Where to cut costs? Experience from other bees wanted.

• ohra
• 2 years ago

I haven’t gotten married (yet!) but you can get nice invites on minted or the like and do RSVPs on your weddin website, cutting possibly hundreds of $. I would also cut out favors, unless they are really cool (which usually = $$$), most people don’t care or won’t even take them home. i think photobooths are fun but not worth the money- have props or a photo station and most people will take their own selfies/pics for their social media. Unless you have a LOT of out of town peopld, transportaion is also a waste of money. 

• sweatergal007
• 2 years ago

Oh yea no photobooth. No transportation because it was impossible to coordinate everyone so I feel like that would be money wasted. Also splurged on photographer but still got the middle package not the most expensive one. 

• knotyet
• 2 years ago

• Wedding: October 2017

Easy things to cut on:

Flowers – Take the faux flower route, and look for someone local to arrange or help you arrange. Lot’s of people have artistic talent with this, whether or not they sell their services normally.

Transportation – Skip a limo or carriage and just drive your own vehicles.

Hair/Makeup – Do your own, or ask a friend whose hair and makeup is always on point. I’m doing my own makeup, and my MOH’s younger sister is doing my hair. It’s free, and less stress, and I don’t have to worry about new products with which my sensitive skin will react.

Favors – DIY or don’t do them at all. They’re certainly not mandatory.

Videographer – You can skip this and just rely on your photographer, or invite guests to send their shots to you. Hashtags can be on signs to let guests know how to tag photos and videos on social media.

Shoes – You’ve picked your dress and made a deposit. That’s the main thing guests will see/notice/remember in regards to your apperance. Wear sensible flats or heels from Payless or Ross/Marshalls type store. Skip out on that designer footwear expectation some have.

Accessories – Veils are expensive and jewelry, the garter, hair pieces, and undergarments can add up fast. Again, use reasonably priced stores to find these accessories and feel free to skip some. You don’t have to have a veil, you can go with a flower crown. You can get your garter at Hobby Lobby or your local department store. You can look for sales. Hobby Lobby offers 50% wedding supplies and the floral department on alternating weeks.

Borrow – Don’t be afraid to ask others to borrow. For my wedding, we borrowed the centerpieces, chair ties, and other supplies.

• sweatergal007
• 2 years ago

You can skip favors too. I only bought them bc I  thought it would be cute as the place card thing but it didn’t pan out but I could have skipped it. 

• MrsCoffeeSnob
• 2 years ago

• Wedding: October 2017

I diy’d where I could. I did artificial florals for my wedding and made all of the bouquets, boutonnières, and center pieces. I bought artificial leaves for the arbor. We’re not going to do favors, but the sweets table will end up being used as “to-go” treats. My dj is $600 for 5 hours and dance floor lighting. I did a shit ton of shopping on amazon; like gifts for the bridal party, table cloth liners, etc. my wedding band is from Etsy. My dress was from Dillard’s. 

• ma7bride
• 2 years ago

• Wedding: March 2018

I think the places you can save and DIY depend on the skills that you are already confident in, such as doing your own hair/makeup or designing invitations.

We got save the dates from vistaprint and they turned out awesome, but I wanted pocket invitations so I’m doing a DIY thing from cardsandpockets.com where you have to glue the invitation to the mat and then to the pocket enclosure.

• sofabean
• 2 years ago

Skip the favors! Use vistaprint for invites. I find that they’re pretty cheap to begin with compared to other sites and they usually have sales. You can try to catch the 50% off sales. I think they happen twice a year?

• ctbxbee
• 2 years ago

cbryns :  I think this is going to always be hard to answer because different people prioritize different aspects of their weddings, and are going to be willing to spend more in certain areas than others.  I am not married yet, but I have found that our expenses are creeping up.  I didn’t set out with a specific budget in mind, but was hoping to keep the wedding somewhere around $15K for 150 guests. I figured if we could keep the venue to the $10K my parents have generously agreed to put towards our wedding, that we could get the rest for somewhere around $5K…who was I kidding???

Places that I have cut corners:

1.  Season.  I am getting married at a waterfront venue in late March.  My venue is more expensive, even starting in April.  This way, I can have a Saturday night wedding at a beautiful venue for a huge savings. We wanted to get married more quickly anyway in hopes of starting a family soon.  I am also finding vendors are willing to be a bit more flexible because they aren’t busy at that time of year, so I have picked up a few other discounts then too!

2.  Flowers.  I would definitely talk to your florist about less expensive options.  My high school job was working in a flower shop, and flowers were pretty high up on my priority list.  I *could* have DIYed the flowers based on the skills I have from then, but it was a priority to me to not have to do these things in the days before my wedding, nor take care of set up day of.  Do a mix of floral and non floral arrangements. All of my flowers put together for bridal party, family, ceremony decoration and centerpieces are $1500.  Yours sound high…and I live in an expensive part of the country.

3.   Dress.  I bought my dress and David’s Bridal and it was super reasonably priced.  I could not have mentally justified spending more than $500 on a dress.  Plus, I plan on buying my veil and slip etc. on Amazon for a tiny fraction of the cost.  I think Bride’s always look beautiful, and so it is not somewhere I am willing to throw a ton of money.

4.  Photographer.  I am getting just a single photographer and doing a first look and taking family photos about an hour and a half to two hours before the ceremony, and letting the photographer leave shortly after the cake cutting.  Instead of a videographer, we are just going to ask friends and family to shoot video of some of the more important parts of the wedding and share with us after.  I would like to put together a 10 to 15 minute highlight reel of the wedding afterwards from our professional photos and our amateur video.

5.  Cake.  I ordered a one tier cake, that we will put on a cake stand, and having sheet cake in the back.  We are serving the sheet cake as dessert.

A splurge…

Transportation for guests.  We will have a large number of out of town guests, and we are going to be providing school buses as transportation from the train station and our hotel block to and from the reception.  It is a splurge because people can provide their own, but I want my guests to have a great experience at my wedding. And the total cost for the school buses should be less than $1000.  Very much worth it!

Good luck and happy planning:)

• jessielee13
• 2 years ago

• Wedding: February 2018

Still planning my wedding! But one way we have decided to cut costs is by doing a DIY photo booth. My fiance and I have a nice Sony camera (like the Nikon DSLR cameras) so we’re setting it on a tripod in front of a backdrop rather than renting a professional photo booth. All we have to do is buy a $30 remote to our camera so guests can press the button themselves when ready! If you don’t have a nice camera, I’m sure you know someone who does. Big $$$ saver