Where did you splurge or save?

[Dandi]

Saved -

- Duo that sang and played music, they were amazingly good and are family friends, so half price, YAY!

- Photography... a friend who is a semi-professional photographer did all our photos as our wedding gift and they were awesome!!

- Dress, under $700, but still very beautiful!

- Flowers, I did fake and they were gorgeous. Plus I still have my bouquet in perfect nick and I love it

- Bomboniere, no one even noticed there were none!

- Used friend''s cars for transport, all late model GTs, exactly the same but in 4 different colours, we loved them

- Invitiations, I made them myself at a grand total cost of $40 for invites for 100 people, and thought they looked a bit swish!

- Cake, mum made it and it was gorgeous

- Jewellery, I wore my own that I already had

- Church music, I downloaded the music and made up the CD


Splurged -

- Hair and makeup

- Personalised wine bottles on every table

- Fabbalus food

- Honeymoon

- Plush hotel room on wedding night

 

[Clairitek]

I am still sort of in the early planning stages but this is the plan-

Splurge:
Catering/Venue (a few thousand over initial budget)
Dress (about $500 over initial budget)
Photographer (we budgeted a lot and will probably spend it all)
Honeymoon (waiting a few months to take our 2 week trip to Napa)

Save:
Accessories (DIY veil, already have the jewelery)
Shoes ($40 for pink silk flats on Amazon thanks to Freke)
Make-up (DIY)
Stationery Suite (friends with graphics designer and have access to good, inexpensive printing. Will DIY everything I can here)
Favors (less than $1 each for little jars of honey with labels designed by friend)
Flowers (will DIY bouquets and bouts, am not sure I will have floral centerpieces)
DJ (iPod)

 

[CNYHopeful]

Saved On:
Reception & open bar (great venue for price)
Photographer (pro photog. is co-worker/friend of FFIL)
Gown (on sale)
veil
Centerpieces
Ceremony music (friends)
make-up (cousin)
flowers

Splurge:
Favors
Honeymoon
Entertainment

We still have a lot of time and a lot of decisions to make, so we''ll see in the coming months. We''re trying to get FFIL''s band to play the reception, and researching prices on limo (but we might cut it out), pricing rings, cake, DIY invitations, programs, Attendant Gifts, & hotel packages, etc.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Obviously this is all relative; however, here is my list:

Splurged on:
-Photo (big splure)..
-E-ring
-Save the dates

Semi-splurged/Saved:
-No bar, only champagne toast
-Dress
-Flowers
-Invites
-Video
-Venue & catering
-Rings
-Musicians
-Bridesmaid dresses
-DJ (found a good price)
-Will do so on honeymoon...

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Splurge:
Wedding bands: custom palladium and silver mokume gane set
Honeymoon: 10 day luxury vacation in Iceland (5 star hotels all the way, hehe)
Bar tab: reception is at a restaurant so drinks are expensive compared to what caterers charge. Even so, it probably won''t be more than 2k.
Cake: 520$ for 100ppl, but the cake is so delicious and gorgeous! (I know it''s not too expensive in general, but it''s price for the area)


Save:
Dress (had it custom made in China, only 500$)
Paperwork: designed and printed most of the invites, menus, programs, place cards myself
Photographer: 800$ for 8 hours and the CD. She''s great! (And no videographer)
Photographer
Venue: Reception is in a restaurant, so no need to buy decor! And the 9 course meal is only 30$/person (not including alcohol)
Flowers: no church decorations, very simple centerpieces.
DIY makeup

Average cost for everything else