My friend is getting married and I’ve been invited to her bachelorette party. Her $135 (without hotel) to $250 (including hotel) per person bachelorette party. Plus I am expected to bring a gift. Says so right on the invitation. Is this typical? I’ve been to a few bachelorette parties before, but never been expected to ... Read more →
There are lots of companies that sell “wedding car decorating kits” for upwards of $50. Save your money and do it yourself. Here’s how. What you need: (18) tin cans (saved from soup etc.) lids removed, rinsed (6) 9′-0″ spools of 1/12″ wide ribbon (1) 1/2″ dia. wood dowel Tools: Hammer 1 sharp nail or ... Read more →
This week a wedding vendor told us to be like the cool kids and forget about a wedding budget. Here’s how it went down (approximately). Her: Dear Vendor, how much do you charge? Vendor: MILLIONS of dollars, plus your KIDNEYS!!! Her: Oh dear! We can’t afford that. One of your competitors has offered to charge ... Read more →
We’ve been planning our wedding for over a year now and have found lots of ways to make an inexpensive wedding look expensive. Here are some tips: Buy Secondhand Buying secondhand items is always cheaper than buying them new, and is even sometimes cheaper than renting them! By scouring Craigslist, ebay, and your own local ... Read more →
I bought my wedding gown! I went to the Filene’s Basement Running of the Brides Sale and found my gown for $249 – far less than the original $1,000 price tag! We’ve been using the wedding budget calculator at www.theknot.com to plan our budget, and the calculator allowed $1,500 for my gown (with alterations). My ... Read more →
I went to the Running of the Brides Sale at Filene’s Basement and was really surprised. The sale was completely different than I had anticipated, and I have some tips for making the sale work for you. 1. Don’t be the first in line. The sale stocks over 1,000 gowns and fewer than a hundred ... Read more →
I’ve been using 1000 Best Wedding Bargains as a constant reference for several months now, so I figured it was time to post a book review. I love this book. A good percentage of the ideas are things I never would have thought of on my own. For example, bargain #735 says to ask your ... Read more →
We recently toured the Skyline Ballroom at the Midwest Conference Center to see if it would work for our wedding reception. Their website has very little information so I thought it would be helpful to our readers to post what we learned. Cost According to theknot.com, the Midwest Conference Center is one of the least ... Read more →
It’s easy and inexpensive to brand your wedding with a classy wedding monogram. You can purchase a ready-made design for $50 at Bliss Wedding Market, or you can pocket the cash and design your own. If you’re uninspired, you can check out their selection to get ideas. To make your own is really easy though. ... Read more →
If you’re in the market for bridal gowns, you are probably aware that the Reem Acra and Lorenzo dresses you’ve been drooling over in Bride’s Magazine are shockingly, stupefying overpriced. Who wants to spend $8,000 for one dress??? As my friend said, “That’s like buying a brand new car and driving it straight into a ... Read more →
It is evident that I have made some colossal mistakes in my previous post. Primarily, I made an error in communication. I did not express myself accurately. Re-reading my post now, I see how I have painted myself as a greedy, granny-robbing bridezilla. Wow, was that un-cool. Our readers were right to call me on ... Read more →
EDIT: We know you’d love to just jump right in and leave a scathing comment, but please read our responses to this post as well. Thanks. Read His response. Read Her clarification and response. – This week our wedding budget suffered a huge blow. My parents reduced the amount they are offering to pay for ... Read more →
Last night my fiance uttered the words, “Maybe we’re just not thinking BIG enough for the wedding!” What tipped him to my dark side? Well, this week I bought the new copy of my favorite wedding magazine, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style. I showed him some photos of really big, plush weddings and he loved it! ... Read more →
How do we define the term, “afford”? Is it being able to pay cash up front? Is it being able to make the monthly payments? Is it having to choose between something unaffordable and an impossible alternative? According to www.answers.com: “afford” means to be able to spare or give up So by definition, we can ... Read more →
We had been dating for 7 years when He finally proposed this past Christmas. Our decision of when to get engaged actually had a lot to do with finances. I had been in debt denial, and was insisting that he should take on more debt to buy an engagement ring. He was being more rational, ... Read more →
I like to save money, but I don’t like to look cheap. When decorating, I usually look at the super high end magazines for inspiration, then try to duplicate the results using less expensive products. Last week I saw a wedding reception decor idea I liked a lot. The couple used photo frames to hold ... Read more →
After all the analysis we’ve done, we’ve concluded that while we want to have a honeymoon registry, we don’t want to use the services of a professional honeymoon registry service. He’s quite good at making websites, so our new plan is to attempt to create our own honeymoon registry website in conjunction with our wedding ... Read more →
While I’ve been looking into Honeymoon Registries as a potential consumer of their services, I’ve also been trying to figure out how they make money to stay in business. It appears to me to be quite a profitable business scheme. First, they charge an initial fee to set up a registry. Then, as each registry ... Read more →
When you’re getting excited about your honeymoon and you see a flashy honeymoon registry website, it’s tempting to sign up right away and start planning all the fun stuff you’ll do! Fortunately, I was able to resist temptation long enough to ponder some fishy issues with these websites. What’s interesting is that because the industry ... Read more →
There are lots of variations on how these work, but most follow the same pattern. 1. The couple creates an account on a honeymoon registry website. Setup fees range from free to $150 or more. 2. The couple arranges their honeymoon travel through their own or one of the website’s partner travel agents. The couple ... Read more →
