Money-saving wedding planning tips

Flickr photo by Daniel Chang

Getting engaged and married is a rite of passage, but why oh why is it so expensive? I have a few friends experiencing sticker shock as they plan their upcoming nuptials, and all I can do is shake my head in sympathy. Depending on your geographic location, weddings cost an average of more than $28,000 these days, which is not easy on your personal finances.

Fortunately, there are ways to save on your wedding, but these tips have to be considered from the very beginning — before you even set a date. Still interested? Read on.

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When planning a wedding, secure a venue first

Planning a wedding can be a bewildering experience. But once you’ve secured the fiance and figured out a date, I firmly believe the first thing you should tackle in planning a wedding is finding a venue.

Stock image by katman1972

Why the venue first? Because it’ll probably be your biggest expense. And when it comes to big expenses, its generally better to secure the best price you can get early on, rather than get hit with exorbitant fees the closer you get to your wedding date. It’s pretty much impossible to book a wedding venue three months in advance, and you have to be wicked lucky six months out. A good rule of thumb is to secure a wedding venue a year in advance.

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Wedding deals on 11/12/13

This coming Tuesday is November 12, 2013, or 11/12/13, and its the second-to-the-last date you can get married on a sequential numerical date this century. (The last opportunity this century will be 12/13/14.) So, even if its a Tuesday, there are a lot of couples out there taking advantage of this easy-to-remember date.

Besides the fact that this is an easy-to-remember date that makes for a good story for future retellings, there is another big reason why you should consider biting the bullet and tying the knot this coming Tuesday. It’s called the weekday wedding deal — seeing as how most weddings are held on a weekend, usually Saturday, venues offer huge deals to couples willing to make their big day a weekday affair.

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Budget-friendly Southern California wedding venues

Getting married is so expensive these days, but there are at least a few ways to cut down on the expenses. The biggest expense by far is your guest list, so if you can have a small wedding, that will make a big difference on your wedding budget.

Your next biggest expense is your wedding venue. To keep costs down, look for a venue where you can hold both your ceremony and your reception. Another thing to keep in mind to save money — think all inclusive. Just like an all-inclusive resort, where you can get your room, food and a few activities in one package, there are some venues that provide everything — the venue, the linens, the food, the cake, the decorations, etc.

Since last year, I’ve been compiling a list of Southern California wedding venues that brides say have given them a great deal, or have contacted me for consideration as a venue that offers a great deal — and I’ve seen evidence online to support it. I haven’t had personal experience with any of these venues, so take these suggestions as just that — suggestions for wedding venues you should check out.

Highland Springs Resort

Highland Springs Resort in Cherry Valley (Riverside County) is home to olive fields, an 1,100-year-old oak tree and a lavender farm, which makes me think it must smell wonderful out there. A recent Yelp review notes that “resort” is a bit of a stretch, but that could work in the favor of a budget-conscious bride. Going back to 2011, a poster on WeddingBee says she was quoted $8,000 for a party of 200, including the venue, tables, chairs, linens, flatware, cake and food — quite a deal.
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12 tips to save money on your wedding decorations

This guest post is written by Brenda Westwood, the author of the ebook, “Wise Wedding Planning.” I’m in total agreement with many of her tips, so enjoy!

Weddings are very expensive affairs. If you do not want to skimp on the food and the
venue, then cutting corners on your wedding decorations is never a bad thing.

Here are 12 ways to do that without sacrificing the quality and the impact of the
decorations.
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DIY wedding decorations in Wisconsin

All photos by Shruti Mathur

At this point, I think I need to create a “Shruti” label because she keeps coming through for me! My favorite Wedding Attender recently had a grand time at a wedding in Wisconsin (state of cheese!). This wedding, she says, was a major do-it-yourself affair — not so much because of the cost, but more because of the bride and groom and their personalities. Aw, shucks, let me let her tell you herself.

Jen and Kyle were engaged for two years but I’m not sure if they started planning the wedding until maybe less than a year before. On top of that, Jen spent the summer in Mongolia, coming home about three weeks before the wedding. So, if you can’t tell, they are a really easy-going couple and their wedding reflected that–in the best way possible.

Their wedding perfectly encapsulated them and it was really lovely and comfortable and fun. I think that is the highest compliment anyone can pay about someone’s wedding — that it fit their personality perfectly. (I only hope people will say that about mine.)

The week before the wedding we went to IKEA to pick up vases, candle holders and candles for the wedding–and anything else that caught the bride’s eye. The day before the wedding they visited a flower farm and picked wildflower bouquets and created potted plants in mason jars, which hung from hooks in the wedding tent and were set on the table at the reception.

Rain is supposed to be good luck on the wedding day, but it was unfortunate that it rained the entire time. They had a backup plan of using the marquee tent for the ceremony and the reception was already planned for the lodge–though I am sure they also had planned to let people spill out onto the lawn instead of stuffing themselves inside!!

Instead of a seated or even buffet-style dinner, they opted for “heavy hors d’oeuvres.” And, amazingly, this appetizer dinner was really filling! They had wheels of cheese, fruit trays, crackers, pulled pork with buns, home-recipe chicken satay, mini-spanakopitas, hummus, pita, thin slices of beef, mushrooms stuffed with sausage and cheese and this whole fish that you flaked off chunks of…it was scary. I am certainly forgetting foods. I was STUFFED…which was good, since it was an open bar. It was in Wisconsin after all!

Now, I’m just going to interrupt Shruti’s great narrative real quick to point out a few things. I LOVE the mason jar idea. How cute! And I love it that they’re filled with sand. Remember what I said about lights and candles — so important!

Case in point! Japanese paper lanterns at a Wisconsin DIY wedding reception? Why not! In the end its all about lighting up the space and creating ambiance. And it also helps dim the soggy outdoor area that people were supposed to be able to wander about in, but for the rain. I believe the photo in the middle was of the bridal bouquet, with white and green mums, white and green roses, and what appear to be green buds. Simple, but so pretty. The photo at the right is of candles in the fireplace, surrounded by greens and branches with red berries. Kind of a nice, fireplace effect in a, heheh, fireplace. With all that Wisconsin drinking, I think a real fire would have been unsafe.

The cake, adorned by a vase of flowers and the bridal bouquet.

The couple, also recognizing that the park was way from our hotel and also it was Wisconsin, land of drinking, provided a small bus to get to and from the hotel. This was very nice touch, I thought.

Park rules stated we had to be out by 10:30 that night. We managed to squeeze in a lot of dancing and fun before that time…and the bridal party plus a few hardy friends headed to a local bar to just hang out.

This wedding, by the way, took place at Bukolt Park and Lodge in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. And its a perfect example of a wedding not needing a year (or two) and the budget of a small city to pull off a one-day event. Do it yourself! It makes things pretty fun. And by the way, I love the idea of heavy hors d’oeuvres. What a great idea. I’m saving that for my next party.
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Wedding planning in the news

Is it just me, or is everyone doing news stories about weddings lately? A few weeks ago, the L.A. Times did a story about how the economy is forcing brides to get thrifty, and all of a sudden, its wedding week at the Washington Post.

I suppose that no matter what happens, people always do three things: be born, get married and die. Sorry to put it so bluntly, but its true. But at this point, let’s focus on what everyone is really talking about: How to save money.

The L.A. Times starts with a bride who is planning to spend only $8,000, not the average $30,000 spent on weddings today. That’s a big cut, but personally, that’s still a lot for me, since I want to buy a bed, a bedroom set, a MacBook Pro…Oh, sorry. Got sidetracked there.

Planning a cut-rate wedding might seem out of step with the gauzy dream of the big day, but lately, more brides have been thinking thrifty as the economic slowdown has left them worried more about the higher cost of living than whether to serve chicken or filet mignon.

“There’s no question that the recession has affected the wedding industry,” said Jolene Rae Harrington, director of creative content at Here Comes The Guide, a wedding planning resource. “Brides still want to realize their wedding dream — they just need to be more creative in how they achieve it.”

That includes inviting fewer guests, getting married on off-peak days such as Fridays and Sundays, crafting handmade wedding favors and holding receptions at low-cost or no-cost venues such as parks and beaches.

As thrifty as I am, I knew my friends would be too. So a few months ago, I quizzed them as to how they saved money on their weddings. My girlfriend Olivia:

i would definitely have passed on the favors. they were dumb. i got my dress on ebay brand new for $100. my mom spent way too much on too much food. i dont know what else i would cut because it was all pretty cheap per person because we had to have 300 people. so it was more the number of people than the stuff that made it so much.

My former editor Amber:

1) We bought the flowers at Costco the day before the wedding and did them ourselves.
2) We had a destination wedding, so we rented a big house and had the rehearsal dinner and wedding ceremony there. For the dinner, we hit Costco since we were buying a lot of food and then fixed the dinner ourselves.
3) Jill Karnicki (old GNP photog) took the wedding photos — that was her present to us, which I suggested.
4) It’s not something I did, but a friend of mine bought a wedding dress that she later dyed black and has used as an evening gown.
5) Instead of a wedding cake, we did cupcakes (again, made them ourselves) and decorated them up really cute.

But you don’t have to take it just from me! I stumbled across this great post from Unclutterer — Ten tips for planning a simple wedding. Hey, you brides could use all the help you can get in this day and age.
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