Once in a Lifetime Savings

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Summer of Savings Series

Guest post by: Stephanie at Queen of Quirky

In this economy, brides and grooms are doing everything to save money while throwing a memorable bash for their friends and families. Early on in our wedding plans, my fiancé and I committed to throwing a wedding for 250 of our friends and family members for less than $10,000. It hasn’t been easy, but here are some things we’ve learned so far that might help you:

• Plan your wedding off-season. We are having a February wedding and have found that everyone from caterers to venues and photographers are willing to cut you a great deal during the winter months. Remember – they need the business too. If you could do a Friday or Sunday wedding, your savings could be even more!

• Ask for ala cart services. I found this to be true with photography packages. Do you really need that engagement photo session? Could you make your own photo album later? Your photographer may be able to offer services outside the packaged deals advertised in the brochure or Web site – so ask!

• Want food? Think outside the box. With a budget of $9 per person for catering, we quickly found out that we wouldn’t be able to feed our guests very much if we went with a standard catering menu. Those frou frou cheese plates and dips are tasty but they don’t go very far to feed a hungry, dancing crowd. We opted to drop the traditional wedding fare and feed our guests food that fit our theme – a movie theatre wedding. We are getting more bang for our buck by putting together a menu featuring a gourmet hot dog bar, nacho bar, popcorn and pretzels. You could do this with any theme though – think mini cheeseburgers, fancy grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup – food that doesn’t cost a lot but tastes great is a winning solution.

• Don’t reach for the top shelf when it comes to planning your bar. That is a huge savings right there. We decided to provide beer and wine for our guests. This was a hard decision for my fiancé who really wanted to throw a great party for our loved ones. After we saw the price tag for a full bar, we realized that people can still have fun and will enjoy our beer and wine budget bar.

• Set the mood for your party with custom invites made by an up and coming designer. Everyone has to start somewhere; even Vera Wang probably was hawking her goods at a discount early in her career. The site www.etsy.com is a great resource for budget weddings because it is populated by up & coming artists who will often cut you a great price on a one-of-a-kind item. Do a search for the item you are looking for, then send a personal message to the seller letting them know you are planning a budget wedding, but you love their work. Chances are, they’ll be more than willing to work with you at a great price!

Whatever you do, don’t lose track of the focus of your event – to celebrate your new lives together. It’s not worth going into debt over, so think outside the box and keep it quirky!