North Carolina-Outer Banks

I need advice!!!!! PLEASE!!!

I am wanting to get married on the beach May 25, 2013.  My finace and I are both college students and want to have a budget friendly wedding.  I am going to do as much as I can by myself.  I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on places and good tip on what to do?????

Thank you!!!!!

Re: I need advice!!!!! PLEASE!!!

  • edited December 2011
    Hi Chrissy!

    This is Ginger with GingerSnaps Photography. I'm a local photographer and have seen many weddings over the years that were FANTASTIC and done for very little cost!
    My #1  peice of advice as a wedding vendor would be:
     1. Don't be shy from letting your vendors know your price point...as a vendor it is much easier for me to cater to my clients if I know their budget. Also, most vendors are happy to customize their services which can be a great way to cut extras that you don't need and keep costs down! :)
    Hope this helps and that you have a fantastic wedding!!!
  • edited December 2011
    We are doing our wedding on a budget of 10K on Hatteras Island.  We are getting married in the church, and having the reception at our rental house (see my bio for more detailed info).  Our biggest expenses..

    -Photographer (2500)
    -House (4K)
    -Rental Co. (tent, tables, chairs etc - 2200)
    -Catering - $50 pp

    We are inviting 140 people and should have about 60.  I cut major costs doing my invites and STD's myself (This saved me easily 1k).  I am also not using a florist and doing DIY flowers ordering from www.fiftyflowers.com) this will save me about 1k as well). 

    Let me know if you have other specific questions.
  • ktyd8ktyd8 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Surf City Visitors Center..$600 for 18 hour rental includes tables and chairs.
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  • edited December 2011
    Everyone has their own way, but I'll share what we've done.

    1. We kept the guest list modest. We're only having 50 people at our wedding (including our party), partly because we didn't want a ginormous to-do, but also to keep costs down. it's hard sometimes -- we're not inviting all family, and we've had to tell folks, "No, you can't bring your two cousins with you," but it also has helped us trim down to the people we really want to share our day.

    2. We rented a house. We rented an event home on the beach, so we have our lodging (before and after our wedding), our wedding and reception sites and our rehearsal dinner sites all in one. If you want to go cheaper, ktyd8's suggestion is great; I also heard that the aquarium also has a decent rate.

    3. LOTS of DIY. We did our own Web site and our doing our own favors, our own invitations, our own STDs, our own programs.

    4. As few flowers as possible. I'm having a bouquet, and my mom and stepmom are having flower bracelets. My fiance and his men are having starfish boutonnieres and my bridesmaids are having fans instead. Since we're having a cocktail reception, no centerpieces!

    5. Shop around for food! We shopped around for caterers, and thought that heavy hors d'oeuvres would be cheaper than a sit-down meal. (That's not necessarily true.) We originally thought about DIY-ing food, but it's more stress than it's worth. I'd highly recommend Black Pelican -- we told them our budget, and they were the only caterer we talked to who was willing to work with us and help us stay *within* -- not bump up against our maximum budget.

    6. Speaking of food! We ended up going with Great Cakes for our cake, but they were good with negotiating too. When I saw they were going to charge us $1.50 for cupcake wrappers, I asked if we could provide our own (I know I could get them cheaper elsewhere). They said yes, and we save money!

    That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If you have other questions, feel free to ask!
  • edited December 2011
    I was a DIY bride in 2009 and since I loved the process so much I'm now a wedding planner!  The last post had lots of great ideas that I used myself, but a couple other things I would recommend:

    1.  Date - Consider Friday/Sunday wedding, it's usually cheaper.  Or... Consider a morning wedding with a brunch reception - eggs and bacon are WAY cheaper than chicken and vegetables.  I attended a destination wedding in the morning with a brunch reception and it was so unique.  Later that afternoon, the couple had some time to refresh and met all of their guests out that night for a celebration at a piano bar!  Neat idea and definite money saver.

    2. Renting a House - Rental houses can be great for the family to stay in and also to host the reception, but see if you can find someone who owns a rental house and you can rent directly from them.  This will save you fees from the Management Company.

    3. Flowers - Sam's Club will deliver wholesale flowers to your house!  We did this and it saved us a bundle on our flower budget.  I had my florist create my bouquet and made simple white rose bouquets for each of my bridesmaids.  He had originally quoted me $45 per bouquet of 6-8 roses, and the ones I made had 12-14 roses and were WAY cheaper.  I would buy extras though cause they come pretty tightly wrapped.

    4. Dress - Buy your dress from a trunk show or look online at bestbridalprices.com to find sample dresses at various stores.  You can also find dress makers on Etsy.com who will custom make any dress you find for your specific measurements.

    5. Savings - check out the website smartypig.com where you can set aside savings for your wedding and it will receive interest with a high interest rate.  The site also allows others to put money in the account for you as Christmas and birthday gifts.  Just know that when you want to withdraw it, you have the withdraw the whole amount all at once. Also, if you redeem the funds in a single gift card, the company will add up to 6% to your total!

    6. Credit Card Points - If you don't already use a credit card with points, get one and use it for your regular monthly expenses.  You can cash in points for airline tickets, hotel stays, or gift cards to tons of different restaurants and stores to use pre-wedding.

    7. CraigsList - you can find lots of vendors on CraigsList, photographers who are just starting out professionally but have amazing amateur work, cake bakers who moved out of the country and have recently moved back and are trying to build a name for themselves, etc. 

    8. Etsy.com - my FAVORITE website, you can work with a designer who will design custom invitations, Save-the-Dates, thank you cards, etc. and will sell you the design for as little as $50, then you print them yourself!  Etsy.com offers everything you could ever want, so look around.

    9. DIY ideas and Wedding Blogs - lots of resources to check out
    dafont.com - invitation fonts
    paper-source.com - stationary
    cardsandpockets.com - stationary
    100layercake.com
    greenweddingshoes.com
    utterlyengaged.com
    amorologyweddings.blogspot.com
    inspiredbride.net
    ruffled.com
    polkadotbride.com

    Good luck with your budgeting! Planning ahead helps a lot!

    Meghan Beckwith
    [email protected]
    meghanblair.com
  • lkleffkelkleffke member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Chrissy,

    I, like Megan above, was a DIY bride for my Outer Banks wedding this past year.  I really had a blast designing the invites and all of the paper goods - so much that I started my own graphic design company on etsy (the website Megan mentions above).  Most of the material on that site is note cards, but I have also really LOVED doing the past custom wedding invitation suites with the idea of fun, colorful, unique but simple design for an affordable price - it really is fun working with the bride to come up with creative budget-friendly ideas.  You can check out some invitation designs of mine here:

    http://mtrlmusings.blogspot.com/2009/07/invitations-check.html#links
    http://mtrlmusings.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-i-love-working-for-myself.html

    best of luck on your planning!
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