17 other ways to save money on your wedding.

After some tips to save on your outfit, here are some tips for the other things for your wedding.

I made it a sport to find the best deals for our wedding without cutting corners on the quality.

First we looked how much we wanted to spend for our wedding. That’s a bit difficult if you don’t know the prices, but what’s in your bank account is what really counts. We didn’t want to borrow money and then you just have to plan it with whatever you have.

• Make a wedding budget and stick with it! I had loads of excel sheets to keep up with the money flow. It’s a bit of work but in this way you see what you have planned to spend on flowers and what you really spend. It kept us within our budget. To get prices there are loads of website with information to get an idea of the costs.
• Ask the people you can afford not the people with etiquette expects you to invite. It’s your wedding, your big day and don’t let it get spoiled by asking 150 people to come where you don’t like 2 uncles and 2 colleagues and don’t really know 20 other relatives. We only invited 42 people to our ceremony and reception. The party was for only 15 guests. This saves loads of money and gives you less stress on the day. More about this in an other post
• Use suppliers that you know. If you have a florist in the family it will not necessary be cheaper but you know they will go the extra mile to make it special. We knew the florist and the baker. We got married at the restaurant where we first met. It saved us money and we got the best products.

11 ways to save money on your wedding outfit

I got married with Klaas on 25 January 2013. I finally I have time for a new blog. We wanted a small wedding and didn’t had / have loads of money. Here are some or our ways to save money.

The outfits.

Klaas got married in a kilt. More the Highlander look than the official gentlemen look with a jacket.  Although he is not Scottish he loves this outfit more than a suit. I got married in a n Ivory 2 piece wedding dress with a red band at my waist and a red bolero jacket. Sorry only a photo from the back because we don’t want to be with our real name or photos in this blog.

• Buy an outfit, or part of an outfit you know you will wear more than once. Klaas plays in a bagpipe band, so he can use it often. I did the same for my boots. Because it was winter I didn’t wear open shoes but red suede boots. They ware expansive but I can use then often after the wedding.
• Buy a sample dress or suit instead of a new one. I bought a beautiful sample dress for half the price. One watch for stains and cuts. If you can repair them, you still can buy it cheaper.
• Buy a second-hand dress or suit. If you want a special brand dress or a really expensive one, look on second-hand wedding sites or eBay for your dress. I ordered a dress on eBay but the size was wrong. So always to try to find a dress nearby which you can fit before you buy. A kilt has loads of extra parts which can be very expensive. Like a sporran, broche, dagger. But look on eBay for nice cheap ones.
• Get a dress made for you. Go to a tailor nearby and design your own dress. Depending on your taste this can be much cheaper and buy one in a store.  Also there are Chinese factories where you can buy beautiful imitation wedding dresses for unbelievable prices. The quality is hard to check beforehand so look for experiences of others. I got my dress in a store but got it tailored at tailor nearby. She also made my bolero and put the waistband on (to fit with my red shoes).
• Look out for adding expenses witch will add to the price of our outfit. Some stores will add the taxes at the counter and not one the label! Tailor costs can be very high to make you dress perfect. Veils, shoes, and jewellery can be very expensive in wedding stores.
• Borrow! Something old, something old, something borrowed, something blue. I borrowed the necklace of my grandma. It was her mothers. Her father had it made to cover a big scar (very romantic). And I borrowed a bracelet of my other grandma. In this way you can ware beautiful jewellery on your special day, which has meaning for you and your family without spending a euro. But you can of course also borrow a complete outfit if a friend or niece just got married.
• For hair and makeup find a hairdresser who doesn’t has a studio but comes to your home. It is more comfortable for you but for the most times a lot cheaper. Just ask to do a test hairdo and make-up before your big day.
• Always compare prices. It doesn’t matter if you do it for your wedding dress or for a hairdresser. Take your time to email and call for prices (and discounts)
• Do It Your Self. If you have very short hair or are very good at make-up you can do it yourself and save money. But I really liked to put in the extra money to let someone do it for me.
• You can buy weird things on auctions. Here in the Netherlands we have special actions for holidays, concert tickets and beauty treatments. So I got my hair extended for only 150 euro. Yes it’s a completely unnecessary choice but I had a special reason. I had to cut my hair when I got ill 7 years ago. And I always kept it short because I have lay down a lot. But when I tried a wedding dress one and saw myself in a mirror I really wanted my hair long for the wedding. The next day I bumped into the auction. Coincidence???
• Sell things after the wedding. If you buy thing you only can ware once (because they are white and very weddingy) you can consider to sell them. It depends how attached you are of your outfit. I will probably sell my dress if I get my skirt clean. It was snowing on your wedding day and there was salt a dirty snow everywhere. And people are standing on your train

 

 

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 13,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Silence

A week ago a got a nice email from my friend Lovella. I met her through this blog. She was wondering if I’m oke, because I haven’t blogged for a while. So I will her email back today en put a blog up for everybody else who wonders. This is special for you Lovella!

I’m fine!

Things to Remember, week 37

Klaas his motor trip. Every year Klaas goes on a motor trip with colleagues, friends and others. Some 20 motorcycles went from Monday to Friday to Spa in Belgium. The weather didn’t help a lot, it was raining some days. Klaas is changing a bit and found it difficult to fit into the group. He noticed that he needed some time for himself. And all the beer drinking and man talk weren’t so fun anymore. (He hardly drinks). On Wednesday I got a very weird phone call. He had left for a day tour but went back. He came to the conclusion that he isn’t a good comfortable rider. He loves his bike, but is accurately a bit scared to ride it. And he is riding for years. So he told me he wanted to stop motor riding. We wants to sell his bike and buy a mountain bike. I was a bit scared that he stopped for the wrong reasons, but he was really relived with is decision. He just never rides relaxed. And when he came home on Friday he was so stiff with tension that he was sure he wants to sell it. I’m very proud that he didn’t see it at a failure, but he was proud that he finally dare to admit he was scared.

Point of View, my new blog

I made loads of nice photo’s over the years and wanted to show them. Also I don’t have the time to write long blogs every day, so this is my new project. A special photo blog, where every day will be a new photo published. In the mean time this blog will go on of course.

seenbysophie.wordpress.com

 

Things to Remember, week 36

Stuck. On Monday we went shopping in one of the large supermarkets in town. When I wanted to go back to the parking seller I tried to take the elevator. The doors just closed and I put my arms (with bread in my hands) between the doors so the sensors would open them. But…. They didn’t. Very scary. The doors crushed my arms quite a bit before they opened. I was so shocked (and tired) that I just took the elevator down and went home. Later that evening I wondered why my arm hurt so much but they were bruished both sides. Later I called the store that they should fix the elevator. A  scary idea what could have happened if they didn’t opened at all…