09:03 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

Limos (I just hope I don't regret this- well I won't regret getting only one- just worried about the company ) - I have a small BP so I only ordered one limo, a 12 passenger Lincoln.

Flowers - went with Burtons and low CPs, again a small BP helped with this! Didn't get arrangements for the church.

That's all I can think of right now!

BRod-Cheng Posted: Jul 04, 2007 09:07 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

Stuck to a $500 budget for invites.

No: STDs, bathroom basket, slipper basket, cry packs, toasting flutes, table cameras, or garter.

I was going to skip the guest book and cake set, but I received them as a gift so I used them.

We had everything at the RH so we only got one limo.

made my own programs and menus.

borrowed the veil and crinolin

Got regular white shoes for $40

Used only one kind of flower (roses) for the bouquets and centerpieces.

Went with low centerpieces.

Got my wedding jewelry and headpiece on line for a grand total of about $88!!

Small bridal party = less bouquets and boutiniers

Did not add any extras to our menu.

Paid as much as I could in cash- some vendors will skip the tax if you pay in cash (SHHHHH).

Told every vendor, when it applied, that I found them on LIW. Some actually gave me a discount for mentioning that!!!

We used 12th night for photos and then ordered our own prints and enlargements, and made our own phot book using shutterfly.

Saturday afternoon wedding instead of Saturday night saved us almost $13,000!!!!

FalNBill Posted: Jul 04, 2007 09:21 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

This thread was so helpful to a newbie like myself... ! Thanks for posting guys!

amytee Posted: Jul 04, 2007 09:33 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

No videographer
No flowers for ceremony
Making own programs
Party City for Invitations 35% off all day every day
Cut out extras from the DJ - montages, lighting (it's a day wedding anyway)

MrsQ-in2007 Posted: Jul 04, 2007 09:57 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

- DIY'ing a lot of things saves us money. STD's, Menus, Programs, Petal Cones, INVITATIONS (my invites would have been $1,000-2000 but I am custom designing and printing and assembling them for a fraction of that cost).

- Shopped around for ALLLLL of our vendors. It's still a considerable amount of money!!! but we don't feel that we overpaid for any vendor.

- Friday night wedding instead of Saturday night. Saved something like $20 a head so at least a couple of thousand dollars.

- No photobooth (something I REALLLLLLLLLY wanted soooo bad, but it costs $2000 and we really just couldn't justify that cost!)

We are really having the wedding of our dreams but we were determined NOT to go completely nuts in the spending department. Could we have done it cheaper? Yes, definitely. But we would have had to give up a LOT of stuff we just really wanted. So instead we got the best price we could for the things we wanted. In some cases that means a LOT more work for me (DIYs for example), but in the end I think and HOPE it will be worth it.

LitBallerinaGirl Posted: Jul 04, 2007 10:21 PM

Re: Where did you 'cut corners' to save money $$??

we used our computer to do a lot of our caligraphy work.
We shopped at Michaels for place cards
We went to Tri County Flea Market for Ring Pillow, unity candle, and garters.