Our wedding seems forever ago... It's funny to me that Fall now reminds me of getting engaged and planning our wedding. I had meant to do some posts after life calmed down about things I learned from the wedding planning process, but as you can see that didn't happen. This post is not about how to find the perfect man or how to have a great marriage {I am not sure if I will ever be qualified enough to give advice on that}. If you are working on no budget or a rather large this post is not for you. The budget is one of the most difficult parts of wedding. Tall Tan Man and I had different priorities which made things difficult. TTM said all he cared about is good food, a band and a videographer. Well, honey ALL those things aren't cheap. I wanted everything to be pretty and fun. :) After many tears talks we came to a couple compromises. These are just a few things we did to save money while still having the wedding of our dreams!
1. Flowers
Flowers can be soooo ridiculously expensiveve. Yes, they are pretty, but they die. I did some research and hydrangeas were in season...which = CHEAP. So make sure you do some research. I had 8 bridesmaids so I did not want to spend a ton a money on their bouquets {no offence ladies, you know I love ya}.
I only paid $25 a pop. I ended up using a grocery store in Plano {Market Street} which I think helped my price. I loved my bouquet. Again, I researched flowers and I fell in love with Ranunculus.
After it was all said and done my bouquet/boutonniere bill ended up only $400. Cha Ching. $100 under budget.
2. Buy your dress off the rack
I was panicked when I decided I would plan a wedding in 3 months. How in the world could I order a dress and get it in time?! Well, turns out some dress stores carry smaller sizes that they are willing to sell right then and there. Annnnddd they will give you a discount! Bonus!! I got my dress for $300 under budget. I found out after that my alterations were going to cost me $250. Geez oh pete.
I was happy. One more piece of advice I would like to add is I was told I had to get my dress professionally steamed. After getting a quote for $150 my Mom and I decided we could do it! And by golly we did it. We borrowed someones steamer so it ended up costing zero dollars. :)
3. Cupcakes
I always knew I wanted cupcakes as our {Wedding Cake}. My decision was confirmed after finding out that the venue wanted to charge us a $1.50 per slice cut. Heeeck no. I shopped around at couple cupcake shops that wanted $3+ per cupcake. My Mom found out from a friend that got their daughter got her wedding cupcakes from a grocery store {Market Street, same as our flowers}.
I was soooo happy how everything turned out! I think it all turned out beautiful and delicious, and everything was only $140. Steal of a deal. I know not all grocery stores work the same, but the one we found worked with us to do all the things we wanted {peanut butter frosting!!}.
4. Creative Groom's Cake
My man does not love sweets. Crazy, I know. He does love Oreo's though...
I wanted everything to be personal, but not expensive. Check, check.
5. Exit with Rice
First off, I wanted to exit with everybody throwing confetti. I loved the idea, because I felt like it was the perfect way to end the celebration. That idea got nixed by the event staff. I shouldn't of asked... It wasn't in the contract. I started looking around online and saw that throwing rice doesn't kill birds. Urban legend. Rice it is! Our exit cost us $5.
Booo yah.
6. DIY Invitations
You can read {here} how we made our own invitations and saved a toooooon of money. Total cost without postage $70.
7. Make your programs
We used a couple card packets from Hobby Lobby {I have a ton of envelopes left over if you want them...}, and white/black card stock. We were able to use the same embosser from our invites, and TTM added a little chalk which looked awesome.
I'm telling you, you can save a lot of money by doing your own printing. Total cost for 100 programs was $22.
8. Make centerpieces & arrangements.
There are so many options when it comes to making centerpieces. Our tall centerpieces were made from sticks from a forest, and spiced up with gold spray paint. Pine cones and ball jars were also free. I did a bunch of after Christmas shopping to get all the glittery gold stuff. Tall Tan Man can't wait till Christmas when I get it all out again and decorate.
We ordered hydrangeas a couple days before the wedding from Whole Foods, and arranged our own flowers. Trust me, it wasn't that hard.
We also arranged our own flowers to put down the aisle {we also used these at the rehearsal dinner for decorations}.
9. Get married in the winter.
This is not always an option, but it sure helps the price of a couple of things. This helped us get our DJ, rehearsal dinner place, and videographer at a better price.
10. Let your bridesmaids pick out their own dress.
This was simple. My girls have good taste & I wanted no drama. I loved not worrying about this.
11. Join Groupon
We got our photo-booth from groupon, and we used this as our {guestbook}. Best Idea Ever.
12. Be careful with the small stuff.
Everything will add up quickly so be smart about small purchases. Hobby Lobby sells Garters and you can use 40% coupons. I found a headband a Charming Charlies {but I forgot to bring it to the hairdresser...whoops}. I love my earrings that I found from Stein Mart.
13. Shop the fancy outlet places for shoes.
I found these Stuart Weitzman's for %50 off of %50 off. Score!
14. Search for the unexpected caterers.
We probably tried 10 BBQ and Mexican places for our rehearsal dinner before deciding on a winner. Our winner ended up being a whole in the wall place that tasted amazing and cost only $8 a plate. Thank you Hutchins BBQ.
All of the beautiful pictures were taken by incredibly talented Caroline Jurgensen {the rest were most likely taken by my iphone}. Hope this was helpful! What tips do you have?
{LJ}
PS. I am on FALL BREAK! Yep, us Coloradans have the next 10 days off...what to do...