At the beginning of your engagement, it’s super helpful to sit down and decide what is the most important to you - what areas can you save money in so that you are free to spend in others. Also, figure out some sort of a budget. And have the awkward who’s paying for what conversation.
Decorations
Use What You Have Look around your house and be creative! At our wedding, we used a dresser, old trunk, headboard, and nightstand and they looked amazing! There were so many little pieces like candles, lace tablecloths, frames, and silk flowers that we used that came from our family’s home.
Beg, Borrow, or Steal (Okay, not literally.) Putting on a wedding requires a lot of stuff - white or fairy lights, cake stand, vases, signs, miles of tulle, and on and on. If you know someone who just put on a wedding, ask if you can borrow some of the items they used. Most people are more than happy to share since they won’t be using everything again anyway. I don’t think we actually spent that much of decor for our wedding because so much of it came from others (or our own wedding supply boxes from previous family weddings).
Shop Smart Try looking through the dusty shelves of your local thrift stores. We found mason jars, a gorgeous wreath, vases, and much more at our local Salvation Army. Dollar Tree has the perfect sand ceremony containers (plus the sand!), gorgeous silk flowers, bubbles, and other wedding/party decorating supplies.
Decorate According to the Season During the winter, there is going to be a lot more poinsettias, Christmas trees, and red and winter blue decorations everywhere. Plus, they’ll probably be on sale.
Flowers Fresh or silk can get expensive! Silk could be easier since they can be arranged months before the wedding and still look amazing, plus they look gorgeous for years. Fresh are absolutely lovely, but you only have a small time frame in which to work with them. Costco has incredible prices on fresh flowers! Use flowers from your garden or a friend’s. Ask around to see if you have friends who are good with putting flowers together.
Food
The Cake If a cake is simply labeled as a “wedding” cake, it can cost you hundreds of dollars. There are several great options for saving money on this: 1) Skip the cake. Serve ice cream, donuts, pie, or cupcakes instead. 2) Ask a friend or family member to make the cake. 3) Buy sheet cakes from Costco. You candecorate with flowers (edible, fresh, or silk) if you wish. 4) Check out Safeway’s bakery. You can even purchase three different sizes of the same style cake and stack them - instant tiered wedding cake for less than $75!
Reception Food Feeding 200 people is a huge cost! Here are a couple ideas that might help in this department.
1) Stick with a simple cake reception (if you’re planning on doing this, make sure the time of the reception is mid morning or mid afternoon so it doesn’t fall around a meal and all your guests are starving!)
2) Make and serve a full meal - like spaghetti or soup with bread. Great option for a fall/winter wedding and much cheaper than a snacky cheese/meat/crackers/fruit meal.
3) Potluck - ask your guests to bring the food. Give them general guidelines like meat, cheese, and veggies, etc.
4) Plan a menu, purchase the food items in bulk, then ask friends to help assemble. We did this for our wedding and it was amazing!
Paper stuff
Invitations You can go crazy with your invites, or you can be as simple as a few lines printed on a slip of paper on your home printer. People like to see an engagement picture, and it doesn’t cost much to include one! You can either make your invitations at home using your own printer or have your invitations printed online. Look around for the least expensive options.
Programs These are easily printed at home. Half an 8x11 paper, printed on front and back is simple, easy, and inexpensive. Remember that people aren’t really going to care whether the program is stamped with gold lettering and printed on cardstock paper. They’re only using it to see when the wedding will be over. As soon as it is, they’ll stuff it in their purse, pants pocket, or trash and forget all about it.
And lastly...
Venue This is usually the biggest wedding expense. Here are a couple ideas to help save some money in this area.
Paper stuff
Invitations You can go crazy with your invites, or you can be as simple as a few lines printed on a slip of paper on your home printer. People like to see an engagement picture, and it doesn’t cost much to include one! You can either make your invitations at home using your own printer or have your invitations printed online. Look around for the least expensive options.
Programs These are easily printed at home. Half an 8x11 paper, printed on front and back is simple, easy, and inexpensive. Remember that people aren’t really going to care whether the program is stamped with gold lettering and printed on cardstock paper. They’re only using it to see when the wedding will be over. As soon as it is, they’ll stuff it in their purse, pants pocket, or trash and forget all about it.
And lastly...
Venue This is usually the biggest wedding expense. Here are a couple ideas to help save some money in this area.
1) The best option - which, unfortunately, will not work for every couple - is to use either the bride or groom’s home church. If you’re a member, churches usually won’t charge for use of the building.
2) Or, shop around for options other than a church. My brother’s wedding was at the local fairgrounds - and it was beautiful!
2) Or, shop around for options other than a church. My brother’s wedding was at the local fairgrounds - and it was beautiful!
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