Thanks to their matchmaker, ABC, Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter had almost $4 million to spend on a wedding. Alas, most brides and grooms have to live within a much more limited budget.
The concept might sound nearly impossible, given the dozens of wedding essentials to plan. Wedding planners, however, say that not each wedding detail has to receive the same budgetary heft.
“I like beautiful things, but you can save money on the dress, even invitations,” said Joyce Westin Dunne, a wedding consultant in Chicago. (Dunne confessed that hiring her is a luxury: “Girls on a budget don’t come to me.”)
Here are tips from Dunne and other experts on what couples should splurge on and what they can save a dollar or two on without compromising quality.
First, the splurges:
Food: “It’s the most memorable part of the event, and eating is such a pleasure zone for people,” said Jamie Breslin, catering director at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago.
But in the world of wedding food, splurges are not always what they seem. A sit-down dinner might seem like a splurge, but it’s actually more cost-effective than a buffet, said Deborah McCoy, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based wedding consultant and author of four wedding-planning books.
“The best deal going is a soup-to-nuts sit-down dinner with wedding cake and a bar,” she said. That’s because sit-down dinners allow the caterer portion control, while an all-you-can-eat buffet does not, McCoy said.
Photography and videography: “Those are your memories, and they’re priceless,” McCoy said.
Dunne said some couples economize by skipping the video, but that’s a mistake. “The video is where you get the toasts, and what people did or said,” she said.
Entertainment: Like food, the band or deejay is a high point of a wedding. McCoy suggested getting references from friends and not hiring the band without seeing a preview video. And, because bad wedding bands are legendarily very, very bad, don’t rely on the phone book to find one.
Hair/makeup: Wedding makeup has to look good up close and for the camera, McCoy said. When Mary Pat Wood got married in June 2002, she hired Elise Brill, a Skokie-based makeup artist who specializes in weddings, to apply her, her mother’s and her eight bridesmaids’ makeup.
Wood considers the $500 well spent. “I wanted my eyes to pop out; I wanted to look nice and elegant for the big day,” she said. .
Flowers: Flowers fall under the memories category, and they’re worth a splurge, said Casey Cooper, owner of Botanicals Inc., a floral design studio in Chicago. “The bride should have exactly what she wants,” Cooper said, and bridesmaids should too because the look of the wedding party sets the tone for the entire affair.
And now, the scrimps:
The dress: Consultants point to consignment and sample shops as places to buy new, one-of-a-kind dresses, or gently worn ones, for about one-third the price of a new designer dress. “You only spend, what, eight hours in it?” McCoy said.
The time of the wedding: Blow big bucks on the menu, a nice hotel, the best photographer and videographer–and do it on a Sunday afternoon.
Centerpieces: After splurging on bouquets, economize by making your own centerpieces. Silver-dusted potted plants placed on a rented mirror and surrounded with votive candles make stunning, inexpensive centerpieces, as do 30-inch silver tapers, McCoy said.
Invitations: Engraved invitations on hefty cream stock can cost $20 or $25 each. But the trend is toward less expensive invitations, said Joanne Dennison, an events planner in Bridgewater, N.J.
As an alternative to the engraved route, find a small printer who does quality laser-jet printing, or ask a friend who’s an expert at desktop publishing.
Venue: Bridget Brennan and her husband, Erik Orelind, spent $10 to get married at City Hall this summer. They put the rest of their wedding funds toward a honeymoon in Italy and a house.
The bride and groom, both 37, had been married before in traditional, expensive ceremonies. So for the second time around, they chose the least expensive route possible. “It felt surreal when I pulled that $10 bill out of my purse,” Brennan said. “I thought of the thousands we spent on our first weddings and thought we had the last laugh.”
