A Question for the Already Married

kareneweigel2008

I have been taking an informal poll of married people to find out what they considered the biggest 'waste' of money at their wedding.  I'm curious to know what you already married folks wish you'd done differently.  What was the one thing that you could've done without or wish you'd spent less on?

mayflymanitou

We actually didn't have any regrets about what we spent our money on.  We were on a tight budget ($5000 for everything) so we had to be very particular about our spending.

Things we did to cut costs included:
- iPod for all music (ceremony, dinner, dancing)
- swapped services for photography (I did her flowers, she did my photos)
- DIY flowers, invitations, decor, etc
- bought our own wine and champagne (was cheaper to do this and pay the corkage fee)
- sheet cakes instead of traditional stacked cake (lots more cake for the money and they tasted just as good and looked just as pretty)
- used friends/ family as videographer, dj, wedding coordinator, etc.

The one area where I prepared to go over budget if needed was the photography.  I knew we were much more likely to look through albums and put up photos on the wall for the next 20+ years than we were to watch a video, so I was willing to spend the money on a good photographer if I needed to.

The one thing I would have been OK eliminating were favors.  The Mr. really wanted to do them, and it was totally his project so I didn't put up a fight.  But no one would have missed them if they weren't there.

kareneweigel2008

Thank you for responding! I was started to feel slighted. lol  

I had thought about bringing my own wine but the amounts worked out to be the same with the corkage fee.  My wedding is at a Marriott and is rather all-inclusive.  On one hand, that's easier but I wish there were a little bit more flexibility.  We are doing favors but they are $1.50 each and therefore, affordable.  My MOH said that if she had to do it all over again, she'd feed people bologna and pb&j and fork over the dough for the photographer.  She has no wedding pictures because her photographer was terrible.  I hired a great photographer!

estherandgeoff2

Didn't see this post until now. I have no regrets either. We got married at a McMenamins because they only charged a food and drink minimum and the prices were reasonable. We made sure they didn't serve alcohol to the guests, only wine, beer, and non-alcoholic drinks. We also skipped the champagne toast and just toasted with whatever people were drinking. 

Photography was also important to us so we hired someone we knew would do a great job even if he wasn't the cheapest. We made our own bouquets and center pieces. 

DramaGeek

I'm happy with the way we did things.  The only thing I'd do differently is to have a smaller wedding, but H wanted the giganthunormous event so I was stuck with it.  We didn't do favors and I have no regrets there, at all.

velocitygrl

I don't have any real **regrets**.  But there are probably things I'd do differently now. 
Gift bags were the biggest waste of money, and the biggest hassle.
Don't spend much on them, and don't try to individualize them.  DH picked out different stuff for wedding party and family vs. the rest of the guests, and it made it way harder to get everything delivered correctly.

Other things I'd change:
Don't upgrade dinner selection (i.e. everybody eats chicken vs. surf and turf)
Get the cheap napkins/chairs/etc- nobody remembers that matchy stuff.
Get a small pretty cutting cake, and an inexpensive sheet cake for the guests.

kareneweigel2008

Thank you ladies!!

mustanggoonie

I am getting remarried in April.  My biggest regret from my first wedding (besides the groom!) was that I didn't have a DJ.
I am making sure to have a DJ this time to keep the reception going! They can also be your Master of Ceremonies and a good DJ will eliminate your need for a "day-of" coordinator.

Atomic_Redhead

I don't have any major regrets either.  If I was forced to pick one, I would say my veil.  It was $179.  If having a real veil isn't important, then opt for a nice hair comb or something of that nature, because you can use it again!

But here are some suggestions I did to save money...
-Ipod instead of a DJ or band, which is really nice since you have total control over the songs.  We had a lot of weather issues, and that caused some friends to leave early, and I had a lot of songs in mind that I wanted to dance with them to, so I was able to skip ahead to those songs.

-DIY paper - this saved us a TON! We did our own invites, thank you cards, escort cards, name cards, programs - everything!  For a total of around $400.

-No flowers - I hate flowers, and opted for a lot of Christmas ornaments (I just got married last week) in my decor.  Since I got engaged in October of 2009, I was able to buy a lot of decor after Christmas for super cheap.  Instead of bouquets, myself and my maid of honor did white fur muffs.  I didn't have any other attendants.  And my muff was real fur and cost $35 (at an antique store in Washington), hers was fake and cost $20 (purchased off Amazon.com).

-Cupcakes instead of cake.  We looked at doing a real cake, and that was going to be about $800 to feed about 65 people, cupcakes were less than half of that cost...around $388 I think.  We used Cupcake Jones.

-Buy a sample gown.  I was able to purchase my dress from the sample gown selection at a store, costing me only $348.  I was then able to splurge and buy a second gown (the other look I had contemplated and purchased vintage for $80) and buy a going away dress.

-Get married on a weekday - it costs the venue fee in half.  Weekends where we got married were at least $3,000 for one room, but we got two rooms for $2,300 for having it on a Tuesday.

-DIY officiat - no fee! We had a friend get ordained for us!