Super Saver!

The
Big Bad Budget photo 1

Yes, it's horrifying. What people want to charge you for anything once you utter the word wedding is riduculous. We have no help from anyone, but I've decided not to let this deter me any longer. Thankfully, I enjoy playing with budgets and working out what I want with limited funds. So, in this section I'll make notes of all the ways I'm planning to keep costs down. =)

DIY List
Stemmed Tea Light Holders: Usually priced around $10 for a set of 3. I got 72 at the Dollar Tree which would have been a savings of $168, except my mom wanted to pay for them at the last minute. Since they were a gift we saved $240.00!
Tables and Chairs: I have to have chivari chairs for the wedding! However, they cost $8.50 per chair to rent. We need 125 chairs! $1,062.50. 12 60' round tables $96. 10 48' round tables for cocktail hour $60. Total is $1,218.50. OUCH! Our venue just happens to offer the use of their 125 chivari chairs, 12 60' rounds, and 10 48' rounds for the low low price of $250. Saving us $968.50.
THE Dress: I fell in love with a dress I can't afford. She's absolutely breath-taking and everything I ever wanted! $5,279! =( I'm looking into have a replica made from dressilyme.com. Their price is $196.69. More to come on this one. Savings of $5,082.31
Linens: We opted to buy our linens instead of renting them. So far we have the cocktail hour linens and the recption table overlays. Still need to order the tablecloths for the reception, but I'll go ahead and list the amount saved thus far. Renting the cocktail table linens would have cost $210.00. I bought them instead for $78.91. Renting the table overlays would have run us $252.00, but we bought them for $74.89. We pocketed $308.20.
Flowers: Ugh, I love flowers! They are so important to me for the wedding! I have some beautiful inspiration, and I talked to a florist that I know about the arrangements I wanted. She said if I was going to hire someone to do them we'd be looking at roughly 3k. 3k?! For flowers?! I almost had a heart attack. So, I decided to go DIY. She gave me a rough estimate of the amount of each flower so I could calculate how many I would need. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could get most of the flowers I wanted from Sam's Club! I LOVE SAM'S CLUB! So the actual total for flowers is, are you ready? $805.43! Savings of $2,194.57
DJ: A very nice man at our church just happens to be in the DJ business with his son. He usually charges $600 for a wedding. He told my mom he would do ours for $350. I was thrilled! And then my mom told me not to worry about paying him, she was going to cover it. GIFT! Which saved us $600.00!
Ceremony Music: I also asked the lady who plays the piano during our church services if I could hire her just to play the song I walk down the aisle to on a keyboard. She said she would be delighted. So, she will play keyboard and my daughter will play violin. I asked my mom how much she thought that was going to cost. I remembered seeing that she charged $150 for weddings somewhere. She told my mom she wouldn't accept any money from me. What a wonderful gift! $150.00.