Frugal Fridays: Beautiful weddings on the cheap
I will be getting married in the spring of next year, and, needless to say, I am very overwhelmed by the exorbitant amount of money that can be shelled out for a wedding. We have a very limited budget, and I am adamant about not going into debt to have my "dream wedding." While most people tell us that we'll never be able to afford a wedding with so little money, I am determined to do so. I was hoping that you would be able to provide some tips on planning a wedding with a limited budget, on being frugal without looking cheap. Thank you for any help you can give, and thank you for the daily encouragement that you give through your blog! -Angel
Hi, Angel!
First off, congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Wedding planning and preparation for life as a wife is such an exciting time. Also, I'm very impressed with your desire to stay within budget and not go into debt for your wedding. Starting off a marriage with wedding debt is just plain unwise in my estimation.
I'm no wedding expert, but I have helped plan a few weddings on a budget - one of which was my own. From those experiences, I'll share with you a few thoughts. Take them or leave them as they are useful to you in your situation.
1) Plan ahead and start looking for deals now. We had 5 1/2 months to plan our wedding and this afforded us the necessary time to get everything we bought on sale - mostly at least 50% off. By planning ahead and figuring out what we needed and how much of it we needed, we were able to capitalize on the deals and sales over the next few months leading up to our wedding. Instead of buying everything all at once, we patiently waited until the item went on sale (which most items do over the course of a four month period) and bought it at a discount. I bought a lot of things at Hobby Lobby on their 50% sales. Every week, I'd check the ad online and then check it against my list. They also often have 40% off coupons which you can print out online and use on any item which is full-price. We bought all of the tulle and fabric for the dresses when it was on sale at 50% off or using the 40% off coupons you can get in the JoAnn's fliers. We were able to get dozens of yards of tulle and all the fabric and notions for very, very inexpensive this way.
Also, be sure to shop around when it comes to anything you need to purchase or any service you are going to pay for. Check at least three different cake decorators, florists, etc. before picking one out. The prices can often vary quite a bit and many of them will work with your budget if you ask them to. Instead of saying, here's what I want, tell them your budget upfront. "I only have $150 to spend on personal flowers, what can you do for that?" Etc.
For supplies you need to buy, think outside the box a little here and check around for places which might have very inexpensive prices - you'd be amazed at what you can find at dollar stores, BigLots, and so forth. Don't overlook these places. Also, check online. I found that some things - even when paying postage - were much cheaper to buy online than I could get anywhere else.
Since it seems like you have quite a bit of time to plan your wedding, you have a great advantage there in many respects.
2) Put your money where it matters to you. Just because someone else thinks it's important you have a really nice dress or some elaborate cake, doesn't mean you need to. Focus on what is most important to you and invest the most time and money there. Since I'm a very simple person, many of the traditional wedding things didn't matter to me. Jesse and I didn't really care whether or not we had albums of all sorts of incredible pictures, we just wanted to have a few pictures of us and our families on our wedding day, so we chose the least expensive photography service we could find. We saved a boatload of money on photography this way. Having beautifully-arranged personal flowers, on the other hand, were more important to me, and so we spent a bit more there (even though it was still quite inexpensive by most people's standards!).
3) Keep it simple. As I alluded to above, I like to keep things simple. I like things to be efficient and streamlined and organized. And our wedding was no different. We cut costs in a lot of ways because of this. Just a few areas:
-I wore my mom's wedding dress. No it wasn't any incredible dress and yes, it was dated, but it fit and it was special for me to be able to wear. Best of all, we saved a chunk of money and headache by me doing so.
-We didn't have a flower girl or ring-bearer. I know some people think these are absolute essentials, but since I didn't have any little nieces and nephews to fill the part, there was no point for me to have to try and come up with little people to fill the part just so that we could have them. So we didn't have them and we didn't have to worry about whether little Suzie cried all the way down the aisle or not.
-Instead of a fancy multiple-tiered cake, we opted for sheet cakes and a simple little two-tiered cake for the center of the table. Sheet cakes are much cheaper and as for the fancy tiered cakes, people are just going to eat them, so does it matter whether they're all fancy or just a simple sheet cake.
-We only had a cake reception. I know that in some parts of the country, only having a cake reception is like a travesty, but in the Midwest it's quite common and much more frugal than serving a big dinner to all your guests.
-We kept our wedding party small. Simple is good, remember? We were actually going to just have one attendant each, but we changed our minds halfway through in order to include our younger sisters as bridemaids. So, we had three each.
-In addition to me wearing my mom's dress, my sister made the three bridemaid's dresses. By doing this, we were able to get all three dresses for less than $100 - the normal starting cost of most bridesmaid's dresses.
4) Borrow things from others. If you're only going to use it for one day, why go out and buy it if you know someone else you can borrow it from? We borrowed lots of things for our wedding - many of which were actually offered to us and we gladly accepted. Some friends of ours had recently married off two of their daughters, and had had very large weddings for both. They asked if we wanted to borrow any of the leftover decorations and tulle they had from those weddings and that's where the majority of our decorating supplies for the reception hall and the sanctuary came from. It saved us another big chunk of money and no one could tell they were "recycled."
5) Utilize friends. If you know someone who is great at cakes, or decorating, or flowers, or photography, don't hesitate to ask them if they might be willing to help out with your wedding. Either they could do it free of charge as a gift, or give you a great discount. You also could consider bartering with people for some of these services. It never hurts to ask. Just be sure ahead of time that they really are experienced in the area and not just someone who has no clue but offered anyway. Otherwise you might have a major headache on your hands and that's the last thing you want to deal with the week of your wedding.
There's so much more I could say, but that is a start. I'd love to hear input and suggestions from others, as well!
First off, congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Wedding planning and preparation for life as a wife is such an exciting time. Also, I'm very impressed with your desire to stay within budget and not go into debt for your wedding. Starting off a marriage with wedding debt is just plain unwise in my estimation.
I'm no wedding expert, but I have helped plan a few weddings on a budget - one of which was my own. From those experiences, I'll share with you a few thoughts. Take them or leave them as they are useful to you in your situation.
1) Plan ahead and start looking for deals now. We had 5 1/2 months to plan our wedding and this afforded us the necessary time to get everything we bought on sale - mostly at least 50% off. By planning ahead and figuring out what we needed and how much of it we needed, we were able to capitalize on the deals and sales over the next few months leading up to our wedding. Instead of buying everything all at once, we patiently waited until the item went on sale (which most items do over the course of a four month period) and bought it at a discount. I bought a lot of things at Hobby Lobby on their 50% sales. Every week, I'd check the ad online and then check it against my list. They also often have 40% off coupons which you can print out online and use on any item which is full-price. We bought all of the tulle and fabric for the dresses when it was on sale at 50% off or using the 40% off coupons you can get in the JoAnn's fliers. We were able to get dozens of yards of tulle and all the fabric and notions for very, very inexpensive this way.
Also, be sure to shop around when it comes to anything you need to purchase or any service you are going to pay for. Check at least three different cake decorators, florists, etc. before picking one out. The prices can often vary quite a bit and many of them will work with your budget if you ask them to. Instead of saying, here's what I want, tell them your budget upfront. "I only have $150 to spend on personal flowers, what can you do for that?" Etc.
For supplies you need to buy, think outside the box a little here and check around for places which might have very inexpensive prices - you'd be amazed at what you can find at dollar stores, BigLots, and so forth. Don't overlook these places. Also, check online. I found that some things - even when paying postage - were much cheaper to buy online than I could get anywhere else.
Since it seems like you have quite a bit of time to plan your wedding, you have a great advantage there in many respects.
2) Put your money where it matters to you. Just because someone else thinks it's important you have a really nice dress or some elaborate cake, doesn't mean you need to. Focus on what is most important to you and invest the most time and money there. Since I'm a very simple person, many of the traditional wedding things didn't matter to me. Jesse and I didn't really care whether or not we had albums of all sorts of incredible pictures, we just wanted to have a few pictures of us and our families on our wedding day, so we chose the least expensive photography service we could find. We saved a boatload of money on photography this way. Having beautifully-arranged personal flowers, on the other hand, were more important to me, and so we spent a bit more there (even though it was still quite inexpensive by most people's standards!).
3) Keep it simple. As I alluded to above, I like to keep things simple. I like things to be efficient and streamlined and organized. And our wedding was no different. We cut costs in a lot of ways because of this. Just a few areas:
-I wore my mom's wedding dress. No it wasn't any incredible dress and yes, it was dated, but it fit and it was special for me to be able to wear. Best of all, we saved a chunk of money and headache by me doing so.
-We didn't have a flower girl or ring-bearer. I know some people think these are absolute essentials, but since I didn't have any little nieces and nephews to fill the part, there was no point for me to have to try and come up with little people to fill the part just so that we could have them. So we didn't have them and we didn't have to worry about whether little Suzie cried all the way down the aisle or not.
-Instead of a fancy multiple-tiered cake, we opted for sheet cakes and a simple little two-tiered cake for the center of the table. Sheet cakes are much cheaper and as for the fancy tiered cakes, people are just going to eat them, so does it matter whether they're all fancy or just a simple sheet cake.
-We only had a cake reception. I know that in some parts of the country, only having a cake reception is like a travesty, but in the Midwest it's quite common and much more frugal than serving a big dinner to all your guests.
-We kept our wedding party small. Simple is good, remember? We were actually going to just have one attendant each, but we changed our minds halfway through in order to include our younger sisters as bridemaids. So, we had three each.
-In addition to me wearing my mom's dress, my sister made the three bridemaid's dresses. By doing this, we were able to get all three dresses for less than $100 - the normal starting cost of most bridesmaid's dresses.
4) Borrow things from others. If you're only going to use it for one day, why go out and buy it if you know someone else you can borrow it from? We borrowed lots of things for our wedding - many of which were actually offered to us and we gladly accepted. Some friends of ours had recently married off two of their daughters, and had had very large weddings for both. They asked if we wanted to borrow any of the leftover decorations and tulle they had from those weddings and that's where the majority of our decorating supplies for the reception hall and the sanctuary came from. It saved us another big chunk of money and no one could tell they were "recycled."
5) Utilize friends. If you know someone who is great at cakes, or decorating, or flowers, or photography, don't hesitate to ask them if they might be willing to help out with your wedding. Either they could do it free of charge as a gift, or give you a great discount. You also could consider bartering with people for some of these services. It never hurts to ask. Just be sure ahead of time that they really are experienced in the area and not just someone who has no clue but offered anyway. Otherwise you might have a major headache on your hands and that's the last thing you want to deal with the week of your wedding.
There's so much more I could say, but that is a start. I'd love to hear input and suggestions from others, as well!
------------------------------
To join in Frugal Friday, just post a frugal tip or post on any subject of frugality on your blog, link to this post in your post, and then post the direct link to your Frugal Friday post below. Any link or post which does not adhere to these rules will be deleted at my discretion. If you do not have a blog, but have a tip to share, please post your tip in the comments section. And, remember the rules: Must be family-friendly. Thanks! I can't wait to read your tips!
posted by Crystal Paine at 7:52 AM
42 Comments:
Thank you, Crystal.
Our wedding was absolutely beautiful and under $500 for the whole thing, well minus our wedding rings. Our ceremony was held at my grandparents beautiful home, which certainly cut down on the costs. We had many family members and family friends who graciously helped with many aspects of our ceremony, including our ceremony being officiated by a good friend of my grandparents. I also managed to find my perfect wedding dress for less than $10 on a dept store clearance rack after several months of finding nothing in the fancy bridal shops. :o)
Crystal,
Would you be able to share some pictures of your wedding? It sounds wonderful, and since I'm getting married in just a week, I'm curious to see! Thanks :)
I would, Amanda, but I don't have any scanned into the computer. Our wedding was before digital cameras were very common and we didn't have one at the time. :(
A lot of wedding service providers (halls, photographers, etc) give you a discount if you don't get married on a weekend. My husband and I got married on a Thursday night (we just did a later wedding so people could get there after work) and the rental of the facility and such was a lot less than the weekend rate (I'm thinking nearly half). We also found it was cheaper (and nicer looking in my opinion) to have the cake decorated with fresh flowers from the florist than paying the baker to do the decorating with frosting. And I second making the bridesmaid dresses. Not only does it help monetarily, you can actually make modest ones which are sometimes hard to find in the stores.
Hi Angel!
My husband and I got engaged on Oct. 9th, and married on Nov. 19th of the same year. That's 6 weeks to plan a wedding! We also didn't have a ton of money to work with, but wanted a simple, elegant wedding. Here's some of the stuff we did.
1) Check your local bridal shops for sale dresses. I had to drive an hour for a bridal shop, but in the end it was worth it. Most bridal shops run a $99 sale on their older dresses...I got the dress of my dreams with a price tag of $599 for $99!
2) Make the bridesmaid/flower girl dresses if you can. Like Crystal said, it cost around $100 using 50% off JoAnn's coupons to make 3 dresses!
3) Believe it or not, the guys outfits could be BOUGHT for the same amount as rented. We opted for suits rather than tuxedos, so we went to Kohl's, and got a great suit for each guy for around $80-100. Each guy bought their own suit, and they'll be able to wear them again and again! Ties we got at neckties.com. They have a great selection for low prices.
4) Look at marthastewart.com for some really great wedding ideas! I used several of hers either from the wedding/party section of her website, and from back issues of her Wedding magazine. Most of them are do-it-yourself and very elegant.
5) We saved on photography by using a friend I knew that took great pics. I wanted good photos (a photographer myself!) but didn't want to pay $3000 or more for them! We paid around $500, and got beautiful pictures! Another option is to just have all your friend with digital cameras take lots of pictures, or to put disposable cameras on the reception tables.
6) I made all the wedding cakes myself. I used cake mixes from the grocery store bought on sale, all different kinds. Each cake had 3 layers, I made them up about a week ahead and froze the layers. I took them out two days before the wedding, and the day before the wedding that was my job. If you hate to frost cakes I'd find someone else to do this :P but for me it was relaxing! All the cakes (I made 7 or 8) cost around $40, including frosting. I used borrowed cake stands and placed them on a table at different heights, and it looked stunning! I tied them together by using only 3 colors of frosting ("my" colors, brown, peach and white) and placed fresh roses on them the day of the wedding.
7) Make your own flower arrangements (or have someone you know do it)! We have a local grocer who is a good friend, and has ordered roses for us before. I ordered 10 dozen peach roses special order, and got all of them for around $65. I made all the arrangements on my wedding day (again, I found it relaxing...if this stuff doesn't sound that way to you, delegate!!!).
I'm sorry this was so long, but thought some of it might be helpful! If you'd like to see pictures of our wedding (not the professional pics, just some digitals from friends), click here! (And here, to see the reception hall.)
We had a gorgeous wedding on the cheap. My suggestions: we made our flower bouquets and bought our flowers at Sam's Club a day or two before the wedding and made several beautiful flower arrangements, bouquets, corsages, etc for under $60.00. We had a New Years Eve wedding and used the pine from leftover Christmas tree branches as part of the center piece...cheap and beautiful, and added a very pleasant aroma to the reception site. I also recommend finding a photographer who will give you the negatives as part of the package...less money you will have to shell out in the long run. We found a photographer for $500 who gave us all the negatives and a beautiful album full of pictures and we were very pleased. BORROW, BORROW, BORROW from others, shop e-bay, keep it simple, shop sales, use what is in season, use friends for the services that you can (to do hair, make cakes,etc), shop around, and have fun doing it!!
Blessings,
Audrey
Thank you so much for this, Crystal. I am planning on getting married in about a year and a half. Yesterday, after talking to my mom about my future wedding, I went online to look up the average cost of an American wedding. Can you believe that the average wedding costs anywhere between $20,000 - $30,000?! That money could go toward a downpayment on a house! Quite frankly, I was horrified. There is no way my future husband and I could afford such a wedding, not including a fancy honeymoon.
Thank you, so, so, so much, for posting this. I will take your suggestions to heart. It is quite ironic that your topic this week was about weddings, as I was looking into costs of weddings for the first time yesterday.
We had a "cake reception" also. I did not want to burden our parents with the bill for a huge wedding so we kept it simple. Here are a few things we did:
1. Simple but elegant invitations at a local printer
2. A friend made our cake and charged only for the ingredients
3. Used the church fellowship hall for the reception
4. A friend made my dress as our wedding gift
5. Waited for a tux sale at the rental shop and ordered in advance
6. Wedding party was just the matron of honor and best man and ushers
7. Made own center pieces, flower arrangements, and favors
8. My father, a minister, officiated the ceremony
9. My husband and I and my SIL did the decorating
10. We did not have a rehersal dinner but took everyone out for icecream after the rehersal.
11. My husband had a friend video our wedding as a gift and a friend of his who worked for our local newspaper as a photographer took the pictures at discount.
We had a beautiful wedding...I would not have changed a thing!
Best of all, we enjoyed the day and the years following knowing we did NOT have any debt as a result of the wedding! By the way, we will be married 19 years next month!
Ruth, PA
We had a beautiful outdoor wedding... at our home. While we did rent the tables, since we had a huge outdoor front yard, ceremony was up in the smaller courtyard and soiree down below.
As a then caterer, did alot of the prep ourselves, but it was more like a family reunion with friends and family visiting for a week before... so everyone helped. That's actually the magical memories that stand out.
GP in Montana
I found my beautiful wedding dress at an actual bridal shop. It was on the discontinued (last year's) rack. The original price tag was $750 but had been marked down to $90, simply because they needed to make room for the new dresses that were being brought in the next week. It was the perfect style for me and just what I had been looking for but would NEVER have spent the original price for. My Mom altered it to fit me by simply taking the waist in a couple inches on each side and shortening the sleeves a bit.
We kept our wedding party small, too. We had a maid of honor, best man, junior groomsman and junior bridesmaid. Then my two little sisters were flower girls and my brother was the ring bearer. We found the all but the maid of honor's dress at Younkers for half price and got the maid of honor dress from the prom dress section of another store--also on sale.
For decorations, buy lots of tulle netting! I got yards and yards of that stuff for 50 cents a yard and used it to decorate the santuary by draping it over the tops of windows, making pew bows/sashes, etc. For the table decorations in the fellowship hall we just used glass bowls with floating rose candles (the water was tinted with food coloring to match!) and then sprinkled rose petals down the center, too.
Food was kept simple. All the ladies of the church brought a side dish and my aunts made a huge batch of barbecued meatballs and another batch of scalloped potatoes.
A word about wedding cake: We had a lovely two tiered cake made by someone in our church. It was cheaper to do a smaller scale layered cake and then she made two large sheet cakes with an individual rose bud on each piece.
I agree with Crystal's point about putting your money where it matters to you. For example, I got a simple wedding cake at the grocery store for not much money. I also got all the flowers there. Our grocery store makes really nice corsages and boutonnières, and I just tied a group of long-stemmed roses together for the bouquets. When thinking flowers, go with what's in season. Using silk flowers isn't necessarily cheaper unless you're going for an exotic or out-of-season flower.
We paid a lot for our wedding photographer ($1500) but that was very, very important to me (which included an engagement session, prints of all the pictures, and all the original files on DVD). I didn't want to ask a friend to do it because I knew I would be too picky and I could see it affecting a friendship. Another option is to ask a photography student at a local college.
The photographer was the only person we hired for the wedding. Everyone else - from the caterer, to the pastor, to the coordinator - were friends of ours. We accepted help gladly, and then gave modest gift cards to Olive Garden as thank-yous.
We had some friends who love to cook cater our wedding. We did afternoon snacks and had a very lovely spread. They made all sorts of finger foods, and everyone was well fed!
Make your invitations yourselves. You can buy kits at any craft store and even places like Target or WalMart. They are fairly simple yet look nice. For the RSVP card, have them either call or email an RSVP so you don't have to spend a lot of money on the stamps. You can set up free websites on places like theknot.com.
I got a beautiful wedding dress from ebay for only $130 new. I had a great experience with that.
That's all I have for now. :-) Hope you're wedding is beautiful!
Oh one other thing: Don't overburden yourself by trying to do everything. For things that have to be done right before the wedding day (like a wedding cake or arranging flowers), try to delegate them to other people if you can. I don't know about your situation, but we had a lot of people come from out of town and I found that I was spending all my time just fellowshipping with everyone! I tried to get everything done before the week of our wedding, and so that week I was able to relax, handle last-minute issues, and spend quality time with those closest to me.
but in the Midwest it's quite common -NOT 22 years ago in Ohio.Actually my husband was from Cleveland,Ohio.We had a nice wedding.It was a buffet aqnd a DJ.My dad gave me some money and then we paid the rest.I got married in Virginia and the wedidng was considered a BIG wedding.Not to my mother in law-it was awful and how could her son have had such a small thing.He had a younger sister and all I could wait for was her wedding to see what she was going to have.A sit down dinner,band,open bar and a dessert table after the meal and before the cake.
You gave wonderful advice!!
Our "splurge" for the wedding was the photographer. We got the basic package for around $400 which included some negatives and a large album. We bought several disposable cameras and handed those out to some of our older siblings (teenagers) who weren't in the wedding party and assigned them the job of amateur photographer. They loved having a set job to do and we ended up with a second album's worth of candid shots that they snapped not only of us at key moments during the wedding and reception, but also of the guests themselves. Priceless!
Decorations were simple, plus we got married a couple weeks before Christmas so the church was already beautifully decorated with a large Christmas tree, poinsettia plants, pine swags, etc. so we just added strands of white lights and white tulle. Beautiful but cheap! :-) A summer wedding I once attended used a very clever idea for decorating the "stage" area with flowers. Instead of large, expensive arrangements that could only be enjoyed for the day, the groom's mother bought several big planters/urns and some of those long, rectangular window box planters and filled them with petunias, pansies, etc. and had trailing vines coming out of them, too. Then they were placed around the stage, some on "risers" (a box with a length of fabric draped artistically over it) to give height variety. Tulle was swirled around the base. The effect was so lovely and the groom's mother confieded to me that she all of the plants had only cost around $30 at a local green house (even cheaper if you did it from seed yourself). The best part was that the bride got to take all of the planters to her new home with her.
Oooooh this so makes me want to get married!!!... well I wanted it already (though there's nobody loving me... so it's not going to happen soon... once it will I hope)... but at this moment even more... I agree with you that weddings don't have to be expensive... why would an expensive wedding be more precious? Someone is promising you to be with you forever (at least... that's kinda my idea of what's supposed to be the promise)... how could anyone need more?
My mom basically did the wedding. If you don't have an incredible Susie-homemaker-type mom, then look to your church family.
My mom made my dress. $85. Guarantee you know someone who sews.
My mom did my cake. But I bet you know someone who makes cakes.
My mom learned how to make corsages from a friend at her workplace, and then my sister and I made them. We also made my bouquet. Find out who does the flowers at your church.
The music was originally going to be done by our pastor's wife, but then she and the senior pastor went on a short-term mission trip. They since have gone back and are missionaries in that place. Another member of the worship team played instead.
A friend was going to photograph, but then decided to have an operation instead. Some aunts and uncles pitched in at the last minute to make us an album.
Had our church been renovated then, as it is now, and had we wanted a dry reception, which my parents would not have gone for, the church would have been available for the reception for nominal fees. We used a VFW near my parents' home.
My mom also catered my wedding. Potluck might be an option--just ask your female friends to each bring their specialty. The leftovers will get you through the week at least. Or, buy a freezer and get started now. Someday I hope to continue the tradition of buying a freezer in preparation for my firstborn daughter's wedding.
We decorated the hall mostly with dollar-store doilies and candles. Serving utensils and pitchers also came from the dollar store.
We did our wedding for around $1000. Our wedding was in September, which meant that fresh flowers were going to be a problem. We chose good looking fake flowers, and used lots of real greenery instead. My mil gave me free use of her English Ivy growing on the outside of her house, and we used it liberally, cutting back on the amount of flowers. The only real flowers were my bouquet.
Bridal shops often discount deeply during the fall, when wedding 'season' is over. I got my dress for $300.
We got the use of the church and fellowship hall for free, since we were church members. We paid the preacher $50 to perform the ceremony, but this wasn't required.
We did all the decorating ourselves, and made the food. In the South, buffet-style receptions are often used, so we went to a warehouse club and bought premade appetizers, fruit, veggies, and things like chicken salad for tea sandwiches. We found a friend who did both of our cakes for $120.
We borrowed from local churches the extra things we needed, like archways and candelabras. I lived in a small town, so this was possible. We bought the bridesmaids' dresses from a department store (Dillard's) for way less than we would have paid at a bridal shop. Having them made would be a good option as well. Another friend donated the flower arrangements after we bought the flowers, and a friend did everyone's hair on the day of the ceremony for free. We found a great photographer who did the pictures for just under $100, and he gave us the negatives and prints.
My grandparents honored us by giving us their first wedding ring set to have. We only had to pay to have them sized, and we also had my grandparents' initials and our initials engraved inside.
The bridesmaids and I did the rice bags ourselves, and my mom and I addressed all the invitations instead of using a service. We didn't do favors, and I picked out some inexpensive jewelry for the bridesmaids' gifts that they could wear both to the ceremony and afterward.
We got a great deal on tuxedo rentals, both because our wedding party was large, and because not many people are renting tuxes in September. We had exactly 101 days to plan our wedding from our engagement day, and dh says we should have written a book about it. 'How to Plan a Cheap Wedding in 101 Days', lol.
and when I said no-one loves me... I meant in THAT specific way of course...
We will get married next year in June and just started planning our wedding too.
I can only echo what others have said before about involving their friends. Two friends have already volunteered to bake our wedding cake as a gift. And I'm sure that this cake will definately taste everyone :).
Here in Germany people do not have a wedding party. We just have a maid of honor and a best man.
Ok we got married 18yrs ago so some things have definately gone up but some of the things we did were...my mom did the cake (her gift to us she is an accomplished cake decorator), my grandma paid for the flowers (they were beautiful and we used her florist so he gave her a good discount and even included some extras for the rehearsal for FREE!), my dad was a photographer so he did all the photos as his gift to us, the inlaws paid for the food as their gift to us, we only had wine for with dinner and champagne for the head table only (soda, milk and water were included in the price of the hall) so we saved tons of money there. We borrowed a friends fancy convertible for us to us instead of a limo, our pastor's wife took care of helping get everyone in line, etc(so no planner fees), only had four attendents (they paid for their own dresses), had four groomsmen plus my dad (they all paid for their own tuxs so my dh's was FREE), my dress was a clearance (priced at 50% off plus the week I bought it was another 40% off and it was the exact dress I had wanted since the eighth grade!!!) my mom did all the alterations for the girls dresses and for mine and for hers too. Fo rthe girls shoes and my own we all went to Kmart and bought cheap white pumps (I think we each paid $5 for them!) I was working for a wholesale jeweler at the time so I got a great deal on our rings and on the gifts ofr my girls and groomsmen( we got hte girls simple pearls and the groomsmen engraved money clips) Also my mom took pictures too and so did the inlaws and my grandparents and soem friends along with my dad's so we had tons of pictures for very little money! Dh and I paid for the hall and they gave us a cut rate since they didn't have to supply a bartender (my cousin poured the soda and milk) just put the wine on the table and the water there too. Also we had buffet meal not sit down and the band was frinds of my dad's so they played for food! Our invites were printed by another family member for the cost of the paper and ink. Our inlaws had just gotten a video camera so a friend of theirs used it and taped our wedding for us. We had a gorgeous wedding for cheap.
What a terrific Frugal Friday topic to post on! I applaud Angel for not wanting to start out with wedding debt. When you think about it too many times so much effort is spend on the wedding instead of what is really important-- the marriage!
We did not go into debt for our wedding and it did not cost a fortune. We used several of the tips Crystal mentioned and many others. Reading all the great comments is inspiring me to write a post about our wedding soon:)
Take care,
Trixie
Everyone has already given good advice, and we also did our wedding on the cheap. My girlfriend bought her wedding dress at Ross for $20. It wasn't really a wedding dress, it was just a simple white dress she loved. It was a casual-ish outdoor wedding, and she bought the dress during the winter, when a white sundress was out of season.
Call me cheap, but I used silk flowers for our wedding. :-) Since I had six months to prepare, it was one thing that I could make ahead of time and not have to worry about tracking down reasonable fresh flowers to use and then have to rush and turn them into bouquets and decorations right before the wedding. I found beautiful, real looking flowers at Michael's craft store and paid very little for them by shopping at the end of a season. I made a total of three bouquets and also used the same flowers to make wreaths for the flowers girls. I used small white flowers for the boutennaires (spelling??) and corsages. Very simple to do and there is a ton of info on the internet if you need directions on how to arrange the flowers.
My veil was a long length of tulle (50 cents a yard) edged in flat lace and then attached to a small tiara that was about $15. Similar headpieces that come pre-made would have cost me about $200 plus.
Oriental Trading Company has an online site that has a ton of wedding decor, etc. My favorite thing is these little white boxes to use as favors...you could mints or a couple chocolate kisses inside.
It seems to me the wedding of today have gotten out of hand. I suppose most gals would love a fantasy wedding, but at what a price! Also, it seems young people have come to expect the reception to be a big party. I want to celebrate too, but I hate to think of a young couple starting out in such debt, or the parents going into debt for a grand fete.
I noticed no one mentioned bands or d.j.s. But that sort of goes along with the "big party" idea that I find distasteful. I've been to one wedding with a string quartet, which was lovely. I know you can inquire at a local college with a music department for student musicians who are excellent. And students don't charge as much as professionals.
And while I'm not keen on pop music at the reception, I love the idea of a bridal waltz. I'd love to hear others' ideas on this.
Crystal, what great ideas regarding a beautiful, but inexpensive wedding! I sure wish I would have read this before our wedding 7 years ago... I shall pass on your great tips to other young ladies though!
I couldn't agree more about spending more in the areas that are important to you, and saving in the areas that don't mean as much.
To me, catering was #1, so I spent most of our budget on that. We had our reception in the church fellowship hall, and the caterer had all sorts of beautiful screens and such to make the place look gorgeous. They also supplied simple table centerpieces, so I didn't have to waste money or time on coming up with my own. The food and atmosphere was fantastic!
We saved on invitations by ordering through the tux shop. We received a 40% discount on the invitations by doing so. Plus, we chose invitations that also came with free, personalized notecards.
We had friends act as singers and instrumentalists.
I spent little on flowers (well, relatively little compared to most brides). Instead of huge bouquets, I had the bridesmaids carry 3 long-stemmed pink roses. Inexpensive filler made them look like more, and it was very elegant. I carried 12 roses. The corsages and boutineers (sp) for the rest of the wedding party were simple and not very expensive.
I didn't care about decorating the church. Pew bows are not my style, so the only thing we used for decor were the candelabras the church owns. The cost for the use of those was minimal, and it made the front of the church look beautiful.
Originally I spent $60 on a corset to wear under my dress. However, I returned it and simply had my seamstress sew bra cups into my dress. I don't remember what she charged for it, but it was very little, and I wasn't stuck with an expensive piece of lingerie I would never wear again!
2 tips from our wedding: (1) LOCATION. I was from Dallas, my husband from a small town in Mississippi. The cost of everything was literally HALF in his hometown versus my big city. So we opted to have it there, since most of my family was out of town anyway (did it really matter where they had to travel to?). (2) TIME. We had our wedding at 11:00AM and served a light buffet lunch afterwards (sandwiches, fruit, finger food). Much cheaper! Also, this is a GREAT option if you have family members who feel strongly about alcohol at weddings (another huge expense!). Unfortunately, some members of my family would have felt stilted had they not been allowed to indulge at an evening reception; at an afternoon tea the expectation for indulging is not there, so we avoided it all graciously!
We had a simple wedding, although we had a hard time convincing our families that it was what we really wanted! The ceremony was at our church, and the reception was outdoors in dh's grandparent's yard. We had the VFW hall as a backup in case of bad weather and we used their tables and chairs outdoors. Dh worked for a farmstand and was good friends with the family that owned it, so they gave us meat for wholesale prices, and we picked the vegetables ourselves for free. They also grow flowers there, so we got them either free or very cheap (I don't remember), and one of the ladies who owned the farm arranged them for us. We asked around at church and borrowed a few grills and got people willing to cook the meat for us. They cooked while the pictures of the wedding party (just maid of honor and best man) and families were taken (also done outdoors). We also found someone to make a lot of salad with the vegetables. We borrowed a huge pot from the bakery where we got the cake to cook corn on the cob, and used it with a rented gas burner. We had a small fancy layered cake for display and cake cutting pictures, and sheet cakes for everyone to eat. We had a tractor pulled hayride to the reception instead of a limo. We didn't have any music or dancing. We got a kit from Staples for DIY invitations with very pretty cardstock and envelopes. Dh had his military uniform, so no tux or suit was needed. We had a relative who was a professional photographer, so she gave us a deal on the pictures. My dress was the most expensive item, it was from a vintage wedding dress store. It wasn't the wedding that our families wanted us to have, but they all said they loved it afterwards.
We did our wedding inexpensively also. I got my dress for $20--it was a white dress and not a "wedding dress"--and I added beads and embellishments I got at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. My mom and aunt did food for the reception. We had ham and turkey sandwiches, fresh fruit in season, and hash brown casserole. The cake was two-teired and we had sheet cakes to supliment.
The favors were a big hit! I made salsa and applebutter and canned it in 4 ounce jars. We put labels on the top with our names and the wedding date and tied with ribbons in our wedding colors. People still talk about what a great idea it was. I did these in advance as I had time.
Dana
About 18 months ago I helped our neighbor decorate for her wedding. She ordered dozens and dozens of roses from Walmart in their single stem rose bouquet...rose, baby's breath, and leaves...and then took them all apart to make the bridesmaid's bouquets, centerpieces, flowers for the pew ends,a bridal arch of roses over the doorway, etc. I think she paid $2 or $3 for each rose and greenery. The only problem was she didn't have enough help getting it all done last minute. My husband and sons were graciously pressed into service and helped pull it off.
One of my daughters is planning to use small, antique pitchers bought at yard sales or antique shops to for the bridesmaids to use tocarry their bouquets (sweet peas from the roadside if the season is right). Since "Mr. Right" hasn't arrived yet, she figures she has time to look for the pitchers. She wants them coordinating, not matching. Very unique, but I think it's a cool idea.
I love reading your Frugal Fridays posts. Could you please remind people to link to the Frugal Friday POST and not their blog home page? There were 7 out of 30 that weren't. Sometimes I get to reading them late and by then they have posted several new posts to their blog and you have to hunt for the FF posts. I have a slooow computer on a slooow connection and every little bit helps. Thanks.
:-)
Thought I'd share a bit on what we did to save money...though I'd also agree that decide what's important to you and spend money on that, and save on the other things! There a lot of good ideas alread posted -- here are some others:
- We were married in July and bought all of our flowers from the farmer's market in town. We spent less than $50 for all the flowers, including my bouquet, the flower girl's and maid of honor's bouqets, as well as the reception flowers. (We had friends and family make simple arrangements for the reception.)
- Since neither my husband nor I really like cake that much, instead we had a potluck dessert. We asked our local friends and family to bring one of their favorite desserts as their gift to us. (e.g. a pie or a pan of bars or...etc.) Lots of people commented on how much they liked that -- and, our friends brought *amazing* desserts.
- Finally, someone asked about music: In the weeks before the wedding, we put together a play list of our favorite music on our laptop computer. (All legal!!) Then, we brought our stereo to the reception site and hooked up our laptop to it. We had enough music for the entire reception (with some dancing included at the end).
Thanks Crystal for the thread!
My husband's family and mine could not afford to help us out much with our wedding, so we had to pay for most of it ourselves. Here's a few ways we saved money:
1. I found a dress that fit me perfectly and didn't need alterations so I got it $100 off the sale price just for buying it off the rack!
2. We used silk flowers for all our corsages, boutonnieres, and bouquets-we found a wholesale floral shop to purchase these and spent less than $100 on all the flowers.
3. Our photographer was an amateur who photographs weddings on the side, but all our photos turned out beautiful. She only charged $200 and we got hundreds of pictures. I got them developed myself and got triple prints for us and both of our families, then put them into albums for gifts after the wedding.
4. Two friends from our church did all our reception food..one used to be in a catering business and the other was in culinary school. Their gift to us was our reception food, so we didn't have to pay anything.
5. We had a violin trio and pianist that were friends of ours to do our music.
6. We bought invitation kits from Hobby Lobby's wedding aisle and made all our invitations, response cards, and wedding programs ourselves. It was time-consuming but saved us tons of money in the end, and they turned out beautifully!
There are tons of ways to save money. Like Crystal said, decide what's most important to you and you'll have a wedding that makes you happy. Don't worry about pleasing everyone else..there were lots of people that questioned why I wasn't having a dinner reception, but when they showed up at the reception and saw all the elegant food that our friends put together, they were very impressed!
We had a couple of weddings in our family and we did alot of the things that you talked about.
One thing we did not do was have a small wedding party for my sisters, we all made the bridesmaid dresses. I think mine was $15 for the fabric and pattern.
A friend for a wedding present catered the reception, it was really nice!
One thing is check your local community colleges.
My sister got her cake made by someone there for really cheap, compared to what they wanted in the stores and it was beautiful!
Also, she found someone who did photography on the side of his job and he did an excellent job.
At my wedding and my sisters, we found people are always asking "What can I do to help?" We asked good friends to bring a large salad of some kind to the reception. We made for my wedding a couple of things that were finger foods, but more main dishes and then had the salads. It was tons of food and people enjoyed being able to help!
If you have any Christian Russian communities in your area, alot of them women decorate cakes beautifully. They love weddings....it is a huge affair to have a wedding for them. Mine was very simple for them!
We've been married 7 years this October & we managed to cut costs quite drastically & yet still had our dream wedding.
-I found my dream wedding dress in a sale of ex-hire gowns.A lady from our church fitted it for me.
-We got 3 bridesmaid dresses in the sizes & colour I wanted (dark emerald green)all 2nd hand.
-My creative husband made us a very unique wedding cake. We don't like fruit cake, so it was a chocalate mud cake.
-We saved heaps on flowers.We paid about $40 AUD for fresh peachy cream roses from a local rose farm, & my hubby & a creative lady from our church,made lovely ball shaped bouquets & corsages from these.They even threw in 2 bunches of red roses as a gift to us!
-Photos were important to us, & our Pastor recommended a professional who charged very little for lots of great photos.A friend did the video.
-We bought pretty invitations from a newsagent & made our own order of service booklets
Claire
I also had a very inexpensive wedding that was beautiful. As Crystal said spend your money where it will mean the most to you. For me that was my gown because I knew I would want to pass it on to my future daughters, even if they want to alter it somewhat. My uncle is a very talented photographer so he did all my pics and for a wedding present they had them all developed and made into an album for me. I did not want to stand in line for hours for formal pictures so he took a few and then we handed out disposable cameras for every one to take pictures, so you get a lot of variety too! you can find plenty of sales and coupons to get these cheap. I had 15 tables set up and put one on each table. I put a note on them to explain what they were for. You dont want little children to get them! My mom bought a very inexpensive bow maker and made all of our bows, she also is a great cake decorator and made the cake for me. I had fresh flowers put on the cake. It was beautiful. I had a friend do all of my floral arrangments for me. I also bought flowers that were in season, so they were much cheaper. My bouquet was simply a large lilly with some babies breath and ribbon. My bridesmaids all paid for their own gowns and hair, and they carried a single rose. I bought candle holders at the dollar store, and tea lights. We decorated them up with some ribbon and those were our centerpieces. We rented a hall from the legion which was very inexpensive, and they provided the tablecloths. For the meal, we had our closer family each bring a dish and we did kind of a potluck. A friend of the family was in charge of overseeing the flow of this. Our bridal party got us the limos for a wedding gift. I think if you ask around you will find plenty of resources and it does make family members feel great to help out. Also check into your local high school vocational program if they have decorating or floral arranging classes. I have a friend who teachers at our local vocational school and they love to do these types of things for practice, and they do a really nice job at a great price. Perhaps you could call someone who does cake decorating classes and see if she can recommend someone to do your cake!
HI Crystal,
I just went to my cousin's wedding yesterday in which they spent $50,000 dollars on. I could not believe that anyone could spend so much money.
This was a Coptic Christian wedding and was in a cathedral. Everything was amazing but it seemed that the focus was all wrong. I think that if the bride remembers that God is to be the center of the ceremony as well as the marriage then she will be much more content with a simple wedding.
I have two daughters so far and I am looking forward to finding creative ways to make their weddings special with out spending the same amount as a new car on them. I still have a while since they are only 6 and 1 but my recent wedding experience has really made me think about things.
I found programs and invatations at a local Christian book store. They were very simple, but nice looking with a rose spray across the front and a line that said "To Love and to Cherish" across the top. You could order them in different colors and they came blank inside, all ready to be loaded into a computer printer. There were matching RSVP cards, too, which were very helpful. I believe that all told, I spent under $50 for inviations with RSVP card, envelopes and programs.
Everything else from attire, to food, to decorations was done very cheaply, but the effect was beautiful. My attendants wore long black velvet dresses that we got from Chadiwcks.com on sale for about $40 each. I figured that was the best choice since it would be something classic they could wear again, it would match with any flowers, and they could easily find a pair of black shoes already in their closet. Alot of people pick pastels for their wedding, but I think it's so much easier to go with a dark or jewel toned color! I ended up going with deep red roses, babies breath and green trailing ivy for the bouquets, so it went together very well. For the guys, each one rented a tux and we got a discount because it was near prom season. In retrospect, I wish we would have just gotten them a nice suit from a department store since even with the discount we could have probably found something comparable that they could have worn for years after.
My suggestions would be to keep your wedding party small. Also, make a list of the top things that are most important to you and then be super frugal with the rest.
There are also alot of wedding craft websites you could check out.
Great tips, Crystal!
My college roommate and I did the flowers for our other roommates formal ceremony (she had one small ceremony)
We found a wholesale florist (who happens to supply our costco, so you could ask the manager at a local costco our sam's where they get their flowers.), and my parents have a beautiful 2 1/2 acre yard with lots of flowers. We were able to get some greenery (vinca) as well as stargazer and other oriental lilies from their yard. We found fresh roses at the wholesale florist incredibly reasonably. And we used coupons for hobby lobby and other crafts stores to purchase the florist supplies we would need to assemble the bouquets. It was HARD being florist and bridesmaids, but it was wonderful to be able to bless her with the fresh bouquets she wanted. I have no doubt that the flowers would have cost $2000 plus through a florist... we did it in 10% of the cost. There were 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen, and we had several bouquets.
So If you want fresh flowers, don't be afraid to ask friends our neighbors if you can borrow their garden for your big day... scope it out ahead of time to see what will be available to you, then order "fillers" or "must haves" wholesale.
I know what we spent is more than many budgets, but that was largely due to the size of the bridal party.
Just wanted to share my experience with saving monehy on flowers! Unfortunately, I did not have a digital camera at the time...
Those were GREAT suggestions! I attended and helped with a friend's wedding this past weekend, so it was fun to have that comparison and to think about ways to keep my own "someday" wedding economical. :)
I recently got married to my high school sweetheart. We both have large families and wanted to make sure to invite everyone. It wasn't easy to have the kind of wedding we imagined with over 200 guests but working with a limited budget.
We got married at a local country club, and we were able to rent the place at a really really god price. From my experience it is best to talk the person in charge of event planning at the place that you want to get married at. Just be open about your budget and find the times that are slightly less busy ahead of time. If the price seems fair book it right away. Another good way is to be a little flexible about the place. Look around before sending any invitations and find your three favorite places. Then choose the one that is most economical.
2. Catering services
Simply have 3+ catering services bid on your wedding. This got us a really good price and the food and service was excellent.
3. Attire
My wife was really picky about the wedding dress (it's understandable). She wanted a wedding in a sage green theme. I work for an on-line necktie retailer and luckily we had the exact kind of sage green tie in stock that matched the wedding theme.
Good luck with everything!
Hendrik
Post a Comment
<< Home