Wedding What DID and DIDN''T you regret splurging on?

[mimzy]

i''m not married yet, so who knows if it will stick but....

i''m not splurging on flowers. there will probably be a dozen roses in my bouquet with the rest being branches, etc, the girls will be carrying lanterns instead of bouquets, and we aren''t having any floral centerpieces. as of right now i don''t regret it one bit.

i DID splurge on my dress which came in at 1.1k which was WAY more than i was wanting to spend. my stepmom worked some budget magic which made it affordable so i went or it. i still get spurts of remorse, but i am counting on really enjoying it and not regretting it on the day (i''m going to visit it at the salon today in fact!).

 

[GeorgiaGal]

I'm really glad I splurged on:

1 - photographer & videographer

2 - food & alcohol

3 - chair covers to make the room look more complete

4 - last minute day-of-wedding planner for 4 hours! She was great and then didn't have to expect any family members to do anything but enjoy themselves.

Things I'm glad I didn't splurge on:

1 - my dress - I got a designer $1,000 dress at Filene's for $250, it's not for everyone, but looked great and noone knew.

2 - flowers - well I still paid $2,000, but my first couple of quotes were more like $6,000. We got married at a gorgeous resort on an island, I could have and should have downgraded my flowers even more with such beautiful scenery and venue. One special touch that wasn't expensive was placing a single orchid at each place setting - very elegant, but not a lot of money.

3 - Toasting Flutes and Engraved cake cutter - I thought about this but as it was we had so much luggage to and from our destination wedding and it would just be one more thing to lose or break....and I doubt we'd ever use it again, and I'm very opposed to clutter. I'm sure it would have gotten stuck in a closet somewhere and never used again.

4 - I kept eyeing placecard holders for the sit down dinner. Glad I didn't go buy 100 pewter seashells that would just be thrown away. I spent maybe $15 on the tented do-it-yourself ones from Michael's and it ended up looking a lot more elegant than my original plan.

 

[Mayflower25]

I, too, am not married yet

BUT my FI and me have made are doing our best to stick to the *important* items to our wedding, instead of just EVERYTHING.

Splurge: Wedding bands, shoes, honeymoon, venue (vineyard: indoor/outdoor w/large tent, liner, lights- the tent is my DREAM)

Semi-Splurge (items are still pricey, but not the #1 choice): Dress, Tux, Invitations

Conservative: Flowers, favors, transportation

Regret: I haven''t seen my dress since I ordered it in Jan/Feb and didn''t take photos. I''m not sure if its "the one" and wonder if I should have taken the plunge for the more expensive dress I LOVED. However, I did manage to only go over my 3k budget by a small amount. With alterations though, I wonder if my dress might come out closer to 4k.

 

[AceP]

i didn't really feel like i "splurged" on anything, given a relatively generous overall budget. but, my husband and i were determined not to spend all of the money our parents generously gave us, and instead put a chunk toward a down payment. so we tried to have an gracious and elegant but not over-the-top wedding weekend.

i added a sushi bar to our cocktail hour at the last minute, which added about $1000. i love great food and did not regret it one bit. everyone flocked to it.

i also did a dessert bar with three different types of cakes and chocolate-covered strawberries. again, no regrets there.

if i could have changed one thing, i think i would have added another course to our friday night rehearsal dinner. it wasn't quite abundant enough.

i was fairly conservative on flowers - "only" spent about $3000 - and do not regret that at all. i went with impressive centerpieces and not too much else. we got married seaside, so we were lucky to have stunning natural decor.

my dress was also conservative, at less than $3000, including alterations. every once in a while i get a pang about the $5400 dress that i tried on and fell in love with. ultimately, though, i loved my dress, too. and let's face it - i wore it for eight hours of my life. to me it just wasn't worth having $2500 less in my down payment fund. but that's a very personal decision, of course.

one regret - i went with a friend of a friend for cheap calligraphy. a HUGE mistake. it turned out really really awful. like, laughably bad. please use a reputable calligrapher!!

i went budget on the invitations - $600 or so - and DIYed programs. again, when i see other people's custom-designed papery i'm a bit regretful, but ultimately i know that no one notices that kind of stuff unless they're planning a wedding of their own!

i did sort of splurge on jewelry - $2000 for a green amethyst earring and necklace set. no regrets there. i'll have it forever and it will serve as a tangible reminder of that wonderful day.

 

[diamondfan]

It is a tough call. I think good food and service and liquor combined with a nice setting and good music is so important. Bad food, music that does not get people up and dancing, and poor service combined with setting not conducive to the moment are not good party ingredients.

Invites can be a fortune. I have seen things come in boxes with crystals that cost $50.00 per invite...lovely but a waste when you can send a wonderful invite that is befitting the event without going overboard.

The dress can be super pricey or not and still look great. So that is a place one could be more frugal unless you fall in love with something hugely expensive.

A good photographer is what gives you years of joy after all the evening festivities are over.

Of course decorations can be vital to overall ambiance BUT there is more than one way to go about it, as with a dress. You can find a dress for 5000.00 that looks great but also find one for 1000.00 that you love too. The flowers and other touches can be done well without going nuts.

We had a band that was TERRIBLE. And they were not inexpensive either. My mom heard and booked them without my having heard them. My mom thought they were fine but they stunk.

 

[Rhea]

We honestly had such a budget wedding that we didn''t splurge on anything in comparison to most people on this board.

Splurges, for us:
gardenias, rather than a less expensive flower.
wedding bands, mine at $950 and his at $750 - we both love them!
paper lanterns, rather than a less expensive way to decorate the tent.

Budget, for us:
shoes, cream leather ones on sale from Ann Taylor, I''ve never worn them again so I''m glad I didn''t spend much.
glass candle holders and candles, from Ikea, loved the crate and barrel ones but considering they just sat on the table it didn''t really matter.

 

[violet02]

Date: 4/30/2008 8:45:28 PM
Author: Gypsy

Date: 4/30/2008 8:26:11 PM
Author: FrekeChild
RENTING your earrings? From where? And what happened to losing 15 lbs and buying yourself those other ones?

Well. A bride on another board has the exact earrings I wanted to buy (although hers all all crystals including the drops, instead of pearl drops like I planned on buying). She''s local and offered to let me rent them from her for a nominal fee. I''m not that sentimental so I was like ''great''! So I get to wear the earrings I love, without paying the purchase price for them. As for the weight. I still REALLY need to lose it. But I figure, I can use something ELSE as motivation. I get my cake and eat it too (as long as it has no calories and helps me lose weight).

Gypsy, are you able to see them in person? Since we''re interested in the same sort of earrings I would love to be able to see what you''re getting in person so I can get an idea of what they really look like.

 

[violet02]

GREAT thread btw! Super useful!

I'm not married yet but my best friend said his biggest regret was not splurging on the photographer and instead using a friends dad to take photos. Which sucked btw. Another friend had the same issue with not splurging on photos.

I'm super glad I got a wedding planner, she was VERY reasonable too, best money spent yet.

We didnt overly splurge on photos (5k) but I love the photographer.

We're not doing a wedding night hotel since we rented a house for the wedding for a week.

I really don't want to pay much for programs but i'm at a loss for how to make them.

I don't want to overly splurge on favors.

I'm hoping our very cheap videographer comes through since she's quite busy. I don't want to regret not getting some sort of record.

We're splurging on rings, but we're wearing them forever so...

I'll definitely be using this list to figure out what to cut back on.

 

[zoebartlett]

Violet, I downloaded a free month (or three month?) trial of Microsoft Publisher to use for my programs. It was a little tricky at first because I had no idea what I was doing or how to use it, but after fooling around with it for a while, I got the hang of it. It didn''t come out exactly the way I wanted it, so Sumbride took a stab at it, and the program looks great. I''ve since gone back in to Publisher and fooled with it some more, and now it''s exactly how I want it.

 

[violet02]

Date: 5/3/2008 10:18:39 AM
Author: ZoeBartlett
Violet, I downloaded a free month (or three month?) trial of Microsoft Publisher to use for my programs. It was a little tricky at first because I had no idea what I was doing or how to use it, but after fooling around with it for a while, I got the hang of it. It didn''t come out exactly the way I wanted it, so Sumbride took a stab at it, and the program looks great. I''ve since gone back in to Publisher and fooled with it some more, and now it''s exactly how I want it.

So publisher is the way to go? Does the tirial restrict anything and what kind of paper are you using and printer?

 

[zoebartlett]

Hi Violet,

I don''t think Publisher restricts anything. I hadn''t used it before so I''m not sure I would notice a difference, but I think it has everything the real one has. I have a Lexmark printer but I printed it out (on regular paper) at work. It came out great. I''m going to take it to Kinko''s and have them do it for us, even though it''s a fairly simple program.

 

[[email protected]]

I wish I had splurged on the photographer...we went with a cool, young, guys starting out. His photos are fun, but not the most flattering. Find someone who makes you look great. The photos are not a luxury, everyone will want to see them.
I had an inexpensive dress, wish I had spent more. Didn''t look my best.
I went low end on a simple boquet...I didn''t realize how many pictures it would be in.
We had an inexpensive cake that was AMAZING!
We took public transportation to the wedding, which was a blast! My favorite photos are of us on the train.
I did my own makeup, I was very happy I did so.
We had to choose between two venues, we picked the cheaper one (Flamingo) and were very very happy.

 

[doodle]

Date: 4/30/2008 7:53:04 PM
Author: Gypsy
Doodle... before I throw a fit about the high price of things in Nor Cal... what do you plan for centerpieces (do you have a pic) and where are you located?

sorry to take so long to reply; somehow i missed reading through the rest of this thread until just now! i''m in columbus, ga (about two hours south of atlanta). our centerpieces are going to be submerged orchids in tall vases, kind of like below but probably taller, and we may wind up adding some "stuff" sticking out the top, too, but for right now, we haven''t added that into the price quote. my florist loves working with orchids and calla lilies, so she charges less for them. glad to have been one of the flower enabler entourage!

 

[doodle]

i should also throw this pic in, too, since they''re the specific orchids being used in the centerpieces!