Weddings and other Special Events on a Budget!

[MrsPinecone]

I just noticed a couple of posts about wedding bands, so I thought I'd start a thread for saving money on your wedding! Some of the stuff that we did to have a beautiful wedding:

Flowers:
* Each table had a vase of a dozen roses with greenery and baby's breath.
* Bought vases at Ikea for $1.99 each.
* Flowers came from Sam's Club. Roses for 13 tables, my bouquet, 2 bridesmaid's bouquets and the boutonnieres, plus greenery and baby's breath came to a grand total of $130. They sell bunches of 2 dozen roses for about $12.88.

Dress:
* Alfred Angelo dress, brand new in manufacturer's wrapping for $99 from ebay. Alterations were $50.
* Slip was also from ebay for $35, rather than the $125 they wanted at bridal stores.

Reception:
* My stepfather is ex-military, so we got a great deal on the site and food. Sit-down dinner for 70 people at $15 a plate. It was on the water in Annapolis. The girls who had weddings at the Marriott next door paid $75+ per plate for the same view!

Invitations:
* Made them myself, and got many comments on how pretty they were. We did handmade paper with translucent overlays and a bow. I'll need to look up the website where I got the paper and envies, but I paid about $110 total for 50 handmade invitations, response cards, reception cards, and all envies.

Rings:
*Great deals to be found at www.e-weddingbands.com

Cake:
* Bought our cake at Safeway and saved a TON! We did a 1/2 sheet topped by a round. The lady in the bakery decorated it exactly the way we wanted it, and we got a wedding cake for $39.98!!! Safeway has great frosting, too. Not too sweet and not greasy at all.
* You can also get the fancy, expensive cake for the cutting, and to feed all of the people at the wedding, get sheet cakes that are cut behind the scenes.

[cutenirish]

My friend made my invataions for my wedding they where awsome- it cost about 125 dollars for 120invites (225 people on the list total) and LOADS of her time but she wanted to do it as my gift they could not have turned out nicer!!!!!!!!

We got a good deal on the food cause the place we used my DH's family has known the owner for about 20 years! 32.95 a plate probably should have been about 70- roast beef carving station ect-- buffett but still awsome!!!!!!!! Our wedding cost alot about 15000 includes honeymoon curise to Mexico (3200).

I was not so frugal then-- but we paid cash for the honeymoon and alot of other stuff for the wedding!

[berlinsmommy]

I would say the best thing you could do is plan as far in advance as possible and make a thorough list of everything you need, that way you can be on the hunt for killer deals and snatch up stuff you want when you see it at a good price.

I also recommend ebay, there is a lot of stuff that you only use once, such as the cake knife, that if you don't care about having it engraved with your name and keeping it in your dusty attic for years to come (seriously, who displays their cake knife?) you can buy a used one for like 99c. There is also a lot of new stuff that other brides-to-be bought and changed their mind (either about the item or the groom!) and they put it on ebay to get rid of it.

[marmis]

During the Christmas clearance I bought a bunch of clear lights...drape them with the tule (sp?) and they add a great touch!

I also did the floating candles. Bought at Michael's store with the 40% coupons.

The flower girl basket used for dropping rose petals was purchased during the Easter clearance and spray painted white and decorated.

Flower girls dress was purchased fom Sears around Easter time. It was a communion dress...very elegant. We ended up getting it for around $20 and it was originally $110.

I bought my dress in the February (long sleeved) when they were clearancing out the long sleeve dresses. Short sleeved ones could probably be purchased on clearance in October. I got a $600 dress for $250.

As far as the tuxes, shop around. Ask if they have specials like a buy this amount of tuxes and get the groom's tux free. We did this and it saved us about $100 just for DHs tux.

Invitations can be made for very little. My mother bought the "onion paper" (transparent paper) at one of the printing stores. She was able to print invitations off on her home computer and then use a cute bow on top to fasten the onion paper. She did these for about $.25 per invitation.

Our unity candle was purchased at Michael's with a 40% coupon. The taper candles were purchased at the dollar store 2/$1 and the holders were crystal looking from the dollar store - $1 each.

I will post more as I remember.

[Alphamom]

Instead of using tule (spelling?) go to your local garden center or feed store (Co-op where I am from) and buy Tobacco Canvas aka white floral bedding cover. It comes in 100 to 400 yard lengths. (i think 25 foot wide? or larger) Most designers and decorators know this trick but dont want to tell you so you pay them lots of money.... (and they get it for cheap)! You can spray paint it or use ribbons and lights to decorate. They are only around 25.00 piece. You can not get any kind of cloth that cheap. We bought 4 and decorated a whole large gymnasium ceiling to make it look like floating clouds. It looks beautiful! Oh I also used it to decorate for a wedding anniversary so it can be used more than once if taken care of.

[BzyBee]

When we took our invitations to the PO...they weighed too much and were going to require 2 stamps each!! So, despite my future MIL's protests, I took them home and wacked of the back of the RSVP with a paper cutter, also the little card with hotel and direction info got the back cut off. I might have also removed some of the tissue paper that was tucked between all the layers. Took it back to the post office and it was under the limit...:)

[Jusk]

I have been married for 23 years....

There was no ebay back then.....Dh family had very clear cut viewpoints on what a wedding should be.....they paid for most of the reception so we did what they wanted.....

If I were getting married today at that same age....this is what would be different.....

I would not have my reception somewhere where you have to buy the food and alcohol from them......I would probably not serve hard liquor....only wine and beer.

I would have a theme wedding.......more fun and relaxed than so traditional

I would have hired a better photographer! The pictures are what you have left 20 years later......

I would have gone to events that the band performed at to determine if they are a good match with our needs ( ours was not)...In fact...I would do a DJ instead of live band (which was a bunch of old fuddy duddy's playing music from the wrong era)

I would have spent less on the wedding and more on the honeymoon

I would not succumb to MIL urging to register for China.......doesnt fit my way of entertaining....total waste

I would immediately ebay unused dumb wedding gifts instead of storing them and moving them 2x!!! Only to put them in a yard sale 10 years later

I would use a spreadsheet for the budget and compare, bargain, barter...whatever it took...that was not in vogue 23 years ago!!!

[to1drland]

well- between my head spinning round and round, I have managed to get something done for the wedding plans...
I have my dress, got it 40% off- so it was only $79 link
2 different pairs of white shoes - total cost $31.55 including shipping
2 garters (one to toss) total cost $5.86
veil $15 including shipping link
cake knife and server $11 including shipping link
70 save the date magnets $5
36 sage green stained glass center piece candle holders- total cost $36
2 candleabras w/ crystals, that hold 4 candles- total cost $6
1 can silver spray paint for candleabras (they were gold) .98
cute silky white halter style top for rehersal $5
2 boxes of 8 cute flower leis for drink glasses - total cost $5
10 pew bows -total cost $10

going to look at banquet halls this week! wish me luck! hoping to find a bargin since it won't be prime wedding season!

[Shopz2Much]

Not sure if you are near The Christmas Tree Store but they tend to get LOTS of wedding supplies in and are very cheap. They are sort of a nicely organized overstock/clearance store.

http://www.christmastreeshops.com/

They usually have boxes of the big white bows (for pew ends, etc.) and the little bubble jars for the kids, porcelain bells, candles, vases, floating candles, etc.

I just celebrated my 1 year anniversary! :) Here how I did it (I'm a little ghetto and VERY broke)

Wedding Date: Aug 20, 2005 (omg it was hot)
Wedding Location: My parents back yard
We spend 2 days cleaning the pruning the yard from top to bottom it looked amazing
Reception Location: My parents back yard!

Wedding Dress: $50 Prom Dress Clerance @ Dillards It was really pretty and you couldnt tell it wasnt made for the purpose of weddings.

Shoes: $3.00 at payless on clearance (LUCK!)

Accessories: $0 I wore a pearl necklace passed down from my grandmother and flowers all in my hair which I styled myself. I also did my own makeup.

Tux: $100 rented for 2 days.

Food: $50 All home made the day before and that morning. Pasta Salad, Meat Balls, Cheese Trey, Fruit Trey, Veggie Trey, Tiny Heart shaped sandwiches, some other stuff I'm probably forgetting. We rented tables for the food.

Cake: $15 Home Made 2 layer cake with flowers on it. It was more tasty and beautiful than any wedding cake i've encountered to date.

Flowers: $20 Variety of hand picked and store bought flowers. Bought them individually and made an arrangement and hand tied them.

Ceremony: $50 We have the reception in the back yard with white decorated chairs in rows on each side and an arch that we stood under completely decorate in fake flowers we got at garden ridge for 75% off. We bought 2 tents from walmart one for the "cathdral area" and one for the "reception area" in blue and draped streamers and ribbons EVERYWHERE!

Minister: $25 We interviewed ministers until we found the right one and found this great preacher for. (price wasnt the object)

Favors: $25 We bought 50 of these great cute white pill boxes on ebay for $2.00 (after shipping) and mini bubbles with hearts on top we also bought tulle rounds from walmart and individually wrapped dinner mints that said thank you fro sharing our special day. We put the mints inside the pill box and the bubbles on top and wrapped the whole thing in the tulle circles with the tiny heart slightly sticking out of the top and tied it off with ribbon in our colors.

For the adults we also bought a whole bunch of tiny bottles (shot size!) with cork tops and filled the inside with a strong mixture of pink lemonade and vodka (tasty) and tied a ribbon around the rin and put a sticker on them that said "Love Potion" they looked absolutely adorable layed out on the drink table on a crystal trey and packed a great punch hehe.


Total: about $375 after misc expenses