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Planning a wedding? Some practical suggestions on stretching your wedding dollars.

Weddings are one of the most expensive investments in your future, besides a house and children. It does not have to be and I am here to give you helpful hints to make your all-mighty dollar stretch a little farther without losing the finesse. So lets start breaking down the wedding.


Wedding Gown

I know that as little girls we all dreamed about our Cinderella gown. I also realize that your whole wedding is planned around a gown that you only wear once (hopefully you are among the lucky ones).

Here are a few tips on how to find your dream gown (or really close to it) and be able to stretch that dollar.

• Go to end of year sale or warehouse sales.
  
• Have a friend/relative (or even yourself) sew your gown.
  
• At your engagement party, have a dollar tree on the gift table for guests to donate towards your wedding.
  
• Go to second hand stores (they have beautiful dresses that are donated).
  
• Have your Mother’s dress professionally altered and tailored to your specks.
  

Here are a few ways that you can stretch the dollar for your catering costs.

• Schedule your reception during the mid-morning or an early evening reception. You will only need to offer hors d’oeuvres.
  
• If you are having a good ol’ hometown wedding, you could have a potluck dinner where everyone brings a dish.
  
• Believe it or not, Kentucky Fried Chicken caters and they are reasonably priced. The only reason why my guest knew it was KFC was the napkins.
  
• Hire a really good cook in your family to cater, most family and friends will do it just to help out. Make sure you pay for the ingredients and are clear on the menu before moving on.

This one is clear-cut, try these few suggestions:

• Offer to pay half.
  
• Go to a second hand store.
  
• Clearance bridal sales.
  
• Have them made by the same person making your dress.
  
• Have them pay for the dress themselves.
  
• Or why don’t you look in their closets? I know a lot of women that have dresses left over from other weddings. You could incorporate them or have them altered to match.

Call around and play the ‘can you do better than (insert the bridal shop that gave you the lowest price)’. I do, however, want you to be aware that not only do you have to take into consideration the lowest price, but the quality of the tux, the availability of the tux and the service you will get. So when you find the three lowest prices, ask around to see what others experiences where. Also, check out bridal clearances and sales and second hand stores.


Reception

Ask friends and relatives to see if they are members of certain clubs.
Do not rule out family members that live in mobile home parks. For instance, my Mother lives in a mobile home park that has a beautiful clubhouse that they rent out for minimal price, as long as you clean up you get your deposit back.   Other possibilities include:

• The Eagle Clubs,
  
• VFWs (Veterans of a Foreign War),
  
• Moose Clubs,
  
• The town’s community center,
  
• The town’s Parish House (if they have one),
  
• State parks,
  
• See if your town has a gazebo,
  
• A relative’s backyard (or yours for that matter),
  
• Or check out to see if a relative has time shares somewhere, they usually have banquet halls and club houses that they can get at a low price or at least reasonable.

There are some fun ways to get your wedding bands.

• Believe it or not, Wal-Mart, Kmart, JC Penny’s, etc have some rather beautiful rings that are nice on the wallet.
  
• Second hand stores and pawn shops are always good.
  
• Your families - my Mother has her’s and my Father’s bands (my Father died in 1990). She kept them just in case one of her thirteen grandchildren might want them when its time for their weddings.
  
• Antique stores.
  
• Try the newspapers classified section.
  
• Auctions are nice and the two of you can bid together for what you want.

How are you going to get to the wedding? Are you going to hire a limo? Maybe a carriage ride? Well I have some interesting ideas; have an open mind:

• Call your local Harley shop if you or your future spouse is into biking. They sometimes will bring you to your wedding on one of the new bikes (or to say the least, you can have pictures taken on and around one).
  
• Check out to see if you have a relative that has an old restored antique car.
  
• Do you know or have someone in your family that owns horses? You could either go by sidesaddle or maybe they have a carriage?
  
• Ask around to see if someone moonlights as a limo driver. You never know, they might be able to get a deal.  Check out the coupons in your phone book (the local merchants may have a discount coupon).
  
• Go to your local bridal shows, they sometimes have drawings for limo rides etc.
• Use an online limo search service to get competitive quotes from local providers.  When limo companies compete, you win.

Where to get it done? 

• Try your local grocery store, believe it or not.  Our local grocery store made the cake to our specification; it was unbelievable.
  
• Do some price shopping at your local bakery’s,
  
• Have someone do it for you.  One of my relatives made my sister’s wedding cake and only charged her for the supplies. It was picture perfect.

Flowers

Now that is an expense! You can go into dept with flowers. Try these solutions:

• Use silk flowers or mix silk with fresh,
  
• Get a craft book on how to make centerpieces, aisle bows, alter arrangements, bouquets and boutonnieres. You could get all your attendances together and make an afternoon of it. (My Matron-of-Honor, Bridesmaid, guest book attendant and I sat around one afternoon with a book and made all the silk arrangements. Then two days before we made all the arrangements that needed fresh. We saved almost half of the money as if we had a florist do the job.)
  
• Call around for he best prices between florist,
  
• Cut down on your flowers and use potted plants when you can, that way during the reception you can do a fun drawing. When everyone entered the hall and signed the guest book they receive a ticket. Put half the ticket in a hat or basket and have the bride pull the winning tickets for the potted plants.

Wedding Favors

• Check out your local dollar stores.
  
• Shop around at party stores.
  
• Make them yourselves.
  
• Check out craft stores for ideas.

• Shop around (check out their portfolio, call their references and above all read the contract before you sign it),
  
• Ask friends and relatives of others that had photographers at their wedding to see what they suggest,
  
• Have a friend video tape it or have them take the pictures. (for fun not only did my brother-in-law take our pictures, but we bought disposable cameras and put them on tables. Our guests took candid shots through the reception. We got some amazing pictures.)

Most of all through this whole process, remember if you are on your last nerve opt to pay someone to do the job. And remember have fun, relax, even when you think the whole day is going to be one blunder after another…well, it always turns out beautiful and ten years from now you and your husband will laugh at it. Trust me!

About the Author

April May Rollins is a full-time freelance author currently living in Ashuelot, New Hampshire, and a contributor to http://www.wedding-decoration-idea.com.

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