Recently engaged! The wedding planning begins!

[gedean]

Hi everyone!

Well...we''re finally engaged!! yay!! (Had to be the best New Years Eve in San Francisco for us yet. Nothing huge and public but just the two of us in our hotel room while getting ready to meet some friends for dinner and the countdown. It was our anniversary too so it made it even more romantic heeee

)

Ok, so now we are trying to plan for the big day and we''re both stumped on where to start and what kind of budget we should be working with. I''m a full-time student and he''s working full time. We''re both in our mid 20''s and don''t exactly have a huge fortune that we can work with. Considering most of our family and friends are located in the San Francisco Bay Area region, we most likely will be having it there. Also, we''re trying to keep the crowd count between 100-150 people max. Other than that, we''re pretty much starting from scratch and trying to plan ahead! I was wondering if anyone had any money saving tips or ideas that could be shared with us. Whether it''s regarding the ceremony, reception, location, wedding gown, flowers, invitations, photographer, cake, shoes, etc. any idea will help and get us on the right track!

We''ve picked up the book Bridal Bargains at a local bookstore but I thought, "why not ask all the pros at PS?"

Any advice would help a lot! We would appreciate it so much and look forward to hearing from everyone!

Thanks!
Michelle & George

 

[neatfreak]

I can recommend some things! We used Elley Ho for photography and she is FABULOUS. Check my past posts for some wedding pics to see. Very reasonably priced and super great to work with too. Her email is: [email protected], tell her Callie and Asher sent you!

Flowers: We used Out of the Weeds on Battery St. and they were also fantastic. Mary is very easy to work with and does beautiful stuff.

We had our reception at Green's Restaurant which I think is too big for your wedding. It's also a veggie restaurant so most people aren't interested, but it's on the water with views of the golden gate and it's just spectacular and pretty cheap too!

We had cupcakes for our cake from Kara's Cupcakes. They were AMAZING. But they don't do cakes.

Hope that helps!

 

[gtn]

congratualtions! I think the best thing to do is figure out how much you can spend, formulate a budget. That will give you perspective of what you can do. I''m still in the planning phase, and I can tell you the sooner you start the better. That will give you time to find great bargins. Instead of paying full price, you could buy seasonal stuff on clearance. You could buy wine during the beverages & more (BevMo) nickel sale, etc. You could find a newcomer to the business who doesn''t have the body of work that other people have like Elley Ho, Neatfreak''s photographer. DIY as much as you can and if it is a lot of work, set up a sweat shop of family and friends to get things done.

Oh and I forgot to mention the most important part. Have fun.

 

[enbcfsobe]

Date: 1/29/2008 3:08:17 PM
Author: gtn
congratualtions! I think the best thing to do is figure out how much you can spend, formulate a budget. That will give you perspective of what you can do. I''m still in the planning phase, and I can tell you the sooner you start the better. That will give you time to find great bargins. Instead of paying full price, you could buy seasonal stuff on clearance. You could buy wine during the beverages & more (BevMo) nickel sale, etc. You could find a newcomer to the business who doesn''t have the body of work that other people have like Elley Ho, Neatfreak''s photographer. DIY as much as you can and if it is a lot of work, set up a sweat shop of family and friends to get things done.

Oh and I forgot to mention the most important part. Have fun.

This is HUGE for BM dresses. Places like Ann Taylor put all their stuff on sale at the end of each season -- you can get dresses for an absolute steal, esp. if you sign up to get coupons.
Same thing if you go with seasonal decor -- everything is cheaper at the end of the season the year before.

There were two main things that we spent a lot of time thinking about before we started making decisions: (1) our budget (and who is contributing what % if any -- this will impact all of your other decisions!) and (2) what type of wedding we wanted (geographic location, time of year, level of formality, number of guests, type of venue, how many attendants, type of officiant). Once we had an idea of our general expectations, we talked it over with our families, and then started looking at venues.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

To make sure the horse is indeed before the cart, the first serious thing you need to do is to corral your resources to see what sort of budget you're really working with. As you mentioned, you are in school and though your fiance works full-time, you did mention you don't exactly have a huge fortune between the two of you. Weddings in San Francisco are among the most expensive in the area, and if you're thinking of a sit-down formal dinner for 150, you will need to know whether your total budget from all sources will be $7,000 or $70,000. Have you sat down with your fiance to see what you can come up with between the two of you? Have you had the talk with both sets of parents to see if they will be offering a firm sum?

Because you are looking at the Bay Area, most things will be pretty pricey. There are ways to shave from certain areas like dresses and flowers, but the big ones will be if you have the budget for a venue to host and feed 100-150 guests. In SF, *that* will be your budget-buster. It can be done, but it will be your biggest challenge. Two of my friends got married over the last two years in SF. Each were in couples where the combined income was around $250,000-300,000 a year. Each had what would be considered a very generous budget in most of the country, and... each couple had to pare down their guest list to under 100 people because of the per-head food costs involved at their venues. (It seemed unbelievable at the time that the banker and the executive had to take an off-peak day AND an off-peak time of year AND cut their list to 70 guests AND had a second reception for her parents' friends at a different location AND had family-style food AND had a minimal decor budget yet the cost was still over $50,000, but there you have it. San Francisco is expensive. The party was still great, but that had more to do with the couple being awesomely fun than anything else....)

So don't worry about the minutae like invitation costs until you have a FIRM idea of the budget accommodating the number of guests you're hoping for if you're getting married in SF. Then, pick up "Here Comes the Guide: Northern California", which lists the venue costs in one convenient place so you see what's possible. Good luck!


f-d-l

P.S. Is that your new e-ring in your avatar? It's GORGEOUS!!!

 

[bee*]

I agree with the previous poster-first work out your budget. I''m a full time student also however I work as well. D and I set our budget and then I did a rough graph of how much I would split that budget and so far I have kept to it. I''ve actually saved money on my videographer and photographer so I have a bit more to spend elsewhere.
I am going to do my own invitations and flowers so that will save me a lot of money.
I got a lot of money off my videographer at the wedding fair last weekend. Also bargain with everyone. I have found that once vendors hear the word wedding, the prices go up so I''ve bargained with everyone so far and it''s worked.
We''re also bringing in our own wine. We still have to pay corkage but we can pick a nicer bottle of wine and still save money.