Isn’t it always a nice feeling when you can figure out how to spend less and still get what you want? Shopping the sales is one plan, but Alex and I prefer the creative, thrifty, what-skills-do-our-friends-have route. Oh, and Etsy. Here’s a few of things we’ve managed to come up with during our run at wedding planning that have been cutting some nice big numbers from our wedding budgets:
1.) Save-the-Date: Email it! Whether you make a picture file yourself, craft an elegant emails of words, or buy a digital design from an Etsy vendor, almost everyone on your guest list is gonna have email–and check it regularly. For those that don’t, print a few out and send via snail mail. With digital design + postage, our Save the Dates cost around $20.
2.) Wedding Website: A wedding website where you can provide all your guests the necessary additional information for your ceremony is golden. Money wise it means that when you go to buy invitations, you’ll only be looking at the invitation itself + RSVP card. No maps. No list of accommodations. Less info in the envelope = less paper + less postage. Also, you can opt for a cheaper postcard RSVP.
3.) Department Store Suits or Bridesmaids’ Dresses: My wedding dresses are just over double the price when they are sold in ‘white’ or ‘ivory.’ For two dresses, in ‘bridesmaids’ colors of champagne and red, I’m spending less than $700 for two dresses I absolutely love and can wear again. For the suit option, Alex is considering having a suit made for her, and if she options to just have the pants and jacket–buying or making the waistcoat somewhere else–it could save her around $300.
4.) In Season Flowers/Cut the Fancy Arrangements: Our first wedding is in April, in England, when tulips are so in season they are absolutely everywhere. We’re sticky to tulips anywhere and everywhere except corsages (to be replaced by in season greenery + heather). We’ll have between 3-5 tulips in varying shades of purple on each of our 10 tables at the reception, sitting in second-hand vases we’re collecting from thrift stores. A friend of ours is making the tulip-only bouquet, corsages, and boutonnieres, buying the supplies (pins, ribbon, wire) herself for around $2.
5.)Research a Honeymoon Nearby: The other night, Alex asked me if said they’d buy our honeymoon for us today to anywhere in the world, where would be in. My response: Fiji. Our actual honeymoon destination: Dubrovnik, Croatia. So, why Croatia? It is more economical, environmental, has meaning to me, and is in our budget. Living in England, a flight to Croatia is not only economical, it’s less than a 4 hour flight. We can rent an apartment there for a week for the price of a hotel room for a night in London. Having spent a week in Dubrovnik on my own before, I’ve always wanted to take Alex there and it has everything we’d want in a holiday destination: a fortified old town, 3 beaches, a promenande with swinging chairs lining the cafes, good food, nights out, day trips to islands, gorgeous views. Sure it’s not Fiji, but I won’t have jetlag or serious debt when we get back.
6.) Friends (DJ, Make-Up, Cake, Flowers, etc.): Best advice I can give–talk about your wedding to EVERYONE. I didn’t know a friend of mine from soccer or Alex’s aunt does wedding cakes for hobbies until we started talking about weddings with them. Now, Alex’s aunt is making a traditional wedding cake for the English wedding, and my friend is making a rainbow cake for our California as her wedding present to us! Alex’s brother’s friend is a DJ who is going to be our DJ for the night for less than $150. A classmate of mine (studying Children’s Literature mind you) used to work in a flower shop for YEARS and her work with our flowers is her wedding present to us as well. Just this last weekend, a family friend of Alex’s mum reminded us that she always offers to do make-up for her friends’ daughters as she’s a make-up artist for the BBC–make-up on wedding day = sorted! Seriously, so many people have hidden talents, forgotten skills or are up for having a go at something, you just gotta ask.
