Budget Saving

We aren't really cutting many costs but my friend is planning on cutting a lot of costs from her wedding by making her own decorations and having the wedding at her family's farm. She has also talked about doing a stock the bar party so that they do not have to do an open bar (not recommended) and talking about doing a potluck reception (also not recommended). However; she has been told by a few people that cutting costs like this will cause some guests to decline their invite because it will cost so much for the guests to go to this wedding so just be careful how far you go with cost cutting

Budgeting for a wedding is hard but when you give yourself time anything is possible!

We work 6 to 7 days a week making more than min wage so there's no reason not to save, so we treated ourselves like we made min wage and put all our extras into a jar and savings.

1. All extra money into saving

2. Limit eating out to once a month

3. Instead of date nights out build a fort and have a movie night in

4. write out all the bills you have to pay for a month and leave yourself 40$ for yourself

DIY tips

1: made our own cedar wishing well for cards

2: homemade wedding favors for the wedding party, guests, and children (buy bulk)

3: Ask friends for help for decore (we got 15 unique baskets for centerpieces)

4: made our own flower centerpieces with fake and real plants

I'm doing all of my own flowers, centerpieces, arrangements, decor in general. I ordered all my flowers online via Afloral.com. (I didn't look into how much it was going to cost to get these done professionally, but the decor bill is still ridiculously high)

We're very picky on the guest list. So far the list is (tops) 30 people.

We are not having a formal reception, just having everyone over to our house and having Chinese food (which... also... is not cheap)

Don't need a DJ. Just Spotify, and a family member who's talented enough to press a button

No special transportation. My brother or mother will be driving me to the ceremony... (If I could fit myself, in my dress, in my car I'd at least consider driving myself)

No bachelorette/bachelor parties.

I have done my own flowers ( using fake..more cost effective)

i am decorating myself.

i also ordered all of my decorations and flowers on line.. using a site called wish.

i made my own centerpieces.

having a friday afternoon wedding. ceremony and reception are at the same location. this also gets my guests a discount on room rate.

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Hi Emy. I haven't done this before but it is definitely worth giving a call to the company and see if they can provide either a group deal or something similar to a business.

If not, you could always look into some kind of bus company, if they will be going to the same location. Lots will do it for the wedding day, but you could also check and see if they'll do it for other days as well.

We're saving a lot by having a Sunday afternoon ceremony and luncheon. The venue gave us a smoking deal on the room and reduced their minimum spend considerably due to being a Sunday daytime affair. It also saves in that we won't be paying for a DJ or for guests to quench their thirst from dancing all night!

Trying to find deals on decor on Craigslist, probably ordering bulk flowers from Costco, decorating with the help of Mom and a very talented aunt. We got our invites on a 40% off sale from Vistaprint and skipped save the date announcements (their invite *is* their save the date announcement!)

Oh and most importantly, we are keeping the guest list small (approximately 40 family members).

We got a reduced rate on the venue, but it is still very beautiful, and the luncheon menu is amazing - two things we did not want to skimp on.

Hi

I have a question about car rental. Do you think it is possible to get discounted rates from Car rental company if I say that many of my wedding guests are looking for a car to rent during wedding days (they come from Europe and the wedding is in Edmonton).

Has anybody done this kind of request please?

Thanks

Emy

- e-mail save the dates

- website and e-mail for all details and RSVPs

- be your own DJ

- make your own centerpieces and some decor

- borrow needed items from friends and family if they have them

- ask family and friends for help; don't just pay someone else to take care of it

- shop around

The best way I found to save money is to get picky about the guest list. The more people=the more food=the more beverages=more tables and chairs= more décor you need= more money spent.

We also have our reception and ceremony in one place, so we got the use of the ceremony room for free. I am double using our flower centerpieces, they will be brought into the ceremony and then placed back on the tables. Wedding party bouquets will be the flowers for the head table.

For invitations, I am making them and printing them off at home.

For favors, my uncle is a honey farmer and he is giving us the honey to use.

We wanted to serve really good food and have an open bar so we choose to have a smallish wedding (60 people) and kept the list to closest family and friends.

I think it’s important to chalk down what both of you believe is important for your day. The rest is fluff you can look into DYI or cutting out. For us, the venue, food, music and photography were important. So the rest was easier to look into alternatives!

So far, here’s what we’ve figured out:
All-in-one venue (ceremony/reception) with a buffet dinner.
We’re not having a cake or offering favors. It’s a cash bar with 1 drink ticket + wine at dinner. We’re not sending save the dates, we’re buying an invitation template from Etsy and printing it off via Etsy.
I’m DIY’ing all my flower arrangements with fake flowers.
We’re pretty strict on the guest list.
We don’t have a wedding party and don’t plan on a bachelor/bachelorette party.
A talented friend of the family will be doing my makeup, as my wedding gift.

We're having a morning ceremony and brunch reception. Me and my bridesmaids are going to cook all our food our selves and make our own wine. We're planting our own flowers in the spring. The hall we rented comes with all tables and chairs and table cloths so no rentals there! Yay! We're also keeping the decor minimal and were only hiring a photographer for 5 hours and the officiant. And our guest listis under 80.

We’re having a Sunday wedding. The venues are usually cheaper.

Their where things that we new we didn’t want to cut like food. This was important to us and the photographer. So I found a photographer who is only doing photos for 4 hours. We are doing our own centrepieces I have made most of our favours and we have a friend making our cake.

We aren't doing a cake, no photo booth, at this point 95% sure we are cutting our wedding favours, 2nd hand decorations (dollar store is the best for these items), skipping the limos, no wedding planner/day of coordinator, for invites we got 50% off on Vistaprint, most we are giving out in person and some will be mailed off.

We are doing fake flowers for bouquets, so no florist we will be doing them ourselves.

For our wedding favours we are having our moms bake our favorite cookies. My favortie and his favorite = wedding favour. Nice and easy!

I found the best thing we saved money on was the food, I was so floored when I found out how much money people spend on catering. I looked around for someone to do it and found someone to make all the sides and someone to roast a bunch of chickens on a rostiserie. Pretty reasonable

Electronic save the dates and invitations! We asked people which they preferred, and %99 wanted the electronic one! Saves time on stuffing envelopes and money on the printing, the envelopes, and the postage! I really liked greetingisland.com because they let you download and use it for free, it only costs money of you want the watermark removed.

Lots of vendors also charge less if your wedding is in the middle of the week, or out of peak season.

If you can find vendors that take work trade to cover part of the price that helps too!

Go to wedding fairs to win prizes ( like free make-up/hair trials etc).

Buy discount décor that you can sell afterwards! Join wedding buy/sell groups on Facebook and you can get second hand items and then turn around and sell them after

We are having our ceremony and reception all in one location along with photos. And are dj is also a officiant and he as agreed to a lower price so it save money there we have also ask around are family and friends that do cakes and wedding invitations to help out and they are. And a helpful tips go to as many wedding shows you can free ones are the ones I do and always but ur name in every contest they have you can save so much if you do win.

Wherever possible, get more than one use out of something. Especially flowers. Bridal bouquets can be put in vases on the head table (or somewhere else in the reception area) for decoration. We are using potted plants along the aisle and then as the centrepieces and again as the favours.

We are also using larger planters that the venue has as their regular decor: we are just moving them around to suit our needs.

The biggest expense is food and alcohol. The best saving tip is to not serve a full dinner. Have a later ceremony and serve appetizers or have an early ceremony and save lunch. Or, cut down the guest list to have a small wedding.

Have your wedding in the morning it’s less expensive