How to Plan a Wedding on a Budget

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Crafting Abilities

Step 1

What’s the Plan Stan? Make a plan of your Wedding, everything from the theme to the date to the guest. This plan will be your basis of the direction you want to go and help you plan your wedding on a budget. Don’t forget to include things like bridesmaids gifts and the honeymoon, both are parts or extensions of the wedding but are typically forgotten in plans.
Step 2

Asses Your Assets! Once you have a plan, the first step in saving money is to see if you have any items on your plan lying around or if you can make them for cheaper. The obvious and most common homemade items are table centerpieces but there is much more you can do as well. Have some leftover tea lights from last year’s Halloween Pumpkin carving party? How about a glue gun to help make decorative items? Have a good printer that you can make invitations from or have a local Wal-Mart to print photos cheaply? Those are just some of the ideas you should be thinking about when assessing what you have at hand to save money.
Step 3

She’s Crafty! Local craft and fabric stores are your friend. They contain the biggest collection of materials to help you make everything from centerpieces to garters to wedding favors. Luckily, these stores typically have ideas on display or helpful employees that have heard every idea in the book and I am sure are more than willing to depart some of their knowledge to you. You might also want to check around some of the internet wedding message boards/ forums for some ideas. Lastly, don’t be afraid to check the mega-retailers for some common items like vases and fake flowers.
Step 4

Negotiate! The minute vendors hear the word “wedding” the price jumps significantly on every aspect. Don’t believe me? Call the same venue and ask for per-person (pp) plate cost on a business event and then call later asking for the same pp price on a wedding; you’ll be amazed. Now don’t try and lie and say you’re having a business event because unless you plan on dressing in a business suit, it just won’t happen. Instead, shop around similar places within the area and use the competitors pricing as leverage to lower your top choices’ prices. Even if your top choice is standing firm on price, suggest add-ons to make the cost more bearable. Add-ons that come to mind are the cake, extra lighting, chair coverings, a free hour of bar hosting or valet parking. It never hurts to ask and you have nothing to lose, whereas your vendor does… your money… and a lot of it.
Step 5

Family and Friends don’t need to be Impressed! When planning your wedding, don’t get a case of the “Jones’” and try to make your wedding equivalent to a celebrity wedding just because you want to impress others. First, you shouldn’t be trying to impress anyone but yourself and second, you’re not a celebrity. Luckily, your least critical critics are the ones attending your wedding, your family and friends.
Step 6

Make Your Own Food! Well maybe you can’t make your own food for the wedding, but you sure can for your rehearsal dinner! Have a BBQ at a family member or friends home, not only would it be more intimate, but it’ll save you a few hundred dollars too. Also, you might want to look into making small treat/ food items for wedding guest favors to save some money as well. Chocolate covered Oreo’s or Italian almonds are some great ideas and they can be packaged creatively from something at the aforementioned craft and fabric stores.
Step 7

Ask Around! This is a common theme in my articles because it works and helps you better hone in your ideas, and that’s to ask around. Go to forums as previously mentioned, Google terms like “bridesmaids gifts” or “cheap wedding ideas” to get ideas! Best luck and I hope I’ve helped you with a few ideas!
Step 8

Get Some Cash Back! After the wedding is over, put your items up for sale on the local classifieds or craigslist (an online free classified site). Even if you get a quarter of what you originally paid, it's still more money than most people get when they trash their items. You might also want to talk to the vendors or host of the site your wedding was at for potential buyers for upcoming weddings too!

Comments

Vanessa22 said

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on 2/5/2009 Great article! Less is definitely more. I'm getting married this summer and I'm keeping it VERY simple! :)

on 10/29/2008 I wanted to let you know how pleased I was with my order! They were delivered on time, packaged perfectly, and definitely showed up exactly as I had ordered them. Looked great and took a lot of worries and hassle off my wedding planning!

Thank you for the great customer service. I also plan to contact FedEx - I wasnt home when they attempted the delivery and after a phone call the driver made a special stop to come back and get me the flowers. Good choice for your delivery!

Erica Waltmire

http://www.americanfloraldistributors.com