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I moved it to Money for you. :)
For me, so far the biggest "YAY!!!" moment has been when our photog emailed us and offered 40% off any of her packages in honor of her husband's 40th birthday - I was licking my wounds from another photog bailing on us [like, instead of sending me a contract to sign after we talked on the phone - yes, I'm planning everything from afar! - just never emailed and then never responded to my 3 emails in 2 weeks after that :'''( ], and getting up the courage to 'start over'. Kate had been our (very close) second choice, but slightly more expensive than the other photog.
Her timing was impecible, and we were able to upgrade a package and still come in $400 under budget! Who would've thought, all day coverage by 2 photogs, a photobooth + album, engagement shoot (all images on cd), 12 page album, $150 album/print credit, and great pictures, all well under our $2000 photog budget!
It was pretty exciting. Kind of made my day. :)
well - i've posted before that we are petty lucky in the fact that our caterer is my husband's company! he's a manager of a catering company and his boss and him are figuring out how he'll eventually pay for the catering (possibly taken out of his check for a while after the wedding?)
also - we are working with a financial planner and I have been buying gov't i-bonds ($50 / piece) through my paycheck for the last few years...he suggested stopping that and doing stock through work instead and so I took all the i-bonds I had saved up (about $650) and went and bought our wedding bands with it! (granted, I had to pay $200 more out of our pockets to finish it off...) but that was a great thing, not to have to worry about our rings!
Ours was with our caterer too. We are using a guy who does catering as a hobby, so we were expecting our bill to be around $2000. He quoted us $200. I damn near fell out of my chair! I still haven't figured out how he could even break even for $200, but since it was so small FMIL and FFIL offered to pay for the whole meal! So we upped the photog package! Yay us!
mine was my dress... originally listed at $599 but when I tried it on they were discontinuing the style so it was listed at $299!!
FH's godmother sent us a bazinga check out of the blue and put a note on it that said "for wedding purposes only - I suggest you upgrade something". We upgraded to topshelf liquor and the floral budget.
Awesome!
My dress, which I bought as a sample, ended up being way under what it would have cost to buy it new--It retails for $4500, and I got it for $3000, with alterations and dry cleaning included in that price. Our photography package is also a really good deal I think. We're getting 9 hours, 2 shooters, hi res disks, online gallery, rights to photos, 400-600 prints of the photos, an engagement shoot, 2 parent albums and an album for us for $6500. Not bad for NYC, I think.
Well, my dress budget was ~$1k and I found an ivory prom dress for $150. :)
Like others, I came in way under budget for my dress (budgeted $2k, spent less than $600); of course I've already spent these savings in my head (will be going directly to my wedding band...I figure they're both something for me to wear!)
Our caterer surprised us. His price was pretty inline with the other quotes we received, but the dishes he's preparing are WAAAAAAAY above what anyone else offered. Instead of picking a menu like we did everywhere else, he interviewed us and proposed a menu based on his "read" of us and our budget. I'm super impressed with what he came up with and have no idea how we're getting the variety and selection for the price. He's awesome!
Our was our rings, the jewelry gave us a buy one get one ring free deal :) :) :)
our caterer price-11 bucks per head, really surprised with that! also my photographer- 400. she just started doing weddings, so were gedtting an awesome price!!
Our photographer. We booked him right before he started getting more publicity and clients, so now his prices are $1,000 more than what we booked him at for our package. Even his new prices I think are still crazy low for his work.
My florist. I thought for sure I would have to DIY my floral centerpieces but I found a wonderful florist who is essentially doing it for me for the same cost as if I would have purchased the flowers all on my own and did it myself.
My dress. I found it in a bridal shop but ordered it through Netbride and saved a lot of money on it.
My wedding band! Someone gave it to us...and when I say gave, I mean they left the ring in a box with an unsigned note outside my dressing room door while I was getting ready for a show! It's the exact ring I wanted- a white gold half-eternity band with three rows of tiny diamonds, and it's the perfect size. We're still kind of shocked, but we happily put my ring money towards photography!
Omg, gidgett---that is INCREDIBLE!! I hope good fortune comes that person's way, what an incredible gesture!
I love reading about everybody's great finds!! I hope I find some more during this process and can come back to this thread with even more good news. :D
My wedding band was $123 from iweddingband.com and I was able to order and wrap favors for all my guest for about $1 a piece. (Flavored Kit Kats from Japan)
My dress and shoes were a huge steal - - meaning, my mom bought them. LOL. I budgeted $2,000 for them, and got them for $0.
:) Casablanca Couture, 1901 and Kate Spade Newlywed, respectively.
My dress :) I budgeted $800 for the dress and alterations and I bought my dress for $330, barely need alterations (just take in the straps) and got some cute shoes for $93!
We got a great deal on our photographer - since we booked her, she has been featured on the Knot and now charges about $1,000 more than we paid!
We also got an amazing deal on our catering - upgrade to a plated dinner for free (usually $3 per plate) and 20% off our menu selection!
flowers. I budgeted $1500-2000 and the florist gave us a $1000 quote. Also my dress I budgeted $1500-2000 and again I got it for about $1000. Also the dj I budgeted $1000 and I got him for $700. So thus far we are doing quite well. Yay for small towns. (I'm only 1 hour outside of las vegas)
I am the most pleased with my invites. If I got them through the company they would have been more than $10 per invite. I am getting them down to $4 by ordering all the paper my self, using a printer that I work closely with for work (he is giving me a major discount) and assembling them myself.
Gave me more $ for something fun... like a photo booth!!!
My E ring and our wedding rings - FSIL's ILs own a jewelry store, and give us what we want at cost. And, get this - we got my E ring at cost when they bought it 10 years ago. Yay!
Also, my dress was a lucky find - I got it from another bride, so it's less than half the retail price, and she's a really similar size and height, so I won't need extensive alterations like I was afraid I would.
Lastly, cake - I never considered making my own cake(s) when I made the budget, so realizing that I wouldn't have to worry about that cost was a huge relief!
My dress - I budgeted $1000 and only spent $600. My BM dresses also went on sale right before we got them, so that was a nice surprise for us.
We also got some under budget quotes from florists, won STDs for free, and spent less on wedding bands than we planned. Of course, we went over budget on a bunch of other stuff, so it sadly just about cancels out in the end.
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So, I just reviewed the catering menu from the super-classy vegan restaurant in Manhattan that I hope to have do my catering and am amazed. We can do a four-course dinner for fifty people for <$2000, including service and everything (but not booze, unfortunately), absolutely no problem. I was expecting it to cost WAY more, especially for the quality of the food (lots of local, organic stuff, rare spices, etc etc). YAAAAAY!
How about you? Were you stunned at what a great deal you found/did anything come in remarkably under-budget?? Do share!
ETA: Note--I am a moron because I never successfully post my threads into the board I want to on my first try (I was hoping for this to be posted into "Money" but neglected to select that option). Ah well.