Many brides have been dreaming about their wedding day since childhood. These dreams come with an expensive price tag, and the realization of their fairytale day may be distant. Although weddings are very costly today, your dream day can happen. I am going to share some tips to cut corners and advice on how to save you money without making huge sacrifices. By making the time to plan and investigate, you will be amazed at the amount of money to save. You would not arrive at an interview for your dream job without prior preparation, would you? No, you would not, and that is why preparation and research will make your wedding a success without remortgaging your parents or your house!
- image courtesy of theknot.com
#1 — Order a small wedding cake for the cake table to display and a large sheet cake to cut and serve from in the kitchen. Serve the cake as the dessert to complete your meal and forget about other sweets.
#2 — Rent, borrow or make as many items as possible! Some items to borrow from a friend or relative are a cake knife and serving set, toasting glasses, jewelry and the bride’s shoes. You can make several items or enlist a few friends to help you with ribbons, pew bows, veil and headpiece, church programs, bridesmaids dresses, bridal purse, ring bearer pillow and the cake top to reduce costs.
#3 — Instead of hiring a florist, make items or contact local floral design school and hire them to provide your flowers. Carry a small bouquet or one flower, and have your attendants do the same. The bridesmaid’s bouquets can double as flower arrangements on the head table.
#4 — When shopping for dresses, shop J.C. Penney and Chadwick’s catalogs, consignment shops, discontinued gown racks, the Internet and newspaper ads. Remember, it is always great if you can count on Dear Aunt Sally or your Grandmother to make them, too! I am sure they would be honored.
#5 — When setting the wedding date, you may want to consider choosing a Friday rather than a Saturday, as it usually trims off about $3 per guest at your dinner reception. Choose a buffet or plated dinner vs. sit-down. Serve chicken or pasta; it is less expensive. In addition, you may want to decide on a morning or an afternoon reception and serve cake, punch and hors d’oeuvres. Serve beer and wine, or just host a cocktail hour. Purchase your liquor from wholesalers. It may be wise to check with culinary and bakery schools in your area to see if they can help with food preparation. Many will prepare the food for its cost.
#6 — Rent a Cadillac or other luxury vehicle just for the Bride, Groom, Maid/Matron of Honor and Best Man to save on the expense of a limousine. The other members of the bridal party will most likely want to ride with a spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend to the reception.
#7 — When choosing your wedding invitation, select one that will only require one stamp. Another great tip is to have your reception information added on the ceremony invitation to eliminate the expense of the reception card.
A little thought and creativity will certainly go a long way to help you have a wonderful wedding on a budget! Good luck!
Great tips! We got married on a Friday and got a discount from several vendors and at our venue. Plus, it allowed us to leave for our Hawaiian cruise the next day!
Great tips. If you’re comfortable at applying your own makeup have a professional bridal preview and asking for a makeup chart to recreate the look. Many professional artist will do this for a small fee or a custom makeup purchase.
Wedding cakes take days to make, experience to put together, and artistry to make beautiful. It’s not a frozen, 6 month old box mix cake slathered in Crisco icing mass produced at Wal Mart. If a bride wants to save money on the cake, then they need to stop looking at fancy wedding websites and expecting custom bakers to replicate that $10,000 cake made by a top industry cake designer for pennies. If you REALLY want to save money, keep the design simple with a ribbon trim and stick to plain cake flavors like chocolate or vanilla.
#1 is just plain not true, and I wish bloggers and “experts” would stop perpetuating this myth that if a baker bakes a big rectangle cake it magically costs less then if a baker bakes a big circle cake. Does an 80 serving “sheet cake” magically take less ingredients and time to make then an 80 serving round cake? C’mon. The term “sheet cake” is also wrong, a “sheet cake” is what you buy at Costco for a birthday and is only 2″ high, a wedding cake or KITCHEN CAKE is 4″ high (wedding standard to be cut into 1×2 servings), so you are already telling brides to order 1/2 the cake they will actually need to serve their guests – well I guess that WOULD save money if you only buy 1/2 the portions you actually need! The time, cost of ingredients, custom flavors, and custom design for the “small tiered cake” doesn’t magically get discounted just because there is more cake “in the back” either. Cake is cake.
I also will not take a commission if I am only making a small tiered cake and the bride wants to serve Costco cakes “in the back” to save money. I don’t want my high quality product ever confused with those disgusting things. It’s called an “all or nothing clause”, and as far as I know it’s industry standard to have that written into the cake contract so again, another myth.
Sorry about the tone of this post, but I don’t blog about how to undervalue my fellow wedding service providers, nor do I give false advice or “expert” opinion about stuff I obviously know nothing about.
Hi FromScratch SF, I am sorry you do not agree with #1. I was just speaking from my personal experience as a planner for 12 plus years here in the Detroit area. I honestly have had bakers in my network charge less money for the kitchen cakes if that is what you prefer to call them. The reason is because they don’t have to spend hours decorating and embellishing them like they would the cake that is on display on the cake table. Perhaps I should have elaborated more on that in my post and that would have made my intention of number 1 clearer so I do apologize. I was in no way trying to undervalue what you do. I do understand how much time and effort it takes to produce these wedding cakes. I can totally relate to the “myths” issue as I myself experience this all of the time when brides tell me I cost too much and oh my Aunt or girlfriend is going to be my wedding planner or day-of coordinator. They have no idea what really goes into the production of a wedding and you only have once chance to get it right. I wish they would leave it to the professionals to do what we do best. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, FromScratch SF, and thanks Detroit Wedding Planner for adding more clarification about your point. Here on the Weddzilla Blog, it is our goal to share advice and helpful information with our readers from a variety of experts who speak from years of professional experience. I recognize that there are varying opinions and viewpoints even among the pros about numerous issues, and that’s why we always welcome constructive and respectful conversation about the issues we cover.
I want to share an idea my mother had for maximizing wedding budgets.
20 years ago my mother, fondly known as Doey, invented a pew clip to hang bows and flowers from church pews. Her goal was to save money by reusing wedding aisle flowers and avoid the use of damaging wires and tape. It’s a simple clip for hanging bows or flowers in waterproof pots from the church pews. Most importantly, her idea allows wedding aisle decorations to be reused as reception centerpieces, thus saving money. I’m proud of my mom and just wanted to share this with your readers. Thank you.
Thank you for your clarification – unfortunately your average bride does not know these things – they look at your two-sentence tip and think BINGO! I can save money! When in reality your tip is area specific to a few bakers you’ve worked with that have done this this in the past – but it’s not a national industry standard… but blogs are read world-wide. Again sorry for the negativity, but this seems to be the “it” tip for saving money in 2011. My last several consultations I’ve been asked about this. Brides read stuff like this, thus putting them on the hunt to find a custom baker that will create a mini Ron Ben-Israel knock-off with premium flavors/fillings then make cheaper sheet cakes because they read in a blog or magazine that someone somewhere will. It’s a hard and stressful realization when they can’t find anyone. Thanks for reading.