Forget above giving us a wedding gift! Help me instead!

We’ve all heard the stories of wedding couples who have thrown lavish weddings on a budget. How do they do it? Well it’s partly due to clever budgeting and thinking outside the square, yet another big contributing factor is the help they receive from family and friends. Rather than having family and friends buy you wedding gifts, ask them for wedding help instead!

Where do I begin?
You will need 2 lists. In the first list write down all your family and friends who you could approach, and feel comfortable approaching, for help. You might want to jot down anything obvious that they could provide help with for example catering or flowers.

In the second list, write down everything that you need for your wedding. This includes practical items such as tables and chairs, and extends to services like florists.

Now, go through this list and see if there are any obvious matches. You might see that your Uncle Henry owns a vintage car that you could perhaps borrow for your wedding transport. You might also remember that your cousin Lillian is a hairdresser and could possible style your hair for your wedding.

How do I ask for wedding help?
Asking for help can be daunting. Generally the best way to ask your family and friends for help is with honesty, appreciation..and let’s face it a little flattery. Let me explain. Your friend Tom is a great photographer and would make a perfect wedding photographer. When asking if he could help you with your official wedding photography, don’t lead with something along the lines of you and your partner wanting to cut as many corners as you can with scrimping and saving and you remembered that he’s a photographer, which could save you a lot of money. That approach can devalue your friends work. Rather try to phrase it a way that shows that yes you are planning a wedding on a budget, but you are also very fond of Toms work and would genuinely be thrilled if he would consider perhaps being your official wedding photographer if his schedule allows.

Things to Consider

Don’t assume that your family and friend will want to offer you their services. Make sure that they know that it’s okay to say no without their decision having an effect on your friendship.

Ensure that your family and friends know that you consider their contribution as a gift.

Be aware of the financial cost associated with your family and friend’s contribution and consider offering part of the cost. For example, if your Aunty May is baking your wedding cake, offer to pay for the costs of the ingredients. Offering to pay for associated costs would be appreciate and will save you considerably, especially as labour is free.

Don’t Forget the Wedding Esky!

You know sometimes when planning a wedding it’s the little things that are so easy to overlook. I’m an organising nutter so I like to pay attention to every little detail, and this extends to the wedding champers!

Have you ever noticed how many post wedding ceremony photos include a glass of bubbly? It has a great visual look, and can look especially effective in black and white. Having said that, some consideration needs to be taken when including champagne in your post ceremony wedding photos.

For example. make sure that the champagne is being cooled in an esky during the ceremony. There’s nothing worse than drinking warm champagne. Also have some non-alcoholic beverages for those who do not wish to drink.

Wedding Photography Inspiration

Do you know what ‘look’ you are after for your wedding photos? Are you after a traditional look, something more artistic or an elegant theme? Spend some time before your wedding looking through wedding photographer’s online portfolios. It will help you determine what style of photos you are after.

To avoid confusion and miscommunication, always take your wedding photos with you when discussing photo shoots with your photographer. It doesn’t have to be a sample of wedding photos; it could be magazine images or general photography shots. You are merely after visual images that are inspiration for the style of wedding photographs that you are seeking.

Remember creativity is objective, so it pays to be precise in your communication with your photographer, not only with the style of photographs that you do like, but also communicate with them the style of photographs that you wish to avoid.

5 Easy Ways to Cut Your Wedding Budget Today

Are you looking for tips to save money on your wedding? Here are 5 easy tips that you can implement today to potentially save hundreds (perhaps thousands) of dollars which you can then redistribute to your wedding honeymoon fund!

1. The Wedding Guest List
If you haven’t already sent out your wedding invitations, you can potentially save hundreds by properly reviewing your guests list. These days it is quite the norm to not include a ‘plus one’ on your guest list and just invite friends that you actually know. This tip alone and can save you a significant amount. Assume that your reception is charging you $60 per guest. If you allow just 5 single friends to bring a guest, that will cost you an extra $300

2. Have a Limited Open Bar
If you are having an open bar, have a limited open bar which only runs for a set time period and stick to set drinks such as champagne, wine and beer. I’ve heard of horror stories when within a few brief hours the wedding couple end up forking thousands just on alcohol.

3. Broaden Your Search
I was having a look at a dress shop at a local shopping centre. There were so many beautiful gowns that could easily be worn as bridesmaid gowns.  You don’t need to buy a dress that is marketed as a bridesmaid gown.  General evening gowns and formal wear dresses are essentially bridesmaids gowns anyway.

4.  Have an Off-Peak Wedding
Typically most couples will get married on a Saturday afternoon with an evening reception, this is considered the ‘peak’ time to get married. By getting married on an alternative day, you could cut the cost of your wedding vendors and venues. When scouting for locations, ask the venue what the difference in costs would be.

5. The eBay Wedding
EBay can be a great source for finding inexpensive wedding favours and wedding décor.  Only buy from sellers that have good feedback and factor in delivery costs and be sure to use PayPal to pay for your purchases for added buyer protection.

Some couples end up buying the entire wedding attire online such as the wedding gown, bridesmaid gowns and groom and groomsmen tuxedos.  I’m always a little wary of buying clothes online, but I wouldn’t rule it out completely. After all you could be like Hannah Kovacs who spent $180 on a wedding gown that retails for $1500

How to Ditch the RSVP Cards to Save Time and Money on Your Wedding

When sending out wedding invitations, it can be common to include a small wedding RSVP card within the wedding invitation. Depending on how intricate a design you are after, prices can vary greatly on RSVP cards from reasonable to ridiculous. If you opt to go down the DIY route for RSVP cards, you will potentially save a significant amount of money, yet if you have a large guest list, it can end up being a very time consuming exercise.

One way to save money and time when it comes to RSVP cards is to eliminate them all together and via the invitation itself offer alternative ways for your guest to inform you of their attendance status.

An Email RSVP
These days you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t have email access. Therefor allowing guests to RSVP by email would seem to be an all round convenient choice. I wouldn’t use your regular personal or work email address, as it would be too easy for emails to get lost amongst your inbox. Instead, open up a new free email account with an email provider like Gmail, and dedicate that email for the sole purpose for allowing your guests to RSVP by email.

PROS: Free for both parties.
Cons: Can open up back and forth emails.

The SMS RSVP
Providing a mobile number for guests to text you their attendance availability is another approach and provides another form of convenience for your guest.

PROS: Convenient for your guests. Inexpensive cost of a text message for your guests
Cons: Guests will expect a reply text message, so multiply the cost of a text message by how many invitations you send out. Depending on your current mobile phone plan, it may not be a feasible option for you.

The Phone Call RSVP
For those guests who don’t own a mobile phone or have internet access offering your guests the option to RSVP by landline is ideal. To ensure that you are not swamped with phone calls at all hours of the day, potentially causing your answering machine to flood, set the preferred hours for guests to confirm attendance e.g after 5pm
PROS: Free for both parties. A great chance to catch up with people.

Cons: Guests may have lots of questions etc What should I wear? What’s the food like? If you are busy, this can end up taking up a lot of your time.

If you do decide to eliminate the RSVP cards, I would only choose two of the above methods, or alternatively specify a preference for one method such as email, mentioning that the other two methods are still welcomed if sending an email is not a feasible option.

Keep a master guest list handy at home and be sure to update it daily to reflect the status of each guest’s attendance availability. However, it is probably wiser if only one person is responsible for looking after guest attendance as if too many people are collecting RSVP’s it can be easy to lose track of who is actually attending your wedding.

Do I Need To Include RSVP Cards with my Wedding Invitations?

Whether or not to insert an RSVP card within your wedding invitation is up for debate.  Traditionally in formal weddings, guests would RSVP the bride and groom using their own stationery. Whilst this still happens to a certain extent, many formal weddings these days simply include an RSVP card with their invitation, making it a simple matter for their friends and family to tick the yes or no check-box as to whether or not they will be able to attend the wedding.

However this does not mean that RSVP cards are the norm in modern day weddings. It’s one of those things that is simply a personal choice for the bride and groom.  Typically budget and convenience are the determining factors as to whether or not to use RSVP cards.  On the one hand, with RSVP cards you have hard copy notification of your family and friends availability, yet there are the associated costs of the RSVP cards themselves and the possibility that your guests might misplace the cards and forget to send them.

If you decide against using RSVP cards it is important that there is still some way for guests to inform you of their availability and you need to make this known to them.  Alternative methods of RSVP are email, text messages and a good old phone call.  Don’t forget to include an RSVP deadline. Hopefully a deadline will mean that there will be less people for you to chase up.

Ultimately when it comes to planning your wedding, the decisions are for you and your partner alone.  You make your own rules and if you want to have wedding RSVP cards then do so. If you don’t want to use them, then don’t. It really is that easy.

Have Fun with Your Wedding Photos

Your wedding photo is likely one that will take up a main focal point in your home. Your actual wedding photo shoot will likely be scheduled between your ceremony and reception and may have time restrictions placed on it.

A fun idea is to plan a second photo shoot for after your wedding day, a photo shoot that reflects both you and your partner and a photo shoot were it wont matter if you get your gown dirty. You might even decide to trash your dress!

DIY Wedding Stationey

I suspect that it is not until you actually start to plan a wedding that you begin to realize how expensive planning a wedding actually is, I know that was true for me. Sure I knew the big ticket items like hiring out the reception venue and catering would take a big bite out of the budget, but I never really thought of wedding stationery such as wedding invitations or RSVP cards as costing me a small fortune. Depending on the size of your wedding it can very easily end up costing you in the thousands just for your stationery, which is one of the primary reasons many couples opt to go down the DIY path when it comes to their wedding stationery.

Creating and printing your own wedding stationery requires minimal equipment and supplies. Unless you plan to hand make and write each and every invitation individually, a computer and printer is essential. You will also need blank cardstock or template cardstock. You will most likely have sufficient software such as Microsoft Word, Publisher or graphic editing software. Often, the manufactures of the card stock will come bundled with editing software or have downloads available from their official website.

Many couples love to create their own wedding stationery to showcase their artistic talent. However, what if you are not artistically inclined or are reluctant to showcase your creative skills? Fortunately, there are many stock photography websites on the internet that have a catalog of wedding images and illustrations that can be incorporated into your wedding stationery.

Stock photography websites are sites that sell photographs, clipart, animations and images for a small fee (around $1) There is generally a license and terms of use for the images which you must abide by. Some stock images websites have strict licensing rules, only allowing you to use an image a certain amount of times before you must purchase a new license, whilst other sites offer you unlimited use of that image once you have purchased it.

One stock photograph website, which has a high catalog of images is Fotolia. They offer photographs, illustrations, vector and video. So far, I have found them to be one of the better priced stock photography websites with a good selection of quality images and unlimited use of the image once a license is purchased. They have a good selection of wedding photographs and illustrations as well as design elements such as headers and borders, much like what you see on wedding invitations from specialty stores.

If you have a large guest list, creating your own wedding invitations can take some time, so why not throw a working bee. Throw on some music, get some food and call your bridesmaids for help!

You Don’t Need To Personalise Every Aspect of Your Wedding

Some couples want to personalise every aspect of their wedding. I’ve been to weddings where everything was personalised from the serviettes, table clothes, even the cutlery was engraved with the bride and groom’s initial. This same couple also had most of the lollies in the lolly buffet personalised with their name and wedding date. Most guests end up leaving the empty wrappers at the reception anyway.

Whilst the idea is nice in theory, you can end up spending quite a bit of money personalising everything, especially if you are stretching your budget to do so. So if you are looking for ways to trim the fat off your wedding budget, ditch the personalisation.

How to Respectfully Decline a Wedding Invitation

If you have been invited to a wedding and for whatever reasons are unable to attend, you need to decline in a respectful manner to minimise the ‘cold’ when receiving the response card back with no reasoning.

Some will argue that you are under no obligation to provide any reasoning why you cannot attend the wedding reception and ceremony, and you are right, you don’t have to justify why you are unable to attend the wedding, however it is considered the polite thing to do.
If the RSVP card has no room provided to elaborate on your ‘no’ write a few lines on a notepaper. You do not need to write a huge saga down, just a few lines thanking them for thinking of you. Something along the lines of

Dear Matt and Stacey
Thank-you for your wedding invitation and for thinking of us. Unfortunately, we have prior family commitments on that day and are regrettably unable to make it.  We wish you all the best for your wedding day and marriage.
Love Heidi and Mick

Some people use specific reasons as to why they cannot attend a wedding in their RSVP card response.  If your reason is for financial constraints, or you just don’t want to go, I’d stick to a more generalised approach like the example above. However if your reason is something more specific that was planned prior to receiving the invitation such as a family holiday, or family gradation,  than elaborating would be okay. At the end of the day, all you really need to do is use a certain level of tact and etiquette when declining a wedding invitation.

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