Guest Post: Money saving tips that will save you, and the ones that may cost you!

Joy lives in the North West with her Hubby and three kids.  Her blog joyfulquarles.blogspot.com is the closest thing she has to a pet.

The day my Man asked me to marry him was, of course, one of the best days of my life.  I feel a tad *cliche* throwing that out there, but you all know that it's true!

So there I was.  Young.  In love.  Idealistic.  Pure bliss!  Let the planning begin!  

One problem.

We have friends.  I mean a lot of friends.  According to our guest count, about 700 friends.  OK... deep breaths... we can do this.  We. Can. DO. THIS!

Wait.  There is more.

We had a budget.  A $3500 budget, to be exact.

And you know what?  We did it.  All of it.  Even the dress!

So here are a few ways I pulled off a HUGE wedding on a SMALL budget.  Some saved me money, but in retrospect, cost a *tad* too much... others were solid gold... Lets begin, shall we?

1.  We had a friend take pictures.  I might as well get this out on the table:  We made a HUGE mistake in having a friend take photos for us.  Huge.  Big.  Massive.  Please oh please have a professional NON FAMILY FRIEND take your photos!  But to save money, consider finding a new-ish up and comer... ask around.  Get a reference.  Don't skimp here.  Don't ask me how I know...

2.  We had a "Dessert Reception".  This was a huge win for us.  I know some people who really want the "whole meal deal", so to speak, but I was shocked at how much fun the desert theme was!  We had different kinds of cobbler, cookies, coffee bar... You get the point.  It was a hit.  We started our Wedding at 7:00pm and made sure to let guests know on the invitation to avoid any grumbling from Aunt Milile.  (Please note: Great Aunts names have been changed to protect myself.)

3.  An Ipod was my DJ.  No one noticed that we had a friend running an ipod with great playlists instead of a rude guy barking YMCA orders over a microphone. I think that's called a 'win-win'.  

4.  We had an unusual venue.  We had our reception in a barn.  You heard me.  A barn.  It was fantastic!  It was unusual!  It was CHEAP!  Funny thing is, now it is a full blow wedding venue and NOT so cheap.  Keep looking for something unusual or different.

5.  I let my Bridal Party go nuts.  I let my gals wear whatever black, formal dress that fit their fancy.  I know lots of people have the bridesmaids buy whatever dress the Bride pics, but I had some dear friends, traveling from far away, on some tight budgets...  (think single mother going to school... yeah, amazing!) So I thought it over and picked black and left the other things up to them.  I have heard of people doing this and picking white or "sunset colors"... You could really have fun with that!

6.  I got my flowers at Costco.  I have an artsy family that was CONVINCED we could deck our own halls the day of the wedding (that late start time came in handy...) and you know what?  We totally did.  I had a hand picked team for this, so the day of, they were practiced, prepped, and prepared.  Do your homework  and you can do almost anything on your own!

7.  The night before, at the wedding rehearsal, I let all my worry go.  Really.  It didn't save me money, but it saved me LOTS of stress.  Before we walked into the ballroom for our rehearsal dinner, I took a deep breath, and decided that hell or high water, rain or shine, photographer or no photographer (incidentally, no photographer), If my Man showed up, I would be happy.

He did.  I was.

So be creative!  Be adventurous!  Think outside of the box to save money and do something different!  And above all else, enjoy your big day, enjoy it to the fullest.  Live the cliche!  No amount of money saving or over planning can prepare you to truly enjoy  every second.  

Walking down the aisle, I looked at the faces of my friends and family (All 700 of them) and I knew that all the hard work was worth it.  I was living my dream day.  (Well, sans photographer, but you get the point.) 

be creative,

jq

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Write by: AN - Friday, April 23, 2010