Best ways to save money while planning a wedding?

Question

Ive started planning my wedding/thinking about planning it and the best ways to save money or "cut corners" where the most money is taken. We want something in the fall. My bridesmaid suggested we MAKE the remember the date magnets instead of buying them, how else can I save when it comes to everything I CAN DO at home

Thank you!!

Answer 1

1 way to save money here; get married in a small, intimate ceremony at city hall. Then, have a nice reception/celebration.

The magnet idea is cute btw...

Answer 2

The biggest way to save is to cut your guest list, because that is the most expensive part of a wedding (location costs, catering, and alcohol).  As far as making your own save the dates, I wouldn't advise it because it would take you a ton of time and not save that much in the long run.  Actually, I found an AWESOME website when looking for mine, where I designed my large magnets, customized with our picture.  It cost me $30 for 25 magnets (1 per household/couple, we are only sending them to family, bridal party, and closest friends, not everyone who is attending the wedding).  If you like, it's www.123print.com

As far as what you can save on, I am making my own menu cards for the reception, and I heard that some people save a lot on making their own invitations.  Also, my mom volunteered to make the bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, since it is easy to arrange flowers and can cost you $150-$200 PER BOUQUET at a florist.  If you have the storage space and time to transport them, you can also make your own centerpieces.  Google "wholesale flowers", and you can order your flowers online and then arrange them yourself.

See if your hall will let you pay per person not including alcohol, and buy your own booze.  That would probably save a lot of money, as well.  Especially, if you just buy a few bottles and put them on each table.  Whatever you do, however, do not do a cash bar, people really hate having to pay for their own drinks when they are attending a wedding.

Good luck and congratulations on your wedding! =)

Answer 3

If you have a HOBBY LOBBY store in your location that have a lot of wedding things you can use and they are good about having 50% off sells as well. They also have silk flowers to make your own bouquets if you didn't want the real flowers used at your wedding. I had my bouquet made for about $15 and it's amazing! I was also unsure if I wanted to wear a veil or not so I bought one from there that was on 50% sale for $6 instead of $150 from a bridal shop, I also got my tiara from that same store for $15 instead of $100 at a bridal shop. But they have all sorts of stuff to use for the reception, decorations for the ceremony, flowers for the guy and girls, cake toppers, etc.... Hopefully you have a HOBBY LOBBY in your area, I love that store!

I am also using family who can do things for my wedding as a gift to me for free so if you have any family/friends that can do that then use them!! They are me best resources for saving my parents money.

Answer 4

instead of haveing an expensive cake make cupcakes. shorten your guest list and find friends or family to do the catering, music, pictures and stuff like that. you can make your own invetations and thank you card and you could even have fake flowers  from the dollar store that you arrange yourself.

Answer 5

You have the same problem as me.  

Answer 6

I am saving a lot of money on my wedding by calling in favors from friends and family members who can offere wedding-related services.  For instance, my brother is a professional DJ with all the equipment, so he has agreed to DJ the wedding for free as his wedding gift to us.  Also, my fiance's friend is a graphic designer who is an amateur photographer as well.  He has agreed to do our wedding photography for a very small fee (like $100 I think.)  We got my mom's BF ordained online so he could perform our ceremony.  Not only is it more meaningful to us, having someone we know and love say the "magic words," but it will also save us an officiant's fee.  

In lieu of a tiered wedding cake, I am having a cupcake tower, which is very trendy right now and can look just as elegant and pretty as a traditional wedding cake- plus it's way easier to serve (no cutting!!).  I'm going to order about 100 cupcakes, so each of our guests can have two if they like, and it will only run me about $100, which is about $200 less than even the smallest wedding cake at the bakery I'm going to.

We found our ceremony venue, a darling little garden patio by a small lake, through our local Parks and Recreation department.  Since it is in a government-owned park, the rental fee is way cheaper than a private botanical garden would have been.  Also, since it's outdoors in a picturesque location, we won't need additional flowers or decorations- we can just let the natural beauty speak for itself, so that saves money on decor.

Instead of a big, formal ballroom reception, we have opted for a casual, laid back party at my favorite Mexican restaurant.  It's a great little mom-and-pop restaurant, privately owned, and it has this beautiful indoor patio atrium area, which they are letting me rent for FREE as long as I pay for the cost of catering, which I was going to do anyway.  Because of this, it is in our budget to serve our guests a full dinner buffet AND an open bar without going over our budget.  Yay!  Also, the restaurant has an in-house mariachi band that I'm going to rent so they can serenade our guests over cocktails and dinner before the dancing gets started.  

Another tip I wanted to share with you is that we got our wedding rings at a reputable jewelry store that is going out of business.  Because they are trying to clear their stock, they are offering their jewelry for as much as 60% off.  We paid only about $600 for my lovely diamond wedding band which was originally $750, and my fiance's titanium band, originally $125, was only $50!!!  So we saved a lot there.  The store's called Whitehall Jewelers, and if you hurry over there in the next week or two, you can get great bargains too.

I know I've gone on very long, but I have some more money-saving tips for invitations and save-the-dates.  First of all, of course you can make your own save-the-dates.  Some friends of mine just did that, and if you have a good enough color printer it looks professional!  If you want to make them into magnets, hobby stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby sell sheets of "magnet backing" paper.  It's easy to attach paper save-the-date cards to the magnets.  I personally got my save-the-date magnets off of theknot.com when I got an e-mail from them about a sale they were having.  They were only $5.99 for 10 of them at the time, and I think they're usually twice that!  So sign up to receive e-mails from The Knot, and maybe they'll be on sale again soon.

When it comes to sending out your save-the-dates, get creative so you don't have to pay additional postage.  For example, I am getting married next September, so I have decided to send my save-the-dates out inside my holiday cards this December.  I always send holiday cards anyway, so I was already planning on spending money for postage on that.  If I stick my save-the-dates in with the cards, I'll be killing two birds with one stone!

For the actual invitations, the DIY invitation kits they sell at party stores and Target are really pretty easy.  Plus, I happened to find the ones I wanted on sale at Party City.  They were half off- I only paid $10 per box of 25 invitations, and they're usually about $20 each.  Check Party City at regular intervals, as they go on sale in the winter months when there aren't as many weddings.  You can then either print them yourself using the software download for the right template, or you can just go get the printing done at Kinko's or Office Depot.  Since you don't have to buy the actual invitations from them, it will still be a lot cheaper than going through a paper company for the invitations themselves.

Well, those are all my tips- I think I'm a good source because I'm having a 50-60 person Saturday night wedding, complete with full buffet dinner, free alcohol, and entertainment, all for under $5000.  And that includes rings, passports for the honeymoon, attire, and flowers!!

Answer 7

be very strict about your guest list and keep it as small as you can.  instead of hiring people get a friend to do music.

Answer 8

Make your own:

save the dates

invitations

programs

favors

Also use flowers sparingly.  No floral centerpieces, they add up so so fast!  I'm getting married in the fall and we're gonna put apples in glass fishbowls and put a few votives around them.  We bought all the stuff for one and it was about $6 total.

It might seem like a good way to save money, but DON'T try to do food or the cake yourself.  Hire someone.  The mental stress is not worth the money.

Get an Ipod and speakers and have a friend play the songs you want.

Answer 9

I'm trying to do this too, all of our budget has gone on the venue/meals for guests etc so I am cutting corners as follows:-

Making my own Save The Date Cards as well as the actual Invitations.  I bought all the stuff for them in Hobbycraft.

Making my own wedding cake (I do make cakes as a hobby though - so have experience).  If you don't feel like you could make your own cake, why not source a local baker to make one for you?  I have been batting it back and forth about making my own as I am worried about timing etc so have emailed a few local bakers and they have all come back with really good pricing - one 3 tiered sponge cake with sugarpaste icing came back at only £155.

Making my own veil.  The wedding shop wanted £120 for one!  Eek!  I just googled "wedding veil pattern" and came up with a place that sold veil patterns.  All ordered just waiting for it to come.  Cost £7.50 for the pattern, the tulle cost £15.  Bargain!

Not having any flowers (apart from my bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets and buttonholes).  I'm having a Christmas wedding so instead we are having little Christmas Trees on the tables - and I am planning on buying all the decorations for these in the sales in January :-)

Making the headdress for my flower girl myself.  Found it in an article on E-How.

Buying my Flower Girls dress from BHS or somewhere similar and just adding some extra details myself - the wedding dress shop wanted £105 for the one I wanted for her... I have found something very similar bar a few bows in BHS for £20.

Hope this helped...

Good luck!!!

Answer 10

i have found theknot.com has some great ideas.  Umm let's see our centrepieces are going to be simple vases with a flower floating in it. So the vases we like actually come from the dollar store anyways.

Instead of fancy big bouquets I am using long stemmed lilies and having 3 for me, and one for each of my brides maids.

Not printing menus out. people can pick their food on the rsvp. no need for menus.

I found invitations i LOVE at staples. $40 for 50 of them, and they are just blank cards with the design.  It has step by step instrucions on how to print your own at home.  So I'm just using my home computer.

Instead of a DJ service, we are using one of our laptops and just creating a playlist.  hook that up to the sound System and we’re good to go. (I already have a friend who agreed if something is to go wrong she will be my technical servicer.  So no stress is to be had by me)  This way we don’t get any unwanted requests as well (such as Justin timberlake. Ugh! I just can’t stand him. lol

Instead of a videographer, we’re going out and buying a video camera and paying one of my sister’s friends $20 to film the ceremony.  I don’t need some high quality looks like Hollywood video; I just want it on tape.  Then we’ll have the camera for our honeymoon too (since we’re going to Europe for 18 days it will be nice to have).  Plus it saves us at least $1000, depending on how much we pay for the camera.

And instead of having a photographer at the reception we’re doing the good ole disposable cameras on the table.  We also have a friend who’s an amateur photographer and he’s just going to give us prints of everything he takes.

I’m also saving on flowers and hair and make up and alterations because I know people who do those things for a living that will donate their service, but that’s just my situation.

Good luck and congrats hun!

Answer 11

here is what we plan on doing!  -

looking for cheaper venue it's outdoor and themed

we are making our invitations - but i know a print place and the guy who runs it so i'm sure to get discounted!

save the date anything can be made!

Ipod for music or a laptop instead of a dj

photo's are important don't cut that corner!

video isn't needed

the best thing i can suggest is enjoy the engagement and start meeting the right people!

another way we are cutting cost is by having our family make the food!

and really that's can replace any gift our family wanted to get us by paying for the food!

we are having a pig roast so that will cost but we know a guy! :) remember its not what you know but who you know!

Answer 12

don't buy any of the c**p that the wedding industry will sell you.

Remember the date ... anything is stupid

Cut your guest list and then cut it again. Keep it small and simple