JCJD
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2004
- Messages
- 1,977
I think IslandDreams hit the nail on the head. A HUGE way to eliminate cost is to forget about "should have''s" and open your wedding planning mind to less expensive alternatives. Does anyone really need a cake serving set engraved with your initials?
Some of our cost saving methods:
*Cutting down the guest list. We wanted a small intimate wedding with our friends and family, so we cut the extended family lists down to only blood grandparents (both parents are divorced), aunts, uncles, and first cousins, and step parents and step siblings. This literally cut our guest list by 100 people at least. Had to fight my grandmother about not inviting her sister, but it was all good in the end.
*Friday night wedding - reception site and photographer discounts. This led to a late evening wedding (7pm) that allowed us to have a simple hors d''oeuvres and dessert reception (not a full meal saved $$$).
*Friends - DH''s dad has a florist friend. She did a beautiful job, larger bouquets than we expected, all at a price we specified up front. It helped also that we just wanted a color theme, rather than specific kinds of flowers and let her decide what blooms would work in our price range. The mother of one of my friends bakes cakes, and did our 3-tier pound cake with fresh in-season berries for about $200.
*Luck - found an up and coming photographer that takes gorgeous photojournalistic pics. Cheap package deal and great photos. Ended up not having ring bearer or flower girl, which saved on flowers and gifts. Found my BM gifts on ebay. Got my veil half-price from the boutique because she had so many in stock.
*Music - ceremony music was all on CD, we had to pay the church for the sound guy rather than musicians for their art. J''s bro-in-law played the cello for the candle-lighting ceremony as a gift. We used J''s dad''s laptop to set up a playlist and rented speakers and a sound board from another friend ($150) and put J''s bro and best man in charge of DJ and MC duties.
*Bar - Open wine and soda bar, no liquor or beer. The only complaint we got from this decision was from J''s bro''s friend who was already drunk (on our wine I might add).
*Miscellaneous - Use your imagination for Something Old and Something Borrowed. My shoes were from my mom''s wedding a couple years ago and we used the cake cutting set from J''s sister''s wedding. Borrowed stepmom''s cute little sports car for our getaway vehicle. Us girls did our own makeup. I didn''t care what color my BM''s finger and toenails were, so I let them choose whether to get mani/pedi''s or do them themselves. Ditto for professional updo''s. We bought our toasting glasses at Bed Bath and Beyond. 4 crystal goblets for the same cost as 2 "wedding" glasses at Michael''s! We bought edible favors - jam! - at cost from a local company ($1.10 ea), so we can actually use the leftovers that nobody took.
Some of our cost saving methods:
*Cutting down the guest list. We wanted a small intimate wedding with our friends and family, so we cut the extended family lists down to only blood grandparents (both parents are divorced), aunts, uncles, and first cousins, and step parents and step siblings. This literally cut our guest list by 100 people at least. Had to fight my grandmother about not inviting her sister, but it was all good in the end.
*Friday night wedding - reception site and photographer discounts. This led to a late evening wedding (7pm) that allowed us to have a simple hors d''oeuvres and dessert reception (not a full meal saved $$$).
*Friends - DH''s dad has a florist friend. She did a beautiful job, larger bouquets than we expected, all at a price we specified up front. It helped also that we just wanted a color theme, rather than specific kinds of flowers and let her decide what blooms would work in our price range. The mother of one of my friends bakes cakes, and did our 3-tier pound cake with fresh in-season berries for about $200.
*Luck - found an up and coming photographer that takes gorgeous photojournalistic pics. Cheap package deal and great photos. Ended up not having ring bearer or flower girl, which saved on flowers and gifts. Found my BM gifts on ebay. Got my veil half-price from the boutique because she had so many in stock.
*Music - ceremony music was all on CD, we had to pay the church for the sound guy rather than musicians for their art. J''s bro-in-law played the cello for the candle-lighting ceremony as a gift. We used J''s dad''s laptop to set up a playlist and rented speakers and a sound board from another friend ($150) and put J''s bro and best man in charge of DJ and MC duties.
*Bar - Open wine and soda bar, no liquor or beer. The only complaint we got from this decision was from J''s bro''s friend who was already drunk (on our wine I might add).
*Miscellaneous - Use your imagination for Something Old and Something Borrowed. My shoes were from my mom''s wedding a couple years ago and we used the cake cutting set from J''s sister''s wedding. Borrowed stepmom''s cute little sports car for our getaway vehicle. Us girls did our own makeup. I didn''t care what color my BM''s finger and toenails were, so I let them choose whether to get mani/pedi''s or do them themselves. Ditto for professional updo''s. We bought our toasting glasses at Bed Bath and Beyond. 4 crystal goblets for the same cost as 2 "wedding" glasses at Michael''s! We bought edible favors - jam! - at cost from a local company ($1.10 ea), so we can actually use the leftovers that nobody took.
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