When it comes to your wedding day, it should be fun and fabulous not excruciating and expensive! Today, many people take out a line of credit just to pay for their wedding extravaganza. This just puts the happy couple into unhappy debt and makes it hard to start your new life on the straight and narrow. Of course every little girl wants their dream day, but setting a budget (and sticking to it) is just as important as being realistic to what you can and cannot have.
Some obvious ways to have your cake and eat it too, with regards to your special day, is to do-it-yourself. This doesn’t mean you need to build the wedding arch from scratch, but pick and choose those things that you can make yourself and go ahead and do it!
Here are some simple ways to stay within your budget:
1- You want a Swarovski adorned monogram cake topper. Hmmm…that’s a dilemma if your budget is around $10 for the topper. Solution: Go to your local crafts store with coupon in hand (Michaels, A.C. Moore, etc usually have weekly coupons that offer up to 50% off regularly priced merchandise) and buy a plain monogram cake topper. Then head on over to the scrapbooking section where you will find crystal rhinestones (in a variety of colors or just plain clear) that are already sticky on the back and connected in a long line. Gently peel the rhinestones off, and stick onto the monogram. Voila! A beautiful crystal adorned monogram cake topper for your special day at 1/3 of the cost!
2- Bridesmaid/Maid of Honor/Bride tank tops for the bachelorette party. Problem: They cost upwards of $30 PER tank top! If you have a lot of girls in your wedding party, this can definitely add up. Solution: Purchase tank tops on sale (Old Navy usually has 2 for $15.) Go to your local craft store (again, some great places are Michaels, A.C. Moore, even Walmart) and find the proper iron-on patches that say "Bridesmaid", "Maid of honor" and "Bride". They mostly come in rhinestone form which look fantastic. Follow the instructions, iron on the patches and pull back to see your professional looking tanks. For an added bonus, stop at your local accessory store (or retail store, I found mine at H&M but I’ve also seen them at Walmart) and pick up color coordinated flowers to pin onto the tanks. You will be amazed at how beautiful (and expensive!) they look!
3- Guest books. These little guys can reach prices of $40, $50, even $60. For a book! Here’s a great way to make your own (sort of.) Go to your craft store or cheap retailer (Walmart again…gotta love that place!) Perhaps even check out the dollar stores in your area for this item. Buy a guest book that is plain i.e. no decorations. I found mine (from the Martha Stewart collection) on sale for $2.00 at Big Lots! Yes, $2.00! I snatched that up and added my own embellishments that included a diamond broach (on sale) from Macy’s ($15.00) and some pink ribbon I already had at my house. I put them all together on the guest book just the way I envisioned, and the end cost was: $17.00! Since I already had the ribbon that cost didn’t even factor in here. That is a huge different from the store bought book. Since a guest book is more of a bonus item than a necessity, why spend a ton of money on it when you can use that somewhere else?
These are just a few ideas to help the budget-conscious bride get moving for her big day. If you try hard enough and keep your eyes and ears open, you’d be surprised at how many ways you can save a pretty penny!
