As you may already know, Thomas and I have some big goals we are looking to accomplish within the next year to year and a half. These include paying off our credit card debt, paying off a 5 year motorcycle loan within 6 months-1 year, purchasing our first home, getting married, and possibly even starting our family. All of these goals are going to take a significant chunk of money. One of the most important things, at least for the females, is the wedding day. Most of us have grown up dreaming about this day and we become a bit obsessive about every little detail. I am definitely one of those girls that has big dreams for the wedding day. However, I am also a very frugal person. I still hope for the big day I originally envisioned, but I am not willing to spend thousands of dollars on one day. At the same time, I hate the idea of having an off season wedding (because Thomas and I are both very outdoorsy) and he idea of having our wedding on an unusual day of the week (many of my family will be coming in from out of town so this would be a huge inconvenience for them). These ideas are all normal money saving ideas that will not leave you feeling like you had to compromise.
After having the dreaded wedding budget discussion with the fiance, we have come up with some pretty good ways to have our dream wedding on a frugal budget. Here's what we have come up with. Hopefully this will help those of you who either cannot or do not want to spend thousands on your wedding too.
1. We have decided that we will use our new home as both our ceremony and our reception location. Now we just have to find the house! Thomas and I were already planning on purchasing a home in a more rural area on a spacious piece of land anyway, so why not take advantage of the money we are already spending and turn our back yard into our wedding venue as well? Compared to the two venues we were originally considering for our big day, having a back yard wedding is saving us between $850-$2500! Not only is this going to save us a huge chunk of our wedding budget, but the idea of getting married in our own back yard gives our wedding a more intimate feel.
If you do not have the space to have a wedding in your back yard, try asking your parents, close family friends, or other relatives that have larger backyards.
Because we are using our own home (which we will be living in alone) as our wedding venue, we also do not feel the need to rent out a wedding night suite. Our home will still be new to us, but it is also home so we feel like spending our first night there as husband and wife will make the event that much more meaningful. The wedding party can still go in and go crazy decorating and such. By not renting a hotel suite on our wedding night, we will be saving approximately $200. The bridal party will also be getting ready in our home so there will also be another $200 saved by not renting a suite for the bridal party to get ready. If the home we end up purchasing is large enough and has different stories, Thomas and his groomsmen will also most likely be getting reading in our home as well (avoiding the women out of superstition of course). If not, Thomas' aunt and uncle live close by. This brings the total savings to $1450-$3100. That's a honeymoon!!
When you use your home as your wedding venue, you will avoid having to pay extra fees for using your own caterer, cake cutting fees, cork fees, etc. All of these are hidden costs that can set you back hundreds!
One thing you do not have to worry about too much when using your home as your venue is sticking to a strict timeline. If your ceremony runs a little late or if your reception lasts longer than expected, you will not be charged venue fees for staying late. These fees can add hundreds of dollars to your wedding expenses.
Lastly, we will not need to hire a limo service or anything to transport us from our ceremony to our reception, or find a ride from our reception to our home.
2. Go to Bridal Shows! I have read so many blogs not that deter brides from visiting bridal shows because of the cost. However, if you do your research, brides and one guest can typically get into most of these bridal shows for free. Going to these bridal shows can give you one-on-one time with vendors in an informal setting. Many vendors offer special discounts for bridal show guests. One of the local party rental businesses in our area gave out vouchers that are going to save us about $80 on our linen rentals for our reception and another $80 on our chair rentals. There are also drawings and prizes associated with attending these events. I won a rhinestone bridal headpiece that just happens to match perfectly with my wedding day jewelry and looks amazing with the hairstyle I already had planned out. This saved me approximately $40. I also won a $200 gift certificate to Savvi Formal Wear for tuxedo rentals for Thomas, the dads, and the groomsmen. This was on top of the special they already offer of a free groom's tuxedo with the 5 groomsman/father rentals.
3. Speaking of chair rentals, why not use the same chairs for both your ceremony and reception instead of renting double the amount of chairs? This is going to be pretty easy for us to pull off considering we are having our ceremony and reception in the same place. We are planning to rent white wooden folding chairs similar to the chairs pictured below, and these tend to get pricy fairly quickly. Therefore, we are only spending enough money to rent a single chair for each person and we will just have a little rearranging done between the ceremony and the reception.
4. Shop for used wedding items. Craigslist and Ebay are great places to purchase used wedding items for cheap prices. Even though most of these products are used, they still look brand new, but do not have the brand new price tag! Sometimes you can even luck out and actually find brand new, still in the package items that brides either had excess of or decided not to use. I lucked out big time with Craigslist! One of the wedding trends right now are the colored plastic charger plates. They look sophisticated when they are placed underneath ceramic dinner plates and I instantly fell in love with this look. Upon shopping online for charger plates, I was disappointed to find that it would cost me nearly $400 to rent and nearly $600 to purchase enough charger plates for each place setting we needed for our reception. That is when I found a wedding planner on Craigslist that was selling 130 silver plastic charger plates for $75. That is only $1.73 per plate opposed to $4.50 per plate! Because not many people need 130 plastic chargers, I will be selling most of these on Craigslist following our wedding to help another bride on a budget. Therefore, I will also be earning most of my money back on this purchase!
Also do not be afraid to post your own ad on Craigslist under the "wanted" section for specific items you are hoping to purchase for your wedding. In doing this I was hoping to find some of the items I needed for our wedding day at a reasonable price. I was not expecting what ended up happening. I received an email from a lady that lived close by and she explained to me that she enjoys doing random acts of kindness. She had seen our wanted ad on Craigslist and decided to go on Amazon and purchase some of the items I had been looking for. I was afraid to call her because of so many scams I have heard about and I did not think the offer was real. Thomas said, "What's the worst that can happen, the offer isn't real?". So I decided to call the phone number the woman left in the email and, to my surprise, the offer was completely real! The woman called me a week later to set up a meeting time when the items had been delivered. Because of her kindness, we were given a wonderful gift of the cake serving set, champagne flutes, cake topper, and guest book we had been searching for. Her kindness absolutely amazed me and we will forever be grateful for her contribution to our special day! Her gift to us saved our wedding budget approximately $150!
Our "wanted" ad also yielded free antique wooden window we are using to make our country inspired reception seating chart and bar menu and free wooden 8"x10" photo frames we are using to make our DIY photo card box.** Just as a reminder... Please be careful when conducting transactions via Craigslist. Only deal locally and pay cash, meet in a public place, and do not meet people alone!
5. As you can see from the photos above, we are doing a lot of DIY projects for our wedding instead of purchasing some services and supplies. This is a great way to save tons of money on your wedding expenses. I have always enjoyed crafting, so this is not a huge deal for me to be doing to many DIY projects for our wedding. If crafting is not your thing, you may be able to enlist some of your wedding party, relatives, or close friends to help. We are making the following items ourselves for our special day, wooden wedding arch, personalizing our aisle runner, lantern reception centerpieces, garter set, invitations, reception cards, response cards, thank you cards, ceremony programs, corsages, bouquets, boutonnieres, card box, decorations, beer bottle labels, lace doily lanterns, log candle holders, mason jar candle decorations, sand ceremony shadow box, clay pot serving platters, tree slice serving platters, wooden garden arch, and more. As you can see, this list is pretty extensive. If you are extremely busy or do not enjoy crafting, I do not recommend taking on a DIY list of this magnitude!
6. Use students for your wedding services. We found a wedding planner with incredible prices on services such as photography, catering, music entertainment, and photo booth services that employs students from Le Cordon Bleu for catering and cake baking, and students in other areas from different institutions. The work I have seen/ tasted is exactly the same service you would get from a professional, but we are paying less than half! Using this strategy is saving us approximately $4000!
7. We will be making our own wedding cake. This is something I do not recommend doing unless you have experience! Fortunately for us, my mom used to make wedding cakes as a way to make money while being a stay-at-home mom before she got her degree in education. I also used to work for a custard shop that also made cakes, so I have a little bit of cake decorating experience as well. The cake baker we were originally going to hire was going to charge us over $300 for this cake! I could not justify spending this much money on cake when my mom and I have so much experience making cakes. Since we are getting married at our home, Mom and I can bake, decorate, and assemble the cake right there at the house and not have to worry about transporting it anywhere.
We will be making a smaller version of the cake pictured above (probably only 2-3 layers). We will then serve guests pieces of sheet cake to cut down on the cost of serving everyone the decorated cake. We will also be supplementing the amount of cake needed by having edible decorations on our cake table in he form of the cupcake flower pots pictured below.
8. Purchase your dress from a store that offers free accessories with your gown purchase. I happened to fall in love with a gown during my first appointment at a bridal shop in Alton, Illinois, called Frew's Bridal. My mom and sisters helped me pick out a beautiful Alfredo Angelo gown for just under $1,000. I realize you can get bridal gowns for a lot less than this at other stores, however, I fell in love with this dress and it actually came in under my wedding gown budget. The bridal shop gave me a choice. I could either take a little off the price of the dress making it $950 before tax, or I could choose free accessories to go with the dress totaling $170. Since I was planning on purchasing accessories anyway, I opted for the $170 in free accessories. So far, I have used that credit to purchase a matching veil. I still have some of the credit left that I can use on shoes, jewelry, ceremony accessories, undergarments, a gift for me groom, etc. Keep in mind too that nearly everything in the wedding industry is negotiable...dress included! P.S. If you live in the St. Louis area, Frew's is an amazing place to find a bridal gown! I had such an amazing experience. I am considered a plus size girl and they actually had gowns I could try on and even some that were too big for me (that never happens)! It is like a mini Kleinfeld's in there. The shop is beautiful, they have a large selection of designers and styles, the staff is an absolute delight and they're very helpful, and their prices and offers are incredible.
This bridal shop also offers great deals on bridesmaids dresses. Select dresses come with a credit for shoes or accessories. You may also want to check out your favorite bridal shops on social media sites. Frew's Bridal offers $10 off when you like them on Facebook!
I want to take this opportunity to thank my parents who generously paid for my wedding gown. I was not expecting any help in paying for our big day, but my parents decided they wanted to help by paying for my wedding dress and I will forever be grateful for them and everything they have done for me; not only for my wedding, but throughout my entire life! I love you, Mom and Dad!
9. Utilize gifts to help pay for your wedding day. Gift cards are popular gifts in our family not because we don't like to put thought into the gifts we give, but because it gives us an opportunity to go out and spend a day together. For my last birthday I received Kohl's gift cards from both my grandmother, and my sister and brother-in-law. I decided to use these gift cards to purchase the jewelry I will be wearing on my wedding day. I purchased a beautiful rhinestone bracelet, necklace, and earrings. Everything was on sale so I was able to use the gift cards to cover the entire purchase and I even have some left over too!
10. Credit card rewards can be a great way to help pay for your wedding. I usually do not promote the use of credit cards, but in this case it actually helps you save money! I have a Citi Visa credit card. We have been using this credit card to purchase items for our wedding ONLY when we have the money in hand to immediately pay off the balance (we do not want to pay interest on anything). Not only does this boost the good ol' credit score (which will make purchasing that home easier), but I am earning rewards points for these purchase too. Right now we are saving our points for plane tickets, hotel credits, restaurant gift cards, and attraction gift certificates we can use on our honeymoon. Citi rewards also offers gift cards to stores like Walmart. These could be a big help when it comes to purchasing wedding supplies.
10. Don't forget about coupons. I'm not the CRAZY coupon lady, but I do love saving money with coupons. All of the items for those various DIY projects can really add up the dollar signs, so I typically do not purchase anything unless it is either on sale for a great price or I have a coupon. Michael's offers great coupons on a weekly basis. Just last week they had a coupon for 25% off of an entire purchase, including sale items! We will also be using coupons to help save money on the supplies needed to make our wedding cake as well. If you are self-catering, coupons are also a great way to save money on food and beverage needs.
11. Hire a friend to bartend. Several of my friends from high school have gone into bar tending. Although we are not that close anymore, we will be hiring a couple of them to bartend at our reception. To save even more money on your wedding you could eliminate alcohol all together, but Thomas and I both like having a drink in our hand from time-to-time and people have come to expect alcohol at a wedding. We will be offering beer, wine (from the winery where we got engaged), and a couple signature cocktails-- some for the men and some for the ladies.
12. Ask to borrow items for your wedding instead of purchasing them. Instead of paying to borrow tables and silverware from a party rental establishment, we will be borrowing these items from our church. This will save us hundreds! Do not hesitate to ask to borrow items like this. Maybe your friend has a pair of shoes you love or your mom's veil matches your wedding gown.
13. Utilize the dollar store for some of your wedding decorations. Candles, clear candle holders, silk flowers, vases, and even white silk flower petals can all be purchased at the dollar store now! Purchase the things you can from the dollar store and use the savings in other areas of your budget!
14. Instead of the formal, multiple course dinner, we will be serving comfort foods. These are often cheaper and they happen to fit into the rustic, country theme we have decided on. Instead of serving steak, chicken, and fish, we chose southern comfort foods such as fried chicken, barbequed beef brisket, macaroni and cheese, greens, etc. We are still having a sit down dinner, but the food will not cost nearly as much.
15. Single page invitations are the way to go unless you are alright with spending more money on extra postage. We will be making our own invitations, but I made sure the design of the invitations was single page in a standard size so we would not have to buy special envelopes or pay for extra postage.
16. We will not be springing for the champagne toast at our reception. Toasting with beer, lemonade, wine, or a signature cocktail is just fine and, in all honesty, not that many people really enjoy the taste of champagne. Wine is just fine in my opinion. We will be serving wine from the Grafton Winery in Grafton, Illinois. This is not only my favorite winery EVER, but this is also the place Thomas proposed!
When you purchase the wine for your reception, be sure to ask the winery or store if they offer a discount on bulk purchases. By doing this we are going to save 10% on every three bottles of wine. At $16 per bottler for about 80 people, this is going to be a huge savings.
17. Shop online and use deal websites for purchasing wedding supplies. I love making extra money online from home on websites such as Swagbucks, Send Earnings, Inbox Dollars, and Ebates. You can earn money back on purchasing products from online stores such as Walmart, Target, Red Envelope, American Wedding, and more. If you do not want to sign up for memberships to these sites, at least use online promotional codes from sites like Retail me Not to save money off of your order! This extra savings can be used on other areas of your special day such as catering, the dress, photography, or the honeymoon!
18. Hit up the after holiday sales. Shopping the days following holidays can be a great way to score items you can use for your wedding at up to 90% off! You can find gift boxes, ribbon, and clear light strands after Christmas. Candles, flower petals, chocolates, candy, champagne flutes, and naughty wedding night essentials after Valentines day. Sparklers, streamers, etc. after Independence Day. Pastel decorations and candy after Easter. We are decorating with clear light strands and plan on having guests surround the dance floor with sparklers during our first dance so we will definitely be hitting up these after holiday sales.
19. Play the honeymoon card heavily! At the airport, restaurants, attractions, hotels, etc. Make sure everyone knows you are on your honeymoon. You may end up getting special discounts, free upgrades, discounted meals, etc. Another great way to save money on your honeymoon is to register for one. There are so many great free websites that allow you to register for meals at restaurants, airline tickets, honeymoon suites, trips to certain attractions, bottles of champagne, couples messages, etc. at the location of your honeymoon. Guests can go online and purchase these gifts or contributions toward certain portions of your honeymoon. It is always good to give your guests options so I recommend registering for your honeymoon and for the typical wedding gifts.
20. Wear shoes you already own with your wedding gown. Thomas bought me a beautiful pair of Justin cowgirl boots for my birthday this past year. Since we are going for the rustic, southern feel I decided that I would wear these under my dress instead of dropping $100-$200 on a pair of shoes. Since they are also my new favorite pair of shoes, they are nice and broken in so there will not be any blistered or sore feet on the wedding day.
Well these are the things we have done so far to get exactly what we want out of our wedding day without spending more than planned. I hope these tips inspire you to find creative ways to shave costs from your wedding expenses too. Although this will be one of the most expensive days of your life, it doesn't have to be full-priced!
Have money saving wedding tips of your own? Be sure to share them with us in the comments section!
I'm in a good, thrifty mood today! Thomas and I needed to few small things for school this semester, as well as some food items to finish preparing dinners for the remainder of the month. This meant a trip to Walmart. I love going to Walmart for meat because they always seem to have the cuts of meat I like on manager special for a great price. Meat goes on manager special within a day or two of the sell by date printed on the package. It is still perfectly good to eat, but the store is not allowed to sell it after this date. Because they do not want to lose money on the product, they mark it down. Note: you do need to either prepare the meat, or freeze it by the sell by date in order to preserve freshness. I happened to find three separate 5lb packages of Tyson all natural mixed chicken pieces (thighs, legs, and wings). Each package normally runs about $8, but because the sell by date was today (January 22, 2014). Each package was marked down to a little over $5 each. I could not help but to snatch up all three packages. That makes 15lbs of chicken for about $16, which is an enormous amount of meat for a family of two! These packages can each be split up into two meals (I always make extra for Thomas to pack for his lunches). Because the sell by date was today, I immediately tossed two of the packages of the chicken into our freezer. Since I planned on splitting each package up into two separate meals, I decided to put half of the chicken pieces into the oven to make cheesy chicken and rice casserole for tonight's dinner and place the other half into the crock pot for a batch of chicken teriyaki we will use in homemade fried rice or lo mein tomorrow night. Yup! Feelin' pretty thrifty right now! I LOVE when meat goes on manager special!!
P.S. I also managed to score a free bottle of Scope classic mouth wash using a mail-in rebate. Plus I found the 5-subject college ruled notebook I needed for $2.50 (regularly $9), and the 1.5" binder Thomas needed for $3 (regularly $7) in the clearance aisle!
Yesterday was my fiance's 24th birthday. Even though I am currently unemployed, I still wanted to make his birthday special because he always goes out of his way to make sure I am happy, safe, and taken care of. I did have a small amount of money that I had been saving for his birthday. Here is how a little budgeting and planning ahead allowed me to still make Thomas' birthday enjoyable.
I had $75 saved up that I could use to celebrate Thomas' birthday. I started out planning his birthday about a month ago by signing him up for birthday freebies online. Even though I felt tacky doing this, he assured me that the fact that I spent a great deal of time trying to plan a special day regardless of my financial situation made him feel special and that all he wanted for his birthday was to spend the day with me.
We started out the day by going to Denny's for breakfast. With a valid I.D., the birthday guest receives a free Grand Slam breakfast. I ordered water (my beverage of choice) and breakfast off of their $2 menu (surprisingly, I got a lot of food for $2). Breakfast cost me less than $5.
After breakfast, I took Thomas to the movies. If you go to the theater before 12pm, movies at our local AMC theater cost only $6 per person. Thomas loves Greek mythology, and it just so happened that The Legend of Hercules came out in theaters yesterday and there was a 10am showing.
By the time we got out of the movie theater, it was early afternoon so I took Thomas out to a late lunch at his favorite restaurant. It just so happens that his favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, offers birthday guests a free appetizer. We typically get an appetizer each time we visit TR because Thomas loves the fried pickles. Dinner was the biggest splurge of the day, costing about $45 with tip. However, we had a great time, it is Thomas' favorite restaurant, and that price is not bad at all considering we got an appetizer, the entree he always orders is steak, and he ordered a Jack and Coke. Not to mention Thomas' entree was large enough to provide him with lunch today at work.
My sister, Jen, loves to bake so she offered to make Thomas' birthday cake. He ended up choosing a hamburger cake, which turned out looking great as well as tasting great.
Thomas and I finished out the night by cuddling on the couch and watching a marathon of his favorite TV show together (and another behind-closed-doors activity for adults only). He could not stop thanking me for the awesome birthday and, although most people would find my use of coupons appalling, I got a big 'ol kiss for being so frugal because when we got home there was still money left over to place into savings.
