Where to Splurge and Where to Save
Weddings are expensive. Like, crazy expensive. You might find yourself wondering, “What are the things worth splurging on? What are the things I can save on that won’t make a difference overall?”
It can be so easy to get wrapped up in all things wedding to the point that you stop even thinking, “do I need to spend the money on this” before you purchase things. So today I put together some splurge vs. save lists for you.
Splurge
Photography - Once the day is over, photos are all you will have to look back on. I can’t stress enough the importance of a good photographer. Seriously, the right photographer can make a $3,000 wedding look like a $30,000 wedding. Spend the money on a good photographer.
Dress - Again, this is mainly for the pictures (and so you feel like your most beautiful self on that day). You want to look back and love your dress. Seeing as most of the pictures that day will be of you, it’s best to splurge on the dress and try to save elsewhere.
Food - Your guests will remember if the food you serve is awful or if they were unable to eat because of a special diet. Make sure to include vegetarian, gluten-free and allergen-free options. (We served pasta, including a meat-sauce (red sauce) dish, a no-meat dish with white sauce, and a dish with gluten free noodles and pesto/wine sauce and sides like chicken wings and garlic bread. This easily covered all our meat, dairy and gluten sensitive guests.)
Entertainment - A bad DJ can quickly ruin a wedding. You want your guests to have fun, and it’s not fun for them if your music sucks and no one wants to dance. Also, venue permitting, try to have entertainment for those that don’t dance too--think yard games, s’mores bar, photo booth, etc.
Videographer - Same reasoning as a photographer. I honestly don’t know that you necessarily need to splurge on this, but you do need to have someone with a decent smartphone at least film the main events. You won’t remember as much of your wedding as you think you will, and while you may not watch the video every month or even every year, I promise you will watch it. Better to have it and almost never watch it than not have it and wish you did. I didn't hire a videographer for my wedding and I can personally tell you - it is my single biggest regret from my wedding.
Hair and Makeup - Photos, Photos, Photos. You want to look stunning on your wedding day--not just for the sake of looking beautiful for your fiance, but also because you want to love the way you look in those pictures years from now. Splurge by finding a good hairstylist and makeup artist and don’t forget to do a trial run or two!
Even if you choose to do your own makeup (I do NOT recommend doing your own hair EVER) you still need to splurge on good products that won't smudge and will last all day.
Save
Favors - Honestly, most guests end up forgetting them or throwing them away after the wedding. Do you really want a cup or something with some other couple's names engraved on it? ...Neither do your guests. Edible favors or no favors at all are totally fine.
Invitations - Trust me, I love a really beautiful wedding invitation. They are useful as a way to communicate to your guests the formality, colors and style of the wedding. (Did you know that? If your wedding colors are jewel tones, don't send a pastel invitation--use jewel tones. If your wedding is formal, don't send a rustic style invitation--go with classic and elegant instead.) But in all honesty, your invitations might be posted on someone's fridge for a couple of months, but most people are just going to throw them away or lose them. I'm not saying just go buy a package of generic invitations from Walmart--there are those few guests who will frame them or hold onto them in some way--but do you really need to spend $500 for glitter, cut-out, jewel-encrusted invitations? Or $2,000 for engraved invitations with postage-paid response cards? Not to mention, the larger invitations (and those with a ribbon or jewel on them) end up making postage cost a lot more. Save yourself the money.
Guestbook - The chances of you looking at a regular guestbook ever again are pretty slim. If you're going to do a guestbook, do something different, something you will actually enjoy looking at years later. Check out my article on alternative guest books for ideas that are less traditional and more cost-effective!
Photo booth - A lot of photography companies charge $400+ for a photo booth for a set amount of hours. It's totally okay to skip that and go with DIY for less than half the cost. Check out my DIY Photo booth article for inspiration!
Shoes - Other than maybe one or two pictures that show your shoes, they really don't matter. This is not something to spend hundreds of dollars on (unless you're wearing a tea-length dress) because the reality is they hardly ever show and no one is going to care. I'm not saying just wear your everyday tennis shoes, but find a cute pair for under $50 and you'll be golden! Mine were $10!
Programs - Like invitations, most people eventually throw these away. They have an even shorter "shelf-life" than invitations do because, like favors, some people don't even bother to take them. If you want to do traditional programs, by all means do it, but don't spend a fortune on them. Another option is to do one large sign that is like a traditional program with all the info your guests need without the paper.
Jewelry - This one might strike you as strange to be on the save list. I'm not talking about the wedding bands here. I'm talking more like earrings, bracelets and necklaces. As long as they look good in photos, they don't need to be expensive. My earrings were under $25; my bracelet was $15; my bridesmaids' earrings that I gave them as a gift were actually only $1 each! My friend's tiara for her wedding was $9 (See pictures here!). Guess what? They all photographed beautifully - yeah, my girls will probably never wear those earrings again, but would they wear them if I had spent $20 or even $60 on them? Probably not. Save the money for something else.
Wedding Veil - This is the most shocking thing about shopping for your wedding dress. You will see veils in bridal shops for $150-750! Are you kidding me?! Did you know that an elbow-length veil without trim of any kind costs about 50 cents to make? My mom made my sister's veil, which was finger-tip length and had a beaded trim sewn along its whole edge for about $35 and 12 hours of work cutting the tulle and hand-sewing the trim. She made my birdcage veil with a jeweled comb for about $40, and $39.75 of that was for the comb! Literally 25 cents for the tulle. That one took her about 20 minutes to make. Make your veil or have a crafty friend make it as your wedding gift. There are tutorials online, or patterns at fabric stores. Easy-peasy.
