Married ladies: what do you wish you wouldn't have spent money on?

Favors! I spent a lot of time and money DIYing my favors...hardly anyone took them. Or, they opened them there and ate the candy, and then I had all the little containers to throw away.

The weddings I've been to with favors, same thing. One friend of mine did a tea light candle in a little bird cage. Cute, but no one took them. All made in china cheap stuff.

Just wasteful and unsustainable to me, personally. A recent bride did a chalkboard and wrote that instead of favors, they made a donation to their favorite charity, and named it.

I kept things to a bare minimum as far as "stuff" goes, but buying something for the ring bearer was a waste. I got a cute box made out of a tree branch and it got left up in the hotel room. At least it was only $20.

I am interested to see the responses here. Good question. I definitely don't think I am going to spend a lot, if anything on favors.

Cake cutter and Server. When we got there to set up, the venue had already set one out. We used ours, but for the 30 seconds we used it, I would have used theirs and saved the money.

We did a photobooth so that was our main favor and then we had matches because we met on match. I would not spend a lot of time or effort on favors either.

I was pretty careful in how and what I spent money on, so I don't regret much of anything. I didn't DIY anything but table numbers and didn't add any decor to the room because I didn't want to have to deal with it after the wedding and trying to sell/give away 20 vases or centerpieces.

But in retrospect, I never should have spent $200 on custom lavender rhinestone shoes and a clutch purse for the wedding, because neither were used. The shoes stayed in my closet and the purse in the tote bag I had with a pair of reception slippers (never wore those either)

The only "regret" I have is my thumbprint guest book. I'm not sad that we did it, but the ink I chose faded and now I can barely see the thumbprints. I wish I would have known not to display our guestbook in such a sunny room

ETA: It's more the memories. I DIY'd it and it cost me about $10-$15. Money-wise we did a lot of DIY so I don't really have much regret in that aspect.

@#gonnabeahair...I registered for a cake cutting set and said that if nobody bought then I wouldn't and would just use the venue's. Someone did and now I have this cute Kate Spade set that probably wont get used until next year when I get us a small anniversary cake.

Maltese... I totally forgot I bought a clutch to use! Guess that was a total waste too....

Yeah, we skipped the cake cutting set (borrowed MIL's), and I didn't bother with a clutch either. I'd definitely skip both of those items.

I'm a champ at wasting money. I got program fans from Etsy. Cost a shit ton. Probably could have gone w/o those, but whatevs lol.

Favors- we just did Hershey's hugs and kisses in a little bag with a quote, but it seems that it was a waste because hardly anyone took them. Although I did get good use out of them after the wedding with cookies, so they didn't go to waste, but as far as wedding-wise they didn't pan out as I thought they would.

Flowers- I liked my flowers, but I ordered too many. The extra flowers did work out quite well with adding to the ceremony space and reception area, but I could have gotten by with fewer flowers.

Don't buy any decor until you know what direction you're going. I bought a few things right after I got engaged and then changed my mind.

Anyone upgrade the reception chairs? Think it was worth it or a waste?

Thanks for the responses this is really helpful!

DOC. I didn't have one and the issues that occurred at/during my wedding could've been solved if I would've booked one.

ETA because I'm an idiot and thought this post was what you would've spent money on, so ignore mine.

Honestly, no I wouldn't have spent anything less.

Tara, while I love the look of chiavari chairs, it didn't make much sense to me to pay extra for them. I mean, when you get down to it, it's a chair. Nobody will judge that.

Tara, we had a choice of chairs at our venue, but in the end I would not have paid extra to upgrade chairs. I did some DIY chair ribbons with origami flowers and people loved them. There are other ways to make things pretty than paying tons of money **disclaimer** it took hours and hours of work (most the origami part).

@maltese - I bought a Kate Spade set too. I'm ok cause it is a set I now have if I ever need a set, but totally not needed and at first I thought the venue lost it. They finally found it and now I need to go pick it up and make sure it is even ok.

Another one is programs. I DIY'd them myself and did relatively cheap ones (maybe spent 30-50 total). Plus, I only made a few (maybe 1/2 of the guests or even less than that) and I had half of those left over. With a short ceremony, people just don't care about a program.

Oh and a clutch is totally not needed - now a good bag is priceless. I bought a bag off exclusively weddings and had it monogrammed with "bride" the same time I bought bridesmaids bags. It was like 12.00 and perfect for the day. I threw my purse, makeup, some scissors and other random stuff I needed that day in there. Afterwards, I carried it to the reception and crammed it under the sweet-heart table. It was the perfect tote and at least said bride so it was wedding-y but cheap.

My ringbearer box because he didn't go down the aisle. Umbrella for my flower girl. She stood in front of a bridesmaid and used her shade.

As for the chairs, I didn't upgrad my ceremony chairs and wish I had. They annoy me in the ceremony pictures.

@Jillian, what issues did you have if you dont mind sharing? I don't plan on having a DOC so just wondering..

Bathroom basket! I totally forgot to put it out.