A Real Frugal but Fancy Wedding

Yes your wedding can be really frugal and fancy at the same time! You just need to spend the $$ in the right place and know the tricks to find ways to save on big items. The following are the 5 big items that probably added up to 90% of your wedding cost. If you follow the advice below and find ways to save in the 5 areas you will be golden.

1. Food - negotiate a deal
If possible get all the food at one place. You might have different types of food to consider and different reception parties, try to get them from one main food vendor. In this way you can negotiate the price for the whole package and will most likely get a better deal because of the scale. But definitely remember to label your food carefully to avoid awkward situation like hungry wedding party guests.

When talking to your wedding party food vendor candidates, don't mention it is a wedding in the beginning...Just say that you have a big party to cater, the time, the estimated number, and the type of food. In this way you can get their "normal quotation" first. You know many food vendors "mark up" prices for wedding reception. The mark up doesn't necessarily mean higher quality or any special service. They just know that you are more cautious and more willing to pay. If you get your normal quotation first and they will not be able to mark up in front of you so easily just because you are a wedding.

2. Wine - get your own
Most wedding venues allow you to prepare your own wine for your wedding reception. It is easy to get very good wine these days at marginal cost. Did you know that most people in the world don't care and cannot really tell the difference between a 1948 chateau from Bordeaux and a 2014 pinot from Napa? Directly call up a winery to get a bulk order and avoid the many intermediate distributors that add to the price. Or you can check with your grandpa or uncle to see if they have some secretly stored wine to donate to your wedding.

3. Venue - have you considered barn style? 
Borrow your dad's summer house, lakehouse or your grandparents' barn. They will be willing to contribute to your wedding that way. It is going to have special vintage style like all these beautiful pictures here. And of course, the best thing is, it cost $0. :) You are welcome.

4. Dress, did you know you can rent one?
Beautiful designer dresses can be very expensive indeed. But did you know that you can rent one for only 30% of the retail price? This can cut your wedding cost by $1000 like immediately. I know culturally people want to buy a wedding dress. But think about it, are you really going to spend thousands of dollars on a dress that you will wear only several hours? Also you can save the fun to your future daughter to find a wedding dress herself.  If you are still not convinced, check out this video.

5. Wedding favor - little price difference matters
The wedding favors tend to be inexpensive individually but the quantity of order is usually huge. So even small price difference matters. Definitely spend some time researching on ways to get cheaper price for the same item. Try google shopping for comparison and ebay. Order some sample if you want to make sure the quality if what you want. Or you can make your own wedding favor...haha, they are more personalized and special anyways, right?

If you can get 30% reduction on the above 5 items' costs, your wedding can be as fancy as you wanted with significantly lower cost.

Image sources:
[1] http://www.destinationweddingmag.com/articles/wedding-food-tips-menu-drink-and-dessert-ideas
[2] http://www.winesbyjennifer.com/
[3] http://www.varietyworksmadison.com/
[4] http://beaut.ie/2013/special-occasion-dressing-do-you-ever-rent-your-outfit/#.VPJuRbPF-_Q
[5] http://chicink.com/2012/03/unique-and-fun-wedding-favors/

How To Use Pinterest To Plan Your Wedding

We all know that Pinterest is a very powerful tool to plan your wedding. Actually the two co-founders got the idea when one of them is planning for the wedding. However Pinterest is fairly new tool to many brides. Also there are a lot of tips to help you explore Pinterest's potential in helping you plan your wedding.

1. Start your own boards, don't be overwhelmed
It is very easy to get overwhelmed on Pinterest because there are just too many beautiful stuff. Don't panic. You have your own style and your own preferences. You don't have to follow every beautiful pictures or every DIY idea. Many of the photos on Pinterest have been "modified" by Photoshop anyways. The rule of thumb is just be yourself and curate stuff that "represent" your style best. Start your own boards, pin things both from Pinterest and from other websites. This website is just a tool to help you get control over your wedding stuff, not let you get fashioned according to this age.

2. Treat your boards like a letter to your future self
Study says that "free writing" is a good way to express yourself and destress yourself. Wedding planning and preparation can be very stressful. Whenever you have some ideas, instead of keeping it to yourself and add to the chaos, just pin it to your Pinterest boards. Did you know that you can have secrete boards too? Keep some boards secret just to yourself and just write to your future self. This is probably a modern way of "blogging". It can be a journey of self-discovery too. I always get some insight about myself when journalling. You may get the same delights when "pinteresting".

3. Don't buy anything until you are approaching the date
May brides start buying stuff immediately after they start buying. One month later they discover something much better but had to stick to their original choice because it passed the return date. Unless there is a special discount with limited time offering, leave all the purchasing at the end. Take your time to choose, discover, curate and discuss. Also remember the wedding party is a whole package, all the details need to come together well. So don't buy a bunch of stuff and only discovered later the whole wedding color scheme needs to be changed because of the dress.

4. Search in Pinterest, let the algorithm learn you
Yes Pinterest is another website that gets better and better as you uses it. It will learn your taste gradually and recommend similar things to you. One way to help it learn your taste better is to search in pinterest. For example, if you are interested in learning how to keep your wedding under a budget try search "thrifty wedding" or "wedding DIY" in Pinterest. If you like glittering things just search "glitter wedding shoes". Later, maybe 1-2 days later, Pinterest algorithm will pick up your search terms and recommend related pins to you. It is almost like having a "personal shopper" by your side. It feels great, seriously.

5. Discover by following some people and brand
Of course it is not enough to just rely on Pinterest's learning algorithm to discover all your wedding stuff. You can also proactively follow some people or brands you know. For example, MemorableWedding has curated a wedding dress rental board and Martha Stewart wedding magazine has a pinterest account. Following them would give you many interesting ideas real time.
 
 
6. Use the Contributor function to let people contribute
Did you know that you can invite multiple contributors to your Pinterest board? This can be powerful because many details in a wedding is a "group" decision. Get your husband, girlfriends or even mother in law to contribute to some boards. This can get them engaged and serve as a "shared platform" for your relationship. It can also be very helpful to get support from them. It is always good to know that you have a group when you are in the middle of such a big project.


7. It can be used to coordinate bridemaid stuff too
Coordinate bridemaid stuff can be a headache. Different people, different opinions and different sizes! One quick way to solve all these is to create a bridemaid board and let them coordinate among themselves. Eventually they will "vote" out a color that everyone loves and seals the deal.

  
8. If you find some image on Pinterest and don't know where to buy it, use Google "search by image"
The biggest complaint people have about Pinterest is probably seeing some amazingly beautiful images but don't know where to buy/get it. Many people leave comments like "Anyone knows where to get this dress?" on Pinterest like this one. One trick you can do is to use Google "search by image" function. It is now pretty powerful these days and can help you identify the original source of the image pretty quickly.

9. Many things can be rented instead of being purchased
Did you know that many things can be rented instead of being purchased? If you see something really beautiful, check out wedding rental service providers like MemorableWedding or Rent the Runway.
 
10. Pinterest boards can be used as registry  
If you have not done it yet, start a registry so that your loved ones can send you something practical gifts to celebrate. Pinterest boards can be a quick way to collect thoughts on what you need for your future family.  You can get a lot of great ideas here on Pinterest. Eventually you can build a proper registry on Amazon.

Sources:
[1] http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pinnable-Create-Your-Own-Pinterest-Board-531818
[2] http://sharonchanblog.com/2012/01/29/a-surprise-future-me-letter-from-the-past/
[3] http://www.feng-swish.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/keep-calm-and-dont-shop-buynothingday.png
[4] http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/07/personalization-feature-on-pinterest/