When planning a wedding, its really easy to spend a lot of money very quickly, here are some tips and tricks I have been using to help us save little bits here and there on our big day.
ebates
1) Figure out where the money is worth it to you.
We dont want to be stressing over anything day of. We also don't want our families to have to be running around. For us it was worth it to find a venue that would take care of everything for us, catering, cake, chairs, security, bar it's all included. While that does come at a premium, we have found ways to save in other places. But in the end for us, having it all done in 1 place was a must.
Things that were not a must were the extras, 1) a really fancy cake doesn't matter to us, so what the venue can provide is plenty. It certainly isn't worth the $1500 price tag many places were quoting us, 2) Extra special chairs and linens-- are the exactly what I would have picked? NO, are they included in the rental? Yes. Are they good enough? yes and my bet is no one will notice. 3) Photo booth, while it would be cool, we don't need it. 4) Live band--again cool, but the DJ is a great option and is saving us time in searching and money.
2) Don't just go with who your venue suggests. Unless your venue requires you to use certain vendors, don't do it. We saved 70% over what our venues suggested vendors quoted, and I am so excited about the people we have and are working with.
3) Fake flowers are the way to be. Our are paper, and I will let you know how that turns out, cost wise it's about 1/10th of real flowers. Many of my friends used fake flowers and sold their centerpieces after their wedding making up some of the cost after their big day. Real flowers die. Fake flowers you can keep forever and no one will be allergic.
3a) if you must have real flowers, get them at the local farmers market or don't tell florists it's for a wedding--center pieces for a meeting, reunion or other event. Many florists add a "bridal" mark-up, because brides will pay more for the same thing.
4) Etsy.com my flowers, save the date stamp and invites all came off etsy, as did my gifts for our parents and my bridemaids. I saved $4 an invite over what I could get made for me locally, and it was custom. I got all of the vases from etsy as well. My florist is making a custom order for us, and because it is so big she took a large % off and gave free shipping...which leads me to number 5
5) Always ask for a discount. The worst thing anyone can say is no. For our invites, we didn't need all the pieces, but we did need them printed. I got a discount on both. Our flowers were a discount because we ordered so much. I got gifts for both of my parents from the same place--discount. Our DJ had a cancellation, so I got a discount without asking. One of the women we got our vases from was local to me, and let me pick them up instead of paying over $20 on shipping.
6) Use your resources, between theknot, weddingwire and my new personal favorite Thumbtack.com--which while not a wedding website, has helped me to get our DJ and my hair stylist for the day. You should be able to find what you need.
7) Call on your friends. Everyone has friends who are good at something. I had a friend who does calligraphy-- she did our invites, basically for next to nothing + some free advertising. I have a cousin who also does graphics, she will be helping out with table assignments and place cards, my sister-in-law had her mother make the centerpieces. I made the save the dates myself, I printed the labels for mailing myself (thanks mom for the printer), I stamped everything, every bit of sweat labor saves money.
8) Keep your guest list to a number you can afford. Everyone has different needs to invite great aunt Gertrude and her whole family, we kept ours to a number we were comfortable with. Which meant our closet family and dear friends. Not every person whose wedding I have gone to was invited, and that's okay. A few invites were added to make other more comfortable, but other than that its the list we wanted and nothing more. --A trick to succeed at this, pick a venue with a small capacity. That way if your family is making a stink, you simply state that your venue doesn't hold that many people.
9) Ebates Follow my link and get $10 for free. Ebates allows you to earn cash back for the things you already are purchasing for your wedding. We have gotten over $50 cash back. Etsy gets cash back, Macy's, target, kohl's, and thousands more get cash back, you can even get cash back on your honeymoon, hotels and some airlines.
