NER - Where would you have spent more?

southernbelle0915

I'm a couple months out from my wedding and we're coming in well under budget (even if we have 100% attendance). This is a question for all you wise ladies with wedding experience:

If you could have spent more or spent differently what would you have done?

and

Was there something you're really glad you splurged for or spent extra to get/do?

calliopeia2013

The only place we really cut corners was on the invitations, so if I had infinite money I probably would have spent a bit more there.

I also would have looooved a longer honeymoon (we took five days; I would rather have had ten), but that was more a function of being able to get time off work than it was about cost.

annathy03

I'm still in the planning stages myself, but if I get a solid amount of regrets the first thing I'll look to do is extend the reception an hour.  I know it's going to go so fast, so to me time will be my #1 upgrade.

walgrrl

If you haven't already done it, I would say book a limo for you and the wedding party.  We originally weren't going to do it, but we are doing better financially than we thought and we also got more declines than we thought we would, so we are going to book one. 

If you already have a limo, I would say do something nice for your bridesmaids, like pay for them to get their hair and/or makeup done on the wedding day.  Beyond that, I would spend the money on upgrading appetizers/bar package/food. 

LDubHawksFan

We didn't hire a videographer but asked friends who had done it before just to set up a camera at the ceremony. They brought 3 and cut a short video for us. Getting to watch it (and share it with my great grandma who couldn't travel) meant so more to me than I expected it would.
I agree with extending the reception would have been great because it goes SO fast!

QueerFemme

I would have spent more on my dress. 

SomethingBeautiful08

Getting my nails done and paying for my mom and sister was my "splurge".  I'm not a very girly girl, and because of where I work, I abuse my self manicures, so not something I do normally.  We decided to have our nails done, partly for me to have nice nails done for the wedding, but mostly to spend quality time with "just us girls".  As an early wedding gift my DH gave me a gift card to a local salon, enough to cover us and then some.  The time with my Mom and sister was the real treasure, but I also ended up splurging on a gel french manicure. That was great because it last through our week long honeymoon and beyond. 

Maggie0829

I would have spent a bit more on the food just to have some snacks later in the evening and I would have spent more on decorations.

MoonlightSilver

We upgraded our photography half way through planning so that was our splurge. Otherwise, an extended honeymoon is my suggestion! I wish we could have stayed in Mexico longer.

emeejeeayen

I would upgrade the things that will make your guests have a better time, honestly. What that means, I would guess, would vary by circle. 

NOLAbridealmost

We went nuts on food and bar.....I would have had a videographer and extended the reception an hour.

csuave

If we get into the situation of needing to spend more to meet our minimum I could see upgrading or adding appetizers for the cocktail hour.  Shrimp and bacon wrapped scallops would take our current list up a notch.

Ven&Radio

I'm just under 4 months out from my wedding.  The top thing on my list to upgrade would be the bar package (from basic to top shelf).  I'm pretty sure we're going to have the money to do this.  We're still working on booking a getaway car, which is definitely going to be a splurge (hoping for a vintage rolls).  The only other thing I might consider adding is a nice album from our photographer, but she said this is something we can opt to do even years after the wedding, so I'm not too concerned about affording this up front.

4n6chick

CN: Should have gotten a pro to videotape the wedding.  Sorry about the length, it didn't seem that long when I was writing it! Whoops.

I wish I hadn't been so dumb and had hired a videographer.  The church would only allow someone to put a camera on a tripod and not be walking around with it, so we thought that was a waste for $1000 or whatnot.  I also hate when people walk around with cameras and interview people at the wedding so I didn't want that.  We thought "oh everyone has a camcorder nowadays" and we would ask my brother or my husband's aunt (who had recorded his sister's wedding) to do it.  Well, my brother lost the charger cords for his camcorders, and it wasn't until the rehearsal dinner that I found out that his aunt had somehow skimmed over the e-mail when I asked about recording it, so when I got her reply it was only for half the message only I didn't know it.

If I had had any sense, I would have jumped in my car and gone to Best Buy and bought a damned camcorder right then.  But the next morning was when I got confirmation that the aunt couldn't record it.  A friend of mine had a fancy camera that could also do video, so I gave her the largest SD card I had (16GB) and she put it on a tripod.  Only for some reason the church told her 'oh no, even though we're not using the pulpit at all today and it's the best view, you can't put the camera there' and made her put it on the end of the first pew, so basically it is an audio recording of most of the wedding (and a view of the back of one of my bridesmaids).  And as far as I know, even though it said it would record over half an hour, only about 16 minutes was recorded.  Or at least that's all my friend put on YouTube (for another friend of ours overseas) because that is all I have ever seen.  She downloaded the video to her laptop and then *erased* the SD card (I guess she thought we needed it for the honeymoon???) and I have not actually seen her in person since then, so I have yet to get not only the video that was taken but also the 400+ photographs she took of us getting ready, just a few that she sent me online.

I truly thought I wouldn't care about whether I had a recording of the wedding, but I was very very wrong.  I wish like hell I'd just ponied up the cash to hire a pro to do it.

hordol

If you don't already, I would spend the extra on a DOC. We do not have it in the budget for one, as as the day is getting closer and I am stressing about working out the details, I wish this was something we had worked into the budget!