The husband and I got married quite a while ago. How long? Well, our wedding photographer used film. I mean, they had digital, but he did not “trust” it. There were no iPhones, and certainly any photo snapped on a phone would have looked like a security camera took it. When my friend Aimee mentioned that she wanted to share her awesome money-saving finds from her wedding this year, I was really interested. Then she sent me her post and I was like “WOW! That is a thing? And that is a thing? etc.” It made me feel like a grandparent who had “to walk uphill both ways to school in the snow with no shoes.” It also made me feel like this is an amazing time we live in.
With no further ado, here’s Aimee (and please do check out her bio at the end – lucky for us, she has a bunch of ideas and you will “see” her here again soon!):
Many girls dream of their wedding…the flowers… the dress…being queen for day. I instead fantasized about websites, e-vites and pictures shared to “the cloud.” Being in the digital space, and a self described tech nerd, I wanted to bring as much new technology into the planning of the event as possible. I’m also a bride who didn’t want to break the bank, and luckily most of these sites helped us to save significant cash on our January 2014 wedding.
Here are my finds:
1. Save The Date – Paperless Post – Price: $26.00 for 72 e-save the dates
I think classy (no advertisement) e-save-the-dates are totally appropriate, environmentally friendly, completely customizable and so inexpensive. I love Paperless Post, we were able to use one of our engagement photos as the card. My mother-in-law (a traditionalist for paper invites) even approved!
2. Invitations – Wedding Paper Divas – Price: $430 (reduced through Gilt flash sales) for 90 invitations with envelopes pre-printed with my parents’ return address; 75 response cards with printed return address envelopes; 75 enclosure cards
These invitations were amazing. While not traditional “letterpress” they were on heavyweight stock with fantastic font choices and personalization options. I loved that we didn’t have to decide on each element all at once – but could order piecemeal once we had all the details set. Their customer service was fantastic, too! There was a small issue with the return envelopes (both the proofreader at WPD and I missed an error) and they replaced everything swiftly with no issues at all.
3. Website – sites.google.com + godaddy.com – $50 (Google sites )+ $23.00 (Godaddy domain) for 1 year
I will admit that I have a little more experience in building websites than the average person, but that said, I think anyone can build their own site. It is inexpensive and provides a great central location for registry links, relationship history and an easy place display pictures after the event.
4. Candles – Quick Candles – $82.00 for 72 – 3” floating candles with a burn time of 8-10 hours
My florist (who I adored) said she would have had to charge $4.00 per candle for these and that I could/should find them way cheaper. I purchased the 72 three inch floating candles on Quick Candles and they were delivered right to my door. I saved about $200.
5. Prints – Mpix – Price varies based on photos chosen
To help me save costs, my photographer did not include prints or a book in our package. Instead, she recommended Mpix for professional prints that are a fraction of what a photographer would charge. My photographer provided me all the digital prints from our engagement shoot and I uploaded them to Mpix. We ordered some large photos (16×20) and they are fantastic! I am looking forward to ordering from Mpix once again when we receive our wedding photos.
6. Photo books – Artisan State– Price varies based on books chosen.
I went to lunch with someone last week who just got married and said that a small 8×8 book for her parents cost $800! The hardbound books from Artisan State claim to mimic what a professional photographer would provide. Since we have not received our wedding pictures, I am not sure. I’ve already played around with the site and it is very easy to use and fun! Prices look like they are running ¼ to ⅛ the cost of what a photographer would charge. I will update you once I receive the books!
7. Bacherlorette Party Gifts – Etsy
I originally went to the Nordstrom jewelry department to buy “thank you” gifts for my girls, the necklaces were around $80 a pop! I went to Etsy and got a very similar style for ½ the price.
8. Registry – Wanderable– Cost: 5% of gifts
This site is amazing!! We put in all the activities we wanted to do on our honeymoon (whitewater rafting, specific restaurants, spa days) and people bought them for us! Wanderable hooks up to any bank account and they transfer the money in once you receive a gift. The 5% was totally worth it to me to have these unique experiences.
9. Registry – My Registry – FREE
I wanted to register for some Judaica items that were not at Bloomingdales or Bed Bath and Beyond, My Registry allows you to choose any items from any online store and aggregate those all in to one place – it’s brilliant!
10. Snapshots at wedding – Wedding Party App – FREE
Rather than have people snap pictures with disposable cameras provided by us (so 2003) we encouraged guests to download Wedding Party App. Each guest could shoot pics on their phones (android and iphone) and upload them to the app. We had close to 200 pictures to look at the next morning and throughout our honeymoon! Fair warning the app is a little on the slow side — I’m guessing the speed will improve over time.
That’s “all” I did. I loved the event and all of these great tools saved us a lot of money on making it everything we wanted and more!
Aimee Heilbrunn is the VP of Marketing for a local Chicago internet company, and the former owner of Ecoscene, a website that reviewed eco-friendly products and services. She is a marathon runner and an aspiring DIY enthusiast. She lives in Wicker Park with her husband Ben and their dog Gus.
Thanks, Aimee! These ideas are awesome. If you have any cool money saving wedding tips, please leave them in the comments!