With the economy on shaky ground companies big and small are looking for ways to reduce their potential losses for their next quarter or fiscal year. Translation: look for a reduction in services & perks and a rise in fees.

Here’s what to watch out for:

Credit Cards

• Pay attention to every single word on your monthly credit card statement and all of the little extras they send with your bill each month. The terms of your credit card agreement may very well change in the new year. Special attention needs to be given to the annual fee, interest rate, and late fee terms. Check every month for any changes in those rates!
• The U.S. credit card industry is expected to lower credit limits to new and existing customers in the next year as a risk aversion strategy. This means that your once $5000 credit limit, for example, may be cut by hundreds or even thousands of dollars leaving you with less credit to use.
• Citigroup recently announced a 3% hike in their rates for many of its credit card holders. Expect other banks to follow with higher interest rates.
• Qualifying for new credit cards will be tougher – especially if your credit isn’t perfect. Don’t count on getting another card to help fund your wedding if you’ve maxed out another one.

Air Travel

If you’re planning on using frequent flyer miles or points to pay for your honeymoon or wedding flights, there’s good news and bad news here.

First, the bad news: United Airlines is raising prices on their FF rewards. This means you’ll need more points to pay for a ticket in 2009. Delta rumored to be changing their SkyMiles card loyalty program to reduce the amount of points gained when using the AmEx SkyMiles card.

The good news is that there are other ways to rack up miles and lots of FF deals to be found. Airlines are struggling to get those seats filled and are offering, often in conjunction with credit card companies and/or their own loyalty programs, deals to entice you to fly. I love Tim Winship’s blog over at SmarterTravel.com for alerts and resources for finding FF mile deals and info.

Check your mail (and the airlines’ websites) for changes in your Frequent Flyer rewards or airline loyalty programs!

Worthy of note: Airlines are also positioning to reduce the number of available seats per flight to help raise prices (and increase their profits). Some airlines are still imposing extra baggage fees plus surcharges for fuel and gawd-knows-what-else. Don’t forget to include those costs into your travel budget.

Jewelry/Diamonds

As the holidays are upon us, and the economic gloom looms over, start checking out small indies and chain jewelry retailers for deals on engagement/wedding rings. The price of gold is dropping a little and retailers are desperate for sales. Christmas and New Years are big engagement events so there are good sales going on right now. Do beware of going of out business sales. There are some larger chains that are closing for good. If you buy from one of these retailers, all sales are final and you’ll have zero recourse if there’s a problem with your ring.

Slightly cringe-worthy but a good resource if you’re not superstitious:  pawn shops are doing well right now and many have an increased inventory of wedding and engagement rings at low, low prices.

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1. Darcy Miller's 10 Ways To Trim Your Budget

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

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