Recession-friendly, money-saving wedding tips to stretch your budget as far as it'll go
Budgeting Advice
By
on April 06, 2011
99
That was an amazing wedding, too bad we're broke now. Photo by Michelle Hayes.
No bullshit — planning a wedding is MURDER on your wallet. From vendors that try to up-sell you at every turn, to venues that cost more than your entire budget (and that's JUST for the venue — nothing else), and then there's the dress, the accessories, and maybe favors and wedding party gifts. And do your vendors expect to be tipped on top of all that? And aren't we in a recession? And… and… and… Are you breaking out into hives, yet?
This shit is truly ridiculous, I feel you. I also want to help you! So here are a few ideas on how you can stretch your wedding budget as far as it'll go.
PLANNING
- Make up a game to save money. So far this is the best money saving advice I've ever read.
- Repurpose stuff. This is where your grandma's ring and your mother's wedding dress comes into play. You could also use stuff from your own home as party decorations and centerpieces.
- Small guest list. The fewer people you invite, the fewer people you have to feed, the fewer chairs you need to rent, the fewer invitations you need to buy, etc, etc. Small weddings can be awesome too!
- Email your invitations. No postage due. No paying for stationery, envelopes, RSVP cards, plus the RSVP card postage.
VENDORS
- Ask people to donate their services instead of gifts. Do you have photographer friends who'd shoot your wedding for free or for a discounted rate? (I say this as a pro photog who's shot several weddings for friends) Do you have a designer friend who could help you DIY or donate an outfit? A bossy friend who can play day-of wedding coordinator?
- Get your decor from the dollar store. Dollar stores often have paper goods like lanterns and balls to hang around the venue.
- Make your own hairpiece. We have so many tutorials that'll help you make an awesome fascinator or veil on the cheap.
- Don't mention the wedding. When you go make an appointment to get your hair done on your wedding day, don't mention that it's for a "bridal do." Similarly, when you ask for floral centerpieces, don't tell them it's for a wedding. More on that whole concept over here.
- Rent your outfits or buy used. There are services that will even let you rent a wedding dress. And if you buy your outfits, make sure to get clothes that you can wear again.
- Hand pick the fruit you serve from your local U-pick farm. I did this for my birthday once, it was a ton of fun.
- Craigslist! Craigslist is your friend for finding deals on so many different things. Get this: Tribe member Mari purchased her dance floor on Craigslist for $90, when renting a dance floor for the reception was going to cost around $300 to $800!
CEREMONY
- Have your wedding in your backyard or in a public park. Free venues FTW!
- Get an internet-ordained friend to marry you.
- Get married in a courthouse. Affordable, simple, and sweet.
RECEPTION
- DIY desserts. Make your own wedding cake or cupcakes. Bake your own pies or cookies. Or find a friend or family member who's a wiz at making delicious treats and beg them to make the dessert as their wedding gift to you.
- Potluck reception. Whether this concept will work for you depends a lot on your community, but we have a tag full of potluck weddings to give you ideas and inspiration.
- Brew your own beer. Open bars are expensive and if you brew your own "I DO Brew" you can give them away as wedding favors, too. One Tribe member said that brewing their own wedding beer cost them only $30 for five gallons of beer!
- BBQ cookout. Have a down-home-style barbeque reception with hot dogs and hamburgers… mmm, I'm making myself hungry.
- Turn your wedding reception into a fundraiser where, instead of gifts, your guests can donate to an organization of your choice, and get organizations to help out by donating their services instead of hiring vendors.
- Candy favors. Set up a candy bar using several different kinds of penny candy to keep costs down.
- DIY centerpieces. If you skip the flowers, you can save a load of cash. Check out these posts for non-floral centerpieces.
Of course, most of these ideas came from previous offbeat brides — you guys are nothing if not resourceful. So tell me: what are some of your favorite budget-stretching tips?
About Megan Finley
Megan Finley is the Managing Editor for Offbeat Bride and the Associate Publisher for the Offbeat Empire. When she's not slaving away for the Empire, she's sharing her dork side on her own blog and on Twitter @meganfinley.
apt9000 said
Don't forget to check your local freecycle lists! Sometimes it might take a while, so start hunting early, but freecycle totally helped multiple weddings in my family.
Sarah said
Also, look for ethnic bakeries. When I got married in 2005, I bought my plain frosted wedding cake from a little mexican bakery for some ridiculously low price like $45, and they threw in a chocolate groom's cake for free. All we did was put flowers on top and it was perfect. I just priced a wedding cake from a chinese bakery recently and their price was similarly awesome (adjusted for inflation.)
Liz said
Great tips, lets see if I can add more.
Locate those "hobby-job" professionals for catering, photography, flowers, cake, DJ, etc. If you find someone that isn't making their bread and butter from your wedding, you're likely to get a lower price.
If you cant find a hobby-job florist (I found a lady that grew all the flowers on her property!) then check out SAM's Club or BJ's for flowers. Making your own bouquets and centerpieces is a simple task. Bouts and corsages are harder, but definitely doable.
If you don't brew your own beer at least check on stocking your own bar. This is a double whammy, you won't get stuck with the worst line up of wine/beer/liquor know to man (that often plague's wedding receptions) and it's often way cheaper than what a caterer will charge you (there is a catch, watch out for corking fees).
If you're somewhat handy, do your own alterations. It's actually pretty easy to remove crinoline, put in a bustle, or take up straps/hems.
If you don't want to hire someone to play the electric slide even though you asked them not to, put together a play list and let your ipod be the DJ. Sounds systems rent cheaper than DJ's.
Borrow Christmas lights. We strung 14,000 lights on the house we rented for the wedding. It looked amazing and cost us nothing. We just borrowed our friends' Christmas lights.
I have more but I Should probably leave it at that!
Oh, one last thing! Think outside the box. If it's not a common thing at a wedding, it's probably cheaper.
Offbeat Megan said
Ooh, Liz, these are all GREAT! Can't believe I forgot the iPod play list suggestion — doh!
Tori Story said
I absolutely agree. All my wedding vendors are sort of scoffing when they find out we're using an iPod for the dance (I keep hearing: "oh, you're doing the ipod thing?") but all the weddings I've been to with iPods have had better music!
Danikat said
Agree completely about 'hobby-job' vendors. Our photographer is a pro but makes most his living from landscape photography with wedding photography on the side because he likes shooting people too, but random people on the street don't tend to like it!
Because he doesn't rely on weddings he doesn't have to do things like charge extra to cover his living expenses in the non-wedding season or the full cost of all his equipment, so we're just paying for the work we get from him, which is still amazing.
Dani steele said
One of the BIGGEST mistakes I almost made was ordering my wedding invitations from a professional! Seriously people, printing them urselves is easier than it sounds and its actually kinda fun! I got a box of 50 invitations and response cards for 20 bucks when originally I was going to have to spend over 150 by not doing it myself!
Jamie said
There's also the option of just not doing wedding favors. In the wise words of Miss Manners:
"Who told you that you had to give out wedding favors? Etiquette has never thought of weddings as comparable to children's birthday parties, where the guests might need consolation for not being the center of attention. You owe them only the hospitality of the occasion."
Ariel said
Jamie, as with all content on Offbeat Bride, skipping stuff you're not into is always the assumed first option. This post (and ALL our posts), comes with the presumed caveat that IF you want to do these things, here's some thoughts on how…
Also, PS: I was just talking about this.
Lo said
Children's party bags are where it's at!
We're self catering, and I always buy too much food, so our guests will get goody bags/trays/paper napkins at the end of the night to help themselves to a 'doggy bag favor'. Fill-up'n'go clears the plates and what could be better than knowing your next meal or three is covered?
Dani steele said
also, for cute centerpieces we are doing pink votive holders hot glued to the center of a yellow gerber daisy..at ur local craft store they should have the flowers in vertually any color! i had even found some that were zebra print
anyother center piece idea but old high heels painted ur color of choice with flowers hanging out of it…sounds strange but looks great!
GypsyChick said
Love the high heel idea. Love, love, love!!
Kristin said
Our friends are throwing us an engagement party. Instead of the guests bringing gifts (because we REALLY don't need any more towels!!!), they'll be asked to bring a bottle of booze which will be saved for the bar at the reception. I think it's brilliant! We were concerned about having a lame bar, but, can't afford to go all out.
Now to decide if we want to have signature cocktails or not. The pro is that we won't end up with 5 bottles of cheap vodka that won't get used if everyone brings the specific ingredients. The con is that people like what they like and may not care for our fruity concoction. Of course, if they don't like it, it's more to save for ourselves.
(I like this as much as the diapers & wipes baby shower idea.)
Anie said
For our wedding we provided champagne, but (quietly) informed guests that if they wanted something harder they were welcome to bring a flask. Several of our friends did, everyone had a blast, and no one complained.
Sarah said
This list is pretty much a list of my upcoming wedding! Everyone's asking me how I'm handling the stress of planning it all, and I'm like, "What stress?" Everything is easy-peasy and laid-back when it's all a fun, DIY affair! We're doing it on the cheap not to save money (though that certainly helps!), but the homegrown feel to it just fits our style. But my soon-to-be hubs and I are very lucky to have a wide range of friends that can help us cover pretty much everything we need. One friend is ordained to marry, another designed our postcard wedding invitations (and RSVP is simply via email). Hubs and friends are homebrewing the beer, designer friends are creating the epic custom labels, hairstylist friend will make me pretty, baking goddess friend is doing INCREDIBLE boozy cupcakes (and a cake too… of the Holy Hand Grenade!), and as a photographer myself, I have no shortage of talented friends to document the day for us. A crafty friend is sewing some fabric flags to hang between trees (we're getting hitched at a campsite in the mountains… yes, our guests will be sleeping just a few tents away on our wedding night). The only costs we'll really have to cover (aside from the campsite fee) is renting a generator so we can string up a few lights and play an iPod stereo off of! We were thinking of getting some catering (through friends too) but decided we'd rather have more of a potluck, or at least some homemade deliciousness from a few good cooks in the family. I think in the end, we will probably spend less than $500 on everything (including my $80 dress!). Now, our honeymoon on the other hand…
Terry said
Having a wedding in the off-season, on a weeknight, or early in the day are all obvious ideas too. (Early in the day can also get you out of an expensive alcohol bill if you wouldn't have a dry wedding anyways).
As for favors, one of my cousins had mix CDs as favors. I assume she made them herself, and blank CDs are pretty cheap. As a plus, my family discovered some awesome new songs we'd never heard of before!
I'm a bit worried about the photographer costs when I get married. Most packages seem to start close to what I want my entire budget to be! I'm considering giving guests who have cameras and want to take pictures priority seating near the front and the aisle, and asking them to take pictures through the whole event.
Sarah said
Totally agree to the off-day! I'm getting hitched in the PRIME of June wedding season, but I'm doing it on a Friday. A good friend of mine has another wedding to attend the next day, but because we did ours that day earlier, she can make both. I'd call that a scheduling WIN.
Missy said
Consider making a "Group Room" in Snapfish and everyone can upload their photos from the wedding to it. We put the web address and encouraged this in our program.
Kath said
My cousin hired a photographer, but only for the ceremony. For the reception, she put a couple cheap disposable cameras on all the tables and had a drop box for them on the way out the door. Some of the neatest pictures were from the reception!
rachelfairy said
for photography try craigslist! i posted an ad specifically listing my budget amount for photos and what kind of package i wanted and i got over 50 responses in 24 hours! if you get anywhere near that many i'm sure you'll find one you like the look of.
Erin said
Yes! I actually just did this too and heard from a bunch of newer photographers and folks new to the area who have experience but are looking to build their business, and so were able to offer a seriously reduced rate. I am planning on doing the same for DJs and florists (if I don't decide to DIY music and flowers!).
Ruth Arnold said
Grow our own centrepieces! We plan to reuse food tins and plant flowers from seed into them. Timing them to be in flower for the wedding. Same goes for buying simple house plants and using them. If guest like them they can take them as favours if not your garden will thank you for what's left.
Amber said
We did this and just picked wildflowers, which works well if you're somewhere very wild-flowery (like Central TX!). It was gorgeous and the wildflowers were totally free!
rah29 said
We're doing this too! We're getting little pots of herbs, the kind you can pick up in Tesco, and growing them for a few weeks so they're nice and lush-looking. That way our guests can take them home. And they're tasty!
fichterleen said
this is all what i already thought of and am planning for our wedding, but now in my hunt for a venue i'm stumbling. there doesn't seem to be any venues at all that are willing to host your wedding while still letting you handle your own food/drinks, and i'm going crazy. the packages of the cheaper ones (that include the venue, food, drinks, chairs and all) are still about what i wanted our whole budget to be.
i'm trying to think a bit outside the box, but it's hard while still sticking to our dream of a stockholm forest wedding
anyone having ideas for this problem?
Missy said
What kind of venues have you looked at so far?
fichterleen said
mostly hotels, hostels and conference centers in or near the woods. since just about everyone of our guests has to travel (my family&friends from germany, my girl's family&friends from northern sweden) i'd prefer the venue to be someplace where our guests can stay the night as well..
but since all those prices are pretty astronomical, we might have to resettle into just a pretty place that can be decorated like a forest and is near cheap hostels in town, and have our ceremony in the woods and then the reception there. it's not ideal at all, but in-town locations do at least have the bring-your-own option..
Missy said
Are you opposed to an outdoor wedding and reception? There's nothing more woods than "the woods." Where I live, there are so many parks where one could get married and rent a tent if necessary. Some of the state parks near me also have really cute pavillions,
Mandy said
I don't know about the forest part of it, but… A good bet is to aim for the types of places that aren't typically wedding venues and that don't have their own catering services – that way the only way you can do it is by bringing your own. AND they're usually cheaper because weddings aren't their main source of income. Venues like art galleries, schools, boutiques, libraries, photography studios, theatres, smaller museums, parks, private nature conservatories, campgrounds…
fichterleen said
thanks! i'll definitely look if i find any that could work for us
SadieMae said
We are having the same problem with venues, and unfortunately I have no real advice. We ended up biting the bullet and just booking the place in the Blue Mountains (in Australia) that we loved, even though they need us to use their catering (which is a lot more than I wanted, like you, it's what I'd wanted the entire wedding budget to be!) and their bar. My parents have stepped in to the rescue by saying they will pay for the reception, and his parents will foot the bar tab.
If the parents hadn't stepped in, I think we would have had to search for a friend with a big backyard (a rarety in my circle) or a school or art gallery or something, as suggested by Mandy above.
It just means we are now on a strict budget for the rest of the wedding. I am making origami flowers from scrap paper lying around at home for a bouquet and for table decorations. It is actually a lot of fun, and it's a great use of those old water and electricity bills lying around! I also kind of like the symbolism of using the debris from the home we have built together in our wedding.
My brother offered to bake cupcakes for the reception, and we are hoping to save money on the catering (for my parents sake!)by not having a separate dessert course and using our own cakes instead.
Raven said
Yes! I am having this exact problem. The two themes/ideas I had for the wedding was either getting married at an Asian art museum in Dallas (My future husband loves Asian art. Our whole apartment is decorated in it, and I took him to that museum for his first birthday that we celebrated together so it is special to us.) or getting married in a garden. I feel like every place I look into is thousands of dollars just to rent the place. I only moved to Texas a few years ago, so I don't know anyone with a backyard to have it in. I'm amazed how many people are able to have gorgeous weddings for not a lot of money, but I'm having trouble trying to make that happen.
Rowany said
If you have so much Asian art, perhaps you can find a "blank slate" venue like a warehouse or community space and decorate it with the Asian art from your home?
Hannah said
I'm from the dfw area, the ft worth botanical gardens are very pretty. The japanese garden is super expensive though. I went to a wedding there, but at the english rose garden at the top of the hill-it was beautiful!! I think it was $700? Sorry if I'm wrong, I've looked at a million venues.
My fiance and I found a hibachi place that we just love that has a private room we are going to rent for the reception. We both love all kinds of ethnic food so it seems like a good fit. We miss out on the first dance but you get entertainment and amazing food where there is no clean up! I know that's kind of out of the question if you have a large wedding. Just thought, it'd be a good way to incorporate both themes. Good Luck though!
Amber said
I just booked the art gallery for my wedding and reception at South Side of Lamar in Dallas. This is my apartment complex.
I believe it is $500 for residents and now my future hubby and I don't have to worry about driving from the venue to our apartment.
Lori said
Have you tried your parks & rec dept? Many of the parks & rec venues in our area rent for less than $100 an hour, no restrictions on vendors and a lot of them include chairs & tables.
Crystal said
Definitely look for unusual places as venues. They are much more flexible for caterers and other vendors. For example: We are getting married in a gardening store, but they have used their materials to make a gardens area behind the store as a way to show what you can do if you buy their stuff. The gardens are so pretty they allow weddings there as well.
Laura said
OK, *that* – is super cool!
jonnadee said
I'm having the same problems with finding a venue. Even if budget weren't a concern, I'd prefer having our party in an off-beat location, but so far, even the places I've checked out are too pricey! Our wedding is scheduled for the middle of January 2013, in Portland, so outdoors is out–nobody wants to get rained on! I've only begun looking, but if anyone has ideas, I'd love to hear them!
Ariel Meadow Stallings said
A few ideas here: http://offbeatbride.com/2011/0…ue-roundup
Akari said
We are having our wedding at a 4H campground. It has hotel rooms and camp/dorm type rooms, a beautiful lake, a fire pit and lots of woods. It's cheap and they are letting us bring in our own catering. You might try someplace like that or a boy or girl scout camp.
Missy said
If you buy a dress, consider getting a bridesmaid dress but ordered in white/ivory (or whatever color you like). Several friends and I found affordable dresses that we really liked this way.
I love my now husband for saying "Why do we need cake?" We ended up doing a ice cream sundae bar and desserts.
If you want to snail mail invites or thank yous, do post cards. You'll save a little. Have folks RSVP online.
Ask yourself "Why" a lot.
Jessi said
1) get married at the reception site
2) design your own invites and order prints from Sutterfly or the like. They often give new customers good deals.
3) If you want some professional photographs, just hire them for 1 or 2 hours to do some posed shots and the ceremony, then rely on friends for the rest.
4) get married in a place that doesn't need decoration
5) don't rent a tux. Buy a suit to wear again and again. someone is always getting married or dying and a nice suit will still be in fashion for years.
Jamie said
We did our own invitations in Publisher. We got free vintage clip art from The Graphics Fairy blog, and free fonts from dafont.com. We played around with it until we got it to look good, then took the files to FedEx office to be printed. Neither one of us is a graphic designer (special ed teacher and mechanical engineer) but it went surprisingly smooth. We were way under budget for our invitations, which is giving us more money for other stuff (like bills. Nothing too exciting).
Beebejesus said
Here's what we did to save!
-Destination wedding, the decor is nature! saving on travel for honeymoon, we're already there!
-friends officiating!
-all clothes purchased were meant to be worn other than on that day
-wedding party/east coast legal ceremony in parents backyard
-fascinator was a gift when i was a bridesmaid in another bestie's wedding
-emailed invites!
channamasala said
I'm not too big on "cut your guestlist" – not because small weddings aren't awesome too (they are!) but because if you have a big list of people you love dearly, a big family, have a lot of friends you want there, I don't think cutting them is the best way to save money. Sure, it will save money (usually) but I'd say "do what you can to save money and plan your budget around the guests you want – don't plan your guests around your budget". (A Practical Wedding says the same thing. I'm not alone in this).
The other advice is great! Not always applicable (we, for example, could not possibly have brewed our own beer, used our own items to decorate or had a backyard or park wedding due to certain constraints) but then no advice is going to be completely applicable to everyone, so that's fine.
channamasala said
I would recommend "pick a pretty ceremony location that requires no decoration" – Mom wanted us to decorate the ceremony site and it would have cost a few hundred dollars for what she was suggesting. We picked a site in front of a garden that required not one lick of decor and saved that money. If you can, pick a reception site that is pretty with minimal decor or can be nicied up with inexpensive lanterns and fairy lights.
Dani B said
That's why we're considering having our reception at one of our favorite restaurants. The place looks so awesome by itself that we won't have to decorate at all if we don't want to. Which not only saves us money but also means no set up or take down. Yay!
Marcypantz said
I am totally with you on the picking a venue not needing decor.Our venue is an event space inside an antique shop. Any decor we add would look absurd as it is decorated to look like a turn of the century cabaret.
manda said
shop around at vintage stores or thrift stores- i found my dress for $20 at goodwill
besides hand making the invitations the boy and I are planning on hand delivering most of our invitations- saves postage and gives us some quality time with the people we love- and this way we can say helpful hints like "wear comfy shoes" deflect negative comments early on and help people get psyched for a very unusual event
basically DIY as much as you can, and enlist fellow friends for things like photographer, cupcake maker, potluckers, face painters, musicians, decorators..so on and so forth if there's a task that someone can get paid big bucks for you most likely have a friend or family member who does it for fun or would do it for free!!
tashamonster said
I love the "Don't mention your wedding". Worked like a charm for us.
Also, think about unique food options. You don't always need chicken and beef. We did pizza! We used a local pizza place and ordered salad, bread knots, pasta, and pizza. Plus, they had a bartender
And do a morning or early afternoon ceremony. Way cheaper!
And if your serving booze, bring your own. Kegs go far!
A small budget isn't the end of the world. You just need to be a little bit more creative.
vegebrarian said
I didn't even think about pizza! We've been struggling to find a restaurant to do our vegetarian reception, but there is a local place that does vegan pizza…
chinasez said
We're having vegetarian pizza and salad at our reception at a local restaurant, followed by cupcakes. The real money is being spent on seriously good wine
jill said
I'm totally doing pizza,pasta, garlic bread at my wedding! Hopefully on the beach around a campfire.
Air Guitar Goddess said
One thing you can also do is maybe hire students to do some stuff such as photography or invitations. You save money, they get experience, and a job reference if they do a good job.
Amy B. said
This is a great idea! Maybe try contacting a local high school, or a college with an art program. Students can always use an extra buck or two, their teachers will be good references if you want to know how reliable they are, and you might even give the student(s) that first step to push them into a career they'll love
Aurora said
Once when my mom was sick, my dad's boss sent her a bouquet made out of chocolate dipped fruit. They even made daisies out of pineapples and melon balls! It was so cute, and I always thought using something like that for a centerpiece does great double duty – it looks pretty like flowers, plus people can eat it. I think there are other posts on OBB about edible centerpieces, too.
http://offbeatbride.com/2010/0…erpieces-2
Sabrina said
If you want to have wedding cars, use your own or see if anyone you know has one they are willing to lend, and then decorate with some ribbons stretching down the front, and some (silk?) flowers in the back windshield. That's what we did and it was awesome! The prices for hiring "wedding" cars would have been astronomical!
Also if you want to have bridesmaids' dresses – see if your gang already have pretty outfits they want to wear, you can tie it together with accessories/headgear if you want some coordination
Saving money on weddings rocks!
niki said
my bff is in flower school right now and would LOVE to do a casual wedding for some references, experience, and cash! stake out your local flower school and rush the nearest offbeatiest student you see!
Emily Rae said
For all paper products, keep in mind that they don't all have to be the same (or be a totally matching "suite"). I saw ty cards at Target today, really cute trifold cards, 50 for 5 bucks. I'm going to buy cute stationary on sale, but if different guests get different style invites, nobody will know! Of course you may put more effort into printing different styles, but it could be worth it.
WestcoastBex said
CHEAP BOOZE: If you're buying champagne for toasting, a good way to get it discounted is if you buy right after New Year's. If you're willing to do some legwork, you can probably locate liquor stores selling for much cheaper than before, as the demand sharply decreases afterwards. As far as I know… liquor doesn't 'expire' so if you're getting married next year, then you have plenty of time to hit the liquor sales!