wedding costs? :(

[aephi alum]

Originally posted by Ginger
This jerk-face looks me in the eye and says "Well, if you can't afford my videography within your budget, your wedding isn't going to be worth taping anyway."

Nice. I'd probably have slugged him... and cheerfully told the other brides why.

[mu_agd]

Originally posted by Cream
One thing that I have seen is disposable cameras on every table. The guests have fun taking pictures of each other, and you can get good and funny snapshots.

my sister did that at her wedding this summer. omg, some of those pictures that came back were embarrassing! also, people accidently took a few of the cameras home with them, so we never saw those pictures.

[juniorgrrl]

I have to agree that Bridal Bargains is a great book.

When you're looking for your dress, as long as you don't have to have a Vera/Reem/Amsale, you can more than likely get it much much cheaper from ordering online. (and if you're the right size as a sample, you can get samples of really high-end designer dresses for about 1/3 their normal cost).

When looking at photography, decide what you want. Some photographers will take a lot of shots, and only give you a few proofs, some 8x10s in an album, and a wall shot large enough to double as a lean-two. Others will take 200-400 shots and put them all in a proof album and then you can order the enlargements you want. Some even give you the negatives.

I've heard of a lot of brides on theknot.com saving money by ordering their flowers in bulk from Sam's and making their own arrangements/bouquets. Apparently, hand-tied flowers aren't all that difficult once you get the hang of it.

My best advice: dont' be afraid to be bridezilla where it counts. I don't mean nitpicking your bridesmaids about having the same length hair (I've heard of this), but make sure you get what you want to make your day special to YOU.

[greeklawgirl]

Tee hee, I just can't stop myself from adding to this thread, lol. I also ordered my wedding dress online from RK Bridal in New York City. I saved $1000 on my dress, sales tax, the dress arrived EARLY and perfectly pressed. For me, the most fun part was when they shipped the dress out and gave me the UPS tracking number, so I got to track online the whereabouts of my dress for 3 days until it arrived!

My mother nearly had a stroke when I told her that I was going to order my dress online, but she was converted when the dress arrived. We ended up ordering all 6 flowergirl dresses from there, which was no small feat considering that the dresses were going to 3 different states. RK Bridal handled everything very professionally.

I also used Romantic Headlines to order my 3 tier, cathedral length veil. I saved about $300 doing that; and I chose to put flowers in my hair instead of a tiara, so I figure I probably saved $100-$200 with that option. The people at Romantic Headlines were absolutely wonderful, too.

Keep in mind that if you're crafty, its very easy to make your own veil.

OK, I'm shutting up now.

[Kristin AGD]

Originally posted by greeklawgirl
We ended up ordering all 6 flowergirl dresses from there

SIX!!

[aephi alum]

<hijack>

Did anyone else who's planned a wedding, have to deal with Momzilla?

My mother-in-law could have written an instruction manual for Momzillas. My husband is an only child, so our wedding was her One Big Chance. I could go on all day about some of the stuff she pulled, but here's the worst:

She really, really, really wanted us to get married in their hometown... so that all her friends could easily attend. We really wanted to have the wedding in Boston, because that's where we were living and that's where all our friends were. It was obviously more important to us that our own friends be there, and we knew our friends probably wouldn't travel (they were all starving college students and new grads), whereas her friends were perfectly capable of traveling.

We'd picked out a few possible locations for the reception, and faxed over copies of their brochures for her to read through.

Know what came back? An email with an Excel spreadsheet comparing prices at each of 3 of the Boston locations to the local HOLIDAY INN in her town. To make matters worse, at the Holiday Inn she had priced out a combination steak and chicken meal. At the places in Boston, she priced out a steak meal AND a chicken meal for each person and ADDED them. Then she told us it would cost less than half as much to get married there as it would in Boston. Well, duh!! I didn't talk to her for about two weeks after that, and to this day, years later, it still annoys me. (could you tell? )

We wound up going with a location just outside Boston, that was none of the three she compared. They did a wonderful job without breaking the bank. So there, Mom

(In light of the Golden Rule - "he who has the gold, makes the rules" - I should point out that although our in-laws gave us a little money, we paid for almost everything ourselves.)

YIKES.

Even though my parents are pretty much paying for the whole thing, they've told us to do whatever we wanted, within a reasonable price range.

FH's parents are actually the slightly pushier ones (and with some really... interesting... ideas) but luckily I've been able to avoid having to do things their way because they're not paying a cent.

No Zillas of Any kind for me


(oh... by the way... regarding the whole Videographer thing... thanks for the support, ladies! I wish I had taken down his company name so that I could have made sure everyone knew how he'd treated me, but I was so shocked I just walked away. The kicker is... most of the videographers in our range are like $500 - $1000... so this guy must think he's really some hot isht to be asking that much. Price does NOT always equal quality!!!!)

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by Ginger
/tangent

Ooh, this reminded me of something. So, I went to a bridal show a few weeks ago... that was scary enough in itself! So I go up to this videographer's booth, and I'm talking to him, and I ask him what his price range is. He tells me $4000 - $6000!!!!!. I said in a mildly joking voice "Wow... sorry, I think you're out of my price range... that's almost my entire budget for my whole wedding!"

Do you want to know what he said to me?

This jerk-face looks me in the eye and says "Well, if you can't afford my videography within your budget, your wedding isn't going to be worth taping anyway."

I tell you, folks, if we hadn't been in public (and had a banquet table between us) I would have slapped the man.

WOW! Take me to a bridal show with you next time and I will have words with them.

Make sure that if you people choose to get videographers, you get nice ones. The lady who filmed the wedding I was in this weekend was obnoxious! She filmed us getting our pictures taken, and filmed them setting up the tent - but didn't film us sitting around having fun with the bride while she was "hiding" from the groom, and didn't film us serenading the bride at the reception.

[greeklawgirl]

Originally posted by Kristin AGD
SIX!!

Kristen, we opted to have a maid of honor, best man, and the children as attendants. We only had 120 total attending our wedding, so if we asked all our friends to be bridesmaids and groomsmen there would have been 24 people in the wedding party. It just would have looked funny in the church.

The children were all immediate family and they were so cute they almost stole the show! So--to make a long story short--yes, we had 6 flowergirls, and 3 ringbearers. It was very charming and really unique.

Here's a link to my online wedding album. Only about 1/2 the photos are up (bad greeklawgirl!), but if you want to take a peek:greeklawgirl's wedding album

Oh, so pretty!!!

If you don't mind my asking, what religion are you? There were a lot of ceremonies on there that I'm not familiar with.

[AlphaGam1019]

"greek" should be a big hint

Originally posted by AlphaGam1019
"greek" should be a big hint

oh I just presumed that meant she was Greek as in sorority greek

[greeklawgirl]

lol, Ginger. I am sorority-greek and Greek-Greek. What you saw are parts of the Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony. Think "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" without the spit.

[AlphaGam1019]

how about windex?

[juniorgrrl]

Originally posted by greeklawgirl
Tee hee, I just can't stop myself from adding to this thread, lol. I also ordered my wedding dress online from RK Bridal in New York City. I saved $1000 on my dress, sales tax, the dress arrived EARLY and perfectly pressed. For me, the most fun part was when they shipped the dress out and gave me the UPS tracking number, so I got to track online the whereabouts of my dress for 3 days until it arrived!

Ooh! I ordered my dress from RK as well! I got a dress that retails for around $1800-2000 for about $1100. I can't wait until it gets here!