What are the ways you saved money?

My fiancee bought fabricated flowers (not sure what they're made from) for bouquets for herself and her bridesmaids/MOH. For favors we are also making a cookbook of our favorite recipes, using our own photographs and printing, with a copy for each couple/family/individual as appropriate. Printer ink & paper were expensive but much less expensive than what we had originally considered for favors.

View quoted message Thanks Darbi😁

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Our ceremony is at 1pm and cocktail hour starts at 4:30 so there should be about three hours in between for everything to get moved over!

-Using withjoy as a wedding website to save on invitations, we are using online RSVP method.

-My fiancé's father is marrying us as a temporary marriage commissioner.

-Fiancé's mother is making homemade soaps for wedding favors.

-No wedding cake. No corsages.

-Only have a MOH and Best Man for our wedding party.

-Buffet vs. plated dinner.

-No wedding planner or coordinator.

-Bought our own wedding decor vs. renting it.

View quoted message That sounds like a great idea Darbi! May I ask, how many hours between your ceremony and reception? I’m doing the same.

Yes!! I booked a Thursday because it is much cheaper for our meal course. We got a buffet style for 47$ each. If I pick a Saturday will cost us 80$ per person so I saved some money there. I saved money on bridal hair and makeup plus signage since I won the Instagram give away. And saving money on my bridal bouquet and my junior bridesmaid bouquet. Got two DIY boxes of flowers from Ling’s moment.

Everything from the ceremony we're definitely reusing at the reception! We're using our signing table as the cake table and the arch for our head table backdrop! And reusing the chairs as well. It's crazy how much everything costs! My cricut has definitely been such an asset!
Happy Planning!

I used the WW To Do List and half of it wasn't needed as recommended. The way I saved on the cost were:

Renting centerpieces (vase and floral per table), money box, and backdrop

No real flowers or bouquets

No wedding planner as organized and managed on my own to do the set up

Online purchases for small things than going in person to retail stores except for favours

We have an odd mix of people - ages etc so we are sending invitations/RSVP cards to older people and those without a computer (they still exist!) and save the date cards to all with a link to RSVP online for the rest.. However being quoted at $500+ for that small amount we are going to design our own as well as create our own signage. I am also still thinking about doing our own bouquets and boutonnieres...

Wow!! Alyx that’s a really good deal! You did great 😁💗

Repurposing ceremony/tea ceremony decor for the reception rather than doubling up.

I edited my own wedding video to save costs on that front.

My wife bought her dress off the rack and I got my tuxedo used.

We opted to drive ourselves instead of hiring a limo.

I saved money on:
- not hiring wedding planner, myself, hubby and sister planned together
- making our own cocktail food- did not have a videographer - I did my own DIY decors, simple flower/decor ideas- one venue for ceremony and reception - other things were free or I did not have to pay. However, I have wine and cake to who helped out and did not want us to pay them.

View quoted message Okay thanks!!

I’ve thrifted a bunch of brass pieces for decor + an old vintage frame and mirror I’ll be repurposing into signs. All my candle holders etc. are either thrifted or from dollar tree. The rental prices in Ontario are nuts for anything I'm interested in. I am splurging on chair rental though. I’m a big crafter in my spare time so I own a cricut machine which I’ll be putting to good use.

I’ll be designing and printing our menus and programs at home and using my cricut to add foil. Tonight I worked on testing out the foil and played around with making some vinyl stickers (I’ll remove the date next time as the little details were a pain to remove)

The blue letters behind won't be there on the real thing and the foil will be gold

View quoted message I also remember seeing a bundle at Walmart (online only) came with the machine, the tools you'd want and a decent amount of vinyl.

View quoted message Costco usually but now they seem to only have the maker. Michael's has had it on sale a lot recently - not currently unfortunately (although seems price has come down) and the bundle isn't as good as when I got it, but you're really only missing the basic tool set, so not not a huge deal to add that. That seems to be cheaper on Amazon

View quoted message Awe that’s amazing! 🤍 it’s so nice when you have vendors who truly care. It makes such a difference in the process!

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I cried when I had read the email that he was doing this for us. It is beyond kind of them. They really care about their clients and it shows that it's more then just money to them.

View quoted message Where can I buy the air 2 ? I see it on Amazon but is there anywhere else that sells it?

View quoted message You need one!! After we buy a house/the wedding, depending on how the house timeline unfolds, I'll be upgrading to an explore or a maker!

View quoted message Hmm your selling me on it for sure haha! I think I need one!

View quoted message Definitely well deserved for 1000 dollars off! That’s so kind of them! You’ve waited so long!!

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I'm not too sure if they do a special for Sunday's or not. It's not on their website or packages. All venue are different with their packages and maybe some do have a special for booking on certain days just like high and low season.

For us actually, we are very blessed to say the least. Because of covid, and having to postpone twice, our event's manager for the winery actually talked to the owner and he felt really bad for us having to move dates twice. He offered us the $1000 dollar discount if we decided to go with any Sunday since all the Saturday's in 2022 where already booked.

We're also ordering a cake from the grocery store for like $20 and having some of our family make other desserts!

View quoted message This! I have the explore air 2 and definitely worth it for me. I did/do a lot more with it than just wedding stuff though. We definitely saved money by making signs ourselves, addressing our invites, seating cards, acrylic place cards, etc with it. Also did fun bachelorette shirts, Koozies for the guys, personalized socks, hangers.... tags for our hotel welcome bags... Big learning curve, lots of frustration, but awesome to know you did it yourself! We also saved by buying somethings off of our local wedding FB group and then I sold everything afterwards. Our wedding was also in winter and about $30/pp less expensive but that wasn't why we had it in winter. We didn't expect that but it makes sense as it's off season. We also had the pandemic hit, which saved us about 22k 😂. Sacrifices were made of course.

View quoted message I got the cricut joy when it was on sale for $180 but lately the explore air 2 goes on sale for like $200 so that's the better choice in my opinion if you decide to get one! Overall it's easy to use there is a bit of a learning curve for the design space app but I watched some tutorials and it's pretty easy for me to navigate the app now. I also use my cricut for sooo much non wedding stuff it was definitely worth the investment

View quoted message Usually September is still pretty busy I find. (Around here anyway)

View quoted message Wow … is it too late for me to ask 😬 we booked our venue last February it’s about 8000 dollars
I’m not sure if our date would be included as the winter season though it’s in September, I wonder if that’s still a busy month

View quoted message The place we picked has a winter sale on dates in January and February not every place does this but a lot might if you asked. We had the 18% gratuity as well. The cost difference was quite a bit. I think about $50/pp before gratuity.

View quoted message Oh I’ve debated the Cricut so much!!!! They are expensive but I would probably save money in the long run!
Are they easy to use?

View quoted message Again so interesting to me that you get money off for choosing a certain season!! Is this a known thing! Lol I’ve never heard or seen anything about this!
We just had set prices at our venue plus 18% gratuity and we chose fall!

View quoted message That’s interesting to me that you booked for a Sunday you get 1000 off! Was that on the website shown under the packages or did they tell you that after you booked for a Sunday?
We booked on a Friday but on their website nothing was there about choosing a certain day of the week and you get money off! They just had set prices for each room at their venue
Is this for all venues or just for some?