What are your priorities?

abt87 · February 2012

Sacrificing might be too strong of a word. But most of us have things that are highest on our priority list (for us it is including my FI's HUGE family, open bar, great location) and some things that are lowest, and we have to maybe do bare minimum or cut something out completely (beachfront honeymoon, DIY centerpieces, very small guest list, etc). I was just curious as to what people were prioritizing.

maybe we can help each other out!

For example, we aren't doing a fancy cake. Just sheet cake for our large guest list (~200). I don't need the cake cutting pics and it's not all THAT important to me, but my mouth waters every time I see someone posting about the fillings and the frostings. But the traditional side of me gets sad about this.

What about you?

saacjw · February 2012

I'm spending less on my dress and accessories so we can do things like nicer flowers. I'm also DIYing invites, save the dates, and other stationary to save costs (and because I don't like most of the ones I've seen). Since we want to do a family style meal with two main dishes instead of the one that is offered at our reception hall, we're cutting liquor and just doing beer and wine (and soda and stuff).

For cakes- Costco has really good sheet cakes and some of them have good fillings as well, if you want to look into that. We got one for a graduation party that had something chocolate mousse type stuff in the middle, and they serve a ton. So good! Also, if you still want to do a cake cutting, you can find something small for the two of you to cut and serve sheet cakes- it's pretty normal and the cakes are usually cut elsewhere anyway.

tiffanydaniels · February 2012

I am doing a lot myself so I can get a lot of the things I want, I made my own veil, centerpieces, and what nots.

I scrimped on my invites we got them at michaels, I think I went cheaper on most stuff to get more of what i wanted!

ohsoashley · February 2012

Ditto what Tiffany said.
I am doing A LOT of DIY.
Save the dates, card box, invitations, cake topper, I made a brooch bouquet, I am sparkling my shoes... Centerpieces, all other paper items (place cards, table numbers, etc).

Our wedding is also on a Sunday. Not that we were looking for a Sunday to save us money, but because of the date. The Sunday is just an added bonus :-)

peachykeen26 · February 2012

Honestly, the only thing that is really important to me is that at the end of the day, we both said our vows and we're married!

I did my own invitations, and am doing my own decoration, the few we are having.

We have a VERY small budget, so I just don't care about how things look. The venue is pretty so I don't have to do a lot of dressing up.

violakat03 · February 2012

We are doing an outdoor wedding in a city park, so we don't have to pay for the venue itself. Our reception venue is also in the park and is very cheap. Our catering will be from a local restaurant rather than a wedding caterer. We are not having a videographer. All reception decorations are going to be DIY, as will STDs, invitations, and as much more as I can do.

My priorities are photos, my dress & accessories (though I am still being budget-conscious), and the cake. Oh yeah, and my horse-drawn carriage.

kleem15 · February 2012

Ditto to the other ladies! I am doing a lot of DIY! Centerpieces, all the decorations, flowers (i bought fake but putting everything together) cake stand and topper, card box, STD's/invites/programs, sitting chart and place cards, bridal party and parents gifts... omg what am I NOT DIY'ing. I do not have a very big budget and i want to look back and be proud of everything I did to make it the wedding I have always envisioned!

I cannot wait until the big day!

Karadee1 · February 2012

We spent a little more on our venue than I had initially planned, because I didn't want to have to do anything myself - I didn't want to find a caterer or anything, and they are ordering linens and doing our centerpieces. The room we have is so pretty, we won't need much. I also spent a little more on my dress, because I bought the one I absolutely loved. I am lucky to have some friends helping too - one of my grad school buddies's wife is designing my invitations, and the best man's brother has DJ equipment so will be doing that for us. I will likely DIY other paper things - table numbers, name cards and programs...this assumes that when I graduate in May I won't get extremely lazy lol

MissOwl · February 2012

priorities for me and FI are:
1. venue (Via Vecchia - i love this place)
2. food (Catering by Scott - he really takes care of his brides)
3. photography (Kelly Maughan Photography - total girl crush on her)

we splurged on all three. other than that the budget is way tight in other categories.

jnkreager · February 2012

Our priorities were:
1. Venue
2. Inviting everyone we wanted
3. Open bar

Lower on the list:
1. Flowers
2. Paper goods (although I still thought ours turned out really well!)
3. My accessories
4. RD

I am with a lot of girls though--I DIY'ed so much stuff so I could have more of what I wanted. I didn't feel like I really had to sacrifice a lot because I saved so many other places.

ameliah19 · February 2012

MissOwl-

I am also using Catering by Scott. I loved him so much. He had a special in January that if you booked with him in January you got a free wedding cake. Plus he was about 4000 cheaper than the other caterers we saw :-). He is going to be on the Franklin Park Conservatory approved caterer list next year so I got lucky that way :-)

MissOwl · February 2012

@ameliah, that's great! how cool! he really is a very nice man. also, don't know if you know but he's on the knot best of columbus list this year!

Ajoyd · February 2012

I would classify our wedding as "middle of the road" on all things. We didn't pick the most expensive venue, caterer, florist, etc. I love photography but I really only care if I get 15-20 really great photos from the day so I didn't go all out on my photography budget. I still love my photographer but she is less than $1,500.

My caterer offered to do my wedding cake and cupcakes as part of our package. I LOVE cake so I am kind of sorry I don't get to go cake tasting, but at the same time this is a big savings. (Also using Catering by Scott--love him too!)

The important things for us are:
-Venue (we are also using Via Vecchia. My parents and FI and I all fell in love with it and loved it even more after talking to the owners)
-Food and beverage (we are doing open bar)
-Entertainment (live music for ceremony/cocktails and DJ for dinner/dancing)
-Decor (I am hiring a florist but I am also planning to DIY a lot of it as well)

clemensa · February 2012

top 3:

venue - which is free with our food and bev.

flowers

photos

skimped on:

invites and stds (did it with staples)

plan on doing own decor

two locations, all at same place...so no need for transportation costs

ameliah19 · February 2012

Ajoyd-

Did he not give you cake to taste? At our meeting he gave us white, chocolate, red velvet and lemon raspberry cake to taste. They were all delicious, and I am not a cake fan, so if you didn't get to taste you won't be dissapointed :-)

Ajoyd · February 2012

Ameliah, he is the exclusive caterer at Via Vecchia so we haven't done a tasting with him yet because we really didn't have a choice whether to book him or not

Hopefully there will be a tasting in the not too distant future!

Cassandra999 · February 2012

Top Priorities

making the wedding fun & semi casual = like us (not stuffy)

Food that we actually like

inviting who we want

open bar

Photos

not:

cake- we don't care at all about cake, so we are going to make it funny

RD trying to do as affordably as possible

video- not doing proffesional - might have friends try to get bits and pieces but we both hate watchin ourselves on video so its not worth it

everything else is middle of the road, I'm trying to get the best prices we can, but it's still adding up so much!

NancyandBrett · February 2012

Top Priorities:
Great food and open bar - a must
Dress - always been a dream!
Entertainment - our dance floor better have the fire marshal called because its too crowded.

Bottom Priorities:
Invites
RD
Flowers - just not into them too much.

Belle0000 · February 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_ohio-columbus_what-are-your-priorities?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:112Discussion:332cd6b6-cc59-4ea2-8e53-883b060fe589Post:9ad0fa5d-3c92-4325-9cc8-0f88f23a800c">Re: What are your priorities?</a>:
[QUOTE]Our priorities were: 1. Venue 2. Inviting everyone we wanted 3. Open bar Lower on the list: 1. Flowers 2. Paper goods (although I still thought ours turned out really well!) 3. My accessories 4. RD
Posted by jnkreager[/QUOTE]

^^^These exact same things for us too.

ameliah19 · February 2012

Priorities

1. Inviting the people most important

2. Food-I've been to way to many weddings where the food was awful, not at my wedding I refuse lol

3. DJ-I hate lag so the music better be good all night

Less important

1. Flowers- I'm not a huge flower fan anyway and have been looking at alternative centerpieces (but may still buy flowers in bulk at sams club or something)

2. Invites and Save the dates-Got my invites at michaels, save the dates will be done with magnetstreet.com and or shutterfly

3. My accessories- definitley not spending a ton of money on that

MrsColeman2012 · February 2012

I don't think that we have any specific priorities....the only thing I have really splurged on is my dress. Other than that, we have focused on staying within budget...we don't want to start our new life in debt. Also, convenience has been a HUGE factor. We rented a venue 3 mins from our house, that we could rent fri and sat for $1500. This way we can set everything up the day before and have our wedding day be as stress free as possible. I want my wedding to look as nice as possible while keeping all my bases covered and also staying within budget. So i guess those are my priorities

What are your priorities?

Re: What are your priorities?

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