A Whirlwind Wedding: A Penny or Two

Welcome to the first blog post of my new weekly series: A Whirlwind Wedding! When I was engaged I absolutely LOVED wedding planning!!! Which came as no surprise to me...since I am quite the planner! I couldn't live without my planner and constantly am making lists...been doing this since I was young :) I got engaged June 2007...June 29th, 2007 to be exact...and our wedding day was June 6th, 2008. I had a whole YEAR to plan and it was amazing. I enjoyed every moment. Yes, at times it was hard...because it seemed so far away and I wanted to marry my Jameson SO bad. But most the time, it was so much fun! I loved having plenty of time to plan and not be stressed. Key word: no stress. I remember only being "stressed" out from wedding planning 2 times. One of them being with our guest list was totaling over 400 and I knew we couldn't have that many people there! So we cut it down to 350 ;) Looking back I realized I learned quite a few things during my time planning. And since I AM a wedding photographer...who interacts with A LOT of brides, I figure I may have some useful tips and info to pass along :)

Most all brides have a budget. Weddings can become VERY expensive and having a budget helps keep things in line and helps you to not go in debt, lol! Along with being a "planner", I LOVE to work with money & do the budget. So although this part can be stressful for most, I enjoyed it. Sticking to the budget was a fun challenge to me. Regardless if you're like me or not, or whatever your wedding budget, I'm sure we all love to save money where we can. I learned a few things that did help me save a few pennies here and there! Below are a few suggestions I have :)

1. Get married on a friday or sunday. I know most of you brides will plan your wedding for a saturday. After all, it is the most common day to have a wedding. And with good reason. Most people have saturday's off. Off of work, off of school. Time to go to events, like weddings :) Almost all venues will charge $1,000 or more to get married on a saturday! And their prices will be dramatically reduced for a off day, like a friday or sunday. I got married at the Palms here in Chico on a friday, with the cost being $2500, opposed to the normal price tag of $3500 on a saturday. That's quite a savings if you ask me! I know people worry about guests being able to attend when say your wedding is on a friday, but if during the summer and if everyone is giving plenty of notice, it really shouldn't be an issue. We had around 75% of our invited quests attend our wedding on a friday :) I think that is pretty comparable to a saturday wedding.

Photo Credit: Rewind Photography

2. Purchase your flowers from a Grocery store florist department. Okay, I know a lot of you might be thinking...flowers from a grocery store...yuck! This is not always the case. I bought all my flowers from Safeway here in Chico. All my centerpieces, bouquets, ceremony flowers and more were from there and they turned out AMAZING. I had gorgeous tall centerpieces for all 30+ tables and they made the reception look gorgeous! Buying them at a grocery store will save you 1/2 the cost of a normal florist. All grocery store florists may not specialize in wedding flowers, so my advice to you is to do your research! Ask to see photos of past weddings they've done, talk to people who've had their flowers done there before, etc.

Photo Credit: Rewind Photography

3. Purchase instead of rent the groomsmen shirts and only rent the vests & pants. Now this is something I did not do, but wish I would have! A couple of our good friends who got married a couple years ago did this and I thought it was a GREAT idea. And the guys looked great!!! They purchased the shirts at Kohls here in town and rented the vests & pants together for around $40. That way they still looked a little more formal and "put together", but didn't drop $150+ on a tuxedo rental. Not only do you save money this way, your groomsmen will have a more unique look AND since they purchased their pants and shirts they get to keep them for later and actually wear them again!!!

Photo Credit: Rewind Photography

 Don't they look great!!!??

So those are three creative ways to save a penny or two on your wedding! I'm sure I have more...but it's past 2am and I'm shooting a wedding later today and MUST go to bed! Look out for next week's blog post on ways you SHOULDN'T try to save money for your wedding ;)

Katelyn :)