Gather Little by Little

Congratulations! You are going broke! I mean… getting married! As I mentioned in my first post on how to save money for a wedding over at my other blog, my best friend is getting married next spring (and I also have a sister-in-law getting married at the end of next summer, in 2010). So, while I will end up  broke in 2010, as I am the best man for both weddings, I will try to share all the money savings tips related to  weddings that I could find:

Money Savings Tip #1: Talk to people

I have already written about how much money you can save through your network. A wedding is definitely a great occasion to test how good your network is to help you save money. So, whatever you are looking for (dress, flowers, ballroom, cars, etc.) tell as many people as you can. One will ultimately come through with something like:

“hey! My friend is a DJ, he’ll give you a good deal”.

The only problem with using your network is that you might risk compromising on the results. Therefore, I suggest telling your connections that you are still shopping around and ready to meet the friend without obligation. You don’t want to hurt feelings; you simply want to save money on your wedding!

This would be a great idea if you are a looking for a nice car for your wedding: if you have a rich aunt, this is the moment to give him a call .

Money Savings Tip #2: Go back to school

I was able to get a ridiculous price for our flowers because I used the first and second money savings tips for my wedding at the same time: a friend of a friend had a sister finishing her courses to become a  florist. Therefore, she was ultra motivated to do our stuff while she didn’t charge much because she was not officially done with her classes yet.

Getting a student to do certain things (I wouldn’t let a student cut my fiancé’s hair for example ), can help make things affordable. In addition to the money you are saving, they are usually very motivated as it is one of their first jobs (and it is so cool to work for such a cute couple that is getting married ). We were very pleased with the results and we paid half price.

Money Savings Tip #3: The DIY method

We used this trick to save on wedding invitations. Instead of paying $500 for some pieces of paper that will be thrown out after a month (except by your parents!), we picked nice paper with letterhead and printed all the invitations. You just have to add a personal touch (nice envelopes or ribbons) and you will have nice wedding invitation cards for 50% of what it costs if it’s done by someone else.

Money Savings Tip #4: Try combinations

We were lucky enough to combine the ballroom with the food; we actually found a nice restaurant with a room reserved for private parties. The room was big enough to welcome 150 people and looked like a medieval chapel (with granite floors, stained glass windows and a huge wooden bar). Since the restaurant was taking care of the food for 150 people, they didn’t charge us for the room. By combining wedding services, you might be able to save a few bucks!

Money Savings Tip #5: Prioritize

There are virtually no limits on how much you can spend on a wedding. Some people like it very fancy and spend $75,000 and some others manage to get a frugal wedding for less than $10,000. I guess it is all a matter of prioritizing. In my case, I really wanted to have nice cars. This is why I decided to spend more money on cars and spend less on something else. By making your wedding list budget, it will become easier to make decisions.

There are several ways to save while planning a wedding but one thing I would not be shy to spend on would be the honeymoon… after all, this is the most important part of the wedding, right?

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