Help! Where to splurge and where to save?

Splurge: food and bar, photos

save: flowers, decor, "extras" like photobooths and guestbooks, enormous guest lists

Food, drinks.

Save: decor, favors, save the dates, videographer.

Splurge on food, booze and DJ. Those are the things that will affect your guests' experience the most. Whether you want to then prioritize florals, dress, etc is a personal preference.

I am splurging on venue, food, alcohol and photos

i am saving on decoration, favors and invitation/STD

Splurge on what affects your guests (booze, food, maybe transportation)

Save on what doesnt: favors, paper, dress.

Other stuff, prioritize. Photos were important to us so we spent the money. Same with DJ.

Splurge: Food and Drinks

Save: Photo (family friend discount) MUA/Hair

Splurge: make up and hair, food, venue save: flowers, decor, dj

For me,

Splurge: venue, food & drinks, photographer

Save: invitations/stds, favors, decor, flowers

Splurge: Food, alcohol, and photography.

Save: Save the dates and invitations. FH's aunt and uncle are artists and are doing them for free. Entertainment was included in our package. Bridal party and family accommodations.

Splurge: venue food booze PHOTOS Hair Makeup

Save: flowers, DJ, shoes

Splurge: PHOTOGRAPHY! I've been warned by so many people never chimp on this. it will be your worst regret.

save: flowers, decorations, dj, invites and save the dates, etc.

My biggest splurges were venue, catering, photographer, and my dress!

I am going to have to save as much as I can basically on every other aspect of the wedding. We also had to cut our guest list down quite a bit. But it is all worth it to us for those few splurges!

Splurge on me ;-)

Okay, only half kidding.

Here is the thing; if you keep your guest list under control and your bridal party minimal, you free up dollars to make a smaller party a better party.

I blog about this a lot but here are the things you seriously do not need

1. STD's, programs, menus, fabulous expensive invites (sorry fellow invite pros)

2. After parties, food trucks as send off enhancements

3. OOT welcome bags

4. Bridal party proposal boxes

5. Imprinted anything; matches, napkins, champagne flutes, getting ready robes

6. Video (sorry video people; that is clearly go big or go home)

7. Full bars; wine, beer and a sig drink are PLENTY

8. Rehearsal dinners (which means you do away with the rehearsal!! Bonus!!)

9. Favors

10. Expensive shoes

11. Second reception dresses

12. Ceremony decor that can not be used at the reception

13. Limos (sorry transportation people)

14. Shuttles (they're ALWAYS late)

15. Caricaturists, photo booths, face painters

16. Chiavari chairs, chair covers, chair sashes

17. Charger plates

18. LInen upgrades

19. bouts (sorry flower people; I'm seeing more and more BP's without them

20. ring bearers, flower girls and all their related expenses.

Aren't you glad you asked?

Not one person at your wedding will be like, "Gee...where was the flower girl?"

But seriously, do splurge on food, booze and a fabulous officiant.

Make a list of the things that are most important to you. Splurge on those things. For me, its a beautiful venue (for beautiful pictures), food, booze, and entertainment.

I get a lot of the "extras" Celia mentioned in her post, like Chiavari chairs and a shuttle included with my venue, so that splurge was totally worth it.

I would splurge (within reason) on the things that will most greatly affect your guests' experience: food, drinks, music. We're not spending much on decor, favors, stationary, elaborate bridal party proposals, shoes if wearing a long gown, and transportation.

Splurging on food, bar, and photography. Saving on a lot of the extra unnecessary decor and no limos and no favors.

No one can tell you this, because it depends on what is important to you. For example, I see a lot of people splurging on dresses, and I really don't understand that. (Will your guests even notice the difference between one white dress and another?)

Similarly, photography is very important to some people. For us, we wanted a record of the ceremony, but not necessarily of the reception, and certainly not of photos all over town in our wedding clothes.

Conversely, for us, renting a place where all our guests could stay was important, because it meant we could spend time outside of formal "events" with people we see all too rarely. Having a Jewish ceremony was important, so we paid a lot for a rabbi, use of a synagogue, and artistic ketubah (formal Jewish wedding contract).

So, think about what is important to you. Spend your money there. And either skip entirely or look for the lowest prices on everything else.

Biggest splurge will be the honeymoon, that's going to be half our budget lol. We splurged on food (but we're only inviting 30 people).

I want to say we splurged on photos but we hired one of the least expensive we found, I just have a hard time paying that much for photos. I also splurged on hair and makeup and that wasn't intentional, but I also couldn't find it for what I considered a reasonable price.

So I'm saving money on decor and flowers by doing the decor myself and having minimal flowers. I'm hoping to save by buying an inexpensive dress too but I haven't gone shopping yet so I'll bite my tongue.

The advice everyone has is good---start with the things that are most important to you and make a list of "needs" and "wants." Be ruthless. You probably don't need a custom guest book or gorgeous glass etched unity bottles (that's from my list, lol).

I totally splurged on expensive shoes! It was my wedding present to myself - but I made sure they were something I could wear after the wedding.

Splurge - food, drinks, photography (it's going to be your main tangible memory of the day itself), music, and if you can - yourself, you deserve it!

Save - favours

Splurged on: food/venue/bar, entertainment, photo & video

oh, and my dress