Sunday, October 12, 2014

Wedding Decorations Pt 2, The Dollar Store

For those of you who have read many of my posts, you'll see a lot of my recommendations are for the Dollar Store, and for weddings it's no different!  Believe it or not, there are many things that can be used for weddings that can be found at a dollar or less type store.  Although I love Michaels (and my first Wedding Decorations post was about them), there are things that are a little overpriced.

As with any of my posts regarding this store, shop wisely -- not all their products are the best quality.  But contrary to what most people believe, there are a lot that are good quality so don't let that warning deter you.  And there are some items where quality just really doesn't matter.

Here is my list of items from the Dollar Store that could be used for weddings:

    dollar store wedding
    dollar store wedding
  • individual bubble packs
  • favor boxes
  • candy
  • ribbon
  • confetti
  • fake flowers
  • fake petals
  • floral supplies (floral tape, foam pieces, wire, etc)
  • twine
  • vases
  • sand
  • pebbles
  • baskets
  • frames
  • candles (real and battery)
  • candle holders
  • lights
  • craft supplies for DIY projects:
    • dollar store wedding
    • popsicle sticks
    • glue
    • markers
    • paper
    • glitter
    • beads
  • flip flops (to offer to the ladies for dancing so they don't tire out their feet!)
  • thank you cards



Don't forget to go here for all your pre-wedding party needs (engagement, bridal, bachelorette, bachelor) for party decorations and plastic tableware!

Are there other items that you've found at the Dollar Store that can be used for a wedding?  Leave a comment!

Click to read the first post of this series: Wedding Decorations, Michaels Coupons

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Wedding Decorations, Michaels Coupons

For wedding decorations, most people think of going to Michaels.  And why not?!  It's a wonderful store with a wide variety of decorations for weddings.  And while their prices aren't too bad, I want to give you a little hint that will help you immensely in price (but not in the amount of trips, sorry!).

Michaels has weekly coupons which if you don't get their ad in the mail, you can go online and print it out or have it on your phone.  Generally it's 40% off of one item, but occasionally they have bigger amounts or ones for your whole purchase.  Also, they are partnered with Joann's and will accept any of their coupons, so if they happen to have a better one that week, you can use that.

Now since you can only use one coupon per order, this means to best use the coupons, you have to make several trips.  But as long as you start early, and plan out everything you need, you can just make a weekly trip, or bi-weekly, along with your other everyday errands and slowly check things off the list.  I know it seems tedious, but if you think that even if you only buy $100 worth of items (which would be difficult to spend less!) you'll be saving at least $40!  That's well worth it in my mind!

So check it out! http://weeklyad.michaels.com/





http://weeklyad.michaels.com/ 

Click for part two of this post: Wedding Decorations, The Dollar Store 

Friday, September 26, 2014

Save on Wedding Flowers

Flowers are another very large part of a wedding budget.  Flowers were very important to me because they are some of my favorite things, but when I saw the general price tags, I thought it might not be possible.  Most people feel that in order to save money on flowers, you have to go to silk.  THIS IS NOT TRUE!  Although they do have some pretty real looking silk flowers now, it still seems tacky to me and nothing can beat a real flower.  Besides, those really nice silk flowers aren't the cheapest either.
In order to keep my dream of flowers while not breaking the bank, I discovered these tricks:


Find a Venue with Natural Beauty
The biggest way to save on flowers is to find a place that has a lot of natural beauty growing!  Now this doesn't have to be a flowery garden, but finding a place with nice green grass, large trees, and many bushes and plants of various shapes, sizes, and colors will already look very pleasing to the eye.  Then you don't have to fill it with flowers, in fact, doing so may be over doing it!

Use a Chain Florist or One with Packages
You don't have to go to a specialty florist for wedding flowers.  There are large chains like Sam's Club or Costco that have pre-made packages specifically for weddings that include all your needs: bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, petals, etc.  They have several different options of flower types and colors that can fit almost any style wedding.

Sam's Club Wedding Collection Pink
It doesn't have to be a big chain though. I wanted a specific orchid and found a local florist that offered similar packages that had the orchid I wanted already in a package. If you can find a local florist that does this, it can be even better because you can customize it more. If you live in the SF Bay Area, check out Valley Florist in San Jose which is who I used.
Use Preserved
Although I wanted fresh flowers for my bouquets, for centerpieces and decorations, preserved flowers are a great option.  Now don't skip this because you think they will be faded and dry like dried flowers.  Preserved flowers look exactly like the flower did while still on the stem, they are just made to last longer.  They are a little more fragile, but flowers are no matter what.  What makes these great is that since they last so long (up to six months), you can order them in bulk and create your own arrangements without having to do it in the last few days before the wedding like you would with order fresh flower in bulk.  Here is a fantastic site that offers a lot of preserved flowers as well as many other wedding decorations at cheaper prices: www.save-on-crafts.com

Preserved Orchids



Order in Bulk
I put this last because while it sounds like a great idea, I chose not to do this because in order to have fresh flowers fresh, you have to work days before the wedding.  Plus you have to have a cool place to store all of them.  But, if you really want all fresh flowers, this can be a way to save a lot of money.  If you have time, the day before it might be fun to have a bouquet making party with your bridesmaids to make their own bouquets.  Here is a good site for ordering flowers in bulk: www.bunchesdirect.com 




I hope this helps in lessening your flower budget.  Flowers are gorgeous and every bride should be able to have them at their wedding, no matter their budget!


Learn about other ways to save money on your wedding here

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Setting a Wedding Budget

The first, and probably most important, thing to do when starting to plan a wedding is to figure out your budget.  This can be difficult to do, but you have to make an estimate so you know what you can work with.  Things always end up costing more, and there are things you generally don't think about, but having an idea is important.

I always say to start by researching what your dream wedding (well dream wedding in a realistic way) would be.  See what that ends up costing, and what each individual thing costs, and you can decide if you need to cut back, what the most important things are, and you can work around that.

For those people that are budget conscious, these are the areas that I found affect price the most:

Guest Count
This is by far the biggest expense factor.  There are so many things that cost per head, not just the food and drink which is pricey, but many other things.

Time of Year
Everyone gets married between the months of May and August.  That means the prices are high.  Even if you're not into the winter wedding idea, spring and fall can be beautiful, and maybe even nicer weather.  You'll save thousands.


Day of the Week
Saturday is the highest price for a wedding.  Friday and Sunday are slightly cheaper.  And weekdays are even cheaper.  You'll save at least $1,000 just by changing to a Friday or Sunday and double or triple that during the week.


Location
While general areas are more expensive, don't let that deter you from one area.  There are smaller or lesser-known places that are cheaper.  This just requires a lot of research.  Just know that places that you know about before you start wedding research are probably going to be insanely expensive.  Find places that are hidden gems, believe me, they do exist.

Food and Drink
Wedding CateringFood usually starts at $30 per person and can go as high as $100 per person.  Buffet option is usually cheaper than seated courses.  But if you don't mind forgoing the normal catering for a wedding, there can be other fun options to save money like having an afternoon picnic wedding or renting food trucks.

Drink prices can vary greatly depending on what amount of alcohol you want to pay for.  Obviously having your guests pay for their own drinks is the cheapest option, but it is a bit tacky.  There are usually three payment options for drinks: bring your own, per person, and per bottle/drink.  Bringing your own can save money by ordering in bulk directly from a distributor but be aware of corkage fees at your venue.  I found that the per person option was the easiest to determine your drink budget because it can be nearly impossible to figure out how many drinks will be ordered.  By paying per person, you can guarantee that your guests will have all they can drink for a set amount.  This doesn't have to be all alcohol.  You can pay for just beer and wine and have your guests pay for hard liquor, etc.



These are the areas that I found most influential in the budget.  As I said before, it is important to figure out what is most important to you.  If you really want good food, it's okay to spend a little more on that and cut back in other areas that aren't as important to you.  Although I'm all about saving money, it is your one chance (hopefully) to have the day you've always dreamed of.  There will have to be some compromises but make sure that there many things that you are very excited about so you don't mind compromising in other things.


Learn about saving money on wedding flowers here

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Back From a Hiatus . . . . And Now I'm Married!



So I took an unexpected break from blogging, because I got engaged and was planning a wedding!  It took a lot more of my time than I had thought and things became very crazy, so I kind of put this on the back-burner.  I got married on August 24, 2014 and it was the most wonderful day of my life!  We went on a honeymoon to Ireland for 8 days, got back and started moving into our new apartment the very next day!  We are still getting stuff and settling into our home together, but I thought I would try and start this back up.

Because I've spent so much of my time lately planning a wedding (needless to say on a somewhat smaller budget) I'm going to dedicate the next few of my posts about how to save money while planning a wedding.  If it's popular enough, or I realize I have so many posts about that, I may just have to separate it out into it's own new blog.  But we'll see where the future takes us!  Glad to be back!

Monday, March 3, 2014

Never Ending Dryer Sheets

This is something I saw on Facebook for a way to save by never having to purchase dryer sheets again.



WHAT YOU NEED:
1 Container with an airtight lid (grabbed out of my pantry)
4 sponges cut in half ($1.00 for a 4pk at the dollar store) 
1 cup of your favorite fabric softener ($0.30 worth of fabric softener) 
2 cups water (free from my tap) 

WHAT TO DO: 
Mix the water and fabric softener into a plastic container. Add the cut sponges so they can soak in the mixture. When ready to use, squeeze the excess liquid from 1 sponge and place into the dryer with your wet clothes. Run the dryer cycle as normal. Once complete place the now dry sponge back into the container of liquid for use next time. Clothes smell good, are soft and have no static just like the expensive non-reusable dryer sheets.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

The Free Oil Change . . . And Then Some


So it was about time to get my oil changed in my car.  As with most people, I hate shelling out money towards my car because cars are expensive and a necessary evil where I live.  BUT I told myself I would keep better care of my new car which helps save money in the long run.  Anyway, I searched the internet for deals to find the cheapest oil change around because you can't really screw that up.

I decided upon Meineke which had a great deal for an oil change and tire rotation for $29.99.  I was going to go on Friday, which is my day off, and since it was Valentine's day, I figured it wasn't very busy so I put it off until later on in the day to do wedding stuff on the internet.  Time flew away and it was getting close to 5:00, oh no!  But I checked and they closed at 6:00.  Good, that should be fine, an oil change doesn't take long.


I get there and it's packed.  The manager behind the desk asked if he could help me.  I said I wanted an oil change but it looked like they were a little busy.  He said, "Yes we're busy and we're about to close."  I asked about the other location and he called and said the same for them.

"Okay," I said as I was about to leave.  Oh well I'll try and go somewhere else or do it another day, my fault for waiting until the end of the day.  But before I could leave he said, "I'll tell you what I'll do."  He took out his card, flipped it over and started writing something.  "Give me a call tomorrow and we'll fit you in."

I figured he just wrote his name and number on it but when I checked as I was leaving, it said Free Basic Oil Change.  Wow.  He gave me a free oil change just because they were busy?  All right, I'll take it.

So a couple days later, I go in to redeem the coupon.  I said I also wanted my tires rotated and the clerk said that would be complementary too.  Okay fine, don't take my business.  I don't care.  I also asked if they could replace my right headlight bulb, I had tried myself but it was too difficult.  He said it was no problem.

A minute or two later he came back and said, "The technician says that Beetles' headlights are complicated in it will take a half hour of labor.  That's $70."  Yikes!  (At least I no longer felt like an idiot for not being able to replace it myself when the instructions seemed very simple)  Ugh I need it though.  "Alright."

"So that will be two hours then."  What?!  How would an extra half hour make the whole thing two hours?  Mind you I had an appointment but they were already behind.

"I can't do that," I said.  "I have to leave for work in an hour.  Just do the oil change."

As they were changing the oil, I called my normal mechanics.  I asked about the headlight and they said to drop by anytime.  "Does it take a while?" I asked.  "Nah just 10 to 15 minutes."  (They specialize in German cars.)

So the next day I dropped in to my mechanics to get the headlight replaced.  They did it quickly and I asked if they wanted anything for it and they said no.

HAH!  Oil change, tire rotation, and headlight bulb replacement (that was going to be $70) all for free!  And why?  No reason except I am a procrastinator.  Boom.