Hey ya’ll. The Yay-Today gang is on vacay until the new year, but since we know that you still love to read us daily we didn’t want to leave you hanging. That’s why every day this week we’re bringing back some of our favorite posts. We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed writing them. Happy Holidays from all of us!
When we got engaged, we got all those immediate questions like How did it happen? When’s the date? And above all else WHAT’S YOUR DREAM OVER THE TOP EXPENSIVE WEDDING GOING TO BE LIKE? Well, I’m one of those chicks who never had fairy tale Princess Kate dreams and either did my soon-to-be Prince.
So without further ado, here’s a list of some unwedding-like crap that you can buy or make yourself so you don’t go broke on your big day:
Food/Drinks
We searched high and low for food options. Sure, Dante’s hot dogs and Rancho Bravo were on the list, as were ice cream sandwiches instead of a cake and even a big, crazy pig roast. But then we discovered The Paella King! He’s just the perfect price for our small affair and if we didn’t have an ipod doing our tunes, we could’ve spent a wee more to have him play the Flamenco. The King even uses organic/local ingredients – bless his Seattlite heart!
Big tip: A good wine guy told me that for a small wedding (10-15 people) I could go to QFC and get 6 bottles of red and 6 bottles of white and as long as there was some beer/rum/pop too, the wine shouldn’t be more than $200. Use your saver’s card!!
Location, Location, Location
You can get married at one of our lovely parks for $ (but I’ve known a few who did it on the fly without paying a dime) or you can do what we did and get a place on VBRO so the entire family can break bread together for 3 fun-filled days.
Big tip: We learned that some vacation rentals will cut the cost if you stay an extra day. Lesson here is it never hurts to ask for what discounts are available. Sure, it’ll cost an extra $400 for that extra day, but we saved on the cleaning fees and other random fees – plus, we won’t feel like we have to have a wedding and run home straight after.
Photographer
Need pictures? Apparently, yes you do. Well, good ol’ craigslist can still be your saving grace for all things reasonable – especially when it comes to wedding photography. There are plenty of picture takers out there who are students or need to build their portfolio and are willing to take a huge cut to take your photos. I’ve been quoted anywhere from free (with trading services) to $500.
Big tip: Do you really need 15 pictures of you putting on makeup? Probably not. Just cut to the basics and you’ll cut the price in half.
What about decorations?!
What ever will you do with a bare looking park or a yard without any fucking flying lighted lanterns?! People will die for sure if you don’t have a table cloth setting that matches your dreams and dress and hair and your most favorite color should be littered everywhere, right?! Wrong.
Dude, just throw some candles, flowers, herbs or whatever is growing in your garden and put those mason jars (or if you’re an oatmeal connoisseur – start saving those Irish Oatmeal canisters), buy a piñata for fun entertainment ($10 at the dollar store or any hacienda), sew up a garland with whatever scraps you have lying around and your 20% off coupon at Joann’s AND/OR make mustaches on a stick for fun photo ops. This is the limit of shit we’re doing. I’ve been pretty stress free about the whole thing and not once had to decide on if colors would clash with anything.
Big tip: Enlist friends. Seriously, they love doing this shit and if you even mention the word wedding, people come out of the woodworks knowing how to sew the garland of your dreams.
So, there you have it. Hopefully I haven’t overwhelmed you – although, that’s pretty much the standard, even for cheapy weddings. If you want to really feel overwhelmed you could head to the bagillion wedding sites and read the zagillion books on the subject. Or you can do what I did and just go with the flow and hope for the best.
