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Congratulations to AOEBuckeye, LisaK, Rose, and KEM - each of you have won a copy of the Rich Bride Poor Bride Planner! Thanks to everyone who entered!
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Today we have 4 copies of Rich Bride, Poor Bride: Your Ultimate Wedding Planning Guide to give away! Based on the international hit reality tv series of the same name, this 224 page book is chock full of great tips from the featured planners on the show. And like the show, it really focuses on budgeting - one of the most important aspects of the wedding planning process for every brides!
To enter, please share a budget saving tip from your own wedding in the comments below by 8pm tonight! Good luck!
My favorite wedding/budget tip - Use a frequent flier credit card to pay for all wedding expenses. Chances are you’ll be able to fly free to your honeymoon with all your earned miles!! At the minimum you’ll be well on your way to free airline tickets - maybe to celebrate your first anniversary!
Once you decide on your wedding dress/bridesmaid dress, visit your designer’s website for a list of all stores that carry your designer in the area. Then hit the phone calling these stores for quotes! You can always use this price as a great bargaining tool at the store you actually will order your dress from.
Similar to jilian - I’m getting a lot of cash back on my credit card due to wedding purchases. Good extra spending money for the honeymoon. Now just to decide whether we get the massages or dinner on the beach…
Make a budget and continue to save as much as possible by putting money in an ING/high interest account, but use cash for smaller expenses when you can - BM/GM gifts, favors, etc.
After/closer to the wedding - you’ll have extra money in the savings because you used cash for so many smaller things you budgeted/saved for!
My tip… Do your research, Sometimes DIY isn’t cheaper. Price out all your costs before starting a project to make sure you’re not over budget in the end. I learned that one from my DIY invites.
We’ve started to cut coupons for everything. Every little bit helps, right?
We’re having the ceremony and reception in a place that requires little extra decor and using an iPod instead of a DJ or band. We’re putting all the money we would’ve put into flowers and music into more food and an open bar for our guests.
From my early planning- do research for prices online- for dresses, favors, anything! And, my personal favorite- eBay! There’s no way I’m spending $140 on a birdcage veil, I found one for $30 on there and I can embellish it however I want, if I want to. No offense to anyone who wants to buy one full price, I just can’t. 
think..do I really need that? in 15 years or 15 months will I rather have £300 or chair coverings?
Register with someone who has a completion program like Crate and Barrel. You get 10% off after your wedding date on items still left on your registry. Even if you know no one is going to buy you that couch you’ve been eying, why not put it on the registry and get it at 10% off later!
From my early planning- do research for prices online- for dresses, favors, anything! And, my personal favorite- eBay! There’s no way I’m spending $140 on a birdcage veil, I found one for $30 on there and I can embellish it however I want, if I want to. No offense to anyone who wants to buy one full price, I just can’t.
If this enters twice, I just received an error, wasn’t trying to cheat!
Use your friends/family! No, not in a bad way! People are usually willing to help, or even looking forward to helping. You just have to be willing to ASK. Be humble and don’t expect anything. I have a lot of talented friends and family members, and had no fear asking for their assitance. This has saved me TONS on various aspects of the wedding
Negotiate negotiate! Use the prices vendors post online as a starting point. But most vendors are willing to work with your budget. This is especially important when booking your venue.
Even if the vendor doesn’t throw in freebies, you can customize it to your needs. Do more passed hordourves and a smaller plated dinner. Or with your photographer, take out the photo albums to lower the quote and DIY instead!
Find uses for your flowers again. For example, you can use centerpieces to decorate your aisle or pew and then move them into the reception room on top of a vase, and if having a chuppah you can use it in the reception as a focal point for your table.
Use your friends/family! No, not in a bad way! People are usually willing to help, or even looking forward to helping. You just have to be willing to ASK. Be humble and don’t expect anything. I have a lot of talented friends and family members, and had no fear asking for their assitance. This has saved me TONS on various aspects of the wedding
ditto as above, got an error, not trying to enter twice!!!!
We live in a fairly expensive area to plan a wedding. To save money, we moved our wedding location to Tulsa, OK, and I have found great savings with every vendor. The ‘use a vendor in another state’ method helped to save me $300.00 on my fabulous wedding dress as well.
We’re doing everything we can to stretch our dollars. Including:
- using our MC’s computer and playlist for reception music
- taking advantage of internet retailers who have low overhead and therefore lower costs (I found my dress $300 cheaper online! - try bestbridalprices.com or netbride.com)
- since we wanted handtied bouquets anyway, my mum and I took a floral class at the local college, and ordered our flowers online. 600 stems for less than $400 (try farmstogo.com and americanfloraldistributors.com)
- shop online using ebates.com - I get a percentage back on things I was going to buy anyway, attendant gifts, fabric for tables, etc.
Instead of hiring a full-fledged band, I hired a Beatles cover band! A band would have ran me upwords of 2k while the cover band (for two two hour sets and a half hour break) cost me $900!!! When they are resting, we are going to have an ipod dock set up. Consequently, it will be the same time that dinner is served so there wont be any dancing at the point either!
I totally recommend finding a non-wedding band. If you and your spouse have a favorite band (The Beatles!!!), then try to find a good cover band. It’s a great visual treat for the guests and makes the wedding more personal! Plus, it saved me over 1k.
Oh, and as for my dress, I work at a college theater where I know a ton of tailors. My college friends who work in the costume shop is taking a white dress I found at JcPenny for $40 and making it into a completely beautiful wedding dress for $100. My suggestion would to be to call around the local colleges (especially the theater) and ask if they can recommend a seamstress or designer. I plan on donating to the theater for all the help they gave to me as well, but you cant beat a personalized dress for 140!
Bouquets tend to be one of the most expensive parts of the flower budget. If you pick up your own flowers at your local supermarket (Most will order the flowers for you) and make your bouquet yourseld you can save a bundle. Theya re not hard to make at all and if you or someone special to you makes them it can make it that much more special. I’m planning on making the boquets with my bridesmaids and having some girltime at the same time. i made all of the ones for my friend’s wedding and with 6 bridesmaids it adds up. I think it ook me about 1 1/2 hours total for them and I didn’t have any help.
If you can stand the wait of a long engagement it can definitely save you money because you have time to wait for great deals! I bought so much stuff after every holiday season (especially Christmas and Valentines Day) when it was 50-75% off that I probably saved at least $10,000.
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