Money Matters
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Tips on wedding with a budget
Just got engaged, and am starting to look around for ideas,but I am on a tight budget! Any tips on how to save during this planning? Even if its just a cheaper photography etc..Thanks 
Re: Tips on wedding with a budget
Limiting the guest list will reduce the costs over all. (fewer invites, fewer meals, smaller hall, etc.)
Don't spend a lot of money on favors. In my experience, most of them usually get left behind or thrown away quickly unless they involve food.
Look into having your wedding on an off day/time such as Friday night or Sunday afternoon. At our location it saved us over $1000 to have it on Sunday rather than Saturday.
There is a Budget Bride Bio over on the Knot, I don't have the link off hand.
I'd also suggest the book Bridal Bargains, it has a lot of good advice.
Write down two or three things that are critical to you and spend your money there and do less in every other area. For us, it was photography that was most important. We had a destination wedding, but we chose to forgo some luxuries even in that arena so that we could have a great photographer.
Sure, decor is important, a nice location is important, etc., but for some people, a sit-down dinner may not be very important, so they choose to go with a buffet. Or perhaps a live band is not important to you at the reception when a DJ can come in and make it work just as well.
The key is to just sit down and figure out what is most important to you and budget down from there.
Prioritize what's important to you. For example, I want pretty flowers but decided I could just do my own and it would cost me less than $150 I was quoted for just my bouquet. But I wanted a delicious cake so I splurged there instead.
Keep the guest list small.
My motto is "it's good enough." Whenever I get wrapped up in the weeding hoopla and want something pretty and fancy, I just say "No, this other thing is good enough and half the price." It brings me back down to do reality pretty quick.
I had it bookmarked! Sorry it's not clicky.
http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/user/default.aspx?UserName=BudgetBridesBio&m=1?
Where will the wedding be? Check out your local board for specific recommendations for reasonable vendors in your area.
All you really need to get married is a fiance, wedding certificate, officiant and/or courthouse. Everything else is really optional (chocolate fountain, personalized napkins, open bar = $$$). Good luck!
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oncewed.com and preownedweddingdresses.com
for finding used wedding dresses
- Use all your contacts and family that offer. We had friends of DH's family do the catering for the cost of groceries - and fed 200 people for about $6 pp.
- We had amateur photographers. That might scare some people, but we got two friends that were into it and had the equipment. They've both done other weddings now... one guy is up to charging $900. We were happy with their work.
-Skip the crap. No one wants a wedding favour with your names on it. Buy some candy. Keep it simple, focus on what YOU actually care about.
-Stay out of wedding stores/fairs/etc. They're overpriced. Look for similar products without "wedding" in the name.
I might be a bit biased, but if it's one thing you DON'T want to skimp on it's photography. Cheapie photogs are cheap for a REASON. I would say put more money towards that and cut back on "extras" like favors or a really expensive cake.
Pictures are the only thing you really have left to remember the day....don't skimp where that is concerned.
1. Serious venue research for best deal on catering.
2. Friend did wedding photography (he's a pro).
3. We ordered the flowers online and did them all ourselves before the wedding. I got 250 black magic roses for DIRT cheap and they were gorgeous.
4. I did EVERY paper item myself - programs, invites, table cards etc.
5. Anything else I could make myself, I made. Veil, card box, flower girl baskets, etc.
We had a gorgeous Saturday night seated dinner reception at a 4 star hotel for really cheap.
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-Ask Knotties in your area for items they don't want after they are married. I picked up all of my center pieces for nothing because the bride had so many left over, she just wanted to get them out of her apartment.
-Only invite people you want there. Don't feel pressured by IL's or your parents to invite people. Because then your guest list can get out of hand, and cost more money.
-I didn't spend a lot of money on invitations, most people throw them away anyway.
-Do food, candy or cookies for favors if you decide you need them.
-Use your friends or families contacts to get good deals.
The best tip, no matter your budget, is to determine your priorities. Is it food? An open bar? A great photographer? Beautiful flowers? Pick a few things that are most meaningful to you and allocate your budget by priority.
This makes it much easier to say "no" to splurging on things that really **aren't** priorities for you (but that you'll still find tempting).
Other budget ideas: getting married on a Friday or Sunday, getting married during the slow season (varies by area) and (the biggest budget helper) limiting your guest list.
GL!
RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH.... thats the biggest thing.
you can find deals anywhere if your really looking into stuff. everything for my wedding was either on sale, having a special, or i had a coupon for.
when i signed up for my photography i ended up getting an extra photographer & more pages for my book for free because that was the special going on the month i signed with them. I got my cake made from a lady my mom knew through a bowling league. she makes wedding cakes for a living but because my mom knew her we got a discount there. I got invites from davids but had 2 coupons for them so i saved big there. (professionally done for the cost of me doing it myself) I priced it out. You also have to think about the time doing things might cost you. sometimes that does outway getting things done from someone else. My flowers I got from a business the my cake lady knew. she recomended them & because i ended up using them i got a discount there as well. also i didnt have the girls carry roses. by different in season flowers you can cut costs greatly. the guys also matched the girls flowers. I had presonalized flavors done for cheaper than most favors because i found a site that the cost for buying in bulk was cheaper than another site for the same product & much better quality. For the wedding party gifts. instead of getting one pretty expensive gift for each of them why not put a basket or bag together of cheaper stuff but looks just as nice. example. you can get a cute bag & fill it with stuff for an at home pedi for the girls. you can find all of that stuff for cheap. look for coupons in the paper for certain pedi products. also buying them while on sale.
I hope that helped you some. also the girls are right if you have ur wedding on a friday or sunday you save soooo much more.
Don't get caught up in the hoopla that the Knot is. You will save tons that way.
Also, check out this blog www.thisyounghouse.com
She has lots of low budget, but big style tips.
I had 2 years to plan so I shopped lots of sales. Also we have a craft store called Michaels nearby that puts coupons in the Sunday paper for 40% off of a single item. So once a week I would go and get my one thing with 40% off. I used coupons for invitations, bubbles, tulle, candle rings, even my tossing bouqet.
Oh, and I agree with pp. You can save lots if you don't do favors or if you do something homemade. We had half of our bubbles and our candy kiss/spoons left over.
Also, don't waste money on printing a ton of programs. We printed 300 to be safe, and had about 300 people there, but had almost 200 programs left. Big waste of time and money.
Good Luck and Congratulations on your engagement!
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My number on tip is use your resources. When I got married sooo many people said let us know what we can do to help.
So My cousins wife made the cake.
My dads friend was our photographer.
We got married in my home church (offten if you are a member the cost of the church is cheaper.)
We had the reception at a friends party barn, where we borrowed tables, chairs and linens from my church.
We had friend at the church make a spaghetti dinner for the rehersal dinner.
My uncles directed traffic/made sure there were enough parking spots at the barn (since there really was not a parking lot).
I found my dress off the rack and had a friend for church alter it and make the veil for free.
My brother designed the invitations, I shopped around to find the best prices on printing.
We made our own wine and just had wine, beer (kegs), water and pop to drink at the reception.
As flowers for the church/reception we just used potted mums and let our grandparents take one home at the end of the night.
For table decorations my dads friend worked at a bar where they threw away tea light candle holders at the end of the night in stead of taking the time to wash them. over a year he save 200 for us for our "favors" altough no one took them so I gave then to a neighber who is getting married soon.
Moral of the story use your friends who say let me know if you need help.
Contact a local art school or college photography club to see if you can get a photographer. They will do a good job and it will be less expensive.
Pick the relevant town that is the cheapest. We were planning to wed in the town in which we live, then realized we'd save over 20k moving it to where my parents live (just 70 miles away). Also look at off months if youre not planning to get married outside. We wanted a ballroom at night. It doesnt get dark until really late in the summer and it cost more money, so we picked march.
Bridal bargains is awesome (I got mine on half.com for just a few dollars). Dont get too wrapped up in the knot. The making it personal board is awesome for creative ideas for making things but sometimes just buying it is actually cheaper. Price out both options before committing. I bought my wedding dress off the rack for half price. Its perfect- it only needs to be hemmed. Before buying a dress that doesnt quite fit because its a good deal- check on the realistic alteration costs.
Keep in mind that sometimes finding a place that includes food and bar can be less expensive than picking it all out seperately. This has surprised me quite a few times. Also, the more ornate the room, the less you have to decorate.
Craigslist and e-bay! You'd be ASTOUNDED at what you can find for pennies on the dollar.
If you don't want a super-fancy wedding dress, try department stores. I found a gorgeous long, white, raw silk dress at Lord & Taylor for $200. Not super-bridal, but bridal enough for me.
Heirlooms. We used my parents' cake knife; their names & wedding date on one side, ours on the other.
Just wine & beer at the reception instead of open bar.
Totally random, but my "bridal purse" was actually a white satin children's Easter purse from Target. It was $7. And my flower girl's dress came from Target, too - pretty fancy and $25.
Ditto to the other folks - personally, I wouldn't skimp on photography.
Prioritize. ?We wanted the proofs from our photographer, so he negotiated us into a bigger, more expensive package in order to get them. ?We were okay with that, since we wanted the proofs/rights (this was actually DH's want). ?I totally cut into the flower budget to do this, because we were willing to make centerpieces out of candles instead of flowers. ?In the end, we had regular small CP bouquets becuase we managed to get good deals on a few other things.?
Type of reception / number of guests - to do a reception in the church hall with fingerfoods of cheese and meat slices, rolls, and appetizers that you find in the frozen section of costco, you can probably feed 80-100 people on $1000. ?The sit down reception at a hotel in my area (not the ritzy hotels, just like a regular business/family hotel) ?was $80-$120 pp with no alcohol, so one table's worth of people for $1000. ?So it's not just the number of guests, but the style of party you throw for them as well.
In general, I found most of the salespeople and vendors that I met with were very responsive to my needs. ?I would sit down and say I wanted something simple yet elegant, probably didn't need the flashy extras, and was looking for a good value. ?Then I'd take their suggestions and evaluate ideas based on our priorities. I learned to tell them exactly what I liked and disliked, and why - this really helped them help me. I also learned to steel myself for my mom's suggestions - she can get carried away and fell in love with everything the salespeople would discuss or show us, and then she'd keep pitching the thing they were selling to me as if she worked there herself. ?I purposely did not bring her on every wedding-related outing.
I did try on dresses at a trunk show at a bridal boutique out at the beach (read: $$$$) where the "good value dresses" were the ones under $3000. ?Now I know that's a reasonable price for a wedding gown for many people, but I refused to fall in love with any dress, and I kept searching until I found something that worked for me and that was within MY personal budget. All in all, that search lasted about three weekends and spanned only four stores, so it was actually much less effort than I thought it would be.
I hope this helps.?
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