CONSUMER FOCUS:Marital and monetary bliss
Here comes... the (frugal) bride
The early stages of your wedding planning are key to saving money
Cheap is the new chic.” That’s what a character from the “Ugly Betty” sitcom said recently during a party-planning scene. That’s right. Frugal is fashionable, no longer a dirty word. And that applies to weddings, too, which can spike into the tens of thousands of dollars — leaving you feeling spent (pun intended) before you even get started.
Add that to a bad economy, a rapidly weakening job market, a national mortgage crisis and an unstable financial system and the fiscal future for many Americans is pretty bleak.
But don’t despair, brides-to-be. Don’t take a nose dive and crash like the stock market has lately.
You don’t have to drain your wallets and purses to have the wedding of your dreams.Pay as much — or little — as you want.
“I have done weddings anywhere from $5,000 or $6,000 to as much as $50,000,” said Rosalia Potter, a wedding consultant for the past four years with Wedding Connection in North Buffalo.
According to “The Wedding Report,” U. S. couples spend an average of $28,732 for their weddings, and the budget is typically 50 percent less than the amount spent.
Not including the honeymoon or engagement ring, on average, couples in Buffalo spend between $16,326 and $27,210 for their weddings. That’s no small change.
So it’s no surprise that within the last couple of years, Potter said she’s noticed most brides have been trying to cut down on expenditures, whether going with artificial flowers instead of fresh cut ones or foregoing wedding favors or doing something homemade. And in some cases, they’re going with smaller bridal parties.
“They’re just trying to minimize,” she said. That’s what Courtney Majewski, 27, is doing. She got engaged in July and is looking forward to a July 2009 wedding for about 250 guests.
To save money, she is exploring all kinds of alternatives, including going with a cupcake tower, which can be cheaper than a traditional wedding cake.
“I’m surprised with the cost of things,” said the Pendleton resident. “Every time I sit down to talk to [a vendor] about the wedding, it’s basically $1,000 to book everything.”
Amanda Meyers of South Dayton got married this past Saturday. About 230 guests were invited. In keeping with the autumn season, she bought pine branches from a crafts store and purchased discounted candles online for her centerpieces.
“We saved a lot of money on our centerpieces by making them,” she said.
Meyers also found little gift boxes on the Internet to match her wedding colors. Filled with Hershey’s Kisses, the boxes were distributed as wedding favors.
“Plus shipping, the boxes were $1 a piece, and they added a dash of color,” she said.
To better prepare for a wedding on a budget, the key is smart spending and good planning.
Make a budget and stick to it. And pay with cash as often as you can.
That’s what my husband and I did for our wedding this past September. It forced us to stay on budget, and it was worth every penny to wake up on our first day as husband and wife and not owe anybody anything.
Meyers said she wished she had planned and budgeted a little better. It would have saved her even more money, she said.
“I wouldn’t have spent so much at the end. [For example,] I waited too long to order things,” she said.
Her shoes were overnighted to her because she waited so long to decide upon a pair, which meant she had to pay extra shipping and rush charges to get them on time.
“That stuff adds up quickly,” she said. “We should have started planning earlier.”
To get started planning a wedding on a budget, you’ve got to first get organized.
Here are the basics:
• Set up a chart or spreadsheet for your budget, but don’t plug in estimates just yet. Simply break down every wedding expense you can think of — even the postage for the invitations and thank you notes.
If you know exactly what you have to pay for, you may be less likely to spend carelessly or needlessly.
• Determine how much you and your fiance reasonably can put into the wedding pot.
• Discuss with each set of parents how much — if anything — they can contribute.
Also, other relatives or close friends may want to contribute.
Majewski’s mother, for example, is paying for her wedding dress.
As a wedding gift for me, my best friend paid for the cupcake tower. It saved us hundreds of dollars that were allocated elsewhere.
• Figure out what time of year you’d like to tie the knot, keeping in mind that rates for summer weddings tend to be more expensive because it’s the traditional season.
• Consider getting married on a Friday or Sunday. Often vendors and venues give discounts for dates other than the traditional Saturday, Potter said.
• Give some thought as to where you’d like to have your wedding and reception. Some locations — like the home, a park or beach, a friend’s yacht or loft — often are cheaper than restaurants, historic museums, country clubs or hotels.
• Decide if you want to hire a wedding planner or consultant. A good one can take much of the load off the bride — and that’s a good thing. However, a planner can be a big chunk of the budget, and if you’re a more hands-on type of person, you may choose to forego a planner.
Then again, Potter said, a good wedding planner may help you save even more money.
“A lot shy away from hiring a wedding planner. They think it’ll be expensive, but a lot of times it’s the best way to go because a wedding planner will find you ways to save money and give you ideas to help you save. And they have the time to search for ideas and to comparison-shop,” said Potter as she shows Majewski samples of wedding invitations in a book that was put together for brides on a budget.
Whatever your dream wedding looks like, it can be priceless without spending a fortune. In our next installment, we’ll share with you some cost-saving tips that will be helpful as you prepare your big day.
We’ll tell you how to how to work your budget to maximize your dollars; how to find a great wedding dress on the cheap (and we’re not talking a used dress, either); specific cost-cutting ideas that can save hundreds of dollars; inexpensive, creative ways to do a rehearsal dinner; and how to feed the masses cheaply at the reception.
