I'm so excited to have Dana from Spokane Bride Blog here to guest post for me while I get my home put together. Let me tell you, weddings are fun, but the boxes and boxes of wedding decor and gifts and such that pile up in your living room while you're on your honeymoon? Not so fun.
Anyway, Dana is just an amazing person, and she's pretty wedding savvy! She planned her whole wedding in 3 months for $3500. She deserves some serious props. I'm also pretty sure that this is the wise woman who told me that bed sheets make perfect tablecloths. That's the truth.
Hello lovelies! Dana here from Spokane Bride Blog! So honored to be guest posting for Lindsie while she is enjoying her first few days of wedded bliss.
I'd like to share with you three essential mindsets that helped my fiance and I save big bucks on our own wedding in 2007. With a budget of $3500, we managed to pull together a beautiful country-themed wedding AND in a matter of only three months.
1. Be flexible: Simply being flexible can help you save a lot of money when you're planning your big day. When it came down to a choice between a pot-luck meal or no meal at all, Ryan and I decided on a compromise: a buffet centered around supermarket fried chicken. Well, why not?
We were getting married on a farm and having our reception in a barn and my family is from Louisiana. What could be more fitting? By using beautiful serving ware and adding our own version of the Olive Garden green salad, several potato salads and rolls, sweet tea and huckleberry lemonade, we fed our 170 guests for just $2.35 per person.
Although supermarket fried chicken hadn't EVER been a part of my dream wedding, being flexible helped me embrace the casual setting and made it the perfect thing to serve our guests.
2. Think outside the box: At over $400, renting seating for our ceremony and reception was going to be a much larger expense than we realized. We brainstormed and decided on hay bales purchased on Craigslist for $200. They were absolutely perfect for our barn wedding and the owners of the farm were thrilled to keep and use the hay after the wedding.
Considering your alternatives is a great way to bring down costs. Purchasing my wedding gown is another good example. After looking at every single dress and trying on quite a few, I found my gown in a back sales room of the boutique. It was four sizes too big. My dress-maker worked sheer magic, and she had it fitting me like a glove in no time. The gown plus alterations came out at under $200.
3. No shame: Some of the best advice I've ever received is: 'Don't ever be afraid to ask! The worst they can do is say no.' I'd always wanted to get married in a barn on Green Bluff [north of Spokane], but the cost was just too much for us and there weren't many options available only three months in advance.
So, while taking a drive, my mom and I stopped at a farm (not a wedding venue, mind you) and simply asked the owners how they would feel about hosting a wedding. They chatted and quoted us a price of $500! SOLD!
As another example, I asked a neighbor for a few cuttings from her overgrown snowball bush for my floral arrangements. She was about to have the whole thing pulled out, so that paid off in several five gallon buckets full of huge white snowball blooms for my reception tables and bouquets. The moral? Swallow that pride because it really never hurts to ask!
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