When you were a little girl dreaming of your wedding, you probably imagined yourself in a beautiful wedding gown. I would bet that a budget wasn’t part of that dream. Unless you have unlimited funds, you will find yourself balancing a budget and your dreams as you plan your wedding. Have you considered buying designer wedding dresses?

Long White Designer Wedding Dress

Experts suggest that you should spend about 6% of your wedding budget on the dress. With the average cost of a wedding around $25,000, the recommended advice is to spend about $1,500 on your wedding dress. Wedding budgets, however, are difficult to stick to. After all, your wedding dress is the most significant piece of clothing that you will ever purchase. Should you go for the designer wedding dress, or go for a discount wedding dress?

You Must Shop For a Designer Dress

Even if you have no intention of purchasing a designer dress, go shop for one anyway. You’ll be treated to champagne, as boutique associates attempt to find the perfect dress for you. It’s a fun experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity – hopefully.

Designer Wedding Gown

My Dress is Out of My Budget

If you do visit the boutique and fall in love with a designer wedding gown you may be facing a dilemma.  Do you ignore the budget for a dress that you will wear once in your life, or choose an alternative? There may be a way for you to get the dress without breaking the bank. You may decide that it’s worth cutting back on the flowers or the food to increase your budget. Perhaps the store will work with you to offer you a discount.

If the store won’t work with you and you have tried on the dress you want, go online to find the dress. Ebay can be a good source of new designer dresses. There are bridal ebay stores, and you can also find brides selling their wedding gowns on eBay. Try craigslist as well for local brides selling their wedding dresses. You can also look for a wedding store that rents out dresses and get the dress of your dreams that way. Lastly, you can ask a seamstress to create an exact duplicate of the designer wedding dress that you want and do so at a much lower cost.

Designer Wedding Dress - Mermaid Style

Buying a designer dress is ultimately up to you. No one else can make the decision if it’s worth it or not. Purchases for your wedding are never logical. When else will you spend $25,000 on one night? If the dress makes you feel absolutely beautiful you may decide to go for it. Shop around, try to get a discount, visit online stores and do your best to stay around your budget. If your budget really doesn’t allow you to get the dress you do want, find a cheaper alternative that looks just as great. While you won’t have bragging rights of saying you’re wearing Vera, your guests won’t know the difference. Most important is that you feel beautiful in the dress.

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But in this economy, every bride is looking for ways to trim her wedding budget. And to help, I’ve created a list some of my favorite ways to cut your wedding costs – without your guests being the wiser.

Save Money On Your Wedding

Save on the Wedding Ceremony

• Use flowers in key areas only (like the altar or place where you will say your vows). This is where all of your guests eyes will be, and where the majority of your photographs will be taken.

• Have your florist create hand-tied bouquets for you and your bridesmaids. They are less expensive than wired ones and every bit as pretty.

• Use your wedding party flowers again at your reception. Bouquets can make amazing centerpieces at your head table. And they look gorgeous surrounding your cake.

Food and Beverage Costs

• Have your wedding at an “off-peak” time (Thursdays, Fridays or Sundays, and in January – May). Because these times are less popular, the caterer’s cost per person and the required guest count will be lower.
• Butler passed hor d’oeuvres can actually be less expensive than buffet style (because guests tend to eat less of them). Ask your caterer about your options.
• Create a signature drink (made with non-premium alcohol) to save on bar costs. Give the drink a personalized name to make it unique.
• Reduce your cocktail hour by 15-20 minutes. None of your guests will notice. And your bar bill will be less.
• Skip the champagne toasts – few guests really drink it. Or if you want to include it, try Prosecco, a sparkling Italian wine that tastes like champagne – but is much less expensive.

Save Money on Wedding Flowers/ Centerpieces

• Use fewer, larger tables to reduce the number of centerpieces and linen rentals required. Create tables of 10 instead of 8. (Use larger tables that guests aren’t crowded).
• Consider less expensive flowers like carnations, baby’s breath or gladiolas. These blooms tend to be 1/3 the cost of roses and look very dramatic and impactful when used in large monochromatic arrangements.
• Give your florist a long list of flowers you love and those you don’t. Then give him/her flexibility to use the most cost effective/ seasonal flowers from your list. Flexibility equal savings.
• Buy your own vases from places like Pier1 or Ikea. They can be less expensive than what your florist carries. (And you’ll be able to give the centerpieces away at the end of evening if you’d like).
• Ask your florist for ideas about including non-floral items that add impact while lowering cost. A vase filled with lemons or limes can be quite striking.

Save Costs on the Wedding Cake

• Save by using a faux cake. They are absolutely beautiful and your guests won’t notice the difference (you can still cut it).
• Or order only enough cake for 75% of your guests (more guests than you think actually don’t eat the cake).
• Another option is to have a smaller cake (tall but smaller cakes have great impact) and then a second “kitchen cake” which is cut and served to your guests (who will never notice).

Saving on the Wedding Attire

• Of course, I have to mention the savings associated with a preowned wedding dress! Whether you buy a preowned dress or sell your new gown after your wedding, you can expect to save up to 50% of the retail price. That is hundreds or potentially even thousands of dollars that can be used on other wedding costs (or towards upgrading your honeymoon).
• Rent your jewelry. You can actually rent beautiful necklaces, earrings, bracelets and more for you and your wedding party – all for a very reasonable rental fee.

This is a guest blog post by Josie Daga, founder of PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com, a website she created to help brides buy and sell designer wedding dresses. You can also find her on her own blog, Facebook and Twitter.

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1. Not Budgeting Costs

It’s hard to believe, but true – many couples do not create a budget when it comes to wedding preparation and end up in a deep hole of debt. The very first thing you should do to avoid disastrous (and bankrupting) wedding mistakes is devise an itemized budget, allowing for the necessary requirements, such as a venue for both the ceremony and reception, food and drinks, flowers, favors, decorations, etc. If anything is left over, either use this money for your honeymoon or spend it on something a little more frivolous, like a horse drawn carriage for your departure from the reception.

Budgeting ahead of time also involves your acknowledging the fact that you may surpass the total by at least 10%. Surprises do happen, so cutting back on other needless things will ensure that you don’t go over budget too much. In these initial wedding preparation stages, you and your fiancé need to discuss who will be paying for what. It used to be that the bride’s parents paid for everything, but this ideal is slowly fading away. If you’re still coming up short on funds, there are literally hundreds of ways to cut costs for your wedding day, including having fewer guests, choosing an off-season date, selecting flowers that are in season, and having friends and family play a bigger part by making the wedding cake or trying their hand at photography.

2. Not Giving Yourself Enough Time

The image of the harried bride has been engrained into the psyche through a number of television shows that hype up the combination of little to no time and a ‘my way or the highway’ attitude. This is why giving yourself ample wedding preparation time is necessary to ensuring that your wedding flows seamlessly. If you want a large, extravagant wedding, you need to begin planning at least a year and a half in advance; for a smaller, more intimate wedding of about 50 guests, eight months to a year is fine. You need to take into account what your plans are for your wedding and adjust your schedule accordingly to prevent costly wedding mistakes from occurring.

Giving yourself more wedding preparation time allows you to order your cake, dress, wedding favors, flowers, decorations, etc. well in advance so that you don’t come up empty-handed from last minute rushing. Allotting enough time also applies to your wedding ceremony and reception. Don’t keep your guests waiting at the reception venue while you and your wedding party are taking hundreds of photos – consider taking a majority of the pictures before the ceremony and the all-important couple, wedding party, and family pictures after the vows have been exchanged.

3. Not Delegating Responsibilities

Delegating responsibilities, wedding preparation tasks, and roles is vital – you cannot do everything! For brides, their bridesmaids are there to help them with the important duties of the wedding day, so creating a short list of responsibilities for each friend is not unexpected. Mothers, family members, and friends are also glad to help run a few errands or make calls for you if you ask. Just make sure you ask someone you know will get the job done on time.

Part of the wedding experience also relies on a number of people who require detailed wedding preparation directives from you, such as the caterer, photographer, florist, transportation and/or drivers, and DJ. Discussing your ideas with them ensures that you can work together on the same wavelength and avoid embarrassing wedding mistakes during the actual reception. You should also arrange for the wedding party to meet at the church or the wedding ceremony location at a specified time. Corralling so many people at the same time is what leads many couples to pick up the wedding party members at their homes. Late arriving wedding party members is one of the most frequent and sometimes uncontrollable wedding mistakes a bride and groom have to deal with.

4. Not Hiring a Wedding Planner or Someone You Trust

Many brides swear by their wedding planners, and yes, it’s true that they take care of just about everything involved in wedding preparation and planning, preventing a number of the more common wedding mistakes brides make. It’s kind of like you and your fiancé are the stars, while the wedding planner works behind the scenes for your big performance, seeing everything from start to finish. Wedding planners know all the ins and outs of great wedding preparation and planning and can help the couple find reliable caterers, bridal attire and supply stores, transportation, and DJs at lower prices. Before signing any contracts, however, talk with the wedding planner to see if it’s a situation you’re happy with.

While incredibly helpful, wedding planners can also be pricey, unfortunate for the bride who is trying to cut costs. This scenario goes back to delegating responsibilities – ask someone you trust to help you make wedding preparation arrangements and appointments with each wedding supply store and/or vendor. You can even scale back operations and have a simplistic wedding that you plan or DIY completely to save money.

5. Not Fully Considering the Reception Venue and Details

Sending your guests on a wild goose chase to find the reception venue is something that happens more often than you’d think and is one of the biggest wedding mistakes couples overlook. For out-of-town guests, this is confusing; for in-town guests, it’s an annoyance. Choosing a reception venue that’s close to the wedding site is a must, unless you provide the transportation to and from the reception. More than 15 – 20 minutes away is a hassle, and some guests may not even bother going if it’s farther than that.

Otherwise, if your reception venue is outside (or exposed to the elements), rain and windy conditions may appear so you should always have a back up in cases of inclement weather. A rained out wedding reception is one of the more common wedding mistakes brides have neglected to plan for. Part of the wedding preparation necessities should also include your requesting the venue’s landscaper to spray for bugs so your guests aren’t being bitten by mosquitoes and gnats.

Learn to Laugh Off Those Wedding Mistakes

Pre-wedding preparation, while helpful, will inevitably miss some little detail of your big day. These wedding mistakes (or, more likely, minor ‘blips’) are to be expected and may even provide a funny moment for you and your fiancé to laugh about in the future. Wedding mistakes do and will happen, but you shouldn’t be bothered by them. Simply go on with the show and smile – no one will know the difference!

Cherie Johnson is the founder and owner of Creative Bride, a one-stop shop for personalized, unique baby and bridal shower and wedding favors, helping couples. Cherie’s wedding advice has appeared on several websites including Little Wedding Guide, Wedding Lenox, and The Wedding Source. For more information on Creative Bride, please visit http://www.Creative-Bride.com.

Photo by audioeric & by saikofish

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Whether you are planning a fancy sit-down dinner or just appetizers, finding the right caterer is essential to a wonderful reception. But where do you find one if you have never thrown a catered party before? There are several places you can look to find caterers in your area.

The Phone Book

You can find the names of caterer’s in your area here. Many have web sites where you can find services and sometimes estimates. But only use this as a starting point. Never hire a caterer without first checking them out.

Friends and Family

Know someone who has hosted a catered event? Ask them who they used, if they liked the caterer, and how much they were charged per person. A satisfied customer is the best referral.

At Work

When your company hosts a catered event, who do they use? If you’ve been to one of their parties you already know if the food is good. Ask the event coordinator for the caterer’s contact information, and what they charge. It’s always possible you can get a discount because you work for the company.

Now that you have a list of possible caterers, it is time to get some quotes. Always get a written quote that spells out each item you want and the estimated cost. You should know by now what kind of reception you want, but it doesn’t hurt to ask about other kinds as well. You may find it more cost effective to have a different type of reception.

Don’t forget to ask questions while getting those quotes. Here are some questions you should ask during the quote meeting.

License and Liability

1. What is your license number?

2. Do you have liability coverage, as well as liquor liability coverage?

All of these protect you from liability should something go wrong during the reception. Hiring an unlicensed caterer is a disaster waiting to happen.

Costs

1. What is the estimated cost per person for my ideal reception?

2. How about my second and third choice?

3. What are some of the additional costs we might incur during the planning stages?

4. Is there a ceiling on anticipated food price increases?

While these costs are all going to be estimated, a good caterer should be able to give you an idea of the final costs.

Staff

1. What is the standard attire for their wait staff?

2. What is the staff-to-guest ratio?

3. If the reception runs late do to unforeseen circumstances, what are the overtime costs?

4. Is extra time even possible, or will there be a job booked after ours?

You don’t want to have your reception manned by an unprofessional wait staff. On the same note, you don’t want to have too few staff taking care of your guests. If there are problems that cause your party to run late, you want to be sure to have the caterer and their staff sticks around for the end.

Food and drink concerns

1. Is there a set menu, or can we pick from different food items?

2. Can your kitchen staff handle special dietary restrictions – allergies, diabetic or kosher menu requirements?

3. How much food will we need for our number of guests?

4. How many bottles of wine and/or champagne will we need for our number of guests?

5. What about non-alcoholic drinks, are those included with the cost of the meal or as a separate item?

6. Do you have refrigeration if the reception is held out doors?

These are basic food and drink questions; no doubt you will have many more event specific questions. Knowing how much food and drink will be needed is the sign of a good caterer. There isn’t a lot of guess work here; experience should dictate the amounts needed.

References

1. Do you have a list of past clients?

2. Is it possible to view the catering of another reception to check food display, wait staff, and service?

3. Can you sample the food on the menu suggested by the caterer?

Some caterers are more than willing to let you see a set up, and watch their staff in action, but it is really up to the customer if that is possible. Do not take it as a sign that they are trying to hide something from you. Some customers aren’t willing to let strangers into their events.

Policy questions

1. Have you worked at my reception site before?

2. Do you set the tables and provide linens? Is there an additional cost for that service?

3. Do you clean up the food and drink, and remove the trash?

4. Will I receive a confirmation letter with the details of my party spelled out?

5. What is the payment policy? Can I pay by check, credit card, or is cash the only option?

6. What is the tipping policy for the wait staff and set up people?

7. What is the minimum number of guests needed? And when do I have to provide the final guest count?

It’s nice to have a confirmation letter, with all the details in it, so you know for sure that everything you discussed with the caterer has been understood. Also having a set date to provide the final count is crucial for both you and your caterer.

A final note. Always check out a caterer with the Better Business Bureau in your area. Most BBB’s are online and checking for problems is quite easy.

Finding the right caterer will make your reception run smoother and make your special day even more special.

Dawn Arkin is a writer who loves to plan and attend weddings. This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.Prye.Com/ which is a site for Wedding Invitations.

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photo credit: www.sweetchicevents.com

Don’t underestimate the usefulness of hiring a qualified and experienced wedding planner or wedding coordinator.

Each and every year around 2.5 million weddings take place nationwide. This means that the number of weddings that will take place in your immediate area is astounding. Your wedding plans are going to be affected by number of factors, because many more weddings will happen at or around the same time as yours.

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Jeanette Shinn is a wedding professional with over a dozen years experience making dreams come alive. Find tips and accessories from to Cinderella themed wedding favors options at ExcitingWeddingFavors.com.

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A tighter wedding budget forces you to focus on what’s important. Do you really need calla lilies flown in from an exotic location at every table – or would you rather have delicious food at the reception? Do you really need an open bar all night long – or will a single signature cocktail do the trick? Do you really have to invite your very best friend from summer camp you haven’t seen for ten years – simply because you always wanted to do so? The recession era bride has an easier time of focusing on what is really necessary and needed at her wedding and what can be tossed by the wayside.

Today’s bride is a savvy shopper. Gone are the days when a bride would pick the very first wedding dress that gave her tingles up the back of her neck. The recession era bride knows to go to a variety of wedding dress shops and to take digital photos of the dresses she likes. To do more comparison shopping. Also not to be afraid to ask for a better deal – when a competitor’s shop is offering a coupon the shop you are in just might honor it as well – you never know!

A wedding truly isn’t about what you buy – it’s about what you are doing. Getting a beautiful dress and going on an exotic honeymoon is certainly fun. But the recession era bride realizes more than ever what matters is the special moment she’ll be saying her wedding vows with her husband-to-be. That moment when they’ll kiss for the first time as husband and wife. The treasured father and daughter dance or having her father walk her down the aisle. These special moments can’t be bought in a shop or charged to your credit card.

A recession era bride isn’t afraid to get a little creative. If that banquet hall is just too far out of your budget – or you can’t afford flowers or something else you’ve been dreaming of – the recession era bride doesn’t pout – she gets to thinking! Could she get married in the big backyard of a family friend or at her college or university chapel? Could she visit a flower market on an early morning and buy flowers at a discount or get flowers from the grocery store? Or would small potted plants from a nursery make great centerpieces (sure…why not?) that you just wouldn’t see anywhere else? In another economy that bride might not get as creative – but the recession era bride learns to stretch and expand her thinking like never before.

So if you’re a recession era bride – enjoy the special and treasured moments your wedding day brings. Enjoy being with family and friends and your first day of married life!

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