Remember that first you need to set a budget and make it a realistic one! Make yourself stick to it or get someone to help you that won’t let you compromise on your budget! Set up a seperate savings account to put money aside for the wedding expenses. Ask family/friends for help. Many times family will be more than willing to pitch in by either volunteering to pay for a certain thing in the wedding or giving you money towards something. Ask them if they would rather pay for something in particular (like the cake) or if they just want to help out by giving you some cash. Also, family is an asset you can use to your advantage now. Does anyone in your family know how to make decorative cakes, silk flower arrangements or is a photographer or does it as a hobby? Does anyone work at a potential wedding ceremony or reception site? Does anyone in your family work at a restaurant that could cater the food? Does anyone in your family have an extensive music collection and could be a DJ at the wedding? Now is the time to take advantage of anyone you know to help you out.
Dress:
When it comes to the dress you have a lot of options when looking around. First, you can check out local discount retailers. David’s Bridal usually has $99 dresses available that were from the last season and are hanging on racks in their store. Also check with any “next to new” type of shops and you can usually get a great bargain at these types of stores. Also, you could consider prom dresses. Wearing a prom dress as a wedding dress is no big deal and there are tons of prom dresses that come in white that you can easily use as a wedding dress. Wait until prom season is over and rush to the stores to see what local retailers have marked down or have on clearance to get rid of and you can get a really nice deal this way. Also don’t be shy about negotiating the price down, especially if it’s the off season for wedding and/or prom dress buying. You could also consider wearing a bridesmaid dress as a wedding dress. You can usually find bridesmaid dresses much cheaper than a wedding dress. Also, if you wait until right before Christmas and then purchase your dress you will most likely get a better deal because this is the off season and retailers are usually marking down these types of clothing to get rid of them for the new season that is coming. Don’t forget to also check web sites like Craigslist, Ebay and Amazon for wedding dresses. There are always many wedding dress listings on Craigslist in most local areas where women are trying to sell their gown to you at a deeply discounted rate. There are also tons of listings for wedding dresses on Ebay and Amazon. You can always find a good deal online for just about anything related to a wedding.
Invitations:
When it comes to the invitations you have some options. You don’t have to go with a company that is going to charge you some ridiculous amount of money for paper that is going to probably be thrown away anyway and will only serve its purpose for a short time. You can opt to make your own invitations by going to a retail store like Wal-Mart or Target that carries blank invitation sets that include the invitation and RSVP card, as well as the envelopes. These types of invites can be purchased pretty cheap. You can get 40 invitations in a kit for around $20. You can choose to print them at home if you have a nice printer or you could take them to be printed somewhere like Fedex/Ginko’s. You could always go old school with it and really make them from scratch yourself using Microsoft Word or another computer program. Microsoft even has templates of wedding invitations you can get for free and download. All you then have to do is make the invitation however you wish and print them out on your computer. You will have to buy the envelopes for them though, but envelopes can be bought fairly cheap too. You can also go to many web sites that have invitations that you can download for free and customize. Again, all you have to worry about it just printing them and the envelopes then. If you don’t want to print them yourself there is still yet another inexpensive option left for you. There are a few companies that you can order inexpensive invitations from and they print the invitations and RSVP cards (along with including the envelopes for you) and send everything to you. One such company that provides this type of service is Simple Wedding Invites. Go to their site at: www.simpleweddinginvites.com
Rings:
When it comes to rings you have to shop around a lot. If you know what you want then you will have a much easier time finding the cheapest ring available in the style you want. If you don’t know what you want, then I would advise figuring that out first and then once you know what you want head out on a jewelry store adventure. Look around and comparison shop. Figure out who really has the best deal for this ring that I want? Also, don’t forget to check online again. The internet is an awesome place to find a deal. Craigslist also has listings for jewelry and you can find engagement rings and wedding bands on there at discounted prices many times. Also, don’t forget about your local pawn shop. Make a quick stop at the pawn shop on your trip and see what they have and what the price is. You can usually negotiate a price at the pawn shop too. Don’t forget about big box retailers when it comes to jewelry either, think of Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco and BJ’s. Many times if you want just a plain gold or white gold wedding band you will be able to find it relatively cheap and remember a plain band is always classic.
