Areas to cut back to save money

[PipesofLirael]

Well, considering that my FMIL's reasons for hating me are pretty racist, DF and I are hoping to cut her out as much as possible. Sooo...

1) Engagement Ring
Honestly, I can do without one entirely. I'm only getting it because my DF wants to impress my dad. My dad DID say that he wanted DF to save the money and spend it on a vacation with me but **hint, hint** isn't successful.

2) Wedding Location/Amenities (like flowers, linens, photography, music)
Some of this I can cut without a problem. Linens, still photography music, and transportation are not a problem to cut. Not sure about flowers though.

3) # of wedding guests
Can't do. Too big of a family here. My side alone is looking at around 100...and the wedding is in two years!!!! As a plus, though, there's a family member giving me her $10,000 wedding dress that's invited, so maybe upping the # of guests won't turn out too awful.

4) Honeymoon
Let me be honest...if I have a honeymoon, it will be a miracle. We move up to NYC 6 months before the wedding, so we're starting out jobs with only a little bit of vacation time left over for the wedding. We want it to be on a Monday (January 26th is when my father first went "steady" with my mother so we HOPE to surprise them with that dat alllll the way in 2009). Honeymoons are doable later. We've actually talked about talking a vacation when we graduate to make for the chance that there's no honeymoon.

5) Other events (dessert parties, rehearsal dinner, welcome dinner, etc.)
Definetly not. The rehearsal dinner would have been covered by DF's family, but his family hates mine, so nope. Everything else I can do without.

 

[Ember]

Hmm, we did not save on the engagement ring. Oh well.

We are saving by having an afternoon reception, no carriage or characters, I'm not sure about a cake (I've read you can only get one that serves a min. of 50 people and if that's the case I'm not wasting 1/2 a cake to nix that), on invitations (making them myself) and... I think that's it.

 

[Ileana]

I definately agree. I just got engaged this past August. We're both in school right now and don't have a lot of money. We only spent $400 on my 1/3ct White Gold Round Solitaire. Its perfect and exactly what I wanted. I work at a daycare and am putting on rubber gloves all day long whenever a diaper needs changed so anything bigger and it would have just gotten in the way. We're planning a small wedding and reception in our hometown and hopefully will be able to afford a Disneymoon!

Good Luck!

 

[Malibelle]

We are cutting out some small things that add up:

the MK photo shoot $800 ( figured I can photshop a picture of us in from of the castle...lol)

Champagne for everyone( we limited just to us and the parents table) saving us about $700. Not everyone likes champagne anyway.

Table linens: Instead of overlays for all the tables its just the parents 2 tables and ours. the rest are just getting white linens. Saving about $500.

Bought my own centerpieces($5-$10 each), not using disney floral exept for cake table and dessert party.

We are having a buffet with stations at ADH instead of a sit down in a ballroom setting.

 

[sunsh1ne]

I was wondering what this is all about and if it is worth the price diffrence. What are some choices with sit down and stations?

 

[Malibelle]

I was wondering what this is all about and if it is worth the price diffrence. What are some choices with sit down and stations?

I don't know about the cost of the sit down but for our station and buffet its about $68 pp.
We get the following:

Pasta Station with 2 kinds of pasta
Beef Tenderloin carving station
Buffet includes: Mahi Mahi piccata, chicken marsala, asparagus and red peppers, roasted potatoes, tomato Mozzerella salad, tossed salad with several dressings.

I think that is it. The cocktail hour food is additional but its about $25 or so.

 

[twojo21]

i would cut back on the engagement ring its just a stone, its the promise behind it that matters. also on floral depending on the location, the # of guests takes up a big chunk of the bill too with food, etc. so review your guest lists & make sure these are people you love & vice versa. thats my 2 cents.

best of luck with your wedding plans.

mrs. twojo21

 

[ExCPKate]

Another suggestion is to make your own invitations. I couldn't fathom spending hundreds(some people spend thousands!) on them when you know everyone throws it away after they get it! I'm getting mine through Michaels, and it's going to be about $60 for 50 plus ink for my printer.

We're also not having a bar at the wedding, just champagne for toasting. Luckily, both our families are not very big drinkers.

I wouldn't cut back on the honeymoon, you two will need that relaxation time after all the hoopla!

 

[Error_kitten]

Places we saved money
When ordering invites and such like that sign up for their newsletter so man company's email monthly letters with huge discounts. http://www.theamericanwedding.com/
No alchy just sparkeling cider
No Flowers for Bridesmaids, they carried staffs with ribbons hanging down insead.
Open seating.
Plain white tabble linens.
Making our own center pieces.
Having a early morning wedding during the middle of the week (I also found that it allowed us to enjoy the free fancy room they put us up in for one night more since we finished the reception at 4.)
We didnt get fancy wedding bands and I also choose a large gemstone rather than a diamond for my engagment ring.
We got a great deal on bands from http://iweddingband.com/
Also my mom and I made my wedding dress so that saved alot of money too.

I hope I helped!

 

[purplegirl247]

Error_kitten, thanks for the heads up on the wedding band site! We have to get mine custom made, to incorporate some diamonds from my grandmother's original wedding ring, but we were getting a little worried on where to get a nice ring for DF. Thanks so much! Oh, and your wedding turned out gorgeous! All that worrying for nothing.

 

[Eeyore77]

We are just sending our final payment off this week and we had to do a bit of cutting to budget to get it where we needed it to be.

*** First we decided to get rid of the MK shoot. It was that or Mickey and Minnie or the carriage.... The characters and the carriage were 2 of the big reasons we were having the wedding at Disney. Where else can you have a party with the mice and ride in Cindy's royal coach.

*** Next we dropped the colored napkins and the chair covers. The Grand Floridian rooms and chairs will still look nice without them.

*** Cut the guest count back by about 10. That changed our amount a lot.

*** We are going simple on the wedding pavilion decor'. The pavilion is beautiful just the way it is. We are just having a nice unity candle arrangement.

*** No videographer. I do this for a living so I don't think I want to be on the other side of the camera.

*** We got Randy Chapman. He was the best bet for pricing out there. His work is great.

*** Not staying at a Fancy hotel before the wedding. We are at Caribbean Beach, then we got to GF for the night of the wedding.

*** We didn't go all out on the honeymoon, but we are staying at AKL for 2 days and going on a 3 day Disney Cruise. It is the perfect for me...

*** As for the ring it was a family heirloom. No added cost there. That always helps....