Your best Planning/budgeting Tips in Expensive Ny!

One way we’re planning to save money is to make our center pieces out of paper (both origami and tissue paper). Only a $1000 for 10 tables and it cuts down on the cost for real flowers, which we’ll use in the ceremony.

View Quoted Comment Thats sounds really unique! Would love to see them! We just started DIYing our ceremony decor to save some money!

View Quoted Comment We actually haven’t met with the artist yet, but here’s his site: http://origamiflora.mediathree.net/dsp_flowers.cfm

We’re thinking of doing an ikebana arrangement with peonies, orange blossoms, and cherry blossoms, which will be a nice contrast to our wedding colors—mint, emerald, gold, and champagne.

My fiance and MIL are very involved in the international origami community, so we want origami to be part of the decor, but not necessarily the whole wedding. Other ideas include putting origami cranes in our wedding colors in clear vases next to the table cards (http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/real-weddings-sarah-and-ians-intimate-central-park-wedding/) and putting individual cranes on the table cards (https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/554882528/origami-crane-name-place-cards-washi?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=&ref=sc_gallery-1-4&plkey=9bf15313c84f3c522d308039d22384a2cf0f1be9:554882528) Also pretty and cheap and folding all of those cranes will keep his mom and her friends too busy to stick their noses in our wedding planning.

I got married in pricey Brooklyn Heights but found an amazing venue www.deitynyc.com that included F&B, a DOC, a DJ and lots of decor for a very reasonable price. I saved a ton by using non-floral centerpieces combined with candles provided by the venue. My centerpiece was a deer bust that I spray-painted gold. I bought them at Muchael’s during holiday time and with coupons, cost me $16 each. The deer is a play on my husband’s last name which is Deer but spelled differently. I designed my table numbers printed on regular paper and I used IKEA frames that costs $1 each, and spray painted them gold. After pricing out 10 florists in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island (where I live), I couldn’t find anyone to do personal flowers for less than $800. At my wits end, I tried one more local florist in Rockville Centre that I thought would be very expensive. She quoted me $287 for my bouquet, MOH bouquet, flower girl petite bouquet, 1 wrist corsage and 7 boutonierres. I almost fainted! Of course, after I signed the contract I started worrying that for that price I’d get half dead carnations, but the flowers were gorgeous and just what I wanted. My advice on flowers is to keep looking until you get the price you want. I saved a lot on invitations by designing my own invitation suite and having them printed at Costco. Total cost for 50 STDs, 50 invites and 50 RSVP cards was $105. They also pre-printed my return address on the envelopes and preprinted my address on the front of the RSVP envelopes. My escort cards doubled as a favor. I got deer shaped lollipops and attached tags with the name and table number. Lollipops were less than $2 each from Melville Candy. They double wrapped the lollipops and used gold twist ties upon request. The even included lollipop stands for free. Our fabulous jeweler Greenwich St. Jewelers in Manhattan took $200 off the cost of our bands since my husband purchased my engagement ring there. To be honest, they weren’t inexpensive by any means, but it was super nice of them to give us this savings when we didn’t even ask for it. Our last big savings came with my husband’s suit, and this was just luck. He found a suit he loved at Nordstrom. He thought it was $699 but when I looked carefully at the price tag with my glasses on (his were off), it was actually $999. He loved it and he does wear suits to work so We went for it. It actually cost more than my gown. 3 months after he bought the suit, I found out the suit was on sale at Nordstrom for $499. I told him to call Nordstrom to see if there was anything they could do, fully expecting them to say no, but figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. My husband spoke to the manager and after hearing the suit was for his wedding, the manager said he’s an old softee and credited my husband the $500! He had received $75 in Nordstrom bucks when he first bought the suit so after the credit and minus the bucks, the $999 suit cost $424. All in all, our Brooklyn wedding for 73 cost $23k (including a catered dinner for family and OOT guests at our home). This included EVERTHING but rings and honeymoon.

I have no idea because I'm from the West Coast. What are y'all doing on the East to have all that money? That average is whack. Best of luck!

View Quoted Comment Wow! Can't believe you pulled that all off in Brooklyn nonetheness! Those florist prices are unheard of in these parts! We have all our vendors in our package but the florist was the main one we had to spend money upgrading bc it simply didn't include all of what we need. Our jeweler also gave us amazing deals on our bands after FH bought my ering there! I really think local is the way to go when it comes to jewelers! We are looking at coming out to about 23k for 130 people on Long Island with everything! Staying away from both Nassau/the city and away from the East End was key to getting our best bang for our buck!

View Quoted Comment It is actually insane lol We are having a wedding well below the average here bc we don't have that kind of money for a wedding but it took lots of research/shopping around!

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Who was the florist in RVC that you used? That sounds like a great price!! I'm just starting to look into florists and I'm afraid to find out how much it will cost. I'm not doing flower centerpieces thought so that should hopefully be helpful in cutting costs.

View Quoted Comment I used Masters & Co. Ask for Lori the owner. She’s a little nutty but she knows her stuff and has years and years of experience. My flowers were even better than I imagined.

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Thank you!!

View Quoted Comment Here are some pics

View Quoted Comment Those flowers are breathtaking and it looks like you had a wonderful celebration. Congrats!