Budgeting your Vendors

OK, ok, the "how do I save money?!"  information will come at you slowly but surely. I have to break it all down in a LOT of different parts. There are a lot of parts to planning a wedding!

First off, we may all knock Martha on the outside, but on the inside we secretly watch YouTube video after video about how to properly fold a fitted sheet. No? Is that just me? Well, I can fold a fitted sheet, can you? Anyways, she has a whole wedding website.I utilized her website mainly for wedding etiquette.

Then there is The Knot. Pinterest has more or less made most of The Knot's functions unnecessary, but it's still a great place to find recommended vendors in your area, and they have a fantastic to-do list that helps keep you on track.

Screen Shot of theknot.com's NH photographers site. See NH Images there? :)

Also, NH has Best of NH Bridal Magazine (and other similar awards and rankings), that I'd imagine all states have. Look up top rated vendors in your area.

Best of NH Magazine's Bride Awards. Find all the vendors here

Also consider the distance the vendor is from your venue. Most larger wedding venues have wedding vendors within a 5-10 mile radius. (Now for the money saving part)- these venues also usually have "Vendor Packages" with these vendors. For example- we got our DJ at 67% his regular price, because we got him through the vendor package. We also didn't pay a delivery fee for our cake, as we went through the vendor package.

That certainly doesn't look like a cheap cake to me! But it also wasn't over the top.

Beware of vendor packages! It can almost be like a Groupon. You pay $45 for $90 worth of something, only to find out that they had a smaller package at normal price for $40. So in our example, we could have used the same company and had a less experienced DJ for only $900. Hubby and I discussed that we were willing to pay for a phenomenal DJ (and boy, was he AMAZING!). Also, there was a different photographer listed as part of a Vendor Package. I spent quite a bit of time on the photographer's website, and simply didn't think his style was for us. The photographer we used was more expensive, but did a fantastic job, and had worked the venue many times before.

Our flowers were not part of a vendor package. We went to meet with the recommended vendor (most venues have these). Another money saving tip- vendors will always go slightly over what you tell them your budget is. So I told my vendor $100 less than I had budgeted. When she quoted me a price, she told me $50 over what I communicated to her. So in the grand scheme of things, I saved myself $50.

These simple flower details saved us a bunch! No one remembers the buckets of flowers at the alter!

Don't be afraid to tell a vendor you are working on a budget or paying for something yourself. They tend to have quite a bit of respect for people who want to get married and know how much they can afford. Our florist spent 30 minutes with us trying to figure out what kind of flowers we could use to help meet our needs. So I had some carnations in my bouquet instead of straight roses and hydrangea. My bouquet was still beautiful.

Once again, that certainly doesn't look like a cheap bouquet to me!

Try to work with vendors who have experience with your venue. Our DJ and photographer had worked together on many occasions at our venue. They were able to communicate timing with one another, and tell me where to be and when to be there. Our baker had worked with our venue's kitchen on many occasions, and knew exactly where she had to be. Our florist knew the whole lay out of our venue, and communicated the important and not so important places we needed flowers.

Ask your vendors what you could do to save yourself some money. I saved quite a bit of money with the florist because I made the boutineers for everyone, and we used some less expensive flowers. We also didn't put $400 worth of flowers on the wedding cake. (Who cares about flowers on the wedding cake?! You need to make concessions somewhere if you don't want to go broke!) I asked our baker which cakes were in the $4.50 a slice price range (the cheapest they offered), and then chose our pattern. We also did a sheet cake in the kitchen. We only hired our professional photographer for 4.5 hours, and had Tina and my cousin Amy cover the other ends (as wedding gifts to Hubby and I).

So take your time. Interview plenty of vendors. Find out how much they want to charge you. Don't be afraid to tell them "no, thank you". Just remember to be respectful of everyone you meet, and they should show you the same respect in return.