Here's a Duh! statement - weddings are expensive. I'm willing to pay for some things - a nice dress, an open bar- but we can save some money in other areas by doing it ourselves.
I have decided to design and print my own Save the Date cards and wedding programs. We're going to have our invitations professionally done, simply because they're really not that expensive on their own, and I just adore my invitation design. I went to Paperandmore.com. This is a great site, very user friendly, and I was able to order as many samples as I wanted for $1 shipping. Bonus!
I'm also toying with the idea of doing silk flowers for me and my bridesmaids, but having fresh for Craig and his groomsmen. I think silk flowers can still be classy, and I get to keep my bouquet.
Our reception place has included basic decorations in our package price, so we'll probably go with those. I am still looking in the meantime, and if I find something that's an awesome price for 30 of them, I may snap it up. Otherwise, I'll save the money and go with the basics.
I don't know if we'll do wedding favors or not. Do people expect these?
What are some things you saved on by doing them yourself?
11 comments:
Kim-
I saved a ton of money by doing many things on my own. I did silk flowers for the entire wedding party and they turned out extremely well. We went with bubbles instead of bird seed or flower petals. I bought the little bottles of bubbles and hot glued ribbon and little roses. I also did the wedding favors myself. Hell, I made the flower girl's basket and grew the roses for the petals. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it was well worth it and everyone was surprised when I said I had done it all myself. BTW, are you doing the unity candle thing? If so, you should check out this site--www.waxworkscandles.com --the hand carved wedding candles are beautiful.
With lots of help from friends and family, we did our own web site, designed and assembled invitations, gift bags, decorations for the ceremony, name tags for the rehearsal dinner, and even supplied the venue with a Fall soup recipe to use (because I'm crazy like that).
There's a lot to consider - stress, time, money - when you decide to take on all of these wedding tasks yourselves!
If roses would be something you desire, check Wal-mart on line. My niece bought a gazillion roses for a little bit of money (I would quote amount and price, but I don't remember and she has only been married a year..) and wrapped and tied them herself.
Another niece bought apples. She cut out gold leaves from fancy paper and wrote guest names and table number on them. They served two purposes, table favors and place setting cards.
Both wedding were in St Louis!!
I love fresh flowers too much to give them up for my bouquet and it didn't preserve well, so I went out after the wedding and bought the same flowers in silk and made a floral arrangement for my home. Whenever I look at it I remember my wedding.
I did bubbles, too, and decorated the bottles myself. My flower girl carried a mini arrangement of flowers similar to my bridesmaids; I didn't want the basket thing...
My only recommendation: the package our reception hall offered for flowers on the table didn't thrill me. I went with their tablecloths and room decor, but I used my florist for the centerpieces. Just be sure you see what they have to offer before you make the decision...
Oh, and we used our bouquets to decorate our bridal table. They placed them around the edge of the table and they look GREAT in photos!
For Amanda's wedding, I did the invitations, the table favors and instead of a full blown wedding cake (which our venue charged $1 per slice to CUT!), we did cupcakes, which everyone loved! You can do different flavors and tier them.....
We only ordered the cake.
My mother and I made our invitations, favors, bouquets, boutonnieres, decorations....EVERYTHING.
My entire wedding for 164 people cost $3000 (including the dress)
We did invites and decorations ourselves. I found E-bay had tons of things to use for favors, decorations and gifts for the wedding party. I was able to get totes with my girls names embroidered for $10 a piece.
We did not do favors and I really don't think anyone cares. Instead we made a donation to a charity.
My dress and veil I got for $500. Originally a STL bridal store wanted $1300 and it didn't include alterations. I went to Wedding Creations in Washingtion,MO and that place was awesome. It was worth the drive. If you would like more info e-mail me. meeshlinn at yahoo dot com
Hey Kim: Believe it or not, we bought a lot of wedding things at The Dollar Tree (candles and a few silk flower arrangements). Also, you can very easily make your own bird seed bags for people to throw at the wedding. We bought the tulle, ribbon, and little flowers for decoration at The Dollar Tree too. Also, Party City is great for decorations if you have one there. Don't count out places like Big Lots, Dollar Tree, Dollar General for decorations. They sometimes have really cute stuff. It just takes a lot of looking. Bargain hunting is a time consuming business, but saves tons of money if you find something cute for cheap. Good luck!
I made my own programs. And I did silk flowers and had a friend arrange them. No, they weren't as pretty but I wasn't willing to sacrifice the budget for expendable decorations.
The reception site we had included centerpieces and the cake in the room package, the centerpieces were okay and I figured no one would remember them the next day anyway so why worry. The cake was from McAruther's Bakery in Stl and it was fabulous! We also did not decorate the church at all since we got married on New Year's Eve and the church still had all the flower arrangements and christmas trees up from christmas service. So I think I spent a total of 300 on flowers (4 bouquets,8 boutineers,5 corsages, a flower girl basket and a arrangement for on top of the cake) and they were spectacular! River City Florist in St. Charles!! We did tulle bundles of hugs and kisses for our favors ourselves and also only put a disposable camera on a total of 8 out of 18 tables and still had to use up the camera's on our honeymoon. We also did our programs ourselves. So many ways to cut corners, the only thing people remember is you, food at the reception and music to dance too.
As far as favors are concerned - most people pitch them. This is a great spot to save money. We took the money and made a donation on behalf of our guests and printed up little cards. I had so much fun designing all of the stationary for the wedding - I think that adds such a personal touch and does save you tons of money if you look at the right spot, sometimes it can cost just as much too though.
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