10 Budgeting Tips for the Frugal Minded :)

[march132010]

Great post my fi calls me the budget police, i watch every penny we spend----- love the ideal of white plates and dollar store sea shells

[heartbeat]

very good post...thanks for all the tips

[A2Bride]

Awesome suggestions!! We too are on a budget, a very tight budget. This is both of our second marriages, thus the reason we wanted a nice little wedding on the beach. We started looking at places that were not all inclusive and the price kept going higher and higher!! We are hoping to keep the costs minimal, with an elegant and beautiful wedding!

[hunniebee724]

Thank you so much for the tips!

[Gr8ful]

GREAT post! I almost -- ALMOST -- bought a $5,000 dress, but I am glad I called my fiance who was the voice of reason I needed to hear! On the drive home, I couldn't even believe that I had even considered buying something so extravagant! So the idea to "not buy the first thing you see" or in my case, walk away from the sale and think about it for a few days (in my case, only a few minutes) to see if you really need it. I am so glad I was able to break away from that emotional moment and make the right decision. I do not want to go into debt for one day -- it will still be amazing no matter what!

True confession -- I still love that dress and think about it, but I had to make a compromise. We are paying for everything, and I would rather have the money for the honeymoon!

[Gr8ful]

PS. Another inexpensive option for invitations that a friend of mine showed me: Costco.com -- search for "wedding invitations" -- hopefully this link will work. I am probably going to use this, and then do something fancier for table / escort cards.

Costco - Wedding Invitations & Accessories 25% Off or More

[KristieF]

This post is amazing - thanks so much for the tips!!! I was also starting to feel overwhelmed and a bit cheap after seeing and reading about how much others were spending on their weddings. I don't want to go into debt just for one day! I did spend more on my dress than I originally wanted to, but hopefully I can make up for this with some of these tips going forward. Thanks ladies

[courtney_b00]

I can not say thank you enough....I am looking for as many ways to save as possible--which does not mean we are being cheap, we are being smart!!! Love all the ideas

[NaM]

Something that helped me out a lot....

I bought my dress in Janurary when the bridal shop was having an end of season sale to get rid of all of the 08 dresses and make room for the 09 collections. Every dress in the store was 30% off and I didn't have to pay any taxes for ordering that day and paying cash (I only paid 1/2 that day for the deposit...the other half I'll pay when it comes in).

I got my beautiful Maggies Sottero is under $500! Score!!!

Thanks for all the great tips. It's so easy to get cuaght up in everything weddings and want to go all out. Our budget definitely helps me remember it's about us and our marriage and the people who will be there celebrating with us...no matter how much I spend on decorations and extras.

[holstang]

Love this thread! Another great idea for saving $$$ is if you need something, but need to place a larger order than you need- go in with other brides! I did this with my travel mugs (I needed to order a minimum of 44 (only needed 25), so before ordering, I posted a message seeing if any other brides wanted to go in with me. I was lucky to find another DW bride that was interested, and managed to get what we were both looking for and we split the shipping!