Friday, August 7, 2009

Making your own wedding invitations

Okay, I thought that this was going to be be a cheap idea, but it has cost a fortune. First I bought a Cuttlebug to emboss pages, and that was ninety-nine dollars, but I had a fifty percent off coupon from Michaels, but then I bought shiny paper, probably ten dollars worth, two blank invitation kits, thirty-two dollars, and I didn't end up using the envelopes, two packages of vellum paper for the insides, twenty-four dollars, thirty-two dollars worth of little pearl stickers, thirteen dollars for some floral business cards to put on the inside with additional wedding information, like an email address and a phone number to eliminate the costs of adding additional stamps to the R.S.V.P. cards, thirteen dollars for some vellum tape, two flower punches, thirteen dollars, a new printer for twenty dollars, two glue pens for eight dollars..whoah, I am afraid to total this up....yikes. I know I must be missing something...twenty-five dollars for additional envelopes that were the right size. So that brings us to $273.60!!!!!! It would have been so much cheaper to just buy little cheap invitation kits from Walmart! I think that they are around five dollars for ten of them or something. Or it would have been cheaper to just order them from an actual invitation place. Not to mention that I have been wasting a good part of my last two weeks making them.

On a brighter note, I bought my thank you cards for eight dollars for a package of sixteen, for a total of $54.65. Well they are not finished yet, either, as I have to print out little 2 by 3 inch photos of Mark and I to put on the front. They are certainly cute, and I bought them at Staples. I will definitely post pictures of them, when I figure out how to work my new camera.

So were either of these smart economical choices...nope..and I have definitely gone over budget on them for sure...blown the budget...blown the budget. I will have to cut back on something else to make up for it.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Disapproving friends

Imagine my shock and dismay, when one of my friends, upon hearing of one of my money saving ideas, said, "Why don't you just save up your money, and do it right next year?" How can anyone else decide what is right for me? What is right for me, is not spending money that I don't have.

Hmmm....will she get axed off the guest list...not sure yet.

Well, I do need to trim that guest list a bit, as my mother keeps adding her friends' names to the list. I was so angry with her. I said, "Mom, I keep axing my friends' names off the list so that you can add yours??????? Unfortunately, by adding their names to the list, it means that I also add, an additional ten people, who are closely associated with the first couple.

I wouldn't have to be so careful when constructing my guest list, but I have decided not to hire a wedding tent for our outdoor wedding. I have decided to do a lot of praying instead, for sunny weather. Please help me in this. I was all for the idea, of hiring a tent, until I discovered that it was fourteen hundred dollars. So I am currently having a dilemna about how I can possibly fit 80 people in my house in the case of rain.

My friend told me that in town where she grew up that, Catholics would hang their rosary beads on their clothesline the day before a local wedding, in order to help bring about sunshine for the duration of the wedding ceremony. Anyone know any Catholics?

How to get a good deal on a great wedding photographer (cont.)

I forgot to mention that I copied and pasted a few pictures of wedding pictures that really caught my eye, on facebook in a folder, and asked my photographer to be my friend, so that he could get an idea of the style of wedding photos, that I was looking for.

How to get a good deal on a great wedding photographer

I decided to get married on a Friday instead of a Saturday, just to save on the cost of a wedding photographer. I basically scanned a local bargain hunting online site, for wedding photographers, and did online interviews to find out how flexible they were in terms of what they would allow me to suggest, asked for pictures of their work, and what they would include in a smaller wedding package than was advertised on their site, etc. My partner made a spreadsheet so we could easily compare wedding packages. I really lucked out here, because I could have ended up with a dud without asking for references. We had our engagement photos done last night, and they turned out absolutely beautifully. He spent an hour and a half with us on a local beach and had the proofs for us to pick up this morning. The cost for the engagement session was fifty dollars. He dropped his rate from twelve hundred dollars to four hundred dollars because it was not a Saturday!!!! And that included the engagement session. He took two hundred and sisty-seven shots on the beach.

We were extremely pleased with his work, and look forward to the actual wedding day to see what kind of photos he comes up with then. Just remember, it never hurts to ask if someone can cut you a deal or offer you a smaller wedding package.

I will see if I can somehow manage to post one of them for you to see.

Planning a budget wedding

I started planning my wedding two weeks ago. It will take place in one month. No, it isn't a shot gun wedding, in the traditional sense, but more "a shotgun will be required if you don't soon marry me." Just kidding. We have been together for eight years, and we have lived together for seven.

Between us we have three children; they all need braces, and we haven't started saving for their education as yet, so planning a beautiful, fairytale wedding just isn't in the cards for us. My budget is very limited, and I am hoping to do it for under 3000. I am right on target, however, my original budget, was about 50o dollars, so I have had to readjust several times.

Of course, it is best to keep your budget ideas a secret from your family and friends, before they throw their 'two cents' worth in and rain on your parade. I am a strong believer of doing what you can afford. We have a big, beautiful house, but we are basically 'house poor'. Even if I did have a lot of money, however, I would still choose to do my wedding economically. Doing an economical wedding, however, could possibly offend some people, as they might consider it tacky or lacking in etiquette, but spending a very large downpayment on a house for a one day event just does not make sense in these poor economical times. You have to create a balance between the two. In this blog, I am going to attempt to share with you some of the cost-saving ideas that I have come up with for my wedding, in hopes that it might help someone, save a better downpayment for a real house. Most of my ideas, however, came from some very thrifty friends, and I thank them for helping me out with my wedding.