Cut back? Yes or No

I would say I am cutting back on Favors I am doing a sweets buffet that will be color coordinated with my wedding. I think something edible for favors are great because you know that it want go to waste and its just a little token to show appreciation for their presence.

Afterall you are feeding them and providing them with drinks. Thats enough IMO....

Ronny, what do you feel you could have saved money on?

Honestly, I can't think of anything I could have cut back on and didn't. I was even checking into the cost of some St. Thomas restaurant prices for group events yesterday, and food prices was more than what we spent at the resort. Maybe the drinks would have been cheaper at a restaurant, but with the food costing more, it would have all balanced out..and then we got the bonus of having the ceremony at our dream location. If I can think of anything, I'll be sure to add it here.

Well, I could have purchased a less expensive invites, cake server set, cake topper, gown, jewelry, "guestbook", and card container, purchased less favors, etc., but I bought exactly what we wanted and wouldn't have changed any of that.

However, I did purchase the following that I ended up not wearing: garter, crystal bracelet, and flat shoes.

Cut back? I don't know..I enjoyed my wedding, but honestly, had I really went with my first mind, DH & I would have been married on the beach in Jamaica and then had a reception when we returned home..not sure if it would have been cheaper, but definetly less stress!!!!!!

I wouldn't have cut back on a thing. If anything, I would have added a few more elements such as a grooms cake, fireworks, fresh flowers for the centerpieces and I would have splurged more on the photography. But with our wedding already 30K, I could live without them.

i loved my day i would have changed that dang dj who books a party the same day as a wedding, because of this he only stayed the 5 hours.

I'm trying to cut back the guest list. Other than that, I'm doing a lot of things myself. I'm employing a lot of unknown vendors for the day, it's a great way for them to get exposure and I will save a ton of money. So far my biggest expense is the location, and I'm negotiating that too.

[quote="phenomonique"] I'm employing a lot of unknown vendors for the day, it's a great way for them to get exposure and I will save a ton of money. [/quote]

My photographer was pretty much an unknown vendor and although our pics came out "okay", they weren't amazing. If I had it to do all over again, I would have just paid more and went with a more known photographer.

I think I would have cut back on tipping. My limo driver for my bridesmaids was nasty but my mom let him use the bathroom and we gave him a nice little tip. Maybe I am wrong but I don't think you should be rewarded for rushing the bridal party and being nasty.

Rhony I just reread the question. So I guess if I HAD to cut back, I probably would have went with a less expensive reception package. My package had alot of butler passed h'or douerves along with quite a few food displays and stations. And if I really had to, I probably would have only done open bar for only 4 hours instead of the 5.

I would have saved the couple hundred dollars I paid someone to do my flowers and did them myself. #1-to be more hands on, and #2, to get it done in timely manner.......But other than that we cut back so much, I think i could have really spent a little more....But the result was still worth the savings.....

My advice is to take charge (in a Queenly manner-Queens let others handle it when needed-BUT is never ever in the dark)....If you let others do something for you-demand repeated follow-ups, because what seems like a good deal or discount may not be worth it if you still don't get the desired result.....Finally, save, save, save. If you can afford to wait and set a date at least 9-months after the engagement, use that time wisely to save money, and have some set aside for an emergency-like an emergency doctor or dental visit, or money that has to be spent to fix a problem or rush something....

To cut back I'm hoping to DIY as many things as possible - I've got my trusted resource in Vibride for that.

I'm also trying to convince FH that we should settle for our initial plan of a wedding of about 100 guests instead of 300 as his family would like us to have (FMIL is complaining that she won't be able to invite her friends and colleagues if we do a reception for 100, I mean what the heck whose wedding is it? Hers or her son's? There --- I've vented and it feels good!)

We got SOOO many hook ups and ALOT of help from family I couldn't have cut back on anything more. The only way it might have been cheaper is if we would have had a destination wedding...and my family would've KILLED ME DEAD if we would have done that!...

I wouldn't have cut back on anything ..however I wish there were a few more things I could have added. With me doing so many DIYs I needed more than 5 months to everything I wanted done. So because of time things were cut that I really wanted ...oh I did buy I reception dress that's still in the package it came in ..LOL guess I didn't need that piece.

If I could cut back, I'd cut out the whole wedding. I orginally wanted to a Sandals resort and get married, and honeymoon at the resort for a week. However, my DH thought it'd be cheaper to do a small wedding at a one location...boy was he wrong.

[quote="VIPrincessBride"]Dee, my husband's parents are deceased, but I knew that issue would come up in regards to my mother because she's a dept. chairperson at a school and there's a long list of teachers she supervises plus administrators plus her other friends. Basically, I made sure that my husband and I would be paying for the wedding ourselves, so that we had the final say. Yes, I had to put my foot down. I didn't want anyone at the wedding neither me nor my husband knew personally who didn't come as someone's guest. As expensive as it was, our wedding was not the time for us to be meeting these people for the first time. So, I ended up inviting only her colleagues who I knew. Of course, she was disappointed at first, but she came to understand that this was our wedding, and that we were paying for it ourselves. She asked me if she could invite other colleagues to the post wedding lunch at their house, and I said that was perfectly fine. If she was comfortable inviting people who weren't invited to the wedding to their home for a post wedding lunch, well fine. Afterall, they were hosting that event and that's their home.

So, maybe this can give you some ideas about dealing with your FMIL and your situation.

[/quote]

Like you FH & I will be footing the bill for the whole wedding. I guess being her only son, his mother feels its within her right to have a say on how things should be done. On those occasions when FH stands up to her, she would fake illness (she's got diabetes) so that she could manipulate him - anyway her antics would need a whole new thread altogether.

Ladies, at the end of the day let's remember we are in a recession and should be cognizant of that fact. Plan for a life after the wedding....while still having a quaint wedding. It's possible

Hello Sisters,

It has been crazy busy for me. I'm back now. Cut backs?!!!! Thats an understatement. From having first-hand experience in the industry, I know how a $15,000 budget can quickly blossom into a $30,000 debt.

By nature I am a true frugalnista.

My cutbacks include:

Favors- None (a waste to me)

Programs- None (they can visit our website :)

Wedding Cake- 5 tier dummy cake with sheet cake in the back (shhh)

Food-(FH is catering the food)...He is a caterer and he insisted

Combined ceremony & reception in one room (I was against this originally but when I changed my date from July 19th to March 7th, I was okay with it)

Martini Bar w/ice luge- instead of open bar

Uplights- instead of draping the room in chiffon

Battery operated candles- instead of pin spots

Florals- still trying to decide.

I'll keep you all posted.

I'm with you on that Monique. Our original budget was $20,000. With a nearly 90% DIY Projects, we've now reduced our budget to $14,000 and I'm not cutting back on anything. I'm having fun just trying to see if I could keep this at below $10,000. I'm trying though.

I haven't really cut back- I just re-distributed the budget a couple times. I split the budget into 3 parts- 1. transportation, hotel, and rental car (our wedding is in TN but we live overseas); 2. the wedding (ceremony and reception); and 3. the honeymoon.

-Instead of the California wine country honeymoon, we decided to allot more of the budget for the honeymoon. Now, we're booked at Sandals Montego Bay.

-We switched from the $6 favors to the $2 favors.

-Our wedding planner is also a florist and makeup artist. She has also been doing weddings for only 2 years. So, her small fee ($575) is paying for the complete planning package- including finding and hiring vendors, scheduling rehearsals, booking massages and the "night of" hotel room. And her fee includes decorations, flowers, and makeup since those are her other jobs. Essentially, she hired herself as a vendor, so we got the best deal EVER.

I wouldn't advise cutting back because THIS IS YOUR DAY, but find the best deals. Find coupons online. I use retailmenot.com daily. Use vendor packages. We're using our credit card rewards points for our parents' gifts, so they're basically free.

With the uncertain time that we are living in it is vital that brides and grooms use their finances wisely. Even though it is your Wedding Day you want to be sensible about all your wedding day expenses. I can

I guess the best thing is to say Cut back wherever you can but don't sacrifice too much. In the end you may have regrets....but truthfully apparantly we all do anyways...However, even with these small: I would have done this or that, you still don't want to have regrets that make you angry when thinking back...Like my flower situation...It really makes me angry, but the salvation of that situation was that the flowers came out very pretty.

I could have changed many things, but I would give my own wedding an A-. We did so much with so little I was proud of myself....

Also I hear a lot of budgeting....This is so true....If you take away the rings, we spent about 6000.00 too. The rings thankfully were budgeted for and paid for by January (2 months before the wedding)....So be creative, but BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET....I think that was the best things....

Oh yeah, invest your money in items wisely.....Photographer, videographer, cake(s), planner, reception (Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate), transportation......may be bigger priced items....

Jewelry, flowers, hair, other accessories, favors, decor, etc, is a nice place to be creative and do some cut-backs or do away with certain things-depending on what you all agree on....

An acqaintance told me that for her wedding with 150 guests, she negotiated getting charged per drink instead of per person for X number of hours and that saved tons of money. Basically what happens is that someone such as the bartender uses a clicker to count the number of drinks.

i would have cut back on a few things myself...

no limo

cut down the guestlist- so that i could get a smaller venue

had family cook the food ( as MIL strongly suggested)

i would have also done the fake cake

got married justice of the peace, then have a small reception party,

instead of beer, wine, soda, i should have just had non alcohol because most of my guests bought from the bar anyway.

we could of had DH cousin do the photography, since he was trying to direct the photgraphers anyway and got just about all the same pictures as they did.

i am sure there is more but i cant think of it right now...but am keeping this in mind to plan DH's father's 20th anniversary party in a little under 2 yrs...