Where did you save money on your wedding?

@swin, this has been thought and discussed long and hard. FH grandpa who is in fairly bad health is coming and he has very strong beliefs against alcohol. He wouldn't come if we did have alcohol. It's important that he is able to be there and enjoy it.

My dad grew up Amish and most all of his side of the family including my grandparents are still very conservative and would be deeply hurt if there were alcohol. There will be an after party for those who would like to drink and party. This is the best decision we could come up with to keep my guest happy.

Angela, I think that's a good compromise!!

Swin, I'm sending STD's out next week!!!

I am saving money on my invites by having the ceremony and reception info on a single invite, saving the cost of a reception card, doing only online RSVPs for most guests (using a business card to direct people to the wedding website!), and getting everything from Vistaprint with a 40% off sale. I love how they turned out, and I ended up spending around $1 per invite.

I also shopped around a TON for vendors to save money, and minimized the number of flowers being used. I'm skipping ceremony decorations entirely (my venue is an ornate church), and bypassing favors and a fancy exit. My dad works at a university, so we're getting their ballroom for an entire day, with all the tables, table cloths, etc and setup for literally $600. That helps too!

Things we skipped entirely: decorations (the venue was lovely), flowers, favors, centerpieces, hired transportation (we just took our own car), programs and a lot of little fiddly things...we wore necklace and cufflinks we already had, etc

Things we saved on: sample dress, beer and wine reception(I was concerned about this, but a number of people approached me later and told me that the quality of the wine was super good. Since my family is mostly wine snobs and the ex's family is mostly dry this worked out great), friendor photographer (I know I know, but we got lucky)

We're in the SF bay area, it's REALLY EXPENSIVE here, and a comfy setting with delicious food and ample parking was my top priority. Everything else was secondary.

-35-50 guest list total (still hammering out the final numbers)

-Thursday wedding (no joke, this saved $2500+ on the venue fee alone. Hotels are cheaper, vendors are cheaper etc. )

-Reception and ceremony in same venue

-No hard liquor (the site can only serve beer, wine and hard cider due their liquor license)

-Cheaper catering ($37 pp for 4 course dinner, $12 pp for social hour appetizers)

-Only 4 hours of photography

-$500 budget for dress, with $150 for alterations

We got invites through VistaPrint, are doing our own flowers, no bridal party so no need to pay for rehearsal dinner; we did splurge on the venue and meal options, but that was important to us. We also got a reasonable photographer and a reasonable DJ. Still we are at quite a bit per person, but we are having a full open luxury bar.

This is my favorite topic!

-called people instead of save the dates

-knew the printer and designed my own invites so saved over 65%

-no champagne, having beer, wine, sig cocktail ( which we buy all of ourselves so no markups)

-venue is a relative's property so while we had to rent tables, chairs, and portapotties, we still saved thousands

-it's outdoors and pretty so no flowers needed, not even bouquet!

-my mom is sewing my veil ($12.79 in tulle and comb from Joann's!)

-we are staying at red roof inn instead of a fancy hotel. Partly because they will allow our dog.

-I know this is controversial but I'm not buying a photographer

-no bridal party

-no rehearsal dinner

-my dress is such that you can't even see my feet so I'm wearing old shoes

-dress from eBay, $300!

-no honeymoon

How I pan to cut costs:

- No bouquets (we are groom groom wedding anyways) and will our grooms(maids?) get bouquets? Maybe or we may just do nice corsages

- We don't have to deal with hair/make up, crazy accessories, dresses, veils etc

- No photo booth (our crowd isn't that into it)

- No wedding cake (we don't like it anyways)

- Will buy things on sale

- Save on stationary. STD will be sent via email with our engagement pics and invitations will be done cheaply through Vistaprint

- May find decorations that we can buy and then return at the store

- Only serving beer and wine on a very limited selection

- Choosing a venue on a cheaper date (luckily a long weekend Sunday with a Monday holiday was half the cost)

- Picking a venue that required minimal decoration (restaurant is the venue)

- No favours

- DYI programs (if we choose to), DYI place cards, DYI table numbers, DYI card box, DYI guest book, DYI wedding album

- Seasonal flowers and small centrepieces (works for us since our tables are smaller and not typical round tables)

Stationary

guest list

venue,

honeymoon (trip was already planned & half paid for before engagement so we scheduled wedding week before)

rehearsal dinner (grilling steaks instead of going to nice restaurant)

doc by getting someone just starting out

Videographer- negotiated prices by taking things out of package

Catering- found a caterer that does it from her home so No overhead cost

Dress bought on tradesy.com

Decorations all bought on local fb brides page for cheap

I had a wedding for 80 people under 15K with honeymoon included. I had a daytime wedding on a Saturday and just had beer and wine. That saved me a lot of money. Dress and alterations will run you a good cost. I had set a budget for my dress under 1,000 but it ran be about 1500 with alterations and cleaning.

How about floating candles for the centerpieces vs a lot of flowers? I mean flowers are lovely, but you're right, all to often they do get thrown away which is sad.

I had floating candles and loved them.

Vistaprint for invites, supplying the alcohol ourselves (thank goodness our venue will let us do this), DIYing the flowers from the farmer's market, and pretty minimal decorations. Bought my centerpiece vases at the dollar store! Made my own sash, got a good deal on my dress, wearing hand me down jewelry. Photographer was running a special and gave us another discount for paying our balance early. However we are not skimping on the food, booze, or DJ so it feels like those items tip the scales back a bit

Don't use Thumbtack. They make us pay to bid on your wedding and I don't know anyone good who uses it.

What you can do without?

STD's, programs, menus

OOT bags

favors

black board signs

personalized napkins, matches, champagne flutes....anything

personalize hangers

getting ready anythings that no one will wear again

bathroom baskets

rehearsal dinners especially with misc OOT guests

day after brunches

video (sorry videographers.....)

after parties

If you can;

Thursday, off season, off time,

smaller guest list and bridal party

That's true, I don't need a lot of personalized things (they get expensive too!). Thank you all so much for your help!!

Look at your budget, line by line and decide what is most important to you. We spent around $8000 for 58 guests. we could have saved a few hundred more if we did just beer and wine but DH insisted on top shelf liquor. Hardly any guests drank cocktails.

I saved money on save the dates and invites..they are by no means my dream invites lol (if that's even a thing) but I figured I would rather spend money on throwing a great party!

Some things we didn't do, or did very cheaply: no cake serving set (used venue provided), was going to skip toasting flutes but found cute ones at home goods for $4, did my own menu cards and signage (total cost $6 for package of shimmer card stock at Michaels, used printer at work!), only had two ppl in bridal party, no "getting ready" items, had a day after picnic which cost a grand total of about $200 for food and beer and park pavillion rental, no limo, limited decorations (venue had plenty of character and decor), in season flowers and I purchased my own vases for centerpieces (clearance priced!), used vistaprint for invitations, skipped save the dates, had it on a Friday, negotiated smaller priced pkg with photographer (just one shooter for 4 hours, all pics on location) and bought my dress online, needed no alterations, my DH already owned a tux so he just got a new bow tie to match, got cheap flats that I can wear again (@Dessy.com), and found the perfect necklace and earring set on clearance at Macy's for just $10!

You start by remembering that everything except the rings, the license, the gown, and your photos/videos will be gone the next day (actually, you can also add flowers to that list. A good florist will make you pieces that live for quite a while after the wedding. We constantly get follow-up emails from brides who tell us they love looking at their bouquets and sweetheart table pieces at home, and we even have a photo from a bride who is sitting on the plane heading off to her honeymoon with her bouquet in her lap). Flowers are expensive, no doubt. If you want to save money there, consider the grocery store floral department (most are limited in selection and cannot offer you constant communication), or tries Sam's Club. I've seen some really nice pieces on this site, and you can order the premade packages or the stems in bulk.

Beyond that, once you've secured your venue, what really matters is what I call the trifecta: good food, good cocktails, and good entertainments. Have those elements, and they will trump the most beautifully rendered pinterest projects and upgrades on material items. I love a beautifully decorated wedding/reception, but I don't really want to sit around for hours eating nothing but sweets and Costco apps, drinking punch, and listening to a family member mess up the computerized playlist because the bulk of the money went toward visual elements that cannot compete with the real substance of a party.

Wow, everyone ideas r very cost friendly & creative (if on strict budget or care 4 fancy add-ons). I'm drinkin this all in rite now:-)