Top Five Tax Refund Splurges for Brides

February 5, 2015 Leave a Comment

We’ve all got our W-2s back, all we’ve got to do now is file and wait. If you’re on your tax refund game like we are, you’re all kinds of excited for a nice check from Uncle Sam. You shouldn’t count on your tax refund to get you out of a hole or cover any part of your wedding budget, but you should count on it to treat yourself. You worked hard for the money, you deserve to enjoy the kick back you get from it. So keep that tax refund to yourself and treat yourself- you earned it!

Massage it Out

What’s more relaxing than a massage? Yeah, we can’t think of anything either. There are a multitude of health benefits that are associated with getting a massage such as easing anxiety or depression, pain relief, and even in certain cases weight loss. Often times your medical insurance will help you get discounts or even cover (!!!) your massages at certain locations. If you’re planning a wedding you definitely deserve a good massage.

Blow Out

Want to feel fancy immediately? Cruise by your hair salon and get yourself a blow out just for fun. You don’t need an occasion (other than for some serious selfie action), you just need to enjoy yourself. Right now there are a ton of blow out-only salons popping up for you to come by and just do a blow out-  no other treatments required. It’s such a fun way to have insta-fab hair, and good hair really brings out the sparkle in your engagement ring.

Get the Big Girl Package

You may already have your bi-weekly mani/pedis scheduled, but for your next round go for the gold (or platinum). It’s time to splurge for the best package you can do at your salon! Seriously spring for the paraffin wax, the extra long massage, and the cuticle softeners. If you have a ring on your finger, consider it an investment. If people are looking at your ring, you want to make sure your hands look good too!

Upgrade You

Check your phone plan and if you’re up- go get that upgrade! We’re iPhone fans and the six is such a fun splurge. If you’re a droid kind of gal, the newest Galaxy has amazing reviews and a gorgeous screen. Since you’ve got friends and family coming out soon to celebrate your love, you’re going to need a more powerful phone to contact them all! Plus if your phone camera is a little shaky or pixelated, you need to upgrade ASAP. With so many exciting changes on the way, you’re going to want an awesome camera at your fingertips.

Sweet Day

This one is selfishly our favorite splurge, be forewarned. Take that tax refund and a girlfriend and have a complete guilt-free food day. Go cupcake hopping, have those bottomless mimosas, curl up and watch Netflix with as much ice cream as you can eat. One day won’t throw off your wedding diet, and you worked hard in 2014 so you could enjoy the things you eat! If you want to be good, you can double up your guilt-free day with Valentine’s Day and ease your chocolate cravings all at once. If you do want to have one guilt-free day AND do chocolate on Valentine’s Day though, we won’t judge you!

 

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Top Five Tips for Multitasking Brides

January 20, 2015 Leave a Comment

Weddings get CRAZY! While you’re getting deeper and deeper into into the craziness that is planning your wedding, you’re going to feel like you’re juggling a whole lot. It’s totally normal to start feeling overwhelmed while you’re planning the best party of your life. If you want to take some steps to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed, follow our tips to be the most marvelous multitasking bride ever!

Organize your Tasks

Write down literally EVERYTHING you need to do. Yes, this will take a while but it’s totally worth it! Get everything you can think of written down and from there, organize it. Use color coding to highlight everything into different categories, such as things that are dress/suit related, things that are venue related, dates that you need to pay vendors, etc. From there you’ll be able to group tasks together and even prioritize them. Once you prioritize your tasks, you’ll be able to knock out our next tip in no trouble!

Calendar your Completion Dates

Got an idea of what you need to get done? Get it on paper and and plan that out! One of our favorite ways to calendar our completion dates is to open a google calendar just for your wedding and input all of your tasks into it. You can even share that action items with friends by forwarding the invite to their calendar. You can even share the whole calendar with people who need to know, like your maid of honor or fiance. Sync the calendar to your phone so you get accessibility to the calendar no matter where you are. Be sure to set reminders for yourself so you’re sure to get everything done!

Keep a List of To Dos on Hand

After your calendar is uploaded, be sure you also have a list of things you can just pick up and work on. If you know you have to go to the doctor, DMV, or anything with a waiting room, be sure you have a list of things you can work on. If you have a few minutes, facebook message friends for their addresses. If you have a few more minutes, call and make appointments for teeth cleanings, mani/pedis, and anything else you need. Maximize your time by always working on running tasks!

Pass it Along

While you’re looking at your list of things to get done, see what you can trust your friends to do for you. You can ask them to do simple things like picking up samples, dropping off invites at the post office, or verifying addresses. If you have some awesome Type A friends who seriously have your back, you can even trust them with bigger tasks like delivering vendor checks, picking up your dress, or picking out wines. It’s okay to delegate- they’re your bridesmaids for a reason!

Budget in a Book

One awesome way to keep all your expenses straight is to create an excel book for all your expenses. You can create solutions within the book to automatically show how much you’re spending, how much you’ve spent, how much of the budget is spent and what it was spent on, basically anything! If you don’t excel at using excel, watch a few video tutorials and follow along. If anything, it’s also a good life skill to be able to use excel.

 

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Top Five Black Friday Tips for Brides

November 28, 2014 Leave a Comment

Happy Black Friday! Once you’re officially out of your food coma from Thanksgiving, you can take advantage of the best shopping day of the year. This is a great time for you to swoop up some fun stuff for your personal stash, but also for you to get great wedding items and gifts for your bridal party. If you’re waking up at the crack of dawn (or maybe even waiting until Cyber Monday), make sure you’ve got our tips for a great shopping day.

Do Your Homework

Before you head out to the mall, have a game plan. If you have a favorite store, go online and check out their deals. Some stores have deals that only last through certain hours and end at specific times, while some go all day. Figure out what stores you absolutely have to go to by a certain time, and which ones you can swing by later in the day. It can also help to park centrally between all your stores- it may be easy to park in front of one store, but if you need to run out to drop off bags, it’ll be smarter to make trips that are easy to get to from anywhere rather than park on one side of a mall and have to lug your bags through a department store crowd every time you need to drop stuff off.

Double Your Deal

While you’re out- look more for deals that will pay off later, rather than just one that has a flat discount. Keep your eye out for anything that will give you gift cards or some sort of credit for next time you go shopping. Rack up the credit for a future shopping trip will make last minute wedding buys that much easier for you.

Look Out for Your Friends

If you’re at the point in your wedding planning where you’re still looking for wedding party gifts, this is literally the best day of the year to pick fun stuff up. Keep an eye out for electronics deals- they’re great for both genders and are an easy and impressive gift. Fun things like tablets can be really affordable right now and are great for anyone. If you can’t afford to do something like a tablet for everyone in your wedding party, smaller fun things like waffle makers or LED showerheads are quirky fun for everyone you know.

Stock Up on Staples

If you have a vision for your wedding decor, keep an eye out for anything you can stock up on for fun DIYs. Black Friday isn’t just about high price ticket items- those are just usually the ones that get the best press! Find a local crafts store for fun stuff like vases, doilies, ribbon, DIY materials, anything you may need for wedding projects. You can take a DIY project and make it that much more affordable by stocking up now!

Stay Home and Dream Big

Not into the mall? Totally fine! Instead of waking up, putting on shoes, and running to the store do one type of shopping you have to do from home- travel shopping! Black Friday is effective in all realms nowadays, including travel. If you have a game plan for your honeymoon, go ahead and book something right now so you have another fun thing to look forward to! Aim for hotels since those are easier to cancel if anything (like your dates or location) changes. Flights may not even be that much cheaper than usual and are hard to cancel.

 

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Five Fun Wedding Detail DIY Projects

November 18, 2014 Leave a Comment

Let’s face facts- weddings are expensive. You may want a Mercedes Benz wedding, but be on a Honda budget. That’s totally fine, you just have to know where you can save and where you should spend. If you’re doing your dream wedding on a budget, we can help you save a few dollars here and there. These five DIY projects for your wedding will help you save some cash and still make the big day special.

Custom Stationery

One big expense that can rack up faster than you realize? Stationery and mail-related products. There’s a quick way to get around the high costs of printing out certain things. You can download free templates online and create your own return labels or guest address labels. It’s quite cheap to get label stickers from any sort of customized label you’ll need. Return address labels and guest address labels are probably the easiest thing to make at home. They can be quite costly to custom print, so just do it at home!

Bridesmaid Bouquets

You may want to spring for an arrangement for your bouquet, but for your bridesmaids it’s easy to actually do at home. Do some research on pinterest or flower blogs and go downtown to buy some loose flowers the day before or the morning of. It’s best to task this to one of your bridesmaids. It may feel a bit tedious, but it can seriously save you some money. If you want to get super fancy, you can do boutonnieres for the groomsmen too!

Have Your Friends Marry You

It can be a surprise cost to hire someone to marry you- you may not realize it but there can be a cost associated with almost everything. It can save you some money and make it much more meaningful to have a friend or family member do the ceremony. It can be sweet to ask whoever set you up or aided in you two meeting, or whoever has known you two as a couple the longest. It can be pretty cheap to get certified to officiate weddings, so you can save a few dollars here.

Lower the Lights

Renting or buying big extravagant candles can be seriously pricey. Candles are so beautiful and romantic, so it’s kind of hard to skimp on them. One easy way to get around the cost of something too extravagant is to take the same concept and shrink it- literally. Skimp the huge pricey candles and buy a few packs of tealight candles. You can get a ton of these for seriously cheap. Arrange the tealights on different levels to create depth and a sense of flow or drop them in water to have floating candlelight. It’s super romantic, creates gorgeous lighting, and is cheaper than springing for huge candles.

Stencil Yourselves

A quick way to ‘brand’ your wedding favors is to create a stencil and paint it over blank favors such as cards and small gifts. If you’re thinking of doing a little favor such as a tote bag, a candle, a selfie stick, any sort of favor for your guests- it will almost always cost a little more to put your name and/or date on it. You can actually get discounts or better rates on items to get items that are blank or not marked yet. You can make your own stencil using cardstock and some creativity and brand everything at home. It’s a fun art project that can save you money!

 

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Top Five Wedding Wishlist Items

November 11, 2014 Leave a Comment

Make a wish- it’s 11/11! You remember the old superstition that you can make a wish on 11/11, right? Well we (not so) secretly still love it. Speaking of wishes, we have five things that you should keep on your wish list while you’re planning your wedding!

Wedding Planner

Obviously we’re a big advocate for hiring a professional for the occasion. Our very own Editor-in-Chief, Niloufar Gibson is one of the best wedding planners in Southern California is and lives and breathes weddings. If you’re not out in sunny SoCal, ask around, check yelp, and ask your venue if they recommend any wedding planners. Wedding planners will make your life a million times easier and make it possible for you to actually enjoy your whole wedding process. Wedding planners also usually know the best vendors to work with, so you’re immediately well connected before you even get started.

Full Coverage Photography

It may be cheaper to just get stills from the day of, but you’re going to want to remember all your friends and family from the moment they all get into town. If you can afford it, splurge and have photography going from your welcome party (if you’re doing one for out of town guests), your rehearsal dinner, your final night out, all that fun stuff. Also if you can, opt for a tester video or a highlight reel from your photographer. Stills can do some serious justice, but you’re going to want to really look back and watch your big day.

Big Girl Panties

You know how a good bra or your favorite pair of undies can make you feel a million times better? Don’t skimp on the lingerie- if you can, go big! It’s not just about looking good after the ceremony- it’s about how your body is shaped under your dress and how you feel in it. The right lingerie can make you look leaner and more fit than an ill-fitting set of lingerie. It can feel like a more silly splurge, but it can seriously change your entire silhouette. If you’re not the type to usually splurge on lingerie, now is a better time than ever.

Diamonds- your Other Best Friend

Yes, there’s one specific piece of jewelry that you’re going to be flashing all day, but you shouldn’t tone down the rest of your jewelry. Borrow or rent some fun jewelry that you wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to wear. Often times in larger cities there are some jewelers that will rent out pieces for a few days with a credit card on file. It can be worth it to go ahead and factor in a jewelry budget.

Honeymoon

You should try to factor this into your budget off the bat- a honeymoon is some serious business. With the cost of weddings always going up, it can be easy to just push it back and do a honeymoon when you can afford it, but you’re going to want some alone time after the wedding. At the very least, you can take a short weekend or few days after the wedding, stay in a hotel, and just enjoy being married. It can be a harder thing to plan and budget for but if you can pull it off, it’ll be totally worth it.

 

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Top Five Repurposed Halloween Items for Your Wedding

November 4, 2014 Leave a Comment

 

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Halloween is sadly over, and we’re a little heartbroken. But there is always a silver lining- the best sale is going on right now! Post-Halloween sales are in full swing and only have a few more days before they’re all picked over and done. If you have time, swing by the store and pick up these five awesome items that you can use for your wedding. And hey, if you get a wedding task done you definitely deserve that bag of chocolate. Or that big bag of popcorn. Or the gigantic novelty sized rice crispy treat. Or… actually buy all the candy you want, just be sure to get at least one wedding task done.

Mints

This may be easier to find since Halloween is more of a sweet treat holiday. Look for big bags of mints and you can repurpose them to be adorable wedding favors or to be laid out in dishes for guests. If you have the time and maybe some creativity, create custom labels and stick those over the skeleton logos and all that spooky stuff. If you can’t get away with creating all new stickers for the mints (they may be a funny size), find little glass dishes or bowls to pour your mints into. Serve them after dessert so your guests are ready to mingle with fresh breath.

Tiny Toys

Some stores will carry tiny toys as Halloween treats. If you can spy any of these, pick up a bag to have to entertain any younger guests. They may need something to preoccupy themselves while the grown ups are dancing. Our pick has been the little tubs of Play Doh to tie over little ones. Fun all-ages toys like this are perfect and parent friendly. Plus if you get them this time of year, it’s a cheap way to keep kids from crawling away or getting into trouble.

Solid Chocolate

If you have some time or are at least adventurous, you can pick up lots of solid chocolate and do some dipped creations. You may not be able to have the time or means to dip chocolate strawberries for everyone, but you should be able to pick up a bag to do treats for the wedding party. Just be sure you have solid chocolate only- anything with extra ingredients will alter the texture and may not settle right. Microwave a bowl of chocolate for two minutes- 30 seconds at a time while stirring throughout. Add some solid chocolate to the hot bowl and your chocolate will get down to around 85 degrees, which is perfect for dipping fruit, cookies, pretzels, anything you want. It’s a great little gift that’s easy to do and will be the perfect personal touch for your wedding party.

Faux Fabulous Jewelry

Swing by the costume section and look for old flappers, divas, and princess jewels. One fantastic trend we’re seeing is mixed media in flowers- draping jewels or strands of beads throughout large floral arrangements. One easy way to pull this off is to get a ton of cheap necklaces and break them apart as decorations. One of our favorite no-fails is to do pearls through lilies. Long strands of pearls broken up and weaved throughout lilies is feminine, delicate, and totally trendy.

Long Lashes

Our favorite beauty pick from Halloween is long lashes. Halloween is a big day for wearing falsies and they often put out special lashes just for the occasion. Shop the sales for long lashes that you could use for your special occasion. There are a lot this season that are similar to cobwebs- and they’re totally more sultry than scary. Pick up a few pairs while they’re on sale- lashes are great for your bachelorette party, wedding, honeymoon, and every occasion to come.

 

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Top Five Ways to Earn Extra Wedding Cash

August 26, 2014 Leave a Comment

Budgeting can be super hard and frustrating, and it can only get more stressful the closer you get to your wedding. All that fun stuff you’ve been planning for can seriously add up, but that’s okay. There’s no reason to do your wedding on the cheap, you totally deserve to have the wedding you want! There comes the problem of having to pay for it all. If you’re looking over the bill and realizing you could use a few extra dollars here and there, we’ve got the top five best tips for making that happen!

Save Receipts to Save Paper

You’re going to spend money on food and groceries regardless of your budget situation, make use of it! The basic bride will keep an eye on what’s on sale and look for coupons, the advanced bride will hang on to receipts and look for rebates. There are smartphone apps like Checkout 51 and Ibotta that will give you actual money in exchange for pictures of your receipts. If you’re grabbing fun stuff for a bachelorette brunch or even just stocking your fridge for a long night of signing thank you notes, you might as well make a little money back. You won’t get rich but it’s a quick, easy, and non-invasive way to make a little bit of money on the side.

Plan for a Merge-Have an E-Yard Sale!

If you’re going to merge furniture and household goods soon with your fiance, take a serious look at what you both have in stock. Since it’s late August now, the ‘college move’ has started everywhere. College kids are moving in and need furniture and appliances quickly! This is the best time of the year to be selling furniture and appliances for quick cash. If you realize you’ll have a couch you don’t know what to do with or an extra toaster, take a few pictures and put them online and let the highest offer have at it. Selling your items online is much easier than doing a yard sale nowadays. You save yourself the time spent sitting on your lawn hoping to flag down someone, you reach a wider audience, and you get more serious offers. If you’re a part of a college group page on social media, try posting on there as well to promote your sale- it seriously works!

Shop Secretly (and Get Paid)

Secret shopping may seem like a silly pipe dream, but it’s a serious way to get paid to eat or shop. Do searches for credible secret shopping services (Market Force is a great one!), sign up, and look for secret shop assignments that work for you. You should never be asked to pay to be a secret shopper, you only have to file as an independent contractor (for tax purposes). If you’re a bride on the go, plan to meet friends at restaurants you have to secret shop- it’s killing two birds with one stone and you’ll get paid to be there! Doesn’t that make a lunch meeting about seating charts that much more gratifying?

Get a Side Gig

Scan your facebook feed for friends throwing events and ask if they need an extra hand. Look out for shows, events, parties, anything where you figure they could need another person to help out and ask if they’d need extra employees for the day. Helping out a friend with their event can make them much more likely to help out during yours (you know, like helping set up for a wedding…). You could also offer to help out with life events like moving or re-painting. If your newsfeed is a little dry, check out the day gigs on craigslist. There can be quick jobs you can do to help put together events that pay easy cash. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, attending tapings of shows on your days off is an easy way to make some money on the side. It won’t get you rich, but it’ll help that budget!

Upgrade your Appliances

Do you know how many rebates there are for having energy or water safe appliances? Way more than you realize! California is in the middle of a really rough drought and are working hard to encourage efficient water use. Nationwide, there are different programs by state that offer rebates on the actual appliance itself or discounts on your bill. Check to see if you’re missing out on rebates from appliances you already own- you may be missing out on some serious cash! If you’ll need new big appliances after the wedding, register for appliances that qualify for rebates. If you want to know what rebates are available in your area (sometimes, they can vary by county), check your county’s official .gov website. If you’re heading into a store to register for a big appliance, ask the salesperson about appliances that qualify for rebates. You can decrease your footprint and save some cash for a bridesmaid brunch. Everybody wins!

 

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Top Five Tips for Saving on Your Wedding Dress

July 22, 2014 Leave a Comment

The dress you get married in is the most important dress you’ll ever buy. It’s worth taking the time to find! Unfortunately, it can also be quite costly. We understand that more people are on a budget now, so we’ve got some tips that’ll help you save on your dress.

Raid Closets

This one’s sure to make you feel nostalgic- go to your mom, grandma, or anyone else who’s been married in your family and still has their dress. There are some cultures that pass down wedding dresses from mother to daughter, why not give it a shot? If you’re able to recycle a family dress, the only expense you can expect is a good dry clean and some slight alterations. It’s a great way to save money, get some extra use out of another dress, and to honor the women in your life.

Go Big

You may already go shopping at H&M and Target- why not check out their wedding collection? More and more big brands like H&M and Target are releasing wedding lines for the more financially savvy bride, and they’re not bad! Frugal fashion is one great thing to come of the recent recession, why not take advantage? If an H&M or Target wedding dress doesn’t feel special enough, take it in to get some alterations to be more fitted or add some lace or beading for a special touch.

Try New-To-You

Go cruising at consignment stores for wedding dresses, just be sure to check them for stains first! Most people will only wear their wedding dress once, why not give it a new life? Don’t believe the hype or superstition that you can’t wear someone else’s wedding dress. If you wear it to your wedding, that makes it your wedding dress! Its’ history doesn’t matter as long as it looks good on you. If you can find the right dress and the right price, you can’t get hung up on where it originally came from. Just be sure to dry clean it no matter what, and seriously go over every inch of it for any tears, stains, or frays.

Go Short Term

Wedding dress rental businesses have been booming- why not try it out? There are tons of websites to check out in addition to actual brick and mortar stores. If the groomsmen are going to rent their tuxes just for the day, why not rent your dress? If you feel like you’re not going to wear it again after your wedding (and let’s face it- are you realistically going to wear your wedding dress again?), consider renting. Simply search ‘wedding dress rental’ and your zip code and presto! Wedding dresses by the day near you.

Try a “Non-Wedding” Wedding Dress

Are you married to the idea of the white dress? What matters most is that you feel as beautiful as possible. If that’s not in a white dress, don’t feel pressured into it! If you want to do something closer to a cocktail dress, check out the cocktail dresses! Not everyone feels comfortable in formal wear, and if that’s you it’s ok! Instead of shopping for the wedding shop for the bride (you!). Wedding dresses tend to be marked up, so if you find a dress that you love and isn’t a ‘traditional’ wedding dress, you may be able to save some money.

 

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Five Simple Savings Tips for Your Wedding

May 16, 2014 Leave a Comment

It’s becoming more and more common for brides and grooms to pay for their own weddings, or at least big portions of it. While it is smart to save up, it can be hard to save up enough to pay for an entire wedding. We at Bridal Hot List are always here to help! We’re sharp on trends and sharp on savings, so take notes and stack up.

Re-Think Your Bills

Stack up all the bills you got last month and see where you can trim. If you’re paying for cable, do you really need to? If all you need cable tv for is ‘Game of Thrones’, maybe have GoT parties with your girlfriends and cancel your cable. Most shows are easy to watch on subscription services like Hulu which are a tiny fraction of the cost of cable subscriptions. If you have internet, you really don’t need to pay for cable. If you’re paying for a gym membership to run on treadmills, consider canceling and running in a park. If you’re going to work out classes, check out youtube to see if there are tutorials or videos that you could do instead of paying for classes. It’s free, and you can take breaks when you need to!

Negotiate Your Percentages

Do you know how high your interest rates are? Whatever they are, high or low, they are never set in stone. Call up whatever customer service lines you need to and don’t get off the phone until your interest rates are lower! It’s good to go in calm, be friendly, and ask for lower interest rates due to being a loyal customer, paying on time, etc.

Social Networking

Send out the beacon and see who can help! Be specific and ask for your friends and family for any suggestions for vendors or specialists. They may have a cousin or girlfriend you didn’t know about with great talents! Be sure to not straight out ask for a discount, but say that you are on a budget, and would love to work with a friend. The key to getting discounts is always to be pleasant and friendly.

Shopping Your Stash

Before you buy that ‘back-up’ mascara, go through your makeup kit to see if you really need it. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it! See what you have already before buying, or even worse- impulse buying anything. You can also go through all your clothes and create donate, toss, and keep piles. It’s a great way to clean out your closet and find old favorites! Just assess what you have and decide if it’s truly a need or a want. Needs are unavoidable, wants can be put off until everything else is paid off.

Let it Go

Have you been hanging on to something for a ‘rainy day’ forever? Maybe it’s the vintage white gold watch that you never wear or a signed poster, but if you’re not getting anything out of it maybe it’s time to. Even little things like old dvd’s could be worth a little bit here and there. Dvd’s are going on their way out to make room for blu-rays anyway, so now could be the perfect time to sell. If you don’t have any stores nearby that buy off old dvd’s, amazon has a great program where you mail in your old dvd’s, books, and cd’s in exchange for amazon credit. It may not always be a lot (that old one-disc copy of ‘The Notebook’ may not pay for the flowers by themselves…), but every bit counts! Stay in that mentality- every bit counts. You’ll see the savings stack up as long as you count every bit as you save it.

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Top Five Ways to Save on Wedding Favors

May 10, 2014 Leave a Comment

One thing everyone’s going to be secretly exciting for during your wedding? The fun wedding favors, of course! This expense may be daunting (especially if you’re budgeting), but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve got some great tips to help you save some money and still give away some awesome favors.

Start Big

An easy way to have favors set up is to buy one thing in bulk and to separate it into individual gifts. You can do candy, trinkets, anything really. You may be able to save money by buying one big thing in bulk rather than buying pre-packaged. It may take some time, but it’s a labor of love.

Double Up

If you’re doing assigned seating, create a name tag or placeholder that is also a great wedding favor. Use customizable bracelets or make your own trinkets with names on them. Guests will be able to find their seats and love that they get a favor to play with immediately when they sit down.

Reuse What you Can

If you decked out your ceremony hall with flowers, bring them to the reception and cut them down to take home. It’s a beautiful favor that gives your flowers new life with one of your guests. It may be a bit chaotic, but if you have the right team to cut and re-prepare the flowers for distribution it’s a great favor. It will be a reminder of what a good time your guests had at the wedding and fill their house with fresh scents and love.

Ask for Freebies

If you have your heart set on one specific product, email the company and ask for samples, freebies, or a discount. It’s always worth a shot! Explain that you love the product and want to be able to share the product with your wedding guests. Most companies are able to assist, sponsor, or at least offer discounts in special circumstances like weddings and events. Don’t be offended if you don’t get anything off the bat, just keep trying. Remember, any bit helps when you’re on a budget.

Have your Cake (and Eat it Too)

Over order the sweets and send your guests home with some extra dessert! You may be able to strike up a deal with your bakers. See if you can do cookies or brownies or anything at all with your baker as favors. You can sell them on the added publicity as well. Bakers may be able to work with your budget and sweeten the deal for you.

 

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