Leave your best wedding advice below! xoxo --- More --- FOLLOW ME kaylee_darigan Camera: Canon 70D Editing: Adobe Premiere Intro/Outro: Adobe After Effects
As a professional florist with 18+ years experience doing wedding florals I can give you some insight on floral pricing. I have done thousands of weddings with floral budgets from $100 all the way up to $25,000. Here are a couple things to remember: 1. Pinterest is a double edge sword. It is both your best friend and worst enemy. That sweet perfect little hand tied bouquet that you love so much? Try 30 stems of Lily of the Valley at approximately $15 per stem... 2. Industry standard mark up for weddings is 40%. Most florists will charge somewhere between 25-50% based on how easy or difficult you are to work with, the geographic region in which you are getting married, the size of your wedding floral budget, and a few other reasons. For example, florists in Cape Cod will charge way more than in Phoenix, Arizona.. 3. Think about the flowers you are selecting, and the time of year you are needing them. Will they be in season? Will they have to be imported from another country for your wedding? Sure, you can have peonies in August, but you are going to pay dearly for them. 4. Ask yourself this question- What is more important to me- the specific flowers I want, or the specific colors I want. If you are specific on the flowers that you want, the pricing will be pretty straightforward. But, if you are more interested in the colors of your bouquet - your florist can offer lots of suggestions of flowers that come in that color range, and often times those other flowers tend to be cheaper and more readily available. 5. Most people think that silk flowers are going to be cheaper. Sometimes that can be the case, but rarely. The world of silk flowers can vary from dollar store quality, all the way through botanically correct - can't tell it from the real thing. Dollar store quality is just that, while flowers from Michaels and Hobby Lobby run on the cheap end of mid-grade. High quality silks are often 3-5 times the cost of real flowers. Suppose you buy all these silks, do you or someone you know have the necessary skills to make the arrangements you want, and have them look appropriate? 6. Telling a florist that you need some bouquets, and some centerpieces... and maybe some corsages and boutonnieres.. But not telling them it is for a wedding in hopes that they do not charge you more will only result in you looking foolish. We know when something is for a wedding even if we let you think you got one over on us. 7. Be open with your florist regarding budget. Talk with them at length about what arrangements can pull double duty, ways to trim the budget in one place to allow for a splurge somewhere else, and above all else, KEEP AN OPEN MIND. Brides who come in to a flower shop completely set on exactly what they want will often pay more because they refuse to budge, or listen to other ideas. Contrary to popular thought, florists are not out to screw over their clients. We want to make your day as amazing as you picture it - and within your budget! Last but not least... 8. DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO "PACKAGES"!!!!! I don't know exactly when these started, but they are horrific! The only time these are any good is if you are having a cookie cutter wedding.. Why get roped into a package where you run the possibility of paying for flowers you do not need, just because it has the number of bridesmaids bouquets or boutonnieres you need? Your wedding is as personal as you are, and no "package" will ever be able to fill all of your needs. I know this was super windy and I apologize. There are so many more things that go into floral pricing, and I would love to share them all, but I shortened the list to these major points just for the sake of your comment feed. lol. If you have any questions, or any ideas you would like to bounce off of someone who does not have a stake in your wedding - let me know, I would be willing to help.
Do you have any suggestions on where to purchase greenery garlands? I'd like these running my reception tables, but I cannot find it anywhere besides Costco (real). The fake stuff looks sketchy in person, I would prefer real, but open to suggestions.
@@RCP511 call around to some of your local floral wholesalers. Ask if they sell to the public. They may be able special order garlands for you, in any length you need. If not, garlands are fairly simple to make, you just need tons of the greenery you want, and if you are crafty in the slightest- they go together fairly quickly. Theres tons of CZcams videos on it.
I helped my cousin plan her wedding (since we're both giant nerds lol) word of the wise, don't mention "wedding" if you don't have to! A LOT of company's make anything "wedding" related at least 10% more than it would be regular!
I do Me too not necessarily. The only time my cousin mentioned it was a wedding was the venue, catering, and the photographer (and probably a couple more things, but I wasn’t always around when she did things lol). She did cupcakes instead of a cake, and her 100 or so cupcakes were just $2 each whereas the same place had a wedding package that was around $400 or so just for a base of 80 or so cupcakes. She and her fam saved over $2000 from just not mentioning “wedding” of it wasn’t needed
Two bits of advice from the old married broad. 1) Things are going to to wrong on your wedding day. They aren't necessarily disasters, but you'll forget something, or someone will experience heat exhaustion, etc. Appoint a small team of three people to handle those issues and remember that all you really need are the two of you, the officiant, the paperwork, and two witnesses. The rest is really nice, but ultimately it's just fluff. 2) Don't put too much pressure on yourselves about your wedding night. You're going to be a weird mix of mentally overstimulated and physically exhausted. This is not a great set up for a night of romance. We went back to our apartment, opened cards, and ate a lovely 4th meal of Taco Bell before falling asleep on the couch. We waited until the next day to officially start our honeymoon and it was great. Wishing you the very best for your future.
Yup something always goes wrong & we didn't have any interest to play either, we enjoyed the hot tub & fireplace in our room then slept (best bed ever, was like a cloud).
If you don’t have a wedding coordinator, pick someone (not in the wedding party) to be your day-of person. Give them a binder or folder with allll of the info for the day-the contact numbers, schedule, etc-and let everyone know that they will go to that person if they have questions. That way no one comes to you and issues can be solved before you even know about it. This made our day SO stress-free and everything was incredibly smooth. It was perfect. That was the best advice I got and I pass it on to everyone. (:
I 100% agree with this! I just got married this April in NC and had a wedding planner throughout the entire year and half planning process but I understand not everyone wants/can afford that. If you don't choose a planner from the beginning, a day of coordinator is an absolute must have. Some venues include a coordinator but be careful because they may only handle pointing the vendors in the direction of where they need to be. You need someone who will also be there for you, the wedding party, and to help make any last minute decisions. Also, as a side note, if you have any make up you may need to re-apply or touch up during the event and no one to hold it for you, see if the main photographer will hold it in there bag. Mine offered this without me asking and it was a godsend because she ended up being one of the closest people to me for the majority of the night.
Best advice I can give: think of the one or two things that matter the most to you regarding the wedding and shell out the money there.. for the other things that don't matter as much, find ways to cut corners or simplify them. For example: if you really want a certain photographer but they are super expensive you can save money on maybe the centerpieces if you really don't care about them by getting vases or fake flower etc at WalMart or Hobby Lobby. Another tip is finding vendors that are young/new to the business. They usually charge less because they are just getting started, but usually they do a fantastic job as you're wedding will be one of their only gigs and they'll want to showcase that work going forward to advertise for other clients.. I had a new bakery in town do my wedding cake and they did an outstanding job because they wanted to show everyone what they could do.. Good luck to you!
I do not agree with you with new vendors. What happens to the people who have busted their butt in such a hard industry to have someone come in and under cut everything they do. I have seen it all the time where people swoop in and swoop out so what they cost more it is because they know how much it costs to wash/clean and set everything up.
I was a wedding planner, and can tell you the gourmet grocery stores sometimes have catering attached to them and some offer servers and bartenders with only a required time of 4 hrs. Most will deliver for free with a $25 setup fee and there normally is a 15%-17% service fee. They can even help you with wedding cakes, flowers, linens, ect. It can be half the price but June is a horrible month due to graduation parties.
We’re actually getting married in August! I canned the June idea haha, wayyy too busy for weddings, graduations etc. I will definitely look into grocery stores for our cake! We want a super simple one tier to cut and then we want to do donut towers 😊
I'm a wedding photographer and after attending 100s of weddings: do not skimp on a DJ! A good DJ really makes or breaks the reception! You need a DJ that can read the room, knows what to play and when, and has some recent music, too. Worked a wedding recently and the DJ played 4 slow songs in a row to open up the dance floor and it was.. bad. Dance floor stayed empty the whole night cause he was so bad and everyone left early because it just wasn't fun!
This is so true!, when we got married, we made a priority list keeping in mind what we liked and didn't from every single wedding we've been to, and our top 3 and non-negotiable ones were food, beverages, and music. We've been to a number of weddings where the bride and groom spent thousands in decorations but had either not enough or not good food. At one, we even had to leave after dancing had started, to take a bite near there and came back to keep celebrating with them, but believe me, the only reason we came back was that the bride was a good friend of us
Reception advice - definitely have a designated person make a plate of food for you and your husband away from everyone or don’t expect to eat because people will be coming up to you left right and center to congratulate you and it can be extremely overwhelming! I think I had one bite of food at my wedding and only cake for the pictures 😔
Yes!!, we had an amazing caterer that had a separate server for us (kind of shadowing us with water glasses, and took some entrees to the car for us to have before entering the venue) and made us a package for us to eat afterwards just in case we hadn't had the chance
I have a friend who approached a local Art school that did a photography course to enquire whether any of their students wanted to take her wedding photos at a discounted cost. She eventually got in contact with a girl with whom she agreed a joint tradition/artsy project at a really good rate. She got the photos she wanted with her family and friends and the girl got various photos my friend agreed to do for a project the girl was able to submit for a grade, plus the money she earned helped towards her loan. I doubt its something everyone could do - my friend rather got lucky with this. But the point is sometimes the creative solutions pay off and she got amazing photos for half the price she was being quoted.
Every week Michael's has a 50% off coupon you can download. We did that for SO much! It really helped! The centerpiece decorations, ivy on the arch and even the invites and a few other things. It helped keep us in budget.
I got married recently and oh my it was stressful. We had the smallest, most intimate, possibly ideal situation and it was still stressful. My #1 piece of advise is, don’t let anyone get in your guys’ business unless you want them to be all the way in your business. Be very careful and firm with you and your husband-to-be’s boundaries both with each other and with your family/friends. You will be marrying into his family and honestly sometimes that’s the most stressful part even if they’re wonderful people. Then again I’m not the most diplomatic person so it may be no problem for you but still, something to chew on.
I highly suggest you look up Jamie Wolfer here on youtube. She has so many videos about weddings (she's a wedding planner) but ive learned so much from her, all the topics you touched I already knew about from seeing her videos. She has many tips on how to budget, planning, diy's etc. Her videos are very informative. And congrats on your engament!!
I second Jamie Wolfer 100%. I am in the process of planning our May 2020 wedding and have actually reached out to her. We actually have a phone consultation scheduled for today 😄 Her content is great and everything she has uploaded, even her behind the scenes videos are extremely helpful!
I had a very dear friend who worked for a florist, he did all of my flowers. We chose to do silk flowers for literally everything except the bridal bouquet. I did a lot of the decorating myself with my family and friends to cut down on cost. There were, of course, things we chose to splurge on but my budget was tight and we made very excellent decisions that I don't regret regarding photographer, etc. Depending on your bridal party size one of the best decisions I made was the bridesmaids dresses. They were mix/match skirts and tops that looked like dresses (nobody could tell they were separate pieces) because each of my girls needed different top styles (one was pregnant, one was nursing, etc). All same color of course but they appreciated it and I got tons of compliments about them. As much as people tend to shy away from this because of how big this day is, I relied heavily on personal resources due to budget but it made the experience that much more personal being able to include the people who had been so supportive in my life including hair, makeup, DJ, etc. I would love to see you make more wedding videos!!
Do not stress about all the little things that go wrong on the wedding day. It's the marriage that you remember, not the wedding. I'm sure it'lll be amazing!!!!
My advice is to do what YOU want to do, and don't get lost in the sea of comparing your wedding to others. It's so easy to get wrapped up in wedding Instagrams and Pinterest boards, and while these can be helpful, it can make you go down the rabbit hole of wishing you could afford this, or wishing you could have that. I had to really take a step back and just zero in on what I've always wanted for my wedding without getting lost in social media's perception of what the perfect wedding is. So excited to watch your journey!
Don't stress the small stuff!! I just got married a little over two weeks ago and the whole week leading up to the wedding, I was obsessively checking the weather. We ended up having to move our ceremony inside but it was still absolutely beautiful!!! The day is going to go by fast, but at the end of the day you'll be married and the little imperfections won't matter! The day will be amazing no matter what happens.
Two things that shocked me after my wedding: 1. At least 20% of the guest you invite to your reception will decline. I was told this rule of thumb by my mother but I didn’t believe her when I was planning my wedding. I knew there were going to be quite a few people who wouldn’t be able to travel to make it for our wedding, but there were also close friends of mine who couldn’t make it either. In the end we actually had over 40% decline. We had to invite the B list and then the C list to make the caterer minimum. It was a little disheartening. 2. I was surprised by how many people got us gifts who we didn’t invite to our reception and how many people we invited to the reception who didn’t buy gifts. I’m not one to expect gifts so getting any gifts was a blessing, but we had a couple of friends we had not initially given a “plus one” to that asked to bring their significant other and then didn’t bring a gift. I guess I found it surprising that we paid for an extra meal for them and they didn’t bring a gift. I’ve personally never been to a wedding where I didn’t at least bring a small gift, even when I was a broke student, so it came as a shock.
A gift should be mandatory if you pretty much beg for a plus one. I used to be a wedding planner but now I’m a nail tech, for the most recent wedding I went to, I did the brides nails for her wedding and honeymoon for free and she got a discount on for brides maids nails for the wedding. It was a gift we had agreed on because I didn’t have any extra income to buy her something else. Also asking to bring a plus 1/SO in my books should be an automatic uninvite because my previous brides didn’t invite SOs or offer plus 1s to certain people for personal reasons.
Funny part is that I had just found out that one of my invitees is planning on giving $100 to a couple he barely knows when he didn’t give me a gift. Like you said, we’re not expecting a gift but that’s common courtesy. Lol
I got engaged this year on March 4th and plan to marry June 1st 2020!! I can already tell I will love following your wedding videos!! Congratulations on your engagement!
My husband and I have been married for 10 years this year. We became pregnant before marriage and planned a wedding in 3 months. Really my best advice would be to save as much money as you can. If there is something that you think would be very memorable for you personally, then put more money into that. People are not going to remember it, and your memories will also fade. Another thing is to delegate all problems to someone you trust on the day of. My mother put out fire after fire while I was as cool as a cucumber. And above all else this day is about you and your husband. My husband and I made sure to spend time alone before the wedding (meeting for breakfast before getting ready, and seeing each other in dress and tux for the first time alone so that we could pray) it was really important for use to have these private, intimate moments together.
Congratulations! My husband and I have been married almost 9 years. We got married in college and paid for a lot of things ourselves. I would say if there are trusted people to help with certain things, jump on that opportunity. My mother in law made our cake, a friend did our flowers for a discount, we made our invitations and center pieces. Craft stores should have invitation paper. We had our Bridal party get together to assemble the invites and decorations. The best advice I got was to have fun with it and don't stress. :)
I used silk flowers for my wedding and boy am I glad I did I didn't have to pay to have my bouquet preserved. I I have 3 tips for you that really were a hit at my wedding. I made an activity book for everyone to do during the boring parts of a wedding and then I made pens as my favor which was a useful gift. Also during the ceremony we had our rings passed through the crowd so everyone can bless it. Not only do I have a symbol of my marriage but everyone's love that was there. One last thing, mute your cell phone, trust me mine rang during the ceremony!!
Pick one or two things that are important to you and your fiancé and splurge on it. Pack some snacks to have in your hotel room the night of your wedding (I didn’t and my husband and I were starving at the end of the night since everything was closed 🤦🏼♀️). Lastly take a honeymoon if you can. It’s worth it! Good luck!
Another 2020 New England bride here! I've heard from a LOT of vendors that 2020 has been filling up crazy fast. I'm totally with you on not working with pushy vendors - if that's how they act with one simple quote request, I just feel that they aren't going to be focused on my wedding day-of. One tip that I have is to attend bridal shows if at all possible; It corrals all the vendors into one place, gives you ideas, and can potentially get you a discount. Can't wait to hear more about your planning journey since mine has been a complete roller coaster (and I started planning a full two years out from my date)!
Honestly, I so appreciated this video. I've been trying to plan my wedding for over half a year now and it has been so discouraging. We've had so many issues with venues and vendors, from things booking up to INSANE costs, to vendors who just don't even respond to us. We are debating elopement, but I really want to have our close family with us for that day. I really appreciated your honest take, no one else seems to discuss this side of the planning process.
I am a wedding photographer, and June 20, 2020 (or any date that has dupe digits or meaning etc) books up 2+ years in advance! I see someone also mentioned (below?) Don't mention wedding when booking - however duping your vendors can lead to improper coverage of your event, tail-spinning it into something else. Example, a reception hall has a different timeline for weddings, a Maitre D etc. Regular parties do not have such items. A photog contract would have specific items in it and it would breach contract, and they can potentially just leave day of leaving you stranded. There are so many reasons to NOT do what Leena says below.
I got engaged on Christmas Eve and omg YES all of these are so true! Wedding prices are so astronomical it was super discouraging at first. We got to the end of the tunnel and have finally booked our venue as well! We are lucky because our venue includes the caterer, cake, tables, chairs, linens, silverware, glassware, and much more. I was so surprised to learn that not every (if not most) don’t include much at all! Good luck to you and to all other couples planning their special day! 💕
When I got married I hired a wedding planner, I know it is not cheap but it ended up being worth for me. Normally, people do not get married several times, so in the wedding industry they know that people is not aware of prices and cannot negotiate properly. The advantage of my wedding planner is that she had the power to negotiate in my behalf because of her knowledge of vendors and she could bring in more clients to the venue, florist, makeup artist, etc in case they did a good price for her. In the end, my marriage was everything I wanted and it was not expensive or stressful…
I agree, our planner was one of the best investments we made for our wedding!, we had a general idea of what we wanted and what it was the most important for us (food and drinks) and she helped and guided us through all of it. 2 years later and people still talks about how much fun they had and how good the food was (we actually ended up using the same caterer for later events and friends and family have use them too
All inclusive venues are the best! Yes, you might save a bit of money by getting a hall and then bringing in a caterer, but often your friends and family are the ones who have to set up and the stress isn’t worth the few hundred dollars you will save.
Remember that it is your wedding, no matter what opinions are floating around! In the end, the people with the opinions go their own way and you have to live with whether it went the way you wanted or not.
Good luck! We are in the middle of the process too and it is so overwhelming.. we thankfully are signing a contract this upcoming week with a venue! One good tip I learned is if you book from October-April you can typically get discounts! We are getting married October 10th 2020 and we are saving $1400 and because of that, I'm able to get a wedding planner !!! :D
That is a very interesting tip and helpful information. I am starting the process of planning my wedding for next year. Would that be for just about any venue as far as booking from October-April for discounts? Congratulations to you!
Im not getting married any time soon like at all lol but I really enjoyed your video and was sad when you started closing out! Keep making videos like this and you should totally do a dress shopping vlog of some sort lol
I have been married twice. Once when I was 18 and once when I was 43. My advice is to stay true to yourself and ignore anyone that tells you that you "have to" or "should". Do what you want. I didn't care about a cake the second time around, so we didn't have a wedding cake. No regrets and saved a lot of money. We didn't want a sit down reception and dance (typical where I am from) so we did a dessert reception. I could go on, but you get the picture. The first time I married, I let everyone tell me how it was to be done - if you invite one aunt, you have to invite all the aunts (says who? and who is that other aunt anyway, never heard of her!), you have to have a garter toss (ugh) because "that is the way it is done". Doing what you want and what is important to you allows you to put your money into things you truly care about. I was able to get a videographer because we didn't pay for a wedding cake and a DJ or band for example. Guess which wedding I enjoyed the most?
Definitely book your favorite vendors early! If it’s a detail that’s not as important you can be more patient but if you have anyone you really love it’s crazy how early you need to get on their books. Good luck planning! It can be stressful, but so much fun as well!!
Definitely, definitely, definitely go with silk flowers! Also, spend a little more on a professional photographer because you will cherish these photos forever!
I’m getting married in 18 days oh my goodness! The biggest advice from my planning would be listen to your heart and your groom. So many people will tell you what you should or shouldn’t do and compare to other weddings they’ve been to. Just do what you think is best for you two and don’t worry about little things! Congrats!
I am getting married in 6 weeks! My greatest advice is to buy silk flowers at Hobby Lobby when they are running their 40-50% off floral sales. I bought all my flowers for my wedding for around $400 and loved putting them together myself and being able to store them before the wedding!
Wow my husband and I got so lucky. The place we chose rented us the room, catered, dj, included the cake, did the center pieces (the seating and tables were also included along with silverware etc) they coordinated the napkins and chair backers to our color..and OPEN BAR all for 65 per head!! That also included gratuity! We only had to find a photographer and someone to marry us as well as bring any decorations and a seating chart. They made our lives so easy.
Hi, I’m from Australia, I got married last year and my best piece of advice is keep it simple and classic. It keeps the cost lower and as a more relaxed person myself I found that it meant we had a really relaxed and warm atmosphere for our wedding that our guests loved 😊 Also, don’t stress too much; ultimately it’s one day and so just sit back and enjoy celebrating marrying the love of your life with you’re friends and family 💜
Good Luck! I got married last November in Australia but all those things you mentioned were the exact same things I thought :) You sound like you're really doing things the way you and your fiance want anyway so that's great. Honestly my first thought waking up the next day was 'wow that was a lot of my life planning 9 hours'. The day goes so fast and you have the BEST time. All you remember is who was there so don't stress about anything else... and no one remembers flowers!
Newly engaged (yay!!) and OMG I had no idea how expensive everything could be! But one piece of advice I’ve been given is to create a wedding email address to use for any venue, vendor, etc inquiries! Keeps your regular inbox from getting bombarded and hopefully keeps things more organized as well!
Your video was in my recommendations, I’m new to your channel. You seem such a lovely person, which is quite refreshing when it comes to CZcams. I sincerely hope you have a wonderful wedding day and a wonderful life together. Save as much as you can on the wedding so you can put as much money as possible into the honeymoon. XxxxxX
We purchased our silk bouquets online and got silk flowers from old time pottery to make our own centerpiece and aisle decoration. We chose a venue that included ceremony and reception area with a day of wedding coordinator and a closet full of decorations at our disposal to use. And for catering we found a small local business who was actually a couple and they made amazing food. They basically made whatever we wanted and didn’t have a set menu to chop from. It takes a bit of research and diying but you can have a beautiful AND affordable wedding. Try not to get discouraged and get sucked into the wedding industry hole. 😊
My top goal for wedding planning (and the day of the wedding!) is to make and remember some goals for your wedding. This was very helpful to me because I am a total control freak and don't do fantastically when things don't go according to plan, but by narrowing things down and keeping my goals in mind through the planning process and on the day, I was able to focus on what was important to me: Getting married, honouring the important people in my life, and spending time with people I don't get to see very often.
I think the best advice I could give is when you go Wedding dress shopping, go with an open mind to everything because wedding dresses are way different than clothes, I absolutely didn’t want a strapless dress and I was against it the whole time, finally tried it on and fell in love! Lol it shocked me but that was my wedding dress :)
Yay! Congratulations! So funny, we were also looking into June 6, 2020, because we wanted it to be even numbers, and were also surprised to find out that that date and any other dates we wanted were already booked for mid-2020 (we started planning immediately after engagement on June 26th, 2019) Thankfully, we were able to book for Aug 8th, 2020! Thank you for sharing this info! I’m shocked! We’re currently looking into catering and florists, and can already imagine just how much that’s going to cost us, so we’re trying to go the minimalist route, and having an intimate wedding. Wishing you the very best 🎉🙏
Hello! My best wedding planning advise is to really be OK with what you want. We had a wedding without alcohol and it was a big deal to me that it was shorter (I really am not into long weddings) and there was a lot of push back from family and friends. It ended up being what I wanted and worked out very well just know that it is really at the end of the day about both of you guys. Its a celebration of your relationship so know that you know whats the best fit for you! Good luck with the planning and have a fun wedding :)
Ok, for the flowers - I knew the exact same thing, the prices were high and honestly sometimes they die way sooner than you would like them to. Another thing to worry about. For our wedding I purchased fake flowers that looked pretty great. We already had an outdoor wedding in the summer with grass, trees etc so there isn't always a need for tons of flowers. After the wedding I was able to sell the faux flowers and voila :)
When in doubt if its worth the money, get a break down of what you are paying for! I got that for my venue and ended up saving money and time with that information.
When talking to vendors, and other wedding help, try to avoid the w word, say it's an anniversary party or something, cause yes they do tax. And NEVER BE AFRAID TO DIY! my friend just had a gorgeous DIY boho wedding, we made everything from the most random things at dollar tree, then after the wedding she was able to sell it for well over double what she spent (paint was honestly where she spent the most on decor)
Right there with ya girl! I live in Massachusetts and my fiance and I are getting married this October. We found an amazing venue in NH that basically includes everything but decor so I am DIYing everything, and omg, there's so much to do!
I'm currently planning my wedding and will be getting married in 2020 as well. We got really lucky with our venue, it has a lot included with it so it's makes it sooo much easier for us. Now we're just working on the minor things. Good luck with the rest of your wedding planning!
We just got married last weekend! We had DIY family members help us put the decorations together! We had super easy center pieces, 2 bowls of m&ms and a battery tea light! We were super happy with everything and very grateful for the family members that helped us! We didn't waste $ on programs, we did a "Save the birth" announcements (son was born 6 months before wedding)
Using silk flowers was one of the best wedding decisions I made. I wasn't confident enough to put them together myself, but I found a woman who did an amazing job and worked with me to customize them. I liked being able to see them weeks in advance and not having to worry about keeping anything refrigerated or from getting crushed. I would have loved to have real flowers, but I couldn't justify the cost. I did order boxes of real rose petals from Sams Club for decorating the aisle and that worked out great too! Just make sure you have enough room in your fridge to store them.
I got married last year and I was so thankful that most of my friends and bridesmaids had gotten married before me. They were able to give me a lot of tips before I even got engaged.
I just started planning my wedding in March 2019. I've researched many things already. I think its always best to plan ahead. I just got legally married June 5th, 2019. And we plan to have our wedding June 5th, 2021 in Hawaii as a destination wedding since my husband's family lives there and he grew up there. Super excited. We have 2 years to save up and plan everything. This year I plan to look into venues and everything, and by next year June 2020, I will book everything by that date. Watching wedding videos on CZcams helps me plan and a lot of people give great advice as well. Researching and booking everything ahead of time saves me the stress and being overwhelmed. After booking our vendors, we have a year to enjoy our wedding planning and be excited about our wedding.
Great video! I'm getting married in February of 2020 but in New Jersey! Winter weddings were about $30 per person cheaper than anything after May and we're inviting 80 people. We have to have at least 70 people there according to our venue. I also chose to got with silk and faux florals because of allergies and pricing. I bought most of my flowers from Afloral.com for $162 and then got a few additional florals like eucalyptus and lambs ear from JoAnns which always has sales and coupons. Lastly, I went to one Bridal Expo at my venue. I don't even remember giving one of the vendors my email, but they won't stop emailing me and nothing pisses me off more. Like if I haven't responded don't keep bothering me.
I got married almost 8 years ago one thing we really enjoyed was buying disposable cameras in addition to having professional photos done it was nice to laugh at some of the candids... because it was almost impossible to talk and see everyone there. And it really showed how much of a good time everyone had. Best advice I can give for a happy wedding is don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff. What really matters in a marriage is you and your partner the best advice I received was never go to bed mad. If you have issues resolve to fix them before you go to bed that night.
I got engaged at the end of February of this year!! I can't wait to see more of your wedding contact! We're getting married 09/29/2019, so it's only a 7 month engagement. We sat down and made our budget and while doing so, decided on what we were going to prioritize spending our money on. So full disclosure, our budget is 10k, with over 350 guests invited. We do have certain vendors being paid for by parents, so those aren't included in our budget. Our number one priority was our wedding photographer. It was important for us to get enough time with her on the day of as well as an engagement shoot included, so we decided that it was worth it to spend about 30% of our budget on our photographer. I would also say that you absolutely do not have to have certain things that are deemed "traditional." For example, over 50% of guests forget to take their wedding favor, no matter how cute it is. If we were doing favors, we'd have little seed packets to "watch our love grow" or something cute like that, but it's honestly not worth the money. We also are not doing a guestbook. Other than right after the wedding (maybe), when am I ever going to sit down and look through a book of signatures? Do I really want a box with wooden hearts in it with people's names written in sharpie hanging on a wall in my house? So just think realistically about the little stuff and if you *really* need it or want it, and prioritize based on that.
Best advise I ever received: Do not go into debt for your wedding. It’s so tempting with the entire wedding industry telling you that you need this and that. The day will be beautiful and full of love on a budget ... and then it will be over sooner than you think. You want to look back on it fondly, not fretting about the credit card bill. Congratulations on your engagement and enjoy each moment 💕
I was at my friend’s wedding a few weeks ago, and they served McDonalds nuggets and fries at 10:30 pm as a late night snack for all the people who stayed to party, and it was great!
Planning a wedding is stressful! My wedding was in ‘07, and it cost $92,000 back then, but in the end it was everything I hoped for and so much more, it was worth every penny!!! I agree about booking in advance, I booked 19 months in advance. Loved the video 😁
I got my flowers done at a grocery store! It was a tiny chain of specialty foods (like a fancy Whole Foods) and I was a fraction of the price. And I only did my flowers and my bridesmaids flowers. Everything else we brought in potted plants :)
For those looking for destination wedding ideas, I know this sounds totally overdone, but Go To Las Vegas. Each venue does dozens of weddings everyday. The wedding planners are amazing and laid back, venues for the ceremony and reception are always super flexible, and the chapels make plain what each package includes. There are no hidden costs, and you can always add to your event. Also, there are so many different things that guests can do in the days after your wedding beyond drinking and gambling. We just celebrated our 10th anniversary, and we did a whole weekend for $2K. Our wedding was on the lower end, and it was 10 years ago... but I cannot imagine that the rates would have skyrocketed. When we were first planning a wedding, we considered a courthouse ceremony, then a restaurant reception, but those hidden costs started to add up. I hope all of you planning weddings right now find your mantra, and do not allow the stress of planning the biggest party of your lives to consume you. Remember that this is a day to celebrate your relationship and life together, and that it ought to reflect the life you and your partner have built together.
My wedding was basically a DIY event. My step mom made all the bouquets & boutiners (sp?) for our wedding party & the parents. She & I got together & made the invitations (she does scrapbooking as a hobby so had a ton of stuff at her disposal for us to make it ourselves). My step mom made our wedding cake as well (she does that as hobby on the side as well lol). She also called in a lot of favors when it came to the food & setting up the decorations. So many people offered to help make foods for us & so many people helped provide some decorations for the wedding it was unbelievable! But I found that... making stuff was really fun. I enjoyed being able to make exactly what I wanted myself & it certainly saved a lot of money! Only advice I can give is to be sure to set an appt for the wedding dress shopping. I didn't & just walked in to a David's Bridal & luckily they were able to make space for us, but just barely. Other than that... it might be fun to make some things yourself if you have the time & the utensils for it!
Wooden flowers are also a great option and look super amazing! My friend is getting married and she is using them for her wedding. Her proof is amazing and it will be something she can keep forever.
My brother got married and they did a lot of the decor themselves and reached out to family and friends for help. You can do a craft wedding party where close friends come and help you make your things that aren't as important and can be done in house. Don't wait until later. Do it maybe a year in advance so it's done and you don't have to stress. They had a very nice wedding. Burlap, white, greenery, and hints of lace. Picking a simple but aesthetically pleasing theme allows for things to be done in house and still look professional.
Advice on saving money, get together with crafty friends and make your own save the date, invitations, place names, seating plan etc. Its fun to make these, especially with bridesmaids or crafty relatives. Buy card , envelopes & ribbon in bulk. Also make your own favours and table decorations. For my daughters wedding, I got a local grower to grow 15 white double orchids. They created a fantastic centrepiece for tables, and then they can be gifted to special people as a thank you. Also make your own cake, or get a relative to gift you the cake. Have different types of cake for each layer & use a spiral stand, which looks very professional. Also edible flowers can be added on the day, takes 5 mins. Wishing you every happiness for the future ! 💟🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧💟
Getting married this October and I think you've hit all of the points really well. I've been engaged since November of 2017 and planning since then and it's just crazy to think that even though we locked our venue in this past summer how crazy it was to book other aspects like hotel blocks since it seems each planning category almost had its own timeline
My husband’s friend & his wife had this awesome ‘where will they be’ set up at their reception. I’ve never seen that before. But it’s interesting b/c you write down something cool or off the wall or even advice. Then they read through them & they picked the best one & that person got a cute little gift. They went from 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years & up to 50 years. So it’s not advice, but it’s something cool you could add to your reception. And very interesting! Best of luck!
I have a few things that really helped me plan my wedding on a shoe string budget. Book your day during the off season (no holidays, not early in the summer or mid fall). Minimize your use of flowers and pick varieties that are in season (I also harvested some of my flowers/foliage). Include your community as much as possible (it's surprising how many people in your sphere will have old decor items on hand like table cloths and back drops or who would be willing to help cater or do the floral arrangements at a discount or as a wedding gift).
Hi, I'm getting married in August 2020 in Burgundy, France and I totally agree with all 5 points ! Looking forward for more wedding related content 👰🇫🇷
My husband and I spent more on our honeymoon than our wedding because it was more important to make sure that we enjoyed our time together celebrating our marriage with one on one time rather than putting together a huge wedding to satisfy our guests.
my cousin is getting married this summer. She's doing silk flowers for the wedding party, and having a family member grow wildflowers for her centre pieces! she's saved so much by doing this... also, she gave us bridesmaids a colour and length and let us buy our own dresses, which saved us all money!
I got engaged in July 2018 and I've been finding similar things to you about the planning process over here in the UK. The venues and caterers effectively hiding their charges had the same effect on me, just a hard nope, but it's so hard not to feel disheartened when you finally find something you really like just to realise way into the process that you can't afford it. I'm glad that we've held out for vendors that we can trust and who give that little bit extra because they want to give good service not just take your money and it sounds like you've done the same. The cost of flowers did initially shock me but I don't think the prices are quite so bad in the UK, we're paying just over £1,000 for ours and it was something I couldn't compromise on. It's weird the things you think will matter and then don't but equally there are things you wouldn't have pegged as important that suddenly reveal themselves! Good luck with the rest of your planning. I'm interested to see how you get on with booking a photographer as that's next on our list! 2020 seems super popular for weddings here too so we picked a good but perhaps crazy year to get married! Loving how honest your channel is, you're a great storyteller! Emma
Also you may want to invest in a day of coordinator. That person deals with everything on the day of so you dont have to worry about anything on your big day♡
Our venue offers this as an add on and I’m considering it! It’s expensive but I agree, it’s definitely worth it. I’m an absolute basket case when I’m stressed haha and I really want to be zen on my wedding day and not think about a damn thing except my fiancé haha
Another thing is, if you have family willing to cook for your reception, that's a HUGE money saver! I have a large family, we cooked several briskets, potatoes, and mixed vegetables, it stretched so far we had leftovers and bonus, we had a military discount to purchase the briskets on base.....saved us THOUSANDS to feed everyone! This is also a great way to involve aunts, uncles, new inlaws, etc that are not in the wedding party, but still get a "role ", by having them be your servers buffet style, once everyone is served, cleaning crew for venue takes care of dishes and your guests stay as guests after the food is served. Also, contact a restaurant supply place and purchase clear plastic dinner plates and silver colored utensils, they are inexpensive, easy to obtain, look elegant, and you can toss them! That subtracts rental of dishes and cleaning service fee! You could also look into renting chargers for placing under the dinner plates from the same place where you might have to rent table cloths and napkins, chances are, they will really dress up your table and be pennies on the dollar vs buying them
I'm in the process of planning my wedding and I feel you on most of these shockers (especially the venue minimums!). We ended up choosing to get married on a Friday in order to avoid a bunch of those and managed to snag some discounts in the process. I haven't fully finished the wedding planning yet (we're getting married 9/20/19), but a big tip I have relates to the wedding cake. We found a local restaurant that does catering but also does deserts to order a wedding cake from. We did a tasting before committing so we knew the cake/icing was delicious, but they were so much more economical than a "standard" bakery. We also decided to get a relatively small cake that will feed maybe half the invited guests (most people don't even eat the cake!), and go with homemade cookies for desert/favors. It great way to save money and the cookies can be made in advance then frozen/thawed so it's not a huge time commitment. Plus who doesn't want to leave a wedding with a bag of homemade cookies?!
Have a day of "point person". This can be someone hired (like a wedding planner) or even a family member. A cousin was my "point person" she made sure everything was on track, dealt with vendors, got things that were forgot, held jackets while we took pictures, etc. Because of her I was able to focus on my wedding day rather than all these small things. It was a blessing.
I got married in September and the advice I can lend you is. Get a photographer you can trust. Dyi if you can. Organization is key. Make a list of need to be done and when the dead line for it. That save me time on what needs to be priorities and what can wait. Do your research because wedding season is crazy and can become overwhelming. Congratulations on getting married and good luck
Don’t let the small stuff get to you! Did a wedding in a week, because in laws decided eloping was basically me spitting in their face, it really made me decide what was important and what was small stuff and just focus in on what mattered to me and ignore things other people cared about. Photography was my main concern, like you said it’s your only wedding.
Just went to a wedding over the weekend and she had a mini cake for herself and her groom and donuts for the guests (homemade) and they were so yummy and it was a cute touch that people are still talking about! cheaper than cake and also, less messy lol
Go with silk flowers. I bought mine at Michael's and Hobby Lobby, had my aunt make 4 big bouquets and maybe spent $150. Look for sales and coupons. I've been in too many weddings that did real flowers and by the time we got to pictures after the wedding, some of the bouquets looked a little beaten up. I had a pretty laid back wedding. We had Bob Evans breakfast for our wedding and it was a huge hit. Love the brick oven pizza idea, great choice.
I'm also getting married next year in New England, and one thing that blew my mind is when you're having "plated" meals catered, and you give the guests options to choose beef, chicken, or vegetarian - you are paying for everyone to get beef, AKA the most expensive option. Even if they chose vegetarian!
My sister got all of her flowers from Costco (table flowers, decoration flowers, and bouquets) for around $300 total! She got married in Canada which is usually more expensive then the states too :) They came as one large load of flowers which my mom picked up in the morning of the "big day" and we all spent about 20 minutes making our own bouquets and our family friends helped place the rest of the flowers into our own vases for the tables and other pretty areas around the venue!
I had mostly edible flowers and plants in my bouquets like roses, sage, and rosemary and they looked amazing. My florist was insanely talented but also new to wedding so it was a lot cheaper but I spent a huge chunk of my budget on flowers because that is what I planned for as they were. The most important decoration for me personally. I don’t regret it in the slightest. The most expensive flowers I bought were gardenias and that was because it was off season and apparently they are as fragile as glass. But my husband loves them because they remind him of his great grandmother who passed away when he was 10 and I really felt the need to include them for him.
As a wedding photographer and a married woman, my advice would be to make the photography and the flowers your biggest investment (relative to your budget, of course). A great photographer can make any wedding day look like it cost $20,000, and florals really help pull the aesthetics of your whole day together. I've seen so many couples think they can find a budget photographer who will capture their day well, but then they don't know how to find good lighting, they have cheap equipment, and their photos just don't turn out well. And a good photographer will give you an awesome experience as well :) Meet with your potential photogs in person to make sure you click on a personal level, too. I love following your channel! I have your videos playing on the side of my screen while I work, haha. Wedding planning should be fun, so I hope you end up enjoying it and don't get too stressed out!
2017 I married the man of my dreams. The wedding was small 60 people. We poled a few friends about an idea we had about the food and they loved it. So we decided to ask for people to bring food instead of gifts. Most people express love through they make food. We asked for only 25 tapas bites per invitation. We provided cooling and heating if needed, the cups, picks, tiny forks, dishes or plates they needed. I will say that we had such a huge amount of food and everyone loved the idea because it was cheaper than gifts. There was so many different options and the tables were beautiful. Most all of our friends are foodies, cooks or chefs. I built the food tables so that everyone could just set there items down and walk away. Fast forward two years and we still have people talking about it. Just this past week end all of my husbands cousins came over for a party and mentioned our wedding and how much they loved the food idea. It really made everyone talk to each other to find out who made what and could they have the recipe. In fact two couples have decided to so the same thing for their weddings. Everyone got to be part of the wedding and felt they had their place that was more than I could have hoped for.
Chilled, laid back is definitely the way to go! Our wedding was about the same size, and I loved the intimacy of it. We also did something a little different and had a breakfast buffet for the dinner. We also had a live band, which was very different than the typical DJ. We got so many compliments about it being one of the best weddings our family and friends had ever been too! Planning a wedding really tested my control because when that day comes you just have to roll with the flow and know that everything will fall into place as it needs to. And you can't control the weather, so dance in the rain! :)
Love this! We’re also doing a s’mores bar for the late night snacks and having a small cake to cut and then doing donuts for everyone! We’re not fancy people so this was def the way to go, I’m so excited!
@@TheNightOwl1212 Oh yes! Love those ideas too! We did a donut bar instead of cake (because donuts are the best)! We have some pretty nice bridal consignment shops around here - tons of decorations, and I actually ended up buying my dress second hand (but thankfully still brand new with tags)! I'm all about saving money. So true on the part about the flowers too. We made some dried flower arrangements ourselves (literally just from different "weeds" and grasses that grow naturally). And then for the center pieces, I basically just had the florist use "filler" flowers and greens, so they were cheaper and gave it a nice light, natural feel, and we provided the jars. Our florist quoted my bouquet, which was pretty reasonable, but I decided I wanted something smaller, which dropped the price quite a bit, and it was still plenty big (wouldn't have wanted anything bigger). So there's some wiggle room in there :) Also, we didn't have any bridal party/groomsmen, and holy crap does that cut down on excess spending and nightmares (as you've experienced) ;) Happy planning!
Hi! I recently got married in September 14th 2019. I was definitely glued to Pinterest and the wedding wire when I first got engaged. First off congratulations! I would say some of the advice I can give you is that to most vendors like you mentioned have a min number you have to meet our venue was all inclusive so we did both the ceremony and the reception there but we had to have a guest count of at least 120 to book it. For us the venue was worth it but you should also look at the contracts you are signing we were shocked when we figured out gratuity wasn’t added in to the final price already was added later once we had a official guest count and to have that extra almost two grand to pay was definitely frustrating. You can also DIY things as well I made our signs and our wedding programs too.
As a professional florist with 18+ years experience doing wedding florals I can give you some insight on floral pricing. I have done thousands of weddings with floral budgets from $100 all the way up to $25,000. Here are a couple things to remember:
1. Pinterest is a double edge sword. It is both your best friend and worst enemy. That sweet perfect little hand tied bouquet that you love so much? Try 30 stems of Lily of the Valley at approximately $15 per stem...
2. Industry standard mark up for weddings is 40%. Most florists will charge somewhere between 25-50% based on how easy or difficult you are to work with, the geographic region in which you are getting married, the size of your wedding floral budget, and a few other reasons. For example, florists in Cape Cod will charge way more than in Phoenix, Arizona..
3. Think about the flowers you are selecting, and the time of year you are needing them. Will they be in season? Will they have to be imported from another country for your wedding? Sure, you can have peonies in August, but you are going to pay dearly for them.
4. Ask yourself this question- What is more important to me- the specific flowers I want, or the specific colors I want. If you are specific on the flowers that you want, the pricing will be pretty straightforward. But, if you are more interested in the colors of your bouquet - your florist can offer lots of suggestions of flowers that come in that color range, and often times those other flowers tend to be cheaper and more readily available.
5. Most people think that silk flowers are going to be cheaper. Sometimes that can be the case, but rarely. The world of silk flowers can vary from dollar store quality, all the way through botanically correct - can't tell it from the real thing. Dollar store quality is just that, while flowers from Michaels and Hobby Lobby run on the cheap end of mid-grade. High quality silks are often 3-5 times the cost of real flowers. Suppose you buy all these silks, do you or someone you know have the necessary skills to make the arrangements you want, and have them look appropriate?
6. Telling a florist that you need some bouquets, and some centerpieces... and maybe some corsages and boutonnieres.. But not telling them it is for a wedding in hopes that they do not charge you more will only result in you looking foolish. We know when something is for a wedding even if we let you think you got one over on us.
7. Be open with your florist regarding budget. Talk with them at length about what arrangements can pull double duty, ways to trim the budget in one place to allow for a splurge somewhere else, and above all else, KEEP AN OPEN MIND. Brides who come in to a flower shop completely set on exactly what they want will often pay more because they refuse to budge, or listen to other ideas. Contrary to popular thought, florists are not out to screw over their clients. We want to make your day as amazing as you picture it - and within your budget!
Last but not least...
8. DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO "PACKAGES"!!!!! I don't know exactly when these started, but they are horrific! The only time these are any good is if you are having a cookie cutter wedding.. Why get roped into a package where you run the possibility of paying for flowers you do not need, just because it has the number of bridesmaids bouquets or boutonnieres you need? Your wedding is as personal as you are, and no "package" will ever be able to fill all of your needs.
I know this was super windy and I apologize. There are so many more things that go into floral pricing, and I would love to share them all, but I shortened the list to these major points just for the sake of your comment feed. lol. If you have any questions, or any ideas you would like to bounce off of someone who does not have a stake in your wedding - let me know, I would be willing to help.
Ravyn1031 fellow florist from Vermont and this is some of the best advice I’ve seen!
@@vt3542 thank you Emily! It's taken many years to figure it out, those seemed like the basics.. thank you for noticing.
Do you have any suggestions on where to purchase greenery garlands? I'd like these running my reception tables, but I cannot find it anywhere besides Costco (real). The fake stuff looks sketchy in person, I would prefer real, but open to suggestions.
@@RCP511 call around to some of your local floral wholesalers. Ask if they sell to the public. They may be able special order garlands for you, in any length you need. If not, garlands are fairly simple to make, you just need tons of the greenery you want, and if you are crafty in the slightest- they go together fairly quickly. Theres tons of CZcams videos on it.
@@Itsonlyme013 thank you!
I helped my cousin plan her wedding (since we're both giant nerds lol) word of the wise, don't mention "wedding" if you don't have to! A LOT of company's make anything "wedding" related at least 10% more than it would be regular!
Leena Marie that’s usually because weddings require at least 25% more time and effort
I do Me too not necessarily. The only time my cousin mentioned it was a wedding was the venue, catering, and the photographer (and probably a couple more things, but I wasn’t always around when she did things lol). She did cupcakes instead of a cake, and her 100 or so cupcakes were just $2 each whereas the same place had a wedding package that was around $400 or so just for a base of 80 or so cupcakes. She and her fam saved over $2000 from just not mentioning “wedding” of it wasn’t needed
@@idometoo4533 that is a common lie to get money. If you have a simple DIY wedding there is no need to pay so much extra money.
Two bits of advice from the old married broad. 1) Things are going to to wrong on your wedding day. They aren't necessarily disasters, but you'll forget something, or someone will experience heat exhaustion, etc. Appoint a small team of three people to handle those issues and remember that all you really need are the two of you, the officiant, the paperwork, and two witnesses. The rest is really nice, but ultimately it's just fluff. 2) Don't put too much pressure on yourselves about your wedding night. You're going to be a weird mix of mentally overstimulated and physically exhausted. This is not a great set up for a night of romance. We went back to our apartment, opened cards, and ate a lovely 4th meal of Taco Bell before falling asleep on the couch. We waited until the next day to officially start our honeymoon and it was great. Wishing you the very best for your future.
The fuck ups make GREAT stories 😂😂😂 I love to tell mine!
In my state, you don’t need any witnesses.
Yup something always goes wrong & we didn't have any interest to play either, we enjoyed the hot tub & fireplace in our room then slept (best bed ever, was like a cloud).
We had Taco Bell on our wedding night too lol and same, you're so tired from the evening that you just want to go to bed.
If you don’t have a wedding coordinator, pick someone (not in the wedding party) to be your day-of person. Give them a binder or folder with allll of the info for the day-the contact numbers, schedule, etc-and let everyone know that they will go to that person if they have questions. That way no one comes to you and issues can be solved before you even know about it. This made our day SO stress-free and everything was incredibly smooth. It was perfect. That was the best advice I got and I pass it on to everyone. (:
I 100% agree with this! I just got married this April in NC and had a wedding planner throughout the entire year and half planning process but I understand not everyone wants/can afford that. If you don't choose a planner from the beginning, a day of coordinator is an absolute must have. Some venues include a coordinator but be careful because they may only handle pointing the vendors in the direction of where they need to be. You need someone who will also be there for you, the wedding party, and to help make any last minute decisions. Also, as a side note, if you have any make up you may need to re-apply or touch up during the event and no one to hold it for you, see if the main photographer will hold it in there bag. Mine offered this without me asking and it was a godsend because she ended up being one of the closest people to me for the majority of the night.
Best advice I can give: think of the one or two things that matter the most to you regarding the wedding and shell out the money there.. for the other things that don't matter as much, find ways to cut corners or simplify them. For example: if you really want a certain photographer but they are super expensive you can save money on maybe the centerpieces if you really don't care about them by getting vases or fake flower etc at WalMart or Hobby Lobby. Another tip is finding vendors that are young/new to the business. They usually charge less because they are just getting started, but usually they do a fantastic job as you're wedding will be one of their only gigs and they'll want to showcase that work going forward to advertise for other clients.. I had a new bakery in town do my wedding cake and they did an outstanding job because they wanted to show everyone what they could do.. Good luck to you!
1950sGirlAtHeart best advice!
I do not agree with you with new vendors. What happens to the people who have busted their butt in such a hard industry to have someone come in and under cut everything they do. I have seen it all the time where people swoop in and swoop out so what they cost more it is because they know how much it costs to wash/clean and set everything up.
Absolutely! That’s what we did 😅
I was a wedding planner, and can tell you the gourmet grocery stores sometimes have catering attached to them and some offer servers and bartenders with only a required time of 4 hrs. Most will deliver for free with a $25 setup fee and there normally is a 15%-17% service fee. They can even help you with wedding cakes, flowers, linens, ect. It can be half the price but June is a horrible month due to graduation parties.
We’re actually getting married in August! I canned the June idea haha, wayyy too busy for weddings, graduations etc. I will definitely look into grocery stores for our cake! We want a super simple one tier to cut and then we want to do donut towers 😊
I'm a wedding photographer and after attending 100s of weddings: do not skimp on a DJ! A good DJ really makes or breaks the reception! You need a DJ that can read the room, knows what to play and when, and has some recent music, too. Worked a wedding recently and the DJ played 4 slow songs in a row to open up the dance floor and it was.. bad. Dance floor stayed empty the whole night cause he was so bad and everyone left early because it just wasn't fun!
This is so true!, when we got married, we made a priority list keeping in mind what we liked and didn't from every single wedding we've been to, and our top 3 and non-negotiable ones were food, beverages, and music. We've been to a number of weddings where the bride and groom spent thousands in decorations but had either not enough or not good food. At one, we even had to leave after dancing had started, to take a bite near there and came back to keep celebrating with them, but believe me, the only reason we came back was that the bride was a good friend of us
Reception advice - definitely have a designated person make a plate of food for you and your husband away from everyone or don’t expect to eat because people will be coming up to you left right and center to congratulate you and it can be extremely overwhelming! I think I had one bite of food at my wedding and only cake for the pictures 😔
yes!!!!!!!!!!!
We sat down and ate as quickly as possible lmao.
Yes!!, we had an amazing caterer that had a separate server for us (kind of shadowing us with water glasses, and took some entrees to the car for us to have before entering the venue) and made us a package for us to eat afterwards just in case we hadn't had the chance
Thank you!
I have a friend who approached a local Art school that did a photography course to enquire whether any of their students wanted to take her wedding photos at a discounted cost. She eventually got in contact with a girl with whom she agreed a joint tradition/artsy project at a really good rate. She got the photos she wanted with her family and friends and the girl got various photos my friend agreed to do for a project the girl was able to submit for a grade, plus the money she earned helped towards her loan. I doubt its something everyone could do - my friend rather got lucky with this. But the point is sometimes the creative solutions pay off and she got amazing photos for half the price she was being quoted.
Every week Michael's has a 50% off coupon you can download. We did that for SO much! It really helped! The centerpiece decorations, ivy on the arch and even the invites and a few other things. It helped keep us in budget.
I got married recently and oh my it was stressful. We had the smallest, most intimate, possibly ideal situation and it was still stressful.
My #1 piece of advise is, don’t let anyone get in your guys’ business unless you want them to be all the way in your business. Be very careful and firm with you and your husband-to-be’s boundaries both with each other and with your family/friends. You will be marrying into his family and honestly sometimes that’s the most stressful part even if they’re wonderful people. Then again I’m not the most diplomatic person so it may be no problem for you but still, something to chew on.
I highly suggest you look up Jamie Wolfer here on youtube. She has so many videos about weddings (she's a wedding planner) but ive learned so much from her, all the topics you touched I already knew about from seeing her videos. She has many tips on how to budget, planning, diy's etc. Her videos are very informative. And congrats on your engament!!
I second Jamie Wolfer 100%. I am in the process of planning our May 2020 wedding and have actually reached out to her. We actually have a phone consultation scheduled for today 😄 Her content is great and everything she has uploaded, even her behind the scenes videos are extremely helpful!
I agree. Her videos are so informative and helpful. She breaks everything down and explains it all so well!
Agreed, love watching her videos. recently started rewatching them as we are finally starting to actually do some of the early wedding planning
I had a very dear friend who worked for a florist, he did all of my flowers. We chose to do silk flowers for literally everything except the bridal bouquet. I did a lot of the decorating myself with my family and friends to cut down on cost. There were, of course, things we chose to splurge on but my budget was tight and we made very excellent decisions that I don't regret regarding photographer, etc. Depending on your bridal party size one of the best decisions I made was the bridesmaids dresses. They were mix/match skirts and tops that looked like dresses (nobody could tell they were separate pieces) because each of my girls needed different top styles (one was pregnant, one was nursing, etc). All same color of course but they appreciated it and I got tons of compliments about them. As much as people tend to shy away from this because of how big this day is, I relied heavily on personal resources due to budget but it made the experience that much more personal being able to include the people who had been so supportive in my life including hair, makeup, DJ, etc. I would love to see you make more wedding videos!!
Do not stress about all the little things that go wrong on the wedding day. It's the marriage that you remember, not the wedding. I'm sure it'lll be amazing!!!!
My advice is to do what YOU want to do, and don't get lost in the sea of comparing your wedding to others. It's so easy to get wrapped up in wedding Instagrams and Pinterest boards, and while these can be helpful, it can make you go down the rabbit hole of wishing you could afford this, or wishing you could have that. I had to really take a step back and just zero in on what I've always wanted for my wedding without getting lost in social media's perception of what the perfect wedding is. So excited to watch your journey!
Lisa Arouh this is amazing advice!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Don't stress the small stuff!! I just got married a little over two weeks ago and the whole week leading up to the wedding, I was obsessively checking the weather. We ended up having to move our ceremony inside but it was still absolutely beautiful!!! The day is going to go by fast, but at the end of the day you'll be married and the little imperfections won't matter! The day will be amazing no matter what happens.
Two things that shocked me after my wedding:
1. At least 20% of the guest you invite to your reception will decline. I was told this rule of thumb by my mother but I didn’t believe her when I was planning my wedding. I knew there were going to be quite a few people who wouldn’t be able to travel to make it for our wedding, but there were also close friends of mine who couldn’t make it either. In the end we actually had over 40% decline. We had to invite the B list and then the C list to make the caterer minimum. It was a little disheartening.
2. I was surprised by how many people got us gifts who we didn’t invite to our reception and how many people we invited to the reception who didn’t buy gifts. I’m not one to expect gifts so getting any gifts was a blessing, but we had a couple of friends we had not initially given a “plus one” to that asked to bring their significant other and then didn’t bring a gift. I guess I found it surprising that we paid for an extra meal for them and they didn’t bring a gift. I’ve personally never been to a wedding where I didn’t at least bring a small gift, even when I was a broke student, so it came as a shock.
No gift to a wedding? Wow, thats crazy! Here in germany you even bring something when you can't come.
A gift should be mandatory if you pretty much beg for a plus one. I used to be a wedding planner but now I’m a nail tech, for the most recent wedding I went to, I did the brides nails for her wedding and honeymoon for free and she got a discount on for brides maids nails for the wedding. It was a gift we had agreed on because I didn’t have any extra income to buy her something else.
Also asking to bring a plus 1/SO in my books should be an automatic uninvite because my previous brides didn’t invite SOs or offer plus 1s to certain people for personal reasons.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who found not bringing a gift to be rude.
Funny part is that I had just found out that one of my invitees is planning on giving $100 to a couple he barely knows when he didn’t give me a gift. Like you said, we’re not expecting a gift but that’s common courtesy. Lol
I got engaged this year on March 4th and plan to marry June 1st 2020!! I can already tell I will love following your wedding videos!! Congratulations on your engagement!
I made my own bouquets and they were beautiful - I still have mine on display in my house 10 years later 💗
Look into wooden flowers! (Etsy has great shops for them!) Different touch than silk but last just as long and are eco friendly and beautiful!
My husband and I have been married for 10 years this year. We became pregnant before marriage and planned a wedding in 3 months. Really my best advice would be to save as much money as you can. If there is something that you think would be very memorable for you personally, then put more money into that. People are not going to remember it, and your memories will also fade. Another thing is to delegate all problems to someone you trust on the day of. My mother put out fire after fire while I was as cool as a cucumber. And above all else this day is about you and your husband. My husband and I made sure to spend time alone before the wedding (meeting for breakfast before getting ready, and seeing each other in dress and tux for the first time alone so that we could pray) it was really important for use to have these private, intimate moments together.
Congratulations! My husband and I have been married almost 9 years. We got married in college and paid for a lot of things ourselves. I would say if there are trusted people to help with certain things, jump on that opportunity. My mother in law made our cake, a friend did our flowers for a discount, we made our invitations and center pieces. Craft stores should have invitation paper. We had our Bridal party get together to assemble the invites and decorations. The best advice I got was to have fun with it and don't stress. :)
I used silk flowers for my wedding and boy am I glad I did I didn't have to pay to have my bouquet preserved. I I have 3 tips for you that really were a hit at my wedding. I made an activity book for everyone to do during the boring parts of a wedding and then I made pens as my favor which was a useful gift. Also during the ceremony we had our rings passed through the crowd so everyone can bless it. Not only
do I have a symbol of my marriage but everyone's love that was there. One last thing, mute your cell phone, trust me mine rang during the ceremony!!
Pick one or two things that are important to you and your fiancé and splurge on it. Pack some snacks to have in your hotel room the night of your wedding (I didn’t and my husband and I were starving at the end of the night since everything was closed 🤦🏼♀️). Lastly take a honeymoon if you can. It’s worth it! Good luck!
Another 2020 New England bride here! I've heard from a LOT of vendors that 2020 has been filling up crazy fast. I'm totally with you on not working with pushy vendors - if that's how they act with one simple quote request, I just feel that they aren't going to be focused on my wedding day-of. One tip that I have is to attend bridal shows if at all possible; It corrals all the vendors into one place, gives you ideas, and can potentially get you a discount. Can't wait to hear more about your planning journey since mine has been a complete roller coaster (and I started planning a full two years out from my date)!
Honestly, I so appreciated this video. I've been trying to plan my wedding for over half a year now and it has been so discouraging. We've had so many issues with venues and vendors, from things booking up to INSANE costs, to vendors who just don't even respond to us. We are debating elopement, but I really want to have our close family with us for that day. I really appreciated your honest take, no one else seems to discuss this side of the planning process.
I am a wedding photographer, and June 20, 2020 (or any date that has dupe digits or meaning etc) books up 2+ years in advance! I see someone also mentioned (below?) Don't mention wedding when booking - however duping your vendors can lead to improper coverage of your event, tail-spinning it into something else. Example, a reception hall has a different timeline for weddings, a Maitre D etc. Regular parties do not have such items. A photog contract would have specific items in it and it would breach contract, and they can potentially just leave day of leaving you stranded. There are so many reasons to NOT do what Leena says below.
I got engaged on Christmas Eve and omg YES all of these are so true! Wedding prices are so astronomical it was super discouraging at first. We got to the end of the tunnel and have finally booked our venue as well! We are lucky because our venue includes the caterer, cake, tables, chairs, linens, silverware, glassware, and much more. I was so surprised to learn that not every (if not most) don’t include much at all! Good luck to you and to all other couples planning their special day! 💕
When I got married I hired a wedding planner, I know it is not cheap but it ended up being worth for me. Normally, people do not get married several times, so in the wedding industry they know that people is not aware of prices and cannot negotiate properly. The advantage of my wedding planner is that she had the power to negotiate in my behalf because of her knowledge of vendors and she could bring in more clients to the venue, florist, makeup artist, etc in case they did a good price for her. In the end, my marriage was everything I wanted and it was not expensive or stressful…
I agree, our planner was one of the best investments we made for our wedding!, we had a general idea of what we wanted and what it was the most important for us (food and drinks) and she helped and guided us through all of it. 2 years later and people still talks about how much fun they had and how good the food was (we actually ended up using the same caterer for later events and friends and family have use them too
All inclusive venues are the best! Yes, you might save a bit of money by getting a hall and then bringing in a caterer, but often your friends and family are the ones who have to set up and the stress isn’t worth the few hundred dollars you will save.
Remember that it is your wedding, no matter what opinions are floating around! In the end, the people with the opinions go their own way and you have to live with whether it went the way you wanted or not.
Good luck! We are in the middle of the process too and it is so overwhelming.. we thankfully are signing a contract this upcoming week with a venue! One good tip I learned is if you book from October-April you can typically get discounts! We are getting married October 10th 2020 and we are saving $1400 and because of that, I'm able to get a wedding planner !!! :D
That's the date my fiance and I wanted but everything was booked for that day. So we picked 10/3/2020. Good luck!
I was going to get married that date too. I looked online at as many venues as possible and ended up picking the first we saw in person.
That's the date my best friend is going to get married!!
That is a very interesting tip and helpful information. I am starting the process of planning my wedding for next year. Would that be for just about any venue as far as booking from October-April for discounts? Congratulations to you!
@@mikolbritt7538 I believe most places do!
you seem like a chill, laidback person and I wish you luck on all your planning. you're a sweetheart, nightowl.
Im not getting married any time soon like at all lol but I really enjoyed your video and was sad when you started closing out! Keep making videos like this and you should totally do a dress shopping vlog of some sort lol
I have been married twice. Once when I was 18 and once when I was 43. My advice is to stay true to yourself and ignore anyone that tells you that you "have to" or "should". Do what you want. I didn't care about a cake the second time around, so we didn't have a wedding cake. No regrets and saved a lot of money. We didn't want a sit down reception and dance (typical where I am from) so we did a dessert reception. I could go on, but you get the picture. The first time I married, I let everyone tell me how it was to be done - if you invite one aunt, you have to invite all the aunts (says who? and who is that other aunt anyway, never heard of her!), you have to have a garter toss (ugh) because "that is the way it is done".
Doing what you want and what is important to you allows you to put your money into things you truly care about. I was able to get a videographer because we didn't pay for a wedding cake and a DJ or band for example.
Guess which wedding I enjoyed the most?
Definitely book your favorite vendors early! If it’s a detail that’s not as important you can be more patient but if you have anyone you really love it’s crazy how early you need to get on their books. Good luck planning! It can be stressful, but so much fun as well!!
Definitely, definitely, definitely go with silk flowers! Also, spend a little more on a professional photographer because you will cherish these photos forever!
I’m getting married in 18 days oh my goodness! The biggest advice from my planning would be listen to your heart and your groom. So many people will tell you what you should or shouldn’t do and compare to other weddings they’ve been to. Just do what you think is best for you two and don’t worry about little things! Congrats!
I am getting married in 6 weeks! My greatest advice is to buy silk flowers at Hobby Lobby when they are running their 40-50% off floral sales. I bought all my flowers for my wedding for around $400 and loved putting them together myself and being able to store them before the wedding!
Wow my husband and I got so lucky. The place we chose rented us the room, catered, dj, included the cake, did the center pieces (the seating and tables were also included along with silverware etc) they coordinated the napkins and chair backers to our color..and OPEN BAR all for 65 per head!! That also included gratuity! We only had to find a photographer and someone to marry us as well as bring any decorations and a seating chart. They made our lives so easy.
Hi, I’m from Australia, I got married last year and my best piece of advice is keep it simple and classic. It keeps the cost lower and as a more relaxed person myself I found that it meant we had a really relaxed and warm atmosphere for our wedding that our guests loved 😊
Also, don’t stress too much; ultimately it’s one day and so just sit back and enjoy celebrating marrying the love of your life with you’re friends and family 💜
Good Luck! I got married last November in Australia but all those things you mentioned were the exact same things I thought :) You sound like you're really doing things the way you and your fiance want anyway so that's great. Honestly my first thought waking up the next day was 'wow that was a lot of my life planning 9 hours'. The day goes so fast and you have the BEST time. All you remember is who was there so don't stress about anything else... and no one remembers flowers!
Newly engaged (yay!!) and OMG I had no idea how expensive everything could be! But one piece of advice I’ve been given is to create a wedding email address to use for any venue, vendor, etc inquiries! Keeps your regular inbox from getting bombarded and hopefully keeps things more organized as well!
Your video was in my recommendations, I’m new to your channel. You seem such a lovely person, which is quite refreshing when it comes to CZcams. I sincerely hope you have a wonderful wedding day and a wonderful life together. Save as much as you can on the wedding so you can put as much money as possible into the honeymoon. XxxxxX
Thank you so much!
We purchased our silk bouquets online and got silk flowers from old time pottery to make our own centerpiece and aisle decoration.
We chose a venue that included ceremony and reception area with a day of wedding coordinator and a closet full of decorations at our disposal to use.
And for catering we found a small local business who was actually a couple and they made amazing food. They basically made whatever we wanted and didn’t have a set menu to chop from.
It takes a bit of research and diying but you can have a beautiful AND affordable wedding. Try not to get discouraged and get sucked into the wedding industry hole. 😊
My top goal for wedding planning (and the day of the wedding!) is to make and remember some goals for your wedding. This was very helpful to me because I am a total control freak and don't do fantastically when things don't go according to plan, but by narrowing things down and keeping my goals in mind through the planning process and on the day, I was able to focus on what was important to me: Getting married, honouring the important people in my life, and spending time with people I don't get to see very often.
Yayyy keep the wedding content coming
I think the best advice I could give is when you go Wedding dress shopping, go with an open mind to everything because wedding dresses are way different than clothes, I absolutely didn’t want a strapless dress and I was against it the whole time, finally tried it on and fell in love! Lol it shocked me but that was my wedding dress :)
Yay! Congratulations! So funny, we were also looking into June 6, 2020, because we wanted it to be even numbers, and were also surprised to find out that that date and any other dates we wanted were already booked for mid-2020 (we started planning immediately after engagement on June 26th, 2019) Thankfully, we were able to book for Aug 8th, 2020! Thank you for sharing this info! I’m shocked! We’re currently looking into catering and florists, and can already imagine just how much that’s going to cost us, so we’re trying to go the minimalist route, and having an intimate wedding. Wishing you the very best 🎉🙏
Hello! My best wedding planning advise is to really be OK with what you want. We had a wedding without alcohol and it was a big deal to me that it was shorter (I really am not into long weddings) and there was a lot of push back from family and friends. It ended up being what I wanted and worked out very well just know that it is really at the end of the day about both of you guys. Its a celebration of your relationship so know that you know whats the best fit for you! Good luck with the planning and have a fun wedding :)
Ok, for the flowers - I knew the exact same thing, the prices were high and honestly sometimes they die way sooner than you would like them to. Another thing to worry about. For our wedding I purchased fake flowers that looked pretty great. We already had an outdoor wedding in the summer with grass, trees etc so there isn't always a need for tons of flowers. After the wedding I was able to sell the faux flowers and voila :)
When in doubt if its worth the money, get a break down of what you are paying for! I got that for my venue and ended up saving money and time with that information.
When talking to vendors, and other wedding help, try to avoid the w word, say it's an anniversary party or something, cause yes they do tax. And NEVER BE AFRAID TO DIY! my friend just had a gorgeous DIY boho wedding, we made everything from the most random things at dollar tree, then after the wedding she was able to sell it for well over double what she spent (paint was honestly where she spent the most on decor)
Right there with ya girl! I live in Massachusetts and my fiance and I are getting married this October. We found an amazing venue in NH that basically includes everything but decor so I am DIYing everything, and omg, there's so much to do!
I'm currently planning my wedding and will be getting married in 2020 as well. We got really lucky with our venue, it has a lot included with it so it's makes it sooo much easier for us. Now we're just working on the minor things. Good luck with the rest of your wedding planning!
We just got married last weekend! We had DIY family members help us put the decorations together! We had super easy center pieces, 2 bowls of m&ms and a battery tea light! We were super happy with everything and very grateful for the family members that helped us! We didn't waste $ on programs, we did a "Save the birth" announcements (son was born 6 months before wedding)
Using silk flowers was one of the best wedding decisions I made. I wasn't confident enough to put them together myself, but I found a woman who did an amazing job and worked with me to customize them. I liked being able to see them weeks in advance and not having to worry about keeping anything refrigerated or from getting crushed. I would have loved to have real flowers, but I couldn't justify the cost.
I did order boxes of real rose petals from Sams Club for decorating the aisle and that worked out great too! Just make sure you have enough room in your fridge to store them.
I got married last year and I was so thankful that most of my friends and bridesmaids had gotten married before me. They were able to give me a lot of tips before I even got engaged.
I just started planning my wedding in March 2019. I've researched many things already. I think its always best to plan ahead. I just got legally married June 5th, 2019. And we plan to have our wedding June 5th, 2021 in Hawaii as a destination wedding since my husband's family lives there and he grew up there. Super excited. We have 2 years to save up and plan everything. This year I plan to look into venues and everything, and by next year June 2020, I will book everything by that date. Watching wedding videos on CZcams helps me plan and a lot of people give great advice as well. Researching and booking everything ahead of time saves me the stress and being overwhelmed. After booking our vendors, we have a year to enjoy our wedding planning and be excited about our wedding.
Great video! I'm getting married in February of 2020 but in New Jersey! Winter weddings were about $30 per person cheaper than anything after May and we're inviting 80 people. We have to have at least 70 people there according to our venue. I also chose to got with silk and faux florals because of allergies and pricing. I bought most of my flowers from Afloral.com for $162 and then got a few additional florals like eucalyptus and lambs ear from JoAnns which always has sales and coupons. Lastly, I went to one Bridal Expo at my venue. I don't even remember giving one of the vendors my email, but they won't stop emailing me and nothing pisses me off more. Like if I haven't responded don't keep bothering me.
My husband and I got married Feb 2009. I love Winter weddings.
I've heard of brides doing a silk bouquet for pictures and some parts of the wedding and having a real bouquet of flowers to throw
I got married almost 8 years ago one thing we really enjoyed was buying disposable cameras in addition to having professional photos done it was nice to laugh at some of the candids... because it was almost impossible to talk and see everyone there. And it really showed how much of a good time everyone had. Best advice I can give for a happy wedding is don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff. What really matters in a marriage is you and your partner the best advice I received was never go to bed mad. If you have issues resolve to fix them before you go to bed that night.
I got engaged at the end of February of this year!! I can't wait to see more of your wedding contact! We're getting married 09/29/2019, so it's only a 7 month engagement. We sat down and made our budget and while doing so, decided on what we were going to prioritize spending our money on. So full disclosure, our budget is 10k, with over 350 guests invited. We do have certain vendors being paid for by parents, so those aren't included in our budget. Our number one priority was our wedding photographer. It was important for us to get enough time with her on the day of as well as an engagement shoot included, so we decided that it was worth it to spend about 30% of our budget on our photographer. I would also say that you absolutely do not have to have certain things that are deemed "traditional." For example, over 50% of guests forget to take their wedding favor, no matter how cute it is. If we were doing favors, we'd have little seed packets to "watch our love grow" or something cute like that, but it's honestly not worth the money. We also are not doing a guestbook. Other than right after the wedding (maybe), when am I ever going to sit down and look through a book of signatures? Do I really want a box with wooden hearts in it with people's names written in sharpie hanging on a wall in my house? So just think realistically about the little stuff and if you *really* need it or want it, and prioritize based on that.
Best advise I ever received: Do not go into debt for your wedding. It’s so tempting with the entire wedding industry telling you that you need this and that. The day will be beautiful and full of love on a budget ... and then it will be over sooner than you think. You want to look back on it fondly, not fretting about the credit card bill. Congratulations on your engagement and enjoy each moment 💕
I was at my friend’s wedding a few weeks ago, and they served McDonalds nuggets and fries at 10:30 pm as a late night snack for all the people who stayed to party, and it was great!
Planning a wedding is stressful! My wedding was in ‘07, and it cost $92,000 back then, but in the end it was everything I hoped for and so much more, it was worth every penny!!! I agree about booking in advance, I booked 19 months in advance. Loved the video 😁
I got my flowers done at a grocery store! It was a tiny chain of specialty foods (like a fancy Whole Foods) and I was a fraction of the price. And I only did my flowers and my bridesmaids flowers. Everything else we brought in potted plants :)
For those looking for destination wedding ideas, I know this sounds totally overdone, but Go To Las Vegas.
Each venue does dozens of weddings everyday. The wedding planners are amazing and laid back, venues for the ceremony and reception are always super flexible, and the chapels make plain what each package includes. There are no hidden costs, and you can always add to your event. Also, there are so many different things that guests can do in the days after your wedding beyond drinking and gambling.
We just celebrated our 10th anniversary, and we did a whole weekend for $2K. Our wedding was on the lower end, and it was 10 years ago... but I cannot imagine that the rates would have skyrocketed.
When we were first planning a wedding, we considered a courthouse ceremony, then a restaurant reception, but those hidden costs started to add up.
I hope all of you planning weddings right now find your mantra, and do not allow the stress of planning the biggest party of your lives to consume you. Remember that this is a day to celebrate your relationship and life together, and that it ought to reflect the life you and your partner have built together.
My wedding was basically a DIY event. My step mom made all the bouquets & boutiners (sp?) for our wedding party & the parents. She & I got together & made the invitations (she does scrapbooking as a hobby so had a ton of stuff at her disposal for us to make it ourselves). My step mom made our wedding cake as well (she does that as hobby on the side as well lol). She also called in a lot of favors when it came to the food & setting up the decorations. So many people offered to help make foods for us & so many people helped provide some decorations for the wedding it was unbelievable! But I found that... making stuff was really fun. I enjoyed being able to make exactly what I wanted myself & it certainly saved a lot of money! Only advice I can give is to be sure to set an appt for the wedding dress shopping. I didn't & just walked in to a David's Bridal & luckily they were able to make space for us, but just barely. Other than that... it might be fun to make some things yourself if you have the time & the utensils for it!
Wooden flowers are also a great option and look super amazing! My friend is getting married and she is using them for her wedding. Her proof is amazing and it will be something she can keep forever.
My brother got married and they did a lot of the decor themselves and reached out to family and friends for help. You can do a craft wedding party where close friends come and help you make your things that aren't as important and can be done in house. Don't wait until later. Do it maybe a year in advance so it's done and you don't have to stress. They had a very nice wedding. Burlap, white, greenery, and hints of lace. Picking a simple but aesthetically pleasing theme allows for things to be done in house and still look professional.
Advice on saving money, get together with crafty friends and make your own save the date, invitations, place names, seating plan etc. Its fun to make these, especially with bridesmaids or crafty relatives. Buy card , envelopes & ribbon in bulk. Also make your own favours and table decorations. For my daughters wedding, I got a local grower to grow 15 white double orchids. They created a fantastic centrepiece for tables, and then they can be gifted to special people as a thank you. Also make your own cake, or get a relative to gift you the cake. Have different types of cake for each layer & use a spiral stand, which looks very professional. Also edible flowers can be added on the day, takes 5 mins. Wishing you every happiness for the future ! 💟🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧💟
Getting married this October and I think you've hit all of the points really well. I've been engaged since November of 2017 and planning since then and it's just crazy to think that even though we locked our venue in this past summer how crazy it was to book other aspects like hotel blocks since it seems each planning category almost had its own timeline
Im doing a rustic wedding and will be using dried wildflowers. Very fragile but delicate and beautiful! Also affordable.
My husband’s friend & his wife had this awesome ‘where will they be’ set up at their reception. I’ve never seen that before. But it’s interesting b/c you write down something cool or off the wall or even advice. Then they read through them & they picked the best one & that person got a cute little gift. They went from 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years & up to 50 years.
So it’s not advice, but it’s something cool you could add to your reception. And very interesting! Best of luck!
I have a few things that really helped me plan my wedding on a shoe string budget. Book your day during the off season (no holidays, not early in the summer or mid fall). Minimize your use of flowers and pick varieties that are in season (I also harvested some of my flowers/foliage). Include your community as much as possible (it's surprising how many people in your sphere will have old decor items on hand like table cloths and back drops or who would be willing to help cater or do the floral arrangements at a discount or as a wedding gift).
THANK YOU SO MUCH! VERY HELPFUL I AM PLANNING MY WEDDING NOW
Hi, I'm getting married in August 2020 in Burgundy, France and I totally agree with all 5 points ! Looking forward for more wedding related content 👰🇫🇷
My husband and I spent more on our honeymoon than our wedding because it was more important to make sure that we enjoyed our time together celebrating our marriage with one on one time rather than putting together a huge wedding to satisfy our guests.
my cousin is getting married this summer. She's doing silk flowers for the wedding party, and having a family member grow wildflowers for her centre pieces! she's saved so much by doing this... also, she gave us bridesmaids a colour and length and let us buy our own dresses, which saved us all money!
I'm so glad I found your channel! You're so amazing and charismatic! I'm a New Englander myself haha
Leena Marie me too!! :)
I got engaged in July 2018 and I've been finding similar things to you about the planning process over here in the UK. The venues and caterers effectively hiding their charges had the same effect on me, just a hard nope, but it's so hard not to feel disheartened when you finally find something you really like just to realise way into the process that you can't afford it. I'm glad that we've held out for vendors that we can trust and who give that little bit extra because they want to give good service not just take your money and it sounds like you've done the same. The cost of flowers did initially shock me but I don't think the prices are quite so bad in the UK, we're paying just over £1,000 for ours and it was something I couldn't compromise on. It's weird the things you think will matter and then don't but equally there are things you wouldn't have pegged as important that suddenly reveal themselves! Good luck with the rest of your planning. I'm interested to see how you get on with booking a photographer as that's next on our list! 2020 seems super popular for weddings here too so we picked a good but perhaps crazy year to get married! Loving how honest your channel is, you're a great storyteller! Emma
Also you may want to invest in a day of coordinator. That person deals with everything on the day of so you dont have to worry about anything on your big day♡
Our venue offers this as an add on and I’m considering it! It’s expensive but I agree, it’s definitely worth it. I’m an absolute basket case when I’m stressed haha and I really want to be zen on my wedding day and not think about a damn thing except my fiancé haha
Another thing is, if you have family willing to cook for your reception, that's a HUGE money saver! I have a large family, we cooked several briskets, potatoes, and mixed vegetables, it stretched so far we had leftovers and bonus, we had a military discount to purchase the briskets on base.....saved us THOUSANDS to feed everyone! This is also a great way to involve aunts, uncles, new inlaws, etc that are not in the wedding party, but still get a "role ", by having them be your servers buffet style, once everyone is served, cleaning crew for venue takes care of dishes and your guests stay as guests after the food is served. Also, contact a restaurant supply place and purchase clear plastic dinner plates and silver colored utensils, they are inexpensive, easy to obtain, look elegant, and you can toss them! That subtracts rental of dishes and cleaning service fee! You could also look into renting chargers for placing under the dinner plates from the same place where you might have to rent table cloths and napkins, chances are, they will really dress up your table and be pennies on the dollar vs buying them
Paragraph!
Your makeup looks so good in this video!
Thank you!
I'm in the process of planning my wedding and I feel you on most of these shockers (especially the venue minimums!). We ended up choosing to get married on a Friday in order to avoid a bunch of those and managed to snag some discounts in the process. I haven't fully finished the wedding planning yet (we're getting married 9/20/19), but a big tip I have relates to the wedding cake. We found a local restaurant that does catering but also does deserts to order a wedding cake from. We did a tasting before committing so we knew the cake/icing was delicious, but they were so much more economical than a "standard" bakery. We also decided to get a relatively small cake that will feed maybe half the invited guests (most people don't even eat the cake!), and go with homemade cookies for desert/favors. It great way to save money and the cookies can be made in advance then frozen/thawed so it's not a huge time commitment. Plus who doesn't want to leave a wedding with a bag of homemade cookies?!
Have a day of "point person". This can be someone hired (like a wedding planner) or even a family member. A cousin was my "point person" she made sure everything was on track, dealt with vendors, got things that were forgot, held jackets while we took pictures, etc. Because of her I was able to focus on my wedding day rather than all these small things. It was a blessing.
I got married in September and the advice I can lend you is.
Get a photographer you can trust.
Dyi if you can.
Organization is key. Make a list of need to be done and when the dead line for it. That save me time on what needs to be priorities and what can wait.
Do your research because wedding season is crazy and can become overwhelming.
Congratulations on getting married and good luck
Don’t let the small stuff get to you! Did a wedding in a week, because in laws decided eloping was basically me spitting in their face, it really made me decide what was important and what was small stuff and just focus in on what mattered to me and ignore things other people cared about. Photography was my main concern, like you said it’s your only wedding.
Just went to a wedding over the weekend and she had a mini cake for herself and her groom and donuts for the guests (homemade) and they were so yummy and it was a cute touch that people are still talking about! cheaper than cake and also, less messy lol
Go with silk flowers. I bought mine at Michael's and Hobby Lobby, had my aunt make 4 big bouquets and maybe spent $150. Look for sales and coupons.
I've been in too many weddings that did real flowers and by the time we got to pictures after the wedding, some of the bouquets looked a little beaten up.
I had a pretty laid back wedding. We had Bob Evans breakfast for our wedding and it was a huge hit. Love the brick oven pizza idea, great choice.
I'm also getting married next year in New England, and one thing that blew my mind is when you're having "plated" meals catered, and you give the guests options to choose beef, chicken, or vegetarian - you are paying for everyone to get beef, AKA the most expensive option. Even if they chose vegetarian!
Whaaaat?! I didn’t know that, that’s crazy!
My sister got all of her flowers from Costco (table flowers, decoration flowers, and bouquets) for around $300 total! She got married in Canada which is usually more expensive then the states too :) They came as one large load of flowers which my mom picked up in the morning of the "big day" and we all spent about 20 minutes making our own bouquets and our family friends helped place the rest of the flowers into our own vases for the tables and other pretty areas around the venue!
I had mostly edible flowers and plants in my bouquets like roses, sage, and rosemary and they looked amazing. My florist was insanely talented but also new to wedding so it was a lot cheaper but I spent a huge chunk of my budget on flowers because that is what I planned for as they were. The most important decoration for me personally. I don’t regret it in the slightest. The most expensive flowers I bought were gardenias and that was because it was off season and apparently they are as fragile as glass. But my husband loves them because they remind him of his great grandmother who passed away when he was 10 and I really felt the need to include them for him.
As a wedding photographer and a married woman, my advice would be to make the photography and the flowers your biggest investment (relative to your budget, of course). A great photographer can make any wedding day look like it cost $20,000, and florals really help pull the aesthetics of your whole day together. I've seen so many couples think they can find a budget photographer who will capture their day well, but then they don't know how to find good lighting, they have cheap equipment, and their photos just don't turn out well. And a good photographer will give you an awesome experience as well :) Meet with your potential photogs in person to make sure you click on a personal level, too.
I love following your channel! I have your videos playing on the side of my screen while I work, haha. Wedding planning should be fun, so I hope you end up enjoying it and don't get too stressed out!
2017 I married the man of my dreams. The wedding was small 60 people. We poled a few friends about an idea we had about the food and they loved it. So we decided to ask for people to bring food instead of gifts. Most people express love through they make food. We asked for only 25 tapas bites per invitation. We provided cooling and heating if needed, the cups, picks, tiny forks, dishes or plates they needed. I will say that we had such a huge amount of food and everyone loved the idea because it was cheaper than gifts. There was so many different options and the tables were beautiful. Most all of our friends are foodies, cooks or chefs. I built the food tables so that everyone could just set there items down and walk away. Fast forward two years and we still have people talking about it. Just this past week end all of my husbands cousins came over for a party and mentioned our wedding and how much they loved the food idea. It really made everyone talk to each other to find out who made what and could they have the recipe. In fact two couples have decided to so the same thing for their weddings. Everyone got to be part of the wedding and felt they had their place that was more than I could have hoped for.
Watch Jamie wolfer’s videos! Seriously the best thing I ever did! So much helpful information and def hire a wedding coordinator for sure!
Kathy H love Jamie’s videos!! And Michel Janse too!!
Sophie Watson yes!!! Love hers too!
Chilled, laid back is definitely the way to go! Our wedding was about the same size, and I loved the intimacy of it. We also did something a little different and had a breakfast buffet for the dinner. We also had a live band, which was very different than the typical DJ. We got so many compliments about it being one of the best weddings our family and friends had ever been too! Planning a wedding really tested my control because when that day comes you just have to roll with the flow and know that everything will fall into place as it needs to. And you can't control the weather, so dance in the rain! :)
Love this! We’re also doing a s’mores bar for the late night snacks and having a small cake to cut and then doing donuts for everyone! We’re not fancy people so this was def the way to go, I’m so excited!
@@TheNightOwl1212 Oh yes! Love those ideas too! We did a donut bar instead of cake (because donuts are the best)! We have some pretty nice bridal consignment shops around here - tons of decorations, and I actually ended up buying my dress second hand (but thankfully still brand new with tags)! I'm all about saving money. So true on the part about the flowers too. We made some dried flower arrangements ourselves (literally just from different "weeds" and grasses that grow naturally). And then for the center pieces, I basically just had the florist use "filler" flowers and greens, so they were cheaper and gave it a nice light, natural feel, and we provided the jars. Our florist quoted my bouquet, which was pretty reasonable, but I decided I wanted something smaller, which dropped the price quite a bit, and it was still plenty big (wouldn't have wanted anything bigger). So there's some wiggle room in there :) Also, we didn't have any bridal party/groomsmen, and holy crap does that cut down on excess spending and nightmares (as you've experienced) ;) Happy planning!
I love your hair in your wedding horror story part 2 it looks so bouncy! You should totally do a tutorial !
Hi! I recently got married in September 14th 2019. I was definitely glued to Pinterest and the wedding wire when I first got engaged. First off congratulations! I would say some of the advice I can give you is that to most vendors like you mentioned have a min number you have to meet our venue was all inclusive so we did both the ceremony and the reception there but we had to have a guest count of at least 120 to book it. For us the venue was worth it but you should also look at the contracts you are signing we were shocked when we figured out gratuity wasn’t added in to the final price already was added later once we had a official guest count and to have that extra almost two grand to pay was definitely frustrating. You can also DIY things as well I made our signs and our wedding programs too.