Bridesmaid Dresses/Groomsmen Tuxes: Look for bridesmaid dresses on the cheap in the off season, on the internet or from your local discount or next to new type of shop. If you bought your wedding dress from a certain retailer (especially if it’s one that specializes in wedding stuff) like David’s Bridal, many times they will give you coupons or discounts towards the purchase of bridesmaid dresses. You can find bridesmaid dresses on Craigslist, Amazon and Ebay again. Look at your local consignment shop and you might find a good deal. Also, look online to retailers who only operate on the internet and do not have an actual store. Many times they are much cheaper to go through because they don’t have an actual physical store somewhere. Try the brand of Jump dresses, every dress they sell is usually $99 or less. Jump brand dresses can be purchased from Overstock.com, Chadwick’s and JC Penney’s. When it comes to the groomsmen tuxes many retailers will rent the groom’s tux to him for free when a certain number of other tuxes are rented. S&K will rent the grooms tux to him for free when there is five other men renting tuxes. On top of that they will give one man $50 off rental and the rest of the men $20 off of their rental. Check around when it comes to tuxes as well and make sure you and your men are getting the best deal you can find. Many companies will rent the tux to the groom for free.
Cake: Do you know any bakers? Anyone who specializes in making cakes? Perhaps your mother took cake baking classes at a local college for a while and it is now her new hobby. If you know absolutely anyone then ask them if they would be willing to make it for you. You could always go the do it yourself route and make it yourself. It’s not as hard as it looks. Many of the things you need can be purchased from Wal-Mart. Also, do you want to have a cake? You could always have cupcakes instead. You could have a cupcake tower or stand set up at the wedding and have lots of cupcakes for everyone to munch on. It’s the same thing as cake, just in a different form. If you do not want cupcakes, then shop around local bakeries. You should think about how many people are you inviting to your wedding. If you’re having 100 people or less you really only need two layers or tiers of cake to feed everyone. Only purchase the amount of cake you need and that will save you money. If you opt for a smaller wedding cake it will look just as nice and there won’t be lots of it leftover. Remember large retail stores when thinking about wedding cakes too. Many times you can get a nice wedding cake from Kroger or Wal-Mart for decent prices. If you got the same cake from many bakeries it would cost you twice as much! You could also opt for something less traditional, like serving sliced cheesecake or chocolate truffles. You can also find really good deals on wedding cakes online. Who would’ve thought you could buy a wedding cake online? Yep, it’s true, you can and at a good price too. Another way to save on the cake is instead of buying a topper or decorating the cake with real or silk flowers you could have the baker make edible flowers out of icing to decorate the cake and/or use as a topper.
Wedding Ceremony/Reception Location: If you go to a local church in your town or know of a church where you could get married and a preacher that will marry you, then it is usually cost effective to get married in a church, where many preachers only ask for a donation or a small fee to marry you. If you do not want to get married in a church, then do a search online for an officiant to marry you and then find a ceremony location. The internet is a good resource when it comes to finding wedding ceremony and reception venues. Also, you can consider getting married at home, at a family member’s house or friends house. Do you or anyone in your family have a large open backyard or large open area to have a wedding ceremony and/or reception? Getting married at home can definitely save you lots of money. Also, consider places like parks, recreational centers, an AMVETS building or VFW post. Many times they have small buildings that they are willing to rent out to you for a fraction of the cost of other places. Also, you could consider having your reception at a restaurant that has a large banquet room. Also, check out your local country clubs because many times they will be willing to work with you and give you decent prices on having the ceremony and/or reception there. You can also check with large hotels that have banquet rooms too, however, hotels can get rather pricey sometimes, depending on the ones you look at.
Reception(Food & Drink): Do you want a sit down plated meal or a buffet? Buffets can be cheaper sometimes, but sometimes it actually costs less to have a plated meal. Shop around when looking for caterer’s and make sure your caterer stays within your budget, while still providing what you want. Many caterers will want the business and will be flexible in dealing with you and negotiating prices for certain things. They may even be willing to wave certain fees like a meat carver fee or cake cutting fee. Don’t be afraid to ask or inquire such things from the people that are going to be making the food. Try to choose a variety of things that many people, including yourself will like to eat. If you have a vegetarian coming to the wedding then definitely take that into consideration. You’ll want to make sure they have an option. You can always be safe with choosing one type of chicken, one type of beef and a vegetarian dish like pasta. Also, make it personal. For example, if you’re having salad as part of dinner then make sure they are serving dressings that both you and your guests will like. Most people like ranch, so ranch is always a safe one and then make the other dressing choice one of your favorite dressings. Remember to personalize it as much as you want because it should be about what you like. Many venues will not allow another caterer to come in and cater for the wedding, like many country clubs and hotels usually provide the food and catering for your reception, so keep that in mind when choosing a venue. They also tend to be a little more expensive. There are many unconventional places you can have food catered from too. Just think about it, many restaurants would be glad to cater an event for you. Think of your favorite restaurant, do they cater and how expensive would catering be from them? It never hurts to check it out.
Photography: If you know someone who is a photographer, that’s great, ask them to snap your photos for you! But if you don’t there are some inexpensive ways to get great looking photos without spending a fortune. When I first started looking for photographers I was amazed at the ridiculous amount most of them charged and I refused to pay it. Here are a couple of ideas: If you have a local community college or university where students may be taking photography classes or there may be a photography teacher you could put an ad up at the college that you are interested in hiring someone to take your wedding pictures or they could possibly do it for a class project. Search the internet for photographers in your area. You will probably find quite a few of them. Look at all their web sites and see who is the most inexpensive or competitively priced. See if any of them will only charge you by the hours of service they provide and if they would give you a CD of your pictures so you can have them printed out yourself. This is a huge money saving idea when it comes to pictures. If the photographer charges a decent amount hourly and you only need them an average of 4 hours, then you only have to pay for what you actually receive or the time they actually spend with you. If they charge hourly or will agree to only charge you hourly for their service, then you can decide how much time you need them. If you think you will only need their service for three hours, then you only pay for three hours. Also, if you opt to put your chosen pictures that they took onto a burned CD, then you can print them yourself and make copies of the CD to give to family. This is a big cost saver as well because you are not paying the photographer for the actual prints of the pictures, just the CD and their services.
