Lipstick Lounge

soooo.... does anyone wanna give me $10,000?!

weddings are beyond expensive and it's really starting to stress me out! my fiance' and i are funding our wedding ourselves, and the numbers are making my head spin.

we're already doing little things to cut the cost, like we're having a small wedding cake and then having sheet cakes in the kitchen to bring out for the guests after we cut the cake, and we're having our wedding on a sunday, being an off day people are willing to give you discounts, also we're only having an open beer and wine bar and making liquor a cash. my aunt is a florist and is doing my flowers, she's getting them all wholesale and not charging us any labor or delivery, which is great, but even doing all of these things it's still looking to be over $10,000.

i've suggested to Jarrod that maybe we should hold off for another year to save for it, but he is insistent on it being May 2010. personally, i could do without a wedding. i've never really wanted one, but he really really wants one. so i guess i'm obligated to give him the wedding he's dreamed of since he was a little girl (jk). i am getting pretty into the planning process, music, dresses, cakes... it's kinda fun, but i just don't know how we're going to afford it.

so now on to my point... do any of you have any tip/ideas that can help cut cost and save some money? i really appreciate any advice and ideas you may have!

OH man, weddings are one of those things that you never realize how much they cost until you start planning one. We also were paying for everything ourselves so that was a big factor in why we did a destination wedding. Total cost wound up being about 3k. But that was because neither of us really cared about having the "big wedding" at home. Not the case here. HMmm...

How many people are you having? Since the reception is the biggest cost i would try to keep it as small as possible. Or maybe just have appetizers instead of dinner?

You can have an IPOD DJ and do the music all yourself and have one of your friends in charge, just gotta rent out some equipment. Same thing as a DJ but much cheaper.

Have you found your dress? If not there are lots of affordable options out there and no need to pay 1k for a dress. I got my dream dress for $140 from a store online. Same dress was 900 in some shops i went to.

You can look into new photographers or students if a photographer is too expensive.

Just try to do as many things yourself as you can (favors, decorations, etc.) ANd just remember you dont need EVERYTHING that the industry markets toward you. They sure do try to make you feel like you need everything but in reality you really don't (i've noticed its very similar with the baby industry!).

Sorry if none of this was helpful.

it's going to be around 120 people. bigger than i want, but there is no one that we really want to take out of that number unfortunately. and yes the reception is the majority of the cost. we did discuss only having hors' deourves (or however you spell that!) with the coordinator at the place we're hoping to have it and they said it would actually cost just as much to have hot hors' deourves as it would to have a buffett dinner. we have opted to only have 1 cold hors' deourves and limit the buffett, which is saving us a couple thousand.

i would love the do the IPOD dj thing, but i really don't have anyone i trust enough to do the music unfortunately.

i have found my dress, and it's absolutely perfect. as soon as i put it on i was absolutely in love... it's $700. which is more than i wanted to spend but if i'm having a wedding, this is MY dress.

i love the photographer idea... i'm noticing pictures are going to $1,000+

as for the decorations, i do plan on doing those myself... it's just so hard, i feel like i have no time. with working full time, having Evie, and now planning a wedding, i feel like i'm about to pull my hair out!

thank you SO much for your suggestions!

Our wedding was pretty low key and unconventional, so a lot of things I did won't work for you. But if you need anything for the wedding, I suggest etsy.com (invites, favors, etc) as you can really cut costs there. I was just talking to a woman who got married this summer and she saved a LOT by using indie sellers from Etsy :)

Good luck!