When my best friends accepted their invitation to be my bridesmaids, I promised them an inexpensive and cute dress.  Little did I know that a chic and low cost bridesmaid dress is hard to come by!  Most of the dresses I found were either far beyond my price range or were frilly monstrosities that looked like they belonged in a Disney parade.

After countless hours of searching, I finally found NetBride.  This budget wedding haven offers designer dresses at reasonable prices.  I chose a simple black Bill Levkoff dress that was under $100.  Since this is a popular designer, the dress was available in local bridal shops (for double the price) and my bridesmaids could try on the actual dress to find their size.  I ordered the dresses on NetBride’s website, and received them two weeks before they were scheduled to be delivered.  Cute, inexpensive, and on time….can’t get any better than that!

The hardest decision I had to make was what to give my husband on our wedding day.   As a poor grad student, I didn’t have the means to buy anything fancy, so I had to be creative.  I finally decided to get him cologne.  I picked out a scent that I liked, put it inside a Mr. Potato Head Spud Trooper (he collects them), and had my maid of honor deliver it to him the morning of our wedding.

Later that day as I walked down the aisle, I was met by the smell of the cologne.  During the reception, I could still smell it as we danced to our wedding song.  Now when he wears it, I am taken back to that day and remember the joy and romance of our “I dos” and first dance.

According to the Bridal Association of America , the average cost for a wedding officiant is $263.00.  An inexpensive alternative, and a more personable option, is to have  a friend or family member serve as your officiant.  Thanks to the smorgasbord of ministries online,  your selected officiant can become ordained for free (plus a nominal fee of $10 for the certificate) in as little as one day!  In addition to saving a couple hundred bucks, you can have a more intimate wedding ceremony overseen by someone close to you and your fiance.

Flowers are one of the more important items when handling a wedding. It gives people the sense of warmth and welcome when presented correctly. But the cost of this welcoming view is quite overwhelming when it comes to professional florists who try to make your wedding as best as possible. The fee for their expertise is high when you are on a small budget.

A good way to bypass a lot of the expenses is by creating the bouquets yourself. It may sound weird, “How do I get flowers and make them look pretty like the professional florists.” It is not impossible, but it will take you some time.

Often times, people ignore the flowers that are on sale at your local grocery store. These flowers are a lot cheaper than buying from florists, but the selection is a lot less. Try looking around at different grocery stores to see which flowers you like. After you have found the one you want, you must order the amount you want. If there is enough in stock, you may pre-order them before hand and pick them up the night before.

Taking apart the boquets and customizing them for your wedding is the best part. You can experiment with what looks better, and give yourself a lot of time to see what styles you like. Try looking through magazines or online for a certain layout or design that you like. After you have found it, try putting it together and give it a few tries, you will pick it up very fast.

At a local arts and crafts store, you may also pick up some ribbon, wire, and florists tape. These three items will help ease the assembly of your prefect flower displays. You could easily save up to 50% when creating these wonderful flower creations yourself.

Here is a link that shows how to create these wonderful flowers, the flowers chosen were not that great, but the techniques and ideas are great!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Wedding-bouquet–boutonniere/

A new and inexpensive trend is for centerpieces are candles. Lit candles look great in the center of a table, and they can be made anyway you want. Assorted candles can be put together in a wreath of flowers, and leaves. They can also be put into glasses of water with glitter, flower petals, marbles, and just about anything you can think of. With a little bit of effort, the candles will look like they were bought from a store. Candles are also not too expensive, and you can also use citronella candles to make use of the centerpiece at a summer wedding. Candles come in different sizes and shapes, and the ornaments can be anything you want. Centerpieces like these make them easy to fit into the theme of your wedding and do not cost a lot. The only problem you might run into may be the fact that the candles could be a fire hazard, make sure to check with your venue.

The postal service is raising their rates, which means the price of stamps are going up to 42 cents from 41 cents.  1 penny may not seem like a lot but when you factor in the already high price of postage, it can add up.  Not only does this affect RSVP cards, but it could affect wedding invitation postage costs as well depending on how heavy they are.  So depending on the timing of your wedding, you might want to see how this affects you and make budget adjustments accordingly.

The other option which I am a big fan of is using an online RSVP tool.  Free wedding websites like those from WeddingWire offer online RSVP as an option to the wedding websites.  Many wedding website companies will charge for this feature, but you shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Blue Orchid Designs is giving away a FREE wedding day coordination package to one lucky couple getting married in 2008.  It’s a package they say is worth $2000 and they’ll travel anywhere in the US.  Check it out, wedding day coordinators can be extremely helpful to make sure things run smoothly and takes a load off your back for the wedding day.

While surfing the blogosphere, Kristen Seymour over at AisleDash.com wrote about her experience with finding cakes and I must say she’s right on.  Rather than spending $4 or more per slice on wedding cake, she went to her local grocery store and had a 3 tier cake made for cheap.  This is a great, creative idea to saving money that almost anyone can use. 

Read the full article here.

Papermints.com is having a 20% off sale on their stitch collection of wedding invitations.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and thanks to all of our loyal readers!