When Planning a Wedding.......

[luv2mickey]

Where do you put your money to get the best impression from the guests prospective?

 

[mrsklamc]

Gosh....I never thought about it as the last thing on my mind when I got married was impressing anyone else.

But I do know lots of young ladies I know getting married have been very impressed by gowns for prom and weddings that they've been ordering very inexpensively from China. ..

I guess it depends on where your resources lie; for example if you have a friend that can arrange flowers you can get them from costco and not spend a ton; same for caterers, photography, cake...

But again, I was more interested in spending money on things that were a priority for ME than something that would impress others.

 

[Elleshoodat]

DH and I wanted three things out of our wedding: Good pictures, good food and drinks, and good music. So that's where we spent most of our budget. We figured our guests will never remember things like decor or even my dress, but they will remember whether they had a good time. And we can rest assured - our wedding was a GREAT time.

 

[Earstou]

At my dd's wedding, from the comments we received, I would guess that the meal at the reception was what impressed guests most.

Not meaning that we spent lavishly, but that they enjoyed themselves. My dd picked a really good caterer and the food was fabulous.

 

[luv2mickey]

Okay impression may be to strong, I'm just wondering what doesn't ever really get remembered.

 

[luv2mickey]

At my dd's wedding, from the comments we received, I would guess that the meal at the reception was what impressed guests most.

Not meaning that we spent lavishly, but that they enjoyed themselves. My dd picked a really good caterer and the food was fabulous.

Thank You, that's the information I was looking for.

 

[superme80]

All I wanted was really good food at my reception. We had a local place cater is and people still remember how good it was!

 

[Pesky]

I think that is a matter of preference. We put our money into two key areas -- food and beverage (nice wine = happy (very happy) guests) and photography. I wanted really good pictures to remember this day. I didn't want a rubber chicken dinner. My dress was cheap and looked nice, we didn't have a bunch of flowers around and it was still great. The nice location helped as well but that kind of tied in with the good food.

 

[CoP Luv]

For us, it was most important to have a great photographer, great music/entertainment, and the church venue (historic church that was very hard to get a date). We felt better spending more of our budget in those areas.

For my parents, it was good food and better wine/alcohol options than standard. They took care of the reception, so that was fine with us.

I didn't really find it important to spending a lot of money on invites/paper products or flowers. I made all of my own invites (copied from really expensive ones I saw) and I got amazing comments from our guests on how nice they thought they were.

 

[Gigi22]

DSis had the nicest wedding I have ever attended. What I remember in particular from her wedding is the lovely gardens where the pictures were taken, the wonderful restored old hotel where the reception was held, and--what a treat--the fact that she had live music. A 4 piece combo. The band had so much fun that they stayed late and played on!

I also remember DSis had the loveliest dress. Long, Edwardian-style (fitted bodice with a high neck and long sleeves), lace, with a train. She was drop dead gorgeous!

 

[blessedby3]

My dd22 just got married a week and a half ago. We tried to do most everything ourselves to save money. We spent the most on the venue and the photographer.
We got the do it yourself invitations at Michaels and printed them and put them together ourselves, we also got the do it yourself programs and made them ourselves. We used the 40-50 percent off coupons from Michaels on everything we bought there for the wedding.
My dd had an outdoor wedding, so no need for lots of flowers. The indoor flowers (hydrangias) we cut from a friends lake house (such a wonderful savings from a good friend) and put them in mason jars we borrowed from another friend and put them on a cut ring of a tree that fell in our yard a couple of weeks before. Tablecloths were borrowed from church. I asked for mini white lights to decorate the inside of the venue and friends donated tons of those too.
A friend from church made the cake/cupcakes for a teriffic deal. Five other friends from church made all the food. We did finger type foods instead of a sit down meal (saved a ton of money) and we bought everything at Sams. We also bought all the plates/cups etc. there. I had people raving about the food all night long, even asking for receipes
We had so many comments from the guest about how nice and intimate everything was. That made us so happy because we didnt want a huge formal show. We hit the target right on!
We made our own wedding favors. I bought up candy after Christmas and Valentines Day (dates were still good till Nov on the candy) and wrapped them in tuelle and tied a thank you on them.
We had about 160 guests there and spent about $500 on the food and drinks (no alcohol...we are not drinkers) and another $175 on the cake/cupcakes.
We also hired a DJ. That was nice to have him in charge of the music and all those things like introductions, garter/boquet toss, etc.
My sister did all the directing and did a super job at it! I couldnt have done it without her

I would say not to skimp on the photos. You only get one shot for those and things move so quickly so make sure you have someone who knows what they are doing.
That was the biggest undertaking I have ever taken part of. It was daunting, but if you have good friends to help it makes things easier. If no good friends want to take on that much planning and helping...definately fork out for a wedding planner/director!
Good luck to you!

 

[Smile4Me]

I am getting married in October, and I would definitely say don't put a ton of money into your table decorations, or anything like that. People hardly remember from wedding to wedding (unless its you remembering yours!!) Really people are at their tables for maybe 2 hours tops! Also my reception is at a museum/aquarium where the exhibits will be open throughout the evening, so we are not doing any favors because they are getting free admission to a museum/aquarium for a night!!
We've put money into a good photographer, a reasonable priced dress, and our venue. Good luck with the planning!

 

[secretpantssam]

Food is one of the main things I remember as a wedding guest. Also a DJ is more important than I realized. I just went to a friend's wedding and they chose to just make a playlist, hit play and walk away. The stops between songs brought the energy down and there was no real flow. I never realized how much a DJ was needed until then. Oh and another thing which I found was people hate it when a DJ won't take requests...let your guests request some songs and it will make them happy.

As far as where you're money is best spent for you, I'd say photographer. I love looking at my wedding pictures and if you get a good photographer, you'll have wonderful memories of that day forever.

Things to not get if you're looking to cut back- no one ends up caring about the color of the napkins or if there were chargers or if there is up lighting. Venues always try to up sell on those things and they're really pointless. Same thing for the chair upgrades and chair covers. The one wedding I went to, the chair covers kept sliding over and it became uncomfortable...it's a shame someone would pay extra for that.

 

[lindsmom]

I bought my dress at a JCPenney outlet, very inexpensively (it was the first one I tried on - we went to fancy wedding stores, and I even tried on a $1000 silk dress but I just loved that first one - $200, but that was 15 years ago). I got compliments on the dress.

We were lucky with the photographer, because she was starting her business. She had been working with someone else but was just starting out on her own - she had a large portfolio for us to check out, but we were able to get her inexpensively. Approx a year later her prices had more than doubled.

We baked our own cake, nobody complained. Personally when I go to a wedding I'm not interested in the cake.

Got our flowers at the supermarket florist - we had a coupon! And we knew the florist personally so we were hooked up with nice arrangements.

So I would be another vote for the dj and food. We had a very good dj (Mom and Dad wanted us to get a band but we're not band people), and top shelf food. Like tippy top. That's where the money went, and that's what we've gotten compliments on afterwards.

ETA: we didn't do favors - we made a donation to IFAW, and left little cards saying "In lieu of favors, a donation has been made to IFAW." etc.

 

[burnurcomputer]

Food. I had a beautiful wedding with hydrangeas, candles, personal Hershey kisses, the venue was beautiful...and people rember the amazing buffet that was there. Most people had several plates fo food. My reception ran over due to the food actually.

 

[Jenny3]

A DJ/band will make or break your wedding reception - having an excellent one was definitely a priority for us. I wanted to be sure all our guests had a great time - and they definitely did. Our dance floor was packed even during dinner and people still comment on how much fun they had at our wedding, 10 years later.

 

[leahjade]

We had about 160 guests there and spent about $500 on the food and drinks

$3 a person for food and drinks - curious as to what you served????

 

[SaraJayne]

Since our entire wedding cost around $1500 (poor college students) 16 years ago, I'm probably not the best person to answer.

But if we ever renew our vows, our $$ will be spent on fantastic food and photography.

 

[Zhoen]

Of all the receptions I've been to, the one that is most memorable for me was held at a venue I go to a lot, in fact, I'm expected at a banquet there next Thursday night. ugg. The food at this place is nothing special, and the plain white tablecloths they always include in with their price were used at the wedding I'm thinking of. It was the same white tablecloths, the same plates, the same standard type of buffet, I think it may even have been the "included in price" centerpieces.

What made the wedding memorable was the people. I have never met a happier family who was more pleased to see their daughter happy. The matron of honor was the bride's sister, and she glowed to see her baby sister (my good friend) so happy. Her father, who I'd had the privelege to meet once or twice before, really shone, I mean it was like a fairy tale, set in a setting that is completely ordinary to me. When I told my husband where the ceremony and reception would be, he was like "oh, again? What are they trying to save money?" But afterward, even he commented that it was the warmest event (in the good, cozy, glowing sense--not the AC is broken sense) that we had ever attended.

As I said, the setting was fairly nondescript, the food nothing special. I'm sure there was a perfectly good cake, but I don't remember a thing about it. I can't tell you what the favors were or even if there were any, or what the centerpieces were. But I remember how happy she looked that day, and how happy everyone looked for her. That's worth remembering.

(Oh, and her photos were done by a friend of ours who is a hobby/amateur photographer. They were fabulous, so if you know someone who is serious --as in, has a portfolio-- don't rule them out just because they don't have their own studio.)

 

[natfrac]

I would say it really depends on who you're inviting to your wedding. I come from a family that performs, although they're not overly talented. But the singing, skits, and all guests serenading the happy couple with kazoos makes for a memorable wedding. I guess I should add we receive comments on how fun these weddings are, so it's not that we amuse ourselves at the expense of others.

I have been to a lot of weddings, some catered at high-end hotels and some held in backyards. The wedding that sticks in my mind one of the best was held out in the country in a pasture. What made this wedding so great was the relaxed atmosphere and the couple really thought of their guests. Given it was summer, we were greeted with something to drink before we sat down. Beer, wine, water...The food was simple, but tasty. It wasn't about the bride's dress, the flowers, or even the band. It was just a group of old and new friends gathering to celebrate the day with the happy couple.