What Are Your Best Budget Saving Tips

[WPGBride17 49]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for new ways to save money on my wedding budget and thought who better to ask than this forum of lovely ladies. As I am planning my Grand Sirenis wedding I am noticing how quickly all the extras are adding up so I was wondering what is your best tip on saving money at a destination wedding whether it's décor, invitations, vendors, really any tip at all is appreciated!

One of my tips I kinda stumbled on was for photography. To put it simply I could not afford professionally photography and my FI was totally against spending thousands of dollars on pictures. In his words he rather spend it on upgrading the wedding instead. So I started contacting various local Riviera Maya photographers within my impossible budget because everyone says you will regret not spending the money on a good photographer. I was recommended to a photographer who was the wife of another photographer. She totally sympathized with me and offered to do a couples shoot a couple of days after my wedding in my dress for only $400 US! I felt this was an amazing opportunity that I could not pass up and she was recommended by someone reputable so I am going ahead with it. Friends and family will document my special day but then I will also have these beautiful pictures around Playa del Carmen of me and my husband which is good enough for me!

Edited March 18, 2016 by WPGBride17

[calgarybride2015 3,513]

Was there no packages thru Adventure Photo for that price to just cover the ceremony? Their prices have went up a lot though since I married.

 

I did most stuff myself. Made my invites. And had a wedding website that was free with our info.

 

Did all my own decor for the wedding and brought it with me. Heck my maracas as favors were under 85 cents each!

 

For flowers I got small bouquets for my bridesmaids and then used them as centerpieces at the reception. Otherwise didn't pay for any decor items or extras like that from the resort (other than petals and bouts)

 

You don't need any outside vendors other than maybe photography as the GS has everything on site so that'll save you money in the outside vendor fee.

 

If you can make it yourself - do

Or seek out cheapest options. Or compromise on a cheaper option (I wanted to give everyone a bubba but compromised on tumblers)

Coupons!!! Never shop at Michaels without one

Buy used - check sites like kijiji

 

I'm sure I'll think of more

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited March 18, 2016 by calgarybride2015

[snswedding2016 1,205]

@@WPGBride17 Congrats on your upcoming wedding!! My husband and I were on a budget too so I definitely understand where you are coming from. Here are some of the areas we saved on:

 

STD & Invitations: I used Paperless Post for our invitations. We skipped the Save the Dates as we had all of the information right away and our booking deadline was fairly soon after our invites went out. I love invitations but they can be really costly or too time consuming to do DIY (not the most skilled in that area lol). We thought Paperless Post was a nice compromise, they still had the look of a beautiful invite without the cost. You pay for the "postage" and it depends on the type of invite. I think we paid $40 total. 

 

Other Private Events: We skipped doing a welcome dinner and instead did informal welcome drinks at one of the bars. We also opted for an informal farewell breakfast on the last day at the buffet. My husband and I just got there early to get a section of tables. 

 

Cocktail Hour: We decided to just do an informal cocktail hour, letting our guests know which bar they could go to between the ceremony and reception for drinks. We didn't think it was worth paying the extra money for hors d'oeuvres and the bar service when some guests may want a break between events anyway. To our surprise we qualified for a free cocktail hour so we had it anyway but we wouldn't have paid extra for it. 

 

Menu choice: We wanted really good food, it was important to us but we didn't want to pay an arm and leg for it and we also didn't feel like at an all inclusive with free room service that we need to over feed our guests. Our plated menu options at Azul Fives were cheaper than the buffet options so we saved a lot per person that we. We also had all of our kids at our wedding order off of the children's menu which was free of charge. 

 

Flowers: I chose to get real touch flowers for my bridal bouquet (which I LOVED) and it is a great keepsake now. My bridesmaids carried custom clutches instead of flowers which also doubled as part of their bridesmaid gifts. I thought this was a little more unique and practical. My girls loved having a purse for the night! My husband and groomsmen went without boutonnieres and to be honest, I didn't miss them...although I'm not a big flower person.

 

Dress: I went custom for my dress and ended up saving a ton of money!! Although this is an area I would say not to purposely skimp on as you do want to feel amazing on your big day but it is possible to save in this category.

 

Wedding bands: I got my wedding band at an independent jeweller where my husband got my engagement ring and saved a ton of money. My husband also decided to go with a ring that wasn't gold - also huge savings and he loves it! Again you want to love your wedding bands as you'll be wearing them everyday but just another way to save if you can. 

 

Decor: I got very little from the resort and brought the rest from home. I only ordered a couple of floral arrangements for the ceremony and then had them transfer them all to the reception to be used for the centrepieces. We definitely saved a lot by using the same items for both parts of the day. 

 

Photography: This is an area we didn't want to cut costs on. We really wanted to save in other areas to be able to afford great photography, so we went with an outside vendor and paid the outside vendor fee. That being said we went with a smaller package. We thought we'd rather had better quality for a shorter amount of time rather than all day coverage with just a mediocre photographer. We only did a 4 hour package from 2-6pm. We had a jam packed schedule but got it all in. I did my hair and make up before they got there but we still had getting ready photos, a first look, family/bridal party pics before the ceremony, ceremony and then ended the package with our first dance that kicked off our reception. 

 

Videography: We were originally going to not have videography but the more I thought about it the more I wanted it. We ended up splurging and used some wedding money to pay for it. 

 

DJ: We skipped the DJ and used our own playlist. We used a program called QLAB but Wedding DJ app is even more popular with the brides on here. 

 

Paper products: I printed my menus, welcome packages, thank you letters etc all at work. I know not everyone can do this but it saves you a lot if you can do it.

 

Guestbook: Originally we were going to do a video guestbook in conjunction with polaroid pictures...well we didn't really set up the video guestbook properly (totally my fault and not the hotel) and I forgot to give the camera and polaroid film to the wedding department (again my fault)...so we accidentally ended up without a guestbook and I have to say I really don't mind. It didn't bother me the day after when I realized or now. I think we may have looked at it once in a while but it really isn't a must have for me. 

 

Those are all the areas I can think of right now...I'll let you know if I can think of more. Happy planning!

Edited March 19, 2016 by snswedding2016

[WPGBride17 49]

@@snswedding2016 Wow so much good advice! I really like the idea of Real Touch flowers but to be honest with you I had never heard of them before. I was sitting with the FI when he asked what I was reading so I started reading him your post and he actually listened! He said he could probably print off anything we need at work! I could never do this as I'm a government worker and you have to have a special password to even access the color printer.

@@calgarybride2015 Adventures photos was $1200 US for 3 hours and the FI said absolutely not would he pay over $1000 dollars for pictures but I can't say I disagree. I know it's an art and takes a while to edit but it just didn't check off on our list of priorities. 

[calgarybride2015 3,513]

Does your package include your bouquet? If it does I would use that as its included and won't cost you money!

 

Wow they've increased a lot. When I used them I paid $1600 for 8 hours lol

 

I did all my printing at home off my canon ink jet!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited March 19, 2016 by calgarybride2015

[dreamweddings 258]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for new ways to save money on my wedding budget and thought who better to ask than this forum of lovely ladies. As I am planning my Grand Sirenis wedding I am noticing how quickly all the extras are adding up so I was wondering what is your best tip on saving money at a destination wedding whether it's décor, invitations, vendors, really any tip at all is appreciated!

One of my tips I kinda stumbled on was for photography. To put it simply I could not afford professionally photography and my FI was totally against spending thousands of dollars on pictures. In his words he rather spend it on upgrading the wedding instead. So I started contacting various local Riviera Maya photographers within my impossible budget because everyone says you will regret not spending the money on a good photographer. I was recommended to a photographer who was the wife of another photographer. She totally sympathized with me and offered to do a couples shoot a couple of days after my wedding in my dress for only $400 US! I felt this was an amazing opportunity that I could not pass up and she was recommended by someone reputable so I am going ahead with it. Friends and family will document my special day but then I will also have these beautiful pictures around Playa del Carmen of me and my husband which is good enough for me!

@@WPGBride17 you have received some great tips from @@calgarybride2015 and @snswedding2016 to help you get started.

 

other important thing is to make use of everything that is included in your package.

if you are having bridesmaids.  reuse their bouquet as your centerpieces.  

DIY most of your decor and bring it with you. 

 

Happy Planing!

[snswedding2016 1,205]

@@WPGBride17 I really loved my real touch flowers and have no regrets. There are a bunch of different companies that do great work in this area but I agree with @@calgarybride2015 - if your wedding package includes a bouquet to definitely use that. Save the $$ for something else.  Your fiancé being able to print at work will be a huge help!

[Moments That Matter 230]

Congrats on your upcoming Jan 2017 wedding, WPGBride17 - and welcome to our helpful online community!!!

 

As you've already seen there are lots of resource people here who are happy to share their knowledge and expertise with "newbies" starting off on their planning journey.

 

Wishing you happy research and all the best with your plans!!! team MTM

 

...will leave you with some magical wedding moments that matter we captured, taken from our recent Grand Sirenis Wedding Story Album - to show you what a beautiful venue you've chosen for your Special Day - Enjoy!!!

 

 

[vancouverpetunia 756]

We emailed our STDs and set up a web site with a RSVP form on it. When we sent out paper invites, we didn't include RSVP cards (or stamped envelopes), but just directed everyone to the web site to RSVP.