Poll: Has The Financial Crisis Affected Your Wedding?
Over the past few weeks I’ve been hearing from quite a few readers about how the economy is affecting their wedding plans. I’d love to get a sense of what’s going on in the greater bridal community with a little poll.
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If your wedding plans are changing, please feel free to leave comments about your situation if you’re ok with sharing.
Read MoreGuest Blog: Debunking Money Saving Tips for Weddings
There is so much information on how to save money when planning your wedding. Magazines, internet, books, family friends, well-intentions strangers that give you unsolicited advice on the street, it’s hard to decipher what works and what doesn’t. Some ideas are solid gems of truth. Some suggestions are, well….not exactly accurate. I love to save money myself, so let’s dive in…
1. Add fake layers to your wedding cake and serve your guests sheet cake from the kitchen.
If only this was true. I personally LOVE this money saving tip. However, whomever thought of this clever idea didn’t take into consideration the time it takes to frost and design the outside of the cake. This is only speculation on my part, but I strongly feel that all the wedding cake designers convened at a secret meeting in some undisclosed location and decided to band together for a united front.
Because if you go talk to a cake designer, more often than not they will still charge you a premium for those fake layers. It can’t be the flour and water that costs so much; it’s their design time. Taking it a step further, in our area (the Midwest) cake designers have told us repeatedly that it is hard to find the styrofoam layers that is needed to create the layer. And they can’t guarantee the design applied to the styrofoam (an un-natural material).
The only way this option is 100% viable, every single time, is if you rent a total fake cake. There is a small section on the first layer so your cake designer can put in “real cake”. This is so you can still have your cake cutting ceremony in front of your guests. Otherwise the entire thing is fake, with fondant design.
MYTH: Saving money on fake cake layers: debunked!
2. Choosing faux flowers over real flowers will save you money.
Well that all depends. Do you want faux flowers that actually look like real flowers or the stuff you get from WalMart (complete with silicon beads of water on the flower petals)? Because if you want high quality faux flowers that make you want to reach out to touch it (just to see if it is real), then you will pay high dollars for affect. In some instances, just as much if not more than real flowers.
We help our clients by using faux flowers with REAL greenery on floral displays that are strategically located high above the guests heads….no one can tell the difference and our clients save money.
If you want fresh florals but are not sure that you can afford them, then find a florist that can get wholesale prices. Instead of choosing 4-5 different kinds of flowers, you are better off with going with one or two types of flowers. This is because the florist can get one shipment in and may be able to pass that savings on to you.
And frankly, if you aren’t a floral person…then don’t have any. It’s 2008, do what you want to do at your wedding. Forgo boutonnières and have the guys wear a pocket handkerchief. As the bride you can have the one bouquet and have your girls carry purses, parasols, feathers, fans, candles, or nothing at all. And of course there are many, many ideas on DIYbride.com for reception decorations that don’t involve one flower at all!
MYTH: Faux flowers are cheaper than real flowers: debunked!
3. I can save money on not having a wedding planner because I have a church coordinator and venue coordinator.
Well, that is actually a true statement. Venue coordinators are often included into your overall reception fee and church coordinators are usually required and either part of the church rental or a nominal extra fee.
The caution here is to understand how much you can really depend on them for your needs. Sometimes saving money and relieving stress and potential problems are two very different things.
To put it simply, just remember that a church coordinator is concerned primarily about her church. She has to cleaning up, lock up and most importantly, make sure no one is disrespecting their property. Likewise, your venue coordinator’s primary responsibility is to their venue. They have to make sure catering needs are taken care of, food is out timely, wait staff is being managed, bartenders have what they need.
Neither of them are truly working for YOU. Not that you should expect their service to be lacking, however they haven’t spent the time getting to know you and your personal wishes or needs and your family nuances as you would with a wedding planner. It’s just important to understand where their priorities are so you don’t have higher expectations from their services.
MYTH: Church & Venue coordinators save you money compared to hiring a wedding planner: slightly debunked and in the very least, food for thought.
Plan on!
This article was submitted by the uber-fabulous Saundra Hadley.
Saundra is owner and event engineer with planning…forever events
Read MoreDarci’s Out of Town Bags
We have a significant amount of guests traveling to our wedding from out of town, so I wanted to have something waiting for them when they arrived at the hotel. I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money and also wanted to be as “green” as possible, so I decided that a canvas tote was the best way to go. I found some online at Cheaptotes.com for .99 cents a piece and decided they would do the job! However, I did still want to personalize them somehow. I also didn’t want to slap our names on there in huge bold letters and deter people from using them in the future, so I decided that using the flourish from our invitation suite would make sense – provide a little consistency and still keep it rather plain.
I priced a few options for having them professionally printed and most of those defeated the whole purpose of paying .99 cents for each of the bags. I kept thinking about how I could get the flourish into a stencil somehow, and after one attempt with foam board failed miserably I turned to google and found Custom Cut Stencil Co. They were so easy to work with – I emailed them my design, they added the necessary breaks, and one week and $30 later this was at my door:
It’s a mylar stencil which means that it’s pretty durable, but in retrospect I should have made the lines a little thicker (you’ll see why in a second). I bought a fabric paint pen for $3 and away I went! Important tip – put some cardboard in the middle of the bag before you start painting. Bleeding is a bad thing…
I should have made the lines on the flourish thicker because the paint pen doesn’t quite fit into the stencil. So, basically I have to trace it once with a pen that will fit into the lines and then go over it with the paint pen. Not the biggest deal in the world, but a little added work. Here is how it looks after tracing the stencil with a pen:
And here is part of the process of going over the pen marks with the paint pen:
To get a line on either side of the flourish I just got out a ruler and tried to line things up as best as possible:
And there you have it! I used a warm iron on each of them to set the paint and make sure they weren’t overly wrinkly.
All in all I would say that it takes about 10 minutes per bag for the design and just a few more minutes for ironing. There are 40 bags in total, so when you break down the cost of all the bags, the paint pens (it took two), and the stencil it cost around $2 per bag. Here’s hoping our guests get some use out of them in the future as well!
Contributed by Darci L.
Blog: http://www.with–this–ring.blogspot.com/
Used with kind permission from the author.
Copyright 2008 • All rights reserved.
posted by m.s. for k.c.
Read MoreDarci’s Table Numbers
As you know, in my search for some unique table numbers I came across this wonderful idea on OnceWed. Laurie Cinotto originally created the idea for the blog and I sort of ran with it (thanks, Laurie!) The supplies that I used are relatively easy to find and I pretty much stuck with the original instructions except to use larger notebooks and white stick-on numbers instead of gold. Here are the supplies:
• 5.25 x 8.25″ Plain Moleskine Notebooks (sold in packs of 3)
• Decorative paper
• Glue Stick
• Ribbon 1/8” wide
• 4” White Stick-On numbers (I bought these at Office Max and wound up having to purchase 3 packs to make sure that I had enough numbers for all the tables)
• Double-stick tape
• Paper Trimmer
• Make Your Own Rubber Stamp Kit (I’ve already used this for other projects – its so versatile!)
• Bone folder
The hardest part for me was deciding on paper – after that it’s really pretty easy! Since we’re using damask runners I decided to keep the paper rather simple and just use shades of green with some polka dots thrown in for good measure. So first, cut a length of ribbon about 3 inches longer than the book itself, and glue one end onto the top portion of the book. This isn’t the best picture, but you want to put the ribbon running upwards, so that it will go down through the book as a placeholder:
I just used a glue stick – a little on the binding and the ribbon stuck right on. Then take a piece of paper and cut it so that it’s the same length as the book and about 2-3” wider. Lay the design side of the paper down and place the book onto the center of the paper so that there is extra paper on either side that you can fold over like a flap:
I used the tape roller to put tape on one flap of the paper, then fold it so that it would stick to the book. Then be sure to actually close the book and use the boning folder to make some nice creases before doing the same to the other side – if you secure both sides of the paper while the book is flat, the paper will be too short for the book to actually close.
I went through and covered all the notebooks first, then went back and added the sticky numbers to the front and stamped the inside. Here they all are stacked and ready to be stamped:
I stamped a few of the pages on the inside of the booklets, one of which was “Advice for the Bride & Groom.” It’s really easy to manipulate the letters on the stamps, just remember that you have to write it out backwards!
And here is the finished product!
Contributed by Darci L.
Blog: http://www.with–this–ring.blogspot.com/
Used with kind permission from the author.
Copyright 2008 • All rights reserved.
posted by m.s. for k.c.
Read MoreDarci’s Ring Bearer Pillow
This is kind of a simple project but probably one of the things I am most proud of! Our wedding colors are black, white, and green so I wanted our ring bearer to carry a pillow with a little flare. After looking around at a few pre-made options and coming up empty handed, I decided to make one myself! The supplies I used are:
• Fabric (1/2 yard at most)
• Sewing thread to match fabric
• 1” satin ribbon
• Polyfill stuffing
I wanted the pillow to be about a 9 inch square, so I cut two pieces of fabric into 10 inch squares. A word to the wise – make sure that if your fabric has a pattern, it is centered on each of the squares as you’re cutting them out. I learned the hard way that you don’t want things to look off center!
So essentially, you cut out two squares, turn the fabric so that the right sides are facing each other, and sew them together. Leave about a two inch gap on one of the sides and use that to pull the fabric through so you can turn the pillow right side out. Then, stuff away! I found that a pencil worked well to push the filling into the corners but I honestly can’t tell you how much stuffing I used. I kept putting it in and then feeling the consistency until it seemed right.
Once the stuffing is complete just use a needle and some more thread to sew the gap together. Then make your ribbon as long as you want it (depending on how much length you want to hang off the pillow) and put the middle of the ribbon in the center of the pillow. Take another needle and thread and gently sew the ribbon into the middle so that it’s attached to the pillow. Then all you have to do is tie a bow!
And here is a close-up of the back, so you can see the importance of getting that pattern centered:
I plan on slipping some fake rings into the bow before I tie it the day of the wedding and we’re all set.
Contributed by Darci L.
Blog: http://www.with–this–ring.blogspot.com/
Used with kind permission from the author.
Copyright 2008 • All rights reserved.
posted by m.s. for k.c.
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The 3rd DIY Bride book, An Affair To Remember, will release on January 03.
Pre-orders are available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or through your favorite indie bookseller.
