Beautiful Inexpensive Wedding

One of the best ways to cut down on your wedding costs is to look for places to combine activities and /or vendors. One of the easiest ways to do this is to have the wedding and reception at the same location. Venues that do this will give you one price for most of your wedding needs. I searched (through the internet of course!) various venues and found that I would get more bang for my buck by going this route. In fact the place that I chose to have my wedding/reception even had its own florist.

Often you will find in the wedding industry that vendors know each other from having done weddings together in the past. You may get a vendor who will recommend another vendor and if you mention their name, you might get a discount or something extra.

Another way to cut down on your wedding costs is to look at time. First, the time of year you plan to have your wedding can give you tremendous savings. Everyone wants to be the June bride, but the summer months are wedding prime-time. Not only can it be expensive, but venues often fill up fast.

Another wedding prime-time is Christmas. It was my original intent to get married in December, but I ran into nothing but sold-out dates. One venue told me that if I was flexible and could wait until January, I could have almost any date AND there would be discounts because this was an off season. Well, I called around and almost every place I contacted also said that they would be more flexible with their pricing in the off season. Needles to say, I was a beautiful blushing January bride!

Time also refers to time of day. The formal evening dinner reception, as you can imagine, is the most expensive option. Again, if you can be flexible you can save huge amounts. One option, is what I did. Our wedding/reception was at 11:00 a.m. Choosing this time allowed us to serve just hors d'oeuvres, rather than a sit down meal. But if your heart is really set on that sit down meal, try a late lunch/early dinner time slot. The goal is to stay away from those expensive wedding prime-times.

The last place that I saved an amazing amount of money was on my dress. You could wait for those $99 gown sales at your local bridal salons, but do you really want to be in a herd stampeding for the same size dress? I bought my dress online from a bridal warehouse and paid only $250 for a dress that retailed over $3,000! This may not seem romantic to you, but the dress was beautiful and needed only to be hemmed. In fact, the seamstress at the bridal boutique where I had it altered was amazed it was only $250. If buying your dream dress online is a little scary, many major cities also have bridal warehouses where you can go in and still get a great bargain.

Another option is to think non-traditionally about your dress. If your wedding is in the afternoon or outdoor and very casual, you may not want an elaborate gown, but a beautiful dress instead. Some women now are even opting to wear tailored pantsuits!

So here are just a few of my suggestions on ways to have that beautiful inexpensive wedding. Below you will find some other ways to make your wedding memorable.

P.S.
I just found a great place online that sells beautiful wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses, prom dresses and more! They are called Wedding Dress Online. They have a very helpful and friendly staff who can help you look beautiful for your special day. If you live in the Houston area, they are located in Southwest Houston. You should check them out!