I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m just so excited that I had to share.  It arrived at the store last Thursday and I have an appointment on Thursday for my first fitting.

I owe it all to very helpful friends who shared their advice on getting a dress for less when I posted about my first dress hunt.  I got my dress for a lot less than I budgeted for.  Here’s a summary of the cost-saving tips:

• Sale and sample sale events
• Discount stores
• Pre-owned (tip from Jessica)
• Student or up and coming designer/seamstress (tip from Daphne)
• Bridesmaid dress (tip from Lexi)

 Loading …

Is the current state of our economy affecting your wedding plans?

With the rough economy, we find more and more people wary of their spending and more conscientious of their finances.  Wedding being a big money-magnet, it’s just logical to think that the wedding industry will be affected as much as the other industries.  Based on this article at Edmonton Journal, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Photo from London Wedding Car

If there’s one thing that just might be recession-proof, it’s the wedding dreams of young brides-to-be.

Despite a slumping Canadian economy and rising unemployment in Alberta, there was little talk of cutting back at the Edmonton Bridal Fair on Sunday.

“I don’t think the economy affects the wedding business as much as other retail businesses, because you’re shopping for a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” said Denilore Bridal owner Pat Montour.

“If you’ve had a dream since you were a little girl, you’re probably not going to change it much.”

The wedding industry may be almost recession-proof, but brides still have to be more cautious.  Here are some tips to plan your wedding at this economy.

Don’t go deeply into debt.  We don’t know what the future holds, so I suggest looking into that budget again and see if you can pay for most of it now without oweing any money.

Choose well-established and financially secure vendors.  You wouldn’t want your vendor bailing out before your wedding day.

Do not expect less people to come to your wedding.  Even though it is likely that you will have less guests than you expected in the beginning because of the economy, do not factor that in your budget.  If you’re trying to cut down on your budget, do not lessen your RSVP expectations, but instead invite less people.

Do not expect monetary gifts.  Guests are affected by the sagging economy as well.  When it really comes down to it, gifts are not even required at weddings.

When determining your budget, do not factor in future revenues.  With struggling economy comes uncertainty.  More people are unsure whether they’ll still have a job this year or next.  So use money that you already have and can spare, for your wedding.

Old Navy has reusable bags right now for only 99 cents! They’re great as out-of-town bags. The colors are lime and navy. The lime has “peace hope green” on it while the navy has “old navy”

I’m looking for centerpieces that I won’t need fresh flowers for and I saw this DIY Magnolia centerpieces at Martha Stewart Weddings.  They’re adorable!

All you would need are crepe paper, craspedia blooms, white floral tape, scissors, and Magnolia petal template.

Click here for template and instructions at Martha Stewart Weddings.

There are plenty of ways a bride can find ideas and inspirations for her wedding. And I will not allow myself to spend a cent to do this. The magazines below are just some that I’ve gotten for free. Others I already gave to a friend.

Below are some ways to get ideas for your wedding at no cost:

• Go online! The world wide web is populated with tons of wedding websites where you can get plenty of ideas and inspirations for your wedding. Visit wedding sites, blogs, forums and photo sites. A few of my favorites are Brides.com, Snippet and Ink, Southern Weddings Mag, The Bride’s Cafe, Flickr. Click here for a complete list.
• Attend bridal shows or expos. Besides getting ideas from the event itself, you can also get free wedding magazines. I don’t go to events that I have to pay for. There are a lot of events that are free. If the event is not free, search online for coupons or ticket giveaways. Weddingwire.com has an extensive list of events and promotions. Wedding blogs often host contests and giveaways.
• Ask previous brides for ideas and if they want to get rid of their wedding magazines. Don’t just ask the people you know, join forums too. TheKnot forums has local boards which makes it easy to find brides in your area.
• Sign up at your local online wedding guide if any. I signed up at www.yournewportwedding.com and I received a lot of helpful info including the Newport Wedding Magazine.
• Ask vendors when you meet with them. Vendors sometimes receive complimentary copies of magazines that they can give their current and future clients.
• Browse through magazine racks. All you need is to see an idea or inspiration. You don’t need to take it home and stare at it, do you? If you think you won’t remember, jot it down or take a picture.

Tip: Take a note of where you get your inspirations from. I find myself going back to my sources for more info on those ideas I liked. For example, Brides.com usually has a note for each photo that includes where the materials were obtained and MarthaStewartWeddings.com has instructions on some of their ideas.

If you got the idea online, instead of just saving the photo, favorite the site or use tools like Polyvore.com. Plumeria Bud of BridalBuds has a list of online tools you can use. If you found the idea in an event or publication, take a photo. In addition, if you post the ideas online, you’ll be able to credit your sources.

Where do you get your ideas and inspirations from?

We’re in a technology boom and more and more engaged couples now have their own wedding websites.  Wedding websites can be very useful to guests.  These websites usually include detailed info about the wedding and other events, travel info for out-of-town guests, gift registry, and even an RSVP form.

While there are a lot of sites that offer wedding website services and hosting for a fee, there are equally as many sites that offer it for free.  Below are some that I know of:
www.weddingwire.com - my top choice
www.mywedding.com
www.weddingannouncer.com
www.projectwedding.com
www.brides.com
www.theknot.com
www.momentville.com
www.ewedding.com

Unfortunately, I couldn’t customize the free websites as much as I want to.  So I decided to use one that I’m familiar with - the blog platform WordPress.

Read on…

Photo from AshleysBrideGuide.com

One of the first questions we asked ourselves when we got engaged was how much we are going to spend for the wedding. I thought setting up a budget was quick and easy. It actually turned out to be a long process that requires a lot of research for both of us who knew so little about wedding budgets.

There are many elements in a wedding. Setting up a budget not only requires coming up with a single number, but several numbers for each element. How much of your total budget will go to food and beverage, flowers and decor, photography, entertainment, etc?

There are lot of wedding budget tools on and offline that can help. But there’s one important feature missing on most of these budget tools. They don’t factor in your priorities. I learned that setting your priorities is very important in coming up with a budget breakdown. While most tools recommend allotting around 30% to 50% of the total budget to reception, our reception (including venue fee) turned out to be almost 75% of our total budget. Crazy, isn’t it? Well, to us, good food and a beautiful venue that requires minimal decor (one way to save) top our priority list.

These are the steps I followed to create our wedding budget:

Read on…

This Saturday is the NY Wedding Workshop: How to get the most out of your money.  And I’m going, thanks to Anne of From “I Will” to “I Do” for offering free tickets!!

Whether your wedding budget is $25,000 or $500,000, this economic climate demands that you get the best value for your dollar. Learn expert planner Lindsay Landman’s tricks of the trade starting with making a realistic budget, deciphering vendor pricing and negotiating a favorable contract. This is a workshop for every bride on every budget as great value always translates to getting more of what you want. Walk away with specific vendor referrals and bridal shopping tips to save you serious cash. Light refreshments will be served.

I’m hoping to gain more knowledge on wedding budget and dealing with vendors and prices.  Click here to purchase tickets or head on to the From “I Will” to “I Do” blog to see if there are still available tickets.

I’ll be posting a review after the event so stay tuned.

Below are the cost and info I received for my initial inquiries for a 2009 event. The info below just gives you an idea of how and what the venues charge and include. A lot of factors such as season, day, time and number of guests can affect the pricing. To get a more precise quote for your event, please contact the venues.

Click on image to download file

John and I had just finished visiting all four venues, so stay tuned for our impressions.

 

Here’s another quiz for my engaged and married readers!  It’s pretty funny too.  We all know that there’s money (mostly a lot of it) involved in weddings.  So let’s test your wedding money knowledge.  You can’t get married if you don’t perfect the quiz.  Just kidding!

For better or worse, it’s money and marriage that go together like a horse and carriage. And we’re not just talking about the institution of marriage — we speak specifically of the ceremony itself, steeped as it is in money mores. Whether you’re the one tying the knot or tossing the rice — are you well-versed in the ways of wampum and weddings? Our quiz will reveal if you have a connubial clue.

~ BankRate.com

Click here to take the quiz