Saving Money on Your Wedding: Wrap-up

I've come to the end of my "Saving Money on Your Wedding" series. Today I'll mention a couple of miscellaneous ideas that I didn't cover in previous posts. I'll also link to each article in the series so that it's all in one spot.

Miscellaneous Ideas
-Keep the guest list small.
-Skip the party favors.
-Involve relatives and friends who have skills in needed areas (cake making, photography, decorating, etc.). Either pay them or let it be their wedding gift to you.
-Have your wedding on a Friday evening or Sunday afternoon.
-Make sure you get the negatives and/or the rights to your photos.
-Elope ;)

Check out this post at Unclutterer for more ideas. There are tons of them in the comments!

Do you have additional "miscellaneous" wedding-saving ideas? Leave them in the comments :)

Saving Money on Your Wedding Series
Introduction
Bridal Gowns
Bridal Accessories
Hair & Make-up
Groom's Attire
Invitations and Stationary
Flowers and Decorations
Attendant Gifts

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Attendant Gifts

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about buying your attendant gifts. My total amount spent in this area was $70.

Attendant gifts is an area of weddings that I really just don't "get". Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the idea of thanking your attendants for being willing to stand up in your wedding (and spend lots of their own money doing it, in many cases). What I don't understand is who decided that all men need numerous personalized flasks and all women need multiple necklaces that they may not even like ;)

My number one recommendation for buying attendant gifts is to purchase something that you would otherwise ask them to buy/pay for as part of your wedding. For example, I paid for my bridesmaids' pedicures the day before the wedding. If we hadn't gone out together to get pedicures, I would have paid for their hair or their ($35) dresses. My husband and I decided the best gift we could give our attendants was to keep our wedding inexpensive for them to be a part of.

Another good idea is to buy them something they'll actually enjoy, the gift being different for each person (along the same lines as a birthday or Christmas gift). One of my friends gave me a lightweight backpack I'd been eying up. It was an excellent gift!

The previous two ideas focused more on getting good gifts than on saving money (though the first one will save your attendants some money). Some ideas that would save you some cash include making something personal for your attendants or giving your time as a gift. Giving time might include a day at the disc golf course or some quality time on the beach. I would suggest making a homemade certificate to give the night before the wedding and do the quality time after the wedding. This lets your attendants know that you're not planning on disappearing into the land of newlyweds after the wedding day!

I hope these ideas get your creative juices flowing :)

What is the best gift you've received for standing up in a friend's/relative's wedding? The worst?

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Flowers and Decorations

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about the wedding flowers and other decorations. My total amount spent in this area was $410.

Here are some tips and ideas to save money on your wedding flowers and decorations:

-Keep it simple. This one seems obvious but can manifest itself in many ways. For example, BankerGirl is planning on buying her flowers at the local farmer's market on the morning of her wedding, which I think is an awesome idea! For my wedding, I kept all of my bouquets small and limited who got flowers.

-Skip the roses. This was a huge money saver for me. Instead of dark red roses, I had dark red carnations in my bouquet and the bridesmaids' bouquets. All of the boutineers featured one single carnation. Carnations are so cheap and nobody will even realize the roses are missing. The funny thing is, my florist still put a few roses in the bouquets and the ring surrounding the unity candle. I just didn't have to pay for them!

-Use what's there. My husband and I got married at a wedding chapel, which was already tastefully decorated. I didn't spend a single penny on decorating the chapel. Their decorations were just fine for my non-detailed, non-picky tastes!
I also didn't decorate the restaurant we had our reception at. They already had candles on all of the tables. After all, do you remember what the centerpieces looked like in the last wedding you went to?
If you're more picky than me, you should still ask your church and reception site if they have decorations available to use and see if you can make at least some of them work. It will save you decorating time and money.
You might want to also see what Make Love, Not Debt had to say on the matter.

As you can see, there are plenty of easy ways to save money on your flowers and decorations. Feel free to leave additional ideas in the comments!

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Invitations and Stationary

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about your invitations and other stationary. My total amount spent in this area was $111.82.

Here are some money-saving ideas for saving money on your wedding stationary purchases:

-Make Your Own. You can do this either by literally making your own invites and programs from scratch, or you can print your own on blank invites purchased at an office store. This works best for small weddings, but can also be done for large ones if you have the time and desire.
I did the second option. I stopped at a couple of office supply stores and at Walmart (their wedding section is actually pretty decent). I picked out the invitation that I liked, bought it, and brought it home to print on from my home computer. It was really easy to research proper invitation wording online.
The wedding programs were super-easy. They cost about $10 at Walmart and took one evening to write up and print out. You can't beat that!

-Order Online. My best friend did this. The nice part is that you can quickly and easily check multiple locations for the best price. This probably works better for a larger wedding as many websites have a minimum order requirement.
You can also combine the two above options to find an invitation online that you like and then create your own based off of the one you like. I have another friend who did this.

-Local Printer. Don't forget to check your local printer. You can even take an invitation that you find online and bring it to your printer. Ask him to beat the online price!

As you can see, you have many options for getting the perfect invitation and program without breaking the bank.

How did you do your wedding invitations? Do you think you got a good deal?

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Groom's Attire

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about the groom's attire. I think it's kind of humorous that it took four posts to get through the bride's attire and accessories, but I can get everything about the groom into one post! My total amount spent in this area was $120.

Groom's Attire

Men are simple creatures (no offense meant), so it's no surprise that getting them properly attired to be married is pretty simple as well.

Tuxes

Tuxes are probably the most common thing for a groom to wear to his wedding. Besides shopping around for the best price, here are some ways to save money:

-Get One Free. There are frequently promotions out there for the groom to get his tux rental for free when the groomsmen all get their rentals at the same place.

-Buy It. If a tux is only going to be worn once, it doesn't need to be high quality. You might want to check the rental cost against buying a cheap tux at JCPenney or the like.

Suits

Suits are my personal preference and what we did for our wedding. Some of the groomsmen already owned black suits, so that saved them a ton of money. We bought a cheap black suit for my husband, knowing that he would be able to use it again at a future wedding or for a job interview. We then bought matching ties for all of the men to go with our theme and the girls' dresses.

Other

Of course, the groom doesn't need to wear a tux or a suit. Feel free to break from tradition and wear something out of your closet. That wouldn't cost you a dime!

Do you have any additional tips?

Saving Money On Your Wedding: Hair & Make-up

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about the bride's and bridesmaids' hair and make-up. My total amount spent in this area was $48.

Hair and Make-up

I got really lucky in this area. My future sister-in-law did my hair (Since she's a professional stylist, I paid her) and one of my bridesmaids did my make-up. Here are some tips for you:

-If you know someone who does hair or make-up, ask them. I had my future sister-in-law and a friend of one of my bridesmaids meet at a friend's house and they did everyone's hair for a really decent price.

-Ask a friend who's hair or make-up you admire. One of my bridesmaids always has perfect-looking make-up, so I asked her to do my make-up for me. This could easily also work if you have a friend who like to play with hair.

-Do it yourself. I am a huge proponent of being nice (financially) to your bridesmaids. Even if you want your own hair and make-up done professionally, you can give your bridesmaids a break and not force them to spend that extra $50-100 to get their hair done. Nobody's going to be looking at them anyway. They'll be too busy admiring you!

As always, please add more ideas in the comments!

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Bridal Accessories

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about bridal accessories (veil, headpiece, shoes, etc.). My total amount spent in this area was $47.38.

Bridal Accessories
This is a part of your wedding budget where you can really save a lot of money.

-Free with purchase. As I said last week, ask if the bridal shop will give you an accessory free or deeply discounted with the purchase of your wedding dress.

-Make it. If you know anyone the least bit crafty, this could work really well with a veil. Take a look at a veil at the bridal store and you can see how simple they are to make. Tulle costs only a few dollars at a craft store and you can get a comb for under $10 just about anywhere.
My mother-in-law actually made my veil out of lace from my mom's wedding dress. Not only did it turn out beautifully (take a look!), but it has a lot of sentimental value as well.

-Borrow. This works really well with veils and headpieces. I had two friends offer to lend me their veil if the one made by my mother-in-law didn't work out.

-Get out of the bridal store! These places have a huge mark-up. Check your local hobby or craft store for a bridal department. The Hobby Lobby near me had veils, combs, headpieces, and lot more for under $10 each. I ended up finding my tiara at Claire's Boutique for under $15.

-Look for shoes everywhere. A good friend of mine got the shoes for her wedding on clearance at Walmart. I've bought bridesmaid shoes at Goodwill before.

I hate to admit it, but most of my $45 spent on accessories was blown on lingerie. *blush* I'm such a sucker for Victoria's Secret!

Feel free to add your stories and tips in the comments :)

Favorite Blog Post 2/1/08

My favorite blog post this week goes along with the wedding posts I've been doing. Mrs. Micah said something that I've been wanting to say for a long time in her post Bridesmaid Dresses - we need a solution.
Make sure you check out the comments, as well. Did you know that in the UK, the bride pays for the bridesmaids' dresses and shoes?

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Bridal Gowns

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about the bridal gown. My total amount spent in this area was $824.86, including alterations.

Bridal Gown

My biggest tip in regards to buying a wedding gown is to not let the dress shop salespeople scare you into rushing into your gown purchase. I have a friend who is currently planning a November 2008 wedding. She was in the dress shop and had found a gown she felt "so-so" about. The salespeople tried to get her to order the gown that day, saying that dresses can become discontinued at any time. She had eleven months before her wedding, and she wasn't even in love with this dress! Why on earth would she rush into ordering "just in case" the gown became discontinued?
I planned my entire wedding in 2 months. Yes, you read that right! I can tell you for a fact that you don't need to order your wedding gown eleven months before the wedding. Six months is plenty of time to get a wedding gown and have it altered and pressed. Take your time and find the right dress.

Some other money-saving tips:
-Ask to have your shoes (or veil, headpiece, etc.) thrown in for free with the purchase of your dress. These items have a really high mark-up, so the dress shop can afford to part with them if you're making a big purchase (like a wedding gown!). I got my shoes for free!
-Look at the sales and discontinued racks. I tried on two $100 clearance dresses at David's Bridal. Either would have worked well if I hadn't come across my "dream dress".
-Call around. Once you find the perfect dress, go on the dress company's website and find out all the bridal shops in the area that carry that brand. Make a few phone calls; one of them might offer you a better deal to get your business (that's how I got my free shoes).

Feel free to add additional ideas or stories in the comments!

Saving Money on Your Wedding, Introduction

As I've mentioned before, I am recently married. I got married to my husband on July 1st of 2007. The total cost of our wedding was $5,786. This includes all three rings but does not include the cost of our honeymoon, which we are taking in 4 days!

I would like to do a series of posts about putting together an inexpensive wedding. I heartily welcome comments from married people on how you saved money on your wedding. Please tell anyone you know who is getting married (or thinking about getting married) about these posts :)

My number one tip, which will carry over into future posts about specific costs, is to really think about what is and what is not important to you. It is ok to skimp on the areas that don't matter much to you. For example, my flowers were pretty low on my importance list. I figured they'd be dead and tossed within a week anyway. I opted for red carnations instead of red roses to be included in the bouquets. I'm fairly certain no one noticed and my bouquet still looked absolutely gorgeous in my pictures (see for yourself!).

My second tip goes right along with the first one. Have the wedding that you want. Sit down with your spouse-to-be and discuss what your ideal wedding would look like. Just because everyone has a Saturday afternoon ceremony with a dinner and dance reception doesn't mean you have to. If that is what you really want, great. But maybe you'd rather have lunch with your guests and have a quiet dinner alone with your honey. Or maybe neither of you likes to dance. Don't be afraid to break from tradition!

Third, set up and keep to a budget. I know this doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but it is really helpful. This way, you decide at the beginning which things are important enough to budget more money for. When you're later tempted to spend an outrageous amount of money on a tiara at the dress shop, you can look back at your budget and remember that you only budgeted $20 for a tiara because you were pretty sure you could find a cute one at Claire's.
I signed up for free at WeddingChannel.com and used their budget calculator. It was very helpful and especially fun when I could enter in a number that came in under budget! I'm sure TheKnot.com has a similar budget calculator.

Check back over the next couple of weeks and I will break a wedding down into parts and give some ideas, most of which I used myself, to save money on your wedding.