Trying to keep my wedding costs down, I've got several do-it-yourself projects. A good friend of mine suggested that we make the boutonnieres and corsages rather than pay a florist - that project is for a later Frugal Friday when I can post pictures of how great they turned out. I'm making my own veil. Kits are $15 at Hobby Lobby. The fancy veils you buy at the bridal store run around $100. If I mess up the kit, for $15 I can scrap it and go a different direction.
Another project I'm looking forward to is making the cake topper. I saw the idea on ebay and plan on recreating the idea myself. This weekend (after my first gown fitting tomorrow morning) I'm heading to the craft store to pick up my veil kit as well as some letters and paint. Mr. Right purchased some sponge brushes to paint the tiny trim areas of the house, so I'll just steal one of those for my project. And I'll make his project figuring out how to stick the letters into the cake.
My to do list:
purchase/make veil
1st dress fitting (not at all frugal)
purchase/make cake topper
start thank you notes (after Sunday's shower)
Hey thanks for visiting my blog. We did our wedding for so keep. It took a lot of prayer and we asked lots of people from our churches to help us out. There was one lady who caters so she did our supper for the cost of food. It was great because we bought things through out the summer that were on sale. We feed 150 people a turkey supper for $240!!! For the cake we did carrot cake cup cakes with cream cheese frosting ($140 for 150 cup cakes) for the flowers we just had mine and our brides maids. Hubby didn't want to wear a flower so that saved big time ($75). We made our own center pieces with pots from the dollar store and fake sunflowers from there to ($30). If you know other people who have stuff you can borrow that helps. A friend of my moms got married the month before us so we borrowed all the tool and white lights that she had bought.
ReplyDeleteOh I could go on and on about how I saved money but I wanted to write to say a cheap thing we did for the thank you cards was we printed off a nice picture of us (an engagement picture or for after the wedding a wedding picture) then we sent those as thank yous. It was much cheaper!! as each picture is about 0.12 cents, I also bought some nice writing paper for $2.
I found your blog from your Frugal Friday post. I think it's great that you are able to do a lot of your wedding stuff on your own. You can make it personal while saving tons of money. I plan on doing most, if not all of mine too. I look forward to your posts with pictures of the flowers.
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
You are busy!
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks for visiting my blog. Ah, wedding planning. I've been married for 7 years now, but the memories of planning our wedding are still fresh in my mind. We made some of the stuff for our reception. We purchased mirrored tiles at Home Depot and placed candles in dollar store candle holders on top. We made our own confetti by purchasing silver tissue paper and cutting it with heart-shaped paper punches. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by my blog!
ReplyDeleteThose are great ideas. I could go on and on about the many ways we saved money doing our wedding, and we just loved it. The best part is that some of the DIY things we did largely to save money have become things we liked best and continue to enjoy - like doing the flowers for the important people ourselves (nice silk ones). We still have them, and made a wreath with them together for our (still poor) first anniversary. It's my favorite thing in our bedroom.
Anyway, have a great time. Weddings are so much fun!
Jennifer
Hey, thanks for stopping by! Sounds like you're really busy with all your planning. One thing we did (not really do it yourself, but we really liked the result) was to buy a book that we really liked & could use as a normal coffee table book, then had people sign that as our guest book. That way you get a nice decoration & your guest book (if you want one) all in one!
ReplyDeleteI think it's great you are doing a do-it-yourself. You know, people drop so much money into these things and for what?
ReplyDeleteI think (in my humble opinion) the places to splurge are:
dress
photographer
-Because you want to look beautiful and you want memories of your big day!!!
I think the places you can cut corners are:
food (you don't have to serve a 7 course meal)
flowers
invites, thank you cards, etc.
We made our own invitations and programs. My hubby did the graphic designing on them and we had them printed through a lab. Then we just got some envelopes at Office Depot and I addressed everything.
As for our flowers - we went all silk. We got married the day after Valentine's Day and there was not a fresh flower to be seen anywhere. I was a little worried people would make fun of me (I come from a very small town with lots of snooty people) but everything looked wonderful and to this day I'm glad we (and my parents) didn't shuck out a ton of money for something that wouldn't last.
I'm going to post some pics of invites my hubby has done (you've inspired me!). Come check them out later!
Thanks for checking out my Frugal Friday...
ReplyDeleteWe did so much of our own wedding stuff too. Flowers, food, cake, bridesmaid's dresses, flowergirl dresses,...
It's well worth it in the end when you don't go into full debt for one day. But enjoy it. It goes by so fast.
I don't know what your cake plans are, but we had ours made at our local grocery store, and it was PERFECT! It was so much less expensive than going to a bakery.
ReplyDeleteYay! We did SO much ourselves and with the help of friends and family Here is a small sampling:
ReplyDelete- mom made my veil, sash and train on my dress (I bought an expensive, basic, no frills dress for $200, alterations were $50 and material for train/sash was $15)
- uncle DJ's, aunt photographed
- friend did hair/make-up, friends did all the music (singing, guitar, piano)
- made favors (white chocolate covered Oreos in cellophane bags, tied with ribbon)
- Did all of own flowers ($300 from globalrose.com for 200 roses, 150 spray roses and 150 mini carnations)
- did all centerpieces (flowers in free vases, candles (candle holders borrowed from our church) and flower confetti)
- did own drinks (big glass jugs of lemonaid, water, iced tea)
- borrowed SO much! Candle holders, flower girl basket, tulle, white lights, fake greens, etc. Luckily mom had a friend that has had 3 daugthers get married recently so we used a ton of their leftovers (white cocktail napkins, bubbles, cake plates, forks, punch cups, etc)
Really never be afraid to ask for help, my friends were amazing, they helped address invitiations, decorate, etc.
Great ideas! I made my own "toss bouquet" from things from Hobby Lobby. I probably could have just tossed my real one, but I thought I wanted to preserve it. Well, the dang thing got tucked into a plastic sack and withered away :(
ReplyDeleteI got my veil on eBay but I think one from Hobby Lobby might have been even nicer.
Best wishes with your plans!