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Budget Tips from Some of BSB's Favorite Wedding Bloggers!

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Learn savvy secrets from wedding bloggers who share their budget wedding tips and advice based on their own experiences!

Jessica Bishop Headshot

Happy Friday, friends! Today I have a fun little feature for you! I asked some of my wedding blogger friends a few questions about their own weddings and how they were budget savvy in their planning! I thought this would be a fun way to introduce some other blogs to you and share some fun tips as well! Not all of these bloggers had what you would consider a ‘budget wedding’ by any means, but I believe they all have some valuable advice to share! So without further ado, take it away ladies!

Megan of Glamour & Grace

August 1, 2009 | $25,000 | 100 guests

In what ways were you ‘budget savvy’ in your own wedding planning?

I had a vision from the get-go and knew exactly what I wanted. I come from a family of crafty women, so it was easy to take on some DIY elements for the wedding. I designed and printed all of my own paper goods for the wedding: programs, escorts, menus. We saved on favors by having a dessert bar and then had little take-home boxes for everyone to take some home. We had the ceremony decor do double duty and reused them as centerpieces at the reception. I also had a friend DJ for us as a trade I took some headshots for him.

What’s your best budget-saving advice for brides?

The best advice I have for the bride on the budget is to pick your top 3 priorities, allot the bulk of your spending to those, and then skim and save on the rest. For us, we wanted amazing photography, a gorgeous location, and yummy food, so most of the budget went to those things. The rest I either DIY’ed went with cheaper options, or did trades. A wedding doesn’t have to be expensive, it all depends on your style and expectation of what you want it to be. The biggest tip to cut costs: fewer people. The fewer guests, the less food, favors, centerpieces, etc to spend on and you get a chance to have more intimate memories with those you hold dearest.


sara-burnettsboards

Sara of Burnett’s Boards

October 8, 2010 | $40,000 | 75 guests

In what ways were you ‘budget savvy’ in your own wedding planning?

The most important thing to us at our wedding was the people who were there. We live in Hawaii so it was a destination wedding for about half of the people who came. With that in mind, I saved on my dress and a lot of the decor in order to fund a few flights out here and to host several before and after events for our out-of-town guests. The week before the wedding we had a BBQ at a beach house we rented, spent a day with the out of towners kayaking to another little offshore island, and rented out a hotel bar on the beach for a meet and greet cocktail evening. It was great because then at the wedding everyone was really friendly with each other. The day after the wedding we chartered a catamaran and we all went sailing and snorkeling. I am really glad we saved on the decor and my dress because for the five days of celebrating that we did with our closest friends and family – we wouldn’t trade it for the world. We still get phone calls and emails from loved ones telling us that their ‘Hawaii vacation’ was the best ever.

What’s your best budget-saving advice for brides?

Prioritize. Figure out exactly what is most important to you and your fiancé and that’s where the majority of your budget should go.


cris-kissmytulle

Cris of Kiss My Tulle

July 22, 2011   |  $100.00  |  50 guests (Alaska)
May 26, 2012  |  $5,000  |  75 (Texas)
 

In what ways were you ‘budget-savvy’ in your own wedding planning?

For our Alaska wedding, it was a quickly planned job so we only had time to invite people via a phone tree + Facebook announcements. The reception was a potluck (I made a tiny wedding cake to cut) and all the little DIYs we did were literally from scraps and trash we found around my sister’s house. I also wore a dress from my closet and we bought the flowers for our bouquets from the supermarket floral section. The most expensive bit? Our marriage application and license fees. For our Texas wedding, I was a freaking DEAL machine. I bought all our flowers from the supermarket floral section + a local wildflower farm for under $200. My dress and veil were FREE from other brides. My centerpiece containers were old cans that we spray painted and we constructed our own reception tables form free pallets. We used an iPod and our Bose speakers for the music and catered our own wedding buffet. But the best, most striking, and crazy affordable thing? A huge fabric backdrop for our ceremony location.

What’s your best budget-saving advice for brides?

Give yourself time to look for deals. When you see something pretty on a blog, always ask yourself “can I make that/buy that for less money?”. Don’t spend money on anything you don’t care about or need. Look to cut out the middle man – go direct to the wholesaler. Borrow anything you can! Remember, some things are ultimately cheaper to buy the donate for a write-off than to rent.


Lauren Grove - Every Last Detail

Lauren of Every Last Detail

May 23, 2009 | $25,000  |  200 guests 

In what ways were you ‘budget savvy’ in your own wedding planning?

I’ll be the first to admit that I most definitely went over the budget that was established for my wedding. After everything was said and done, all the sources that I turned to on the web just didn’t provide enough information for us to budget correctly. However, I did still attempt to be “budget savvy” when it came to a few items. 

  1. Guest List Cut. At first, we had about 300 people on our guest list. My husband and I were engaged for a little less than a year and half, and let me tell you- a lot can happen in that amount of time! We made some conscious guest list cuts several times throughout our wedding planning. When we realized that the more guests we had, the more we would have to spend, we quickly removed the people that we hadn’t seen or talked to in over a month. It was a lot easier to put things into perspective- we only wanted to have people at our wedding who would enjoy the memory of our day. 🙂
  2. DIY Details. I didn’t necessarily DIY my details because I wanted to… more like because I forgot about them. However, it was still fun to do, despite me staying up until 2am the night before the wedding to finish them! I created tented table numbers for every table and also did the menus. Because I didn’t have custom invitations made, it was pretty much my only option to do them myself.
  3. Dividing Favors. Instead of providing one favor for every guest, we decided to give them to each couple instead. This cut the number of favors in half, and thus cut the cost of what we had to spend too! 

What’s your best budget-saving advice for brides?

My best budget-saving advice for brides is to hire professionals where you can. More times than not, a professional will end up saving you money- you just don’t realize it at the time. All those things you buy– they most definitely add up! And also, keep things small. The more guests you have, the more you have to spend! 


Stephanie of Fab You Bliss

December 29, 2007 | $15,000 budget  |  90 guests
 

In what ways were you ‘budget savvy’ in your own wedding planning?

  •  We had the ceremony and reception at my aunt and uncle’s estate in Pasadena, CA which saved us thousands in venue rental fees.
  •  Even though I really wanted to get married on New Year’s Eve, the cost of everything that we did pay for, (catering, tent rental, music, and transportation), would have been double in price if we had it on NYE. So we opted to have the wedding a few days before which saved us thousands as well.
  • Because my aunt and uncle’s property was so beautiful, we opted to have just a few flowers decorate the ceremony area and let the beauty of the venue itself be a highlight.
  • I made all of the escort cards and programs myself.
  • We opted for cupcakes instead of a cake.
  • We chose a DJ instead of a band.
  • We had a dear friend be the person to marry us.

What’s your best budget-saving advice for brides?

My best advice to brides trying to save money is don’t buy into feeling like you “have” to do something with your wedding because you think people will be expecting it or because it’s what everyone else has done. This is your wedding and you should do whatever you want to do.


Jessica Bishop Headshot

Jessica Bishop is the founder of TheBudgetSavvyBride.com, and has worked in various areas and roles within the wedding industry since 2007. She is the author of the best-selling book,The Budget-Savvy Wedding Planner & Organizer and also hosts The Bouquet Toss Wedding Planning Podcast. Jessica's expert wedding advice and savvy savings tips have been featured by Good Morning America, COSMOPOLITAN, Glamour, and more.