Get bulk supplies

Consider taking a hand on direct approach to your wedding and order supplies in bulk, which consequently lowers the per item cost saving you money. For example, if you’re needing to order napkins for your wedding and know that the local supermarket stocks the ones that you want, ask them if they can give you a discount if you order in bulk quantities, this will probably mean ordering several cartons.

Contacting catering supplies store or local distributors direct is also a good approach as it cuts out the middle man passing on the savings to you. You can find many of these online doing a simple Google search.

Throw a wedding ‘working bee’

Making your own wedding items such as place cards, wedding favours and table decorations can cut your wedding costs. Throw a wedding work bee and ask close family and friends if they could help for a few hours. Don’t forget to provide refreshments and put on a great cd.

Wedding Table Numbers

Someone sent us this great picture from Martha Stewart’s website recently. We think it’s a great idea and just had to share. Rather than having cliché paper table numbers why not use wine bottle instead! You can easily achieve the look yourself by visiting a local stationery store and buying some blank adhesive labels and print it out yourself on your home computer.

Golf wedding favours

To avoid weddings taking on a cookie cutter form, many couples like to personalise different aspects of their wedding. I’ve heard of one couple, who have incorporated their love of sports, more specifically golf, into their wedding. They contacted a promotions company and got their names and date of their wedding printed onto 100 golf balls to give their guests as table favours. They combined this with golf tees and other golf pieces to make mini golf hampers to give to each couple or family.

Do-It-Yourself: Wedding Favours (Bonbonniere)

Wedding Bonbonnieres are small gifts that you give to each guest. They can end up costing you quite a fortune if you have a large guest list. Many brides opt for making their own and make a night out of it, organizing a ‘bonbonniere working bee’ with their bridal party. One of the simplest (and more budget friendly) bonbonnieres is to put some confectionery like sugar coated almonds inside an organza bag. You can opt for traditional white sugar coated almonds in a white organza bag or go for something a little more brighter, with coloured candy almonds in bright coloured organza bags.

Table centrepiece idea#2 Potted plants

Potted flowers are simple centrepieces that you can then take home and put into your garden after the reception. You could opt for a single colour for the potted flowers, it could be the same colour as your bouquet or the bridesmaid’s flowers, or each table could have their own colour.
It is quite inexpensive to buy small terracotta pots with flowers from the garden store, but if you want to be super frugal, you could buy the terracotta pots separately. You will also need to buy trays of flowers that you can replant into the individual pots.
Using your home computer or coloured cardboard and markers, create table labels. This can be affixed to icy pole sticks with a glue and placed into the pots.