A wedding is the biggest, most important moment in a couples life (or so it seems at the time). As a recent bride myself, I understand where the term “bridezilla” comes from. For our wedding this past April, my husband and I did a lot of DIY and asked a team of friends to help us in order to cut costs. Here are a few of our tips:
1. Assemble and Print your own Invitations
My husband and I bought card stock and fancy envelopes from paper source and then printed & assembled the invitations ourselves. His parents were kind enough to come over and help us cut & assemble them, so we were able to finish all the invitations in 1 day. Although it took a lot of time, we were able to save more than $1,000. My friends were paying around $1500 for invitations to be printed and designed, but we made ours simple and only spent about $350-$400.
2. Ask a friend or three to help with Flowers
Our April wedding in Los Angeles was during an off-season time so we were able to haggle in downtown LA at the flower mart for a bulk order of flowers. For $300, we got enough flowers for all the bridal party bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, aisle & ceremony decorations, and the welcome table. We had a bridal party of 20 people, so you can imagine how far the flowers went! This was the biggest budget cut we were able to make. We had 2 friends come and help us with the flower centerpieces, then 4 bridesmaids made the bouquets and boutonnieres. Although I did feel bad for putting my friends to work, the financial savings were totally worth it. My friends spent $1500-$3000 on flowers and we only spent $300. With a little sweat and elbow grease, we were able to REALLY save!
3. Have a friend coordinate the day of
I asked one of my closest (non-bridal party) friends to coordinate the day of. There wasn’t a lot to do, but she helped make sure that things started on time, that people were where they should be, and that if a guest or vendor needed to contact someone~ she was the buffer. My friend also helped set up and clean up some of the more important decorations like photos, candy bar, and special reception decor we put out.
4. Find an up and coming photographer
At church I met a wonderful friend while we volunteered in the nursery. She was an up and coming photographer who had started to make it really big when I was getting married. She had great style and her eye for shots and romance was evident in her growing portfolio. Since we had been friends before our wedding, I asked her to be the photographer and she gave us a generous discount for the entire day + 2 engagement shoots. My friend has become so popular in the last two years, that to book her now, she’d be way out of our price range. But since we booked her as she was up and coming…it really saved us a lot of money for professional pictures.
5. Make your own Centerpieces
We had a wine themed wedding and so for 1/2 of the centerpieces, my husband and I spray painted wine bottles (to use as vases), made table numbers out of wine corks, and bought candles and put them in vases. This helped us to reduce the amount of flowers we needed for each table, and much of what we used was nearly free. My friend who had a more rustic wedding, spray painted old books for her centerpieces and used flea market finds as well. This helped her to only need flowers of 1/2 of her tables and gave her wedding reception an original twist.