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Was curious whether it be from a Newlywed or Planning Bride what decor details you were skipping or passing up on!
Planning Brides: What are you skipping and why??
Newlyweds: What could you have done without or saved the money on?
if I didnt list one above, mention it below, I'm sure I missed tons!
Thanks in advance for the shares! xo
I skipped favors because I normally toss mine.
I actually didn't pass on any of others. They were all small, cheap, and DIY, but I figured guests would notice them?
We skipped favors and family coursages/bouts. My parents did not want personal flowers so that's why we skipped those. The favors we figured no one would want or notice and we were right.
I feel like everything else was well executed and appreciated. Although there's a funny story. When going through our pictures we noticed there were personalized napkins at our cocktail hour with our names and date. We didn't order those and to date no one has fessed up to ordering those. We would have never spent money on that and actually didn't even see them at the cocktail hour. Those were totally not necessary.
We skipped the programs and menu. If I get to do over, I'd skip the family bouts. No one seem to care. Both moms asked me if they had to wear them, I told them we got the flowers for them, but if they don't want to wear the flowers, it's fine. One of the dads bout ended up on a guest.
I skipped Programs, Menus and Fancy Linens. I don't feel like the programs or menus were missed. I would have loved Chivari chairs but I couldn't justify the cost.
ETA: We skipped corsages for the moms. I just really dislike them. Both moms got swarovski pins to wear with their dresses that doubled as their gifts.
Wow thanks for all the input thus far! =)
I too fear that corsages for mothers and grandmothers are so boring! Would love to know what you ladies were giving instead like @LGenz:. Love the pin idea.
I already wanted to buy my mom a brooch for her gown! =)
I didn't skip a lot of details, but I definitely minimalized and cut back what we did do. Instead of a $800 wedding cake, we spent $200 on a bundt cake buffet. Instead of a multi page super craftied up program, we made a single sided simple cardstock one. Instead of $20 florist bouts and corsages, we DIY'd them for about $5 each. Instead of a $2k rented vintage photobooth, we made a "faux"tobooth for less than $100. Instead of renting upgraded linens and chairs, we used the beautiful simple things provided by the venue. We skipped some things that just weren't important to us, though... like personalized random stuff, like cocktail napkins, and limo/vintage car transport.
We are not doing programs, flowers for the parents or the favors. I never really keep the favors. We don't feel that the programs are necessary and none of our parents really care about the flowers so that was okay with us. We also skipped having alcohol at the reception. As much as we like to toss a few back, we couldn't justify the cost. Also, there are some people you just don't want drunk at the same time if ya know what I mean! lol
We're skipping quite a bit just because they aren't important to us and we don't want to keep something we don't care about just for tradition's sake.
off the top of my head, this is what we have sofar:
Limo - not necessary when everything is in one location
Engraved/monogrammed anything - not our style
Toasting glasses/special cake cutting set - we can borrow glasses and knives from the caterer
Champagne toast - every wedding I have been to that has had this (most were dry so it was a non-issue) has gone to waste. Plus we aren't the toasting types anyway.
Guestbook - unless we find something super spectacular, we are skipping this. I have been a guestbook attendant at countless weddings and it's like pulling teeth to get folks to sign so we're considering just elminating it
Introduction to the reception - I have only ever heard of this online and we don't see the point. We are having everything in one location and if someone doesn't know who we are, they won't be invited.
Photobooth - not our style and not something our guests would use either, especially at a wedding
* Programs - I think we're going to skip them since we're having a secular ceremony. :)
* Toasting glasses/cake cutting set - Same for us. We don't need these.
* Garter toss - I might still wear a garter, but we're skipping the toss for sure.
The only things we did were table numbers, a guestbook, and colored linens.
The linens we did because they were like $20 bucks to add a little color for all the tables. The caterer suggested it and for the price and considering how lazy we were being with everything else, I figured it was worth it.
We printed the escort cards/table names using Microsoft Word at my office. Super lazy. The guestbook was a journal from Barnes and Noble. I printed "Guestbook" at work and put it in a $2 frame from Target.
We were SO decor-challenged and seriously nobody noticed or cared. I am definitely glad we had some sort of guestbook, though, since it was nice to read what people said.
not 100% sure but so far I'm skipping favors, table numbers, ceremony program & menu cards..
might do the favors.... maybe?
the other stuff like table numbers and menu cards .sound silly to me
We didn't do a limo, fancy cake cutting tools (we borrowed a friend's), garter/toss bouquet, toasting glasses, champagne toast, liquor (we had beer/wine only).
We did do the photobooth and I don't regret it one bit. It was a HUGE hit, and pictures we received back were hilarious!
for those like @pandaboo: skipping table numbers and/or seating charts, are you doing OPEN SEATING?
We skipped the menu cards/boards as well as the seating chart/table numbers. I know the second one freaks a lot of people on the bee out, but I've only been to 1 wedding with a seating chart in my life and it was OOT. It's just not the norm around here and people have 300+ guests weddings with open seating and it's never an issue.
I was surprised that I ended up doing programs. I had a Vistaprint groupon to use up that I didn't want to go to waste, and it was the last thing I could think of paper-related. We did a simple one page, front and back printed program. Ended up costing me $17 for 100. Woo!
Of your list I only skipped menu cards (we had a buffet). So I guess I did most of the details but because I DIY'd everything it was cheap. Favors were chocolate covered pretzels (less than $50 to make enough for 100 people), I DIY'd programs with the leftovers from the invitations I DIY'd. Centerpieces were non-floral. I did bare minimum on flowers, just bouquets and bouts, and corsages/bouts for the moms and grandma-- $300 budget for the flowers total. I also cheaped out and found a cake place to do our cake for 100 for $300.
I did skip some of the bigger stuff though-- no transportation, no videographer (we used a flip cam), had a friend DOC, no dj (we did an ipod reception), and we found a place we could supply our own alcohol which meant our total alcohol budget was only about $600.
A menu card wasn't necessary for us. We also skipped on bathroom baskets.
Looking back, I would have done a more simple version of our escort card. And I would have printed fewer programs -- lots of leftovers.
I absolutely would not have gone without table numbers and assigned tables. Our favors were pretty simply and inexpensive to start with, so no changes there. :)
@CorgiTales: How did the FLIP cam work out?! My brother's friend was offering to do it for us!
@Gemstone: Ooh, good one. We're also skipping the bathroom baskets. It'd be a nice touch, but I can't justify the money and time spent!
@CupCakeMeg: yes I am .. no seating chart for us. only reserved seating for our parents, and bridal party.
We're skipping on seating assignments/table numbers. My brother and sister both did assigned seating at their respective weddings, and said that no one sat where they were supposed to sit, so it was just a big headache. Figure we'll just reserve a couple tables for immediate family and elders, everyone else can sit wherever they want. BTW I come from a traditional Korean background where assigned seating at weddings is either nonexistent at or a new thing that the older generations dont understand or follow.
We skipped family corsages, and only DH and the dads had bouts. We used chair bows for table runners ($2.50 vs. $11), and that was about it. I made all of the paper products myself, so that wasn't a huge expense.
@ivysupersonic: I remember that from the weddings I attended in Korea. I've been to stateside weddings without seating assignments and they were a complete nightmare. Just my experience though.
My Korean cousins will just have to get over their assignment...they'll be placed together anyway.
@techie: Thanks for your input. Maybe my family is just nuts haha. My brother's and sister's weddings were the only in our family to ever do the seating assignments, and theirs were by far the most disorganized. All of the elders were confused, the kids were sitting wherever they wanted, and everyone treated it like open seating anyway. They both told me it wasn't worth the time they spent coming up with the assignments and escort cards. All of my cousins on the other hand did open seating, and those all ran very smoothly.
@ivysupersonic: My family's like that too. If they saw a seating chart they would freak out.
@ivysupersonic: on the same boat as you.. I'm brazilian my FI is vietnamese american, and if we did a seating chart no one would follow it anyway.. when I told my mom about seating charts she was like what's that? why would you tell people where to sit? that's stupid blah blah hahaha and pretty sure his side of the family would ignore it too or just be more confused..
so yeah open seating :)
We cut out programs and menu's. They were not missed at all.
We splurged on fancy tablecloth rentals but skipped the chair covers. I actually never liked the way chair covers ooked but I LOVED our tablecloths and they went great with our centerpieces.
We ordered bout's and corsages for our ceremony readers and our parents, but they never even put them on. In retrospect, I wish we had just done bout's for the groommen and ringbearer an skipped the corsages. At the very east, we shoud have skipped the flowers for the readers.
We also did church flowers, most of which were unnecessary. The two arrangements in the front were nice, but our church was very pretty to begin with and pew decorations didn't really add anything so we could have saved the money.
We cut out bathroom baskets, a garter(didn't toss one), cake serving set. We were given a nice set of toasting flutes as a gift, which is the ony reason we had them.
No guestbook for us. I've been freaking out trying to sort out a wishing tree for the last week, and it's just not worth the stress! Nobody signs those things anyway, right?
Married bees: did you wish you had a guestbook? Should I put something random and plain out there, just in case?
@ivysupersonic: Yeah, it really does depend on the guests. :) My FI's family are quite traditional and expect seating assignments. I don't want the seating to get too clique-ish in an open seating and leave out the few guests that won't know anyone there. Mainly because I was one of those random guests a couple times and it really sucks.
At my cousin's weddings, it was a free for all and it worked because everyone knew each other.
We went without favors...I think most favors are kind of tacky so we skipped them and ordered rita's water ice for our guests instead. We did have menu cards, seating cards, programs, guestbook, etc but that's because I was able to DIY them for very cheap. Menus cost me only about ten dollars to make 100. Small touches like that are super cheap but add so much to the atmosphere!
@CupCakeMeg: Um, kind of just okay. But honestly we didn't really set it up for success haha. I didn't really value videography much so I just handed my flipcam to my (free friendor) DOC and asked her to tape the ceremony for me. But we had our dog at our wedding and she ended up having to hold him and walk him around bc he was being so loud, so the video is kind of shaky and from farther away because she was in the back for a lot of it dealing with the dog. I mean the quality is okay--- you can clearly see us and hear what we're saying and that is all I cared about. But it isn't anything like a professional video. I think if I cared more I could have made it better though by having it set up on a tripod or having someone in the front row or two tape for us. Also-- if you're going to do it yourself ask the person to tape the other stuff like speaches and cake cutting and dances. I didn't even think to ask anyone to do that and my DOC was busy doing other stuff. Kind of wish I could watch the speeches again :)
We didnt have a menu card, colored linens or chair covers.
I recommend skipping the favors. We put jordan almonds in these cute bags and candles. Believe it or not only half the people took/ate the almonds and most people did not take the candles. We ended up with tons of left over favors. We are good if we use eletricity though! ;D
We did all the little touches mentioned in your poll except the ceremony programs. I didn't miss them but so glad I did everything else! Surprisingly guests really liked the menus. I put 2 at each table and I got lots of nice comments on them.They were good for people with allergies so they could request items not be put in there food. I'm big believer that decor gives the wow factor when they walk in. We spent alot on or centerpieces and was well worth it! chair covers are must in my eyes if your venue doesn't provide them. Also make sure to do a seating board as I've been to two weddings without them and it is so uncomfortable sitting with people you don't know. With one at least guests know where they are suppose to be! We also upgraded our wine And had a chocolate fountain. Those items werent needed !
We did most of those... Ceremony programs b/c our ceremony was complicated and I really like listing our parents and other important people. We skipped menu cards, but since we had so many people and only the exact amount of space, we did place cards and table numbers (but not a seating chart,) we did very simple centerpieces, and at the last minute decided to do a photo guest book. We did flowers for all the important people, but skipped fancy chairs or table covers. (Plain covers were provided by the venue.) And we had a photobooth, sort of as a favor, but we also decided to go with that only very last minute.
We aren't skipping too many details. I wanted a cute menu board, but when I talked to FI about it, he said 'Why? they already know what they're eating.' So, we're skipping it.
I'm DIYing many details to cut costs and to keep it 'us'... fruit tart stand, letterpressed invitations/programs, rose shaped buttermints, linens, quilt table embroidered sign, table numbers/escort cards, beaded garder, cufflinks, memorial candles... There's more, just can't remember any right now.
Really appreciating and loving all the input!!!
Hopefully this can help with some of our decision making! xo
So far I am skipping ceremony programs.. Since it's going to be a short ceremony that isn't religious there isn't anything to follow along to..
No Menu Cards/Boards since we are having a buffet and they can look at the food to try and figure out what it is :P
No boutainnaires for the groomsmen, only pocket squares..
I am doing table numbers and saying who will be at which table.. But I'm not assigning seating, they can pick out where they want to sit I don't care ;)
My venue gives standard toasting glasses/cake cutting sets so I don't need to buy expensive ones..
I do have to do chair covers though since the chairs that come in the venue are ugly.. I am doing a guest book picture frame for people to sign instead of a typical guest book..
At our family and friends cocktail reception we skipped: programs, menus, seating charts/table numbers, coloured linens/chairs...but that might be more due to the type of event (not a sit down dinner, traditional reception).
I thought about doing a menu board but realised that by the time the guests had time to look at the board, the servers would be passing the food. lol So, I skipped that.
Our venue has gorgeous dormer windows and, as the wedding was in December, we wanted candle light and arrangements in the window sils. I was quoted over $500 by a couple of places to do 3 fairly large arrangements to go in the windows, which I thought was crazy. We made them ourselves (ordered flowers and pruned trees at my parents' place). I also would have loved flower arrangements on the cocktail tables, but just couldn't see paying for them. I decided to borrow my mom's silver/silver plate bowl collection and hand-glittered a billion pinecones and just piled them in the bowls. Surrounded by candles, they looked really nice. I also made a kissing ball arrangement for a weird empty area with Dollar Store flowers and more mini pinecones.
We had to do family flowers (non-negotiable with my inlaws), so couldn't cut that. I found that the floral budget was one of the biggest things and if you can figure out non-floral centrepieces, you can save a lot of money.
I just focused on atmosphere...and when it got down to the wire, I started chucking stuff that I felt wasn't for my guests' comfort or for me to achieve that atmosphere.
I wish we could have skipped ceremony programs but the church lady insisted. I work as an art dealer and I still am ticked that the programs are in the ceremony pictures - total waste of money and time and made people's silhouettes look sloppy in the church photos.
I skipped favors because I couldn't afford them. I've noticed at weddings that people leave them behind and/or they clutter the tables and wreck a beautiful table setting.
We had multiple entrances to our reception so many guests missed the vintage postcard signing and didn't learn about it until they saw the cards in photos afterwards.
No one is going to judge you for having extras or leaving them out - it's YOUR wedding, not theirs - try to remember this as you go forward. :)
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