Budget Advice: Make a List and Be on the Look Out

Most of us are on a budget especially when it comes to weddings where most everything is marked up. Therefore, it's important to be on the lookout for things that you need to buy, even if you think that it's still a little early, because you might miss out on a deal.

When you start planning, make a list of things that you know you'll need to buy. Even if it's just a general one, it's good to keep a list handy (I'm a dork so I still carry around a filofax and keep my list there) so that when a good sale comes up, you can quickly look if the sale might fulfill any of your must buy items.

Some of the things on my list which I've found deals on are:


Wedding dress - Well, we all know what happened with my wedding dress shopping "situation". I went a little crazy and ended up with multiple dresses. Luckily, they were all deals while keeping an eye out for sample sales and I didn't do too much damage to my wallet. You can read about it here and even after that trip, I did actually end up buying two more which are the two that I will be wearing (one for the ceremony and one for the reception). In total, my wedding dress purchases total $1500...but retails for well over $8000.

Bridesmaid dress - From the get go, I knew I wanted my bridesmaids to wear long black dresses. You'd think it was easy to find long black dresses right? I have to admit, it was a little too easy and this is when I had to learn my lesson of buying too many wedding dresses to be a bit pickier with my bridesmaids dresses. A couple of deals came and went and at times I thought I passed up a good thing - Like this dress from jcrew (in black) that was on sale for $200 from almost $500 full price.

But at that price point, it still didn't seem like a deal. A few more visits to jcrew's website when they e-mailed me about sales and I finally took the plunge with classic silk chiffon dresses for $100 (orig. $350). I was able to snag the remainder of their stock which were all luckily in my bridesmaid's sizes.

Flower girl dress
A month ago, I was really sad to hear that Priscilla of Boston was closing. I spent many crazy hours there during their sample sales and was looking to someday be able to take my friends when it's their turn to shop for their dresses. However, store closing = closeout sale and leave it to me to come up with an excuse to go...partly to see what I could find to cross out something on my "list" but mainly so I could take a peek at the wedding dresses on sale =). Keeping my focus (after porousing through EVERY wedding dress they had), I headed straight for the bridal party section and found the cutest blush pink dress with a tulle skirt for our two flower girls. The store only had one (luckily in my flower girl's size by the time the wedding comes around) but another store was willing to ship an identical dress to me. The dresses ended up costing $25 each so I didn't mind paying the extra $10 shipping cost for the second dress. The dress can still be found at Nordstrom for $150:





I've found a few more great items at a great deal by simply keeping a list on hand when a sale comes up like a picture card box that I purchased for my friend's bridal shower (I also got one for our wedding) on the sale for half price at http://www.theperfectcardbox.com/. I also found my bridesmaids presents at a great deal but I don't want to divulge since I haven't given it to them.


All of these things are typically "last minute" purchases for weddings but if you're on a tight budget but don't want to sacrifice the nicer things in life, spacing your purchases and keeping an eye out for deals is the way to go.


I hope you guys don't think I'm too cheap.


Ok, I AM cheap ; )


Happy shopping!

The Second Funnest Thing About Planning a Wedding - The Bachelorette Party

Blessed with amazingly fun sisters and girlfriends I've gotten a chance to go on some really great destination bachelorette parties without breaking the bank. While planning for my friend's bachelorette this upcoming summer (tomorrow actually!), I thought it might be a good idea (plus an excuse to reminisce) about two destination parties I've had the honor of attending. Hopefully, this will help a first-time bridesmaid plan one

1. St. Thomas, USVI

In 2009, 11 of us girls spent four days at the Frenchman's Reef and Morningstar Bay in St. Thomas. We booked two units by the beach and I remember paying some ridiculously cheap rate at less than $100/person for our stay. As luck would have it, one of the bridesmaid knew someone who worked for Marriott and was able to get us an employee rate for the rooms. Still, when I was researching units at the newly built Marriott timeshare right next to this resort, I found two-bedroom units renting at $250/night which would have been comparable to what we spent back then.

[aerial view of the hotel]

I know that St. Thomas isn't necessarily one of those places you immediately think of when planning for a bachelorette because it is a beach town and you're suppose to just relax and do nothing. But surprisingly, we always ended up at a fun bar/club every night we were there. Cab drivers were always friendly and trustworthy, and we were never short of things to do.

[at a local bar near the hotel]

During one of the days, the group decided to take the ferry to St. John to see Trunk Bay...and I would have to say that I've never seen a more beautiful beach than that.

[beautiful Trunk Bay]

In all, I anticipated that each person spent about $400 on hotel and airfare. I actually spent even less than that because I used frequent flier miles which made my flight free! I ended up booking it last minute and was able to use just 25,000 US Airways points for my round trip flight.

Last bit of money saving advice, we purchased bottles of alcohol at duty free while we were still on the aplane. We did alot of pregaming so that we wouldn't spend so much money at the bars. One of the girls also met a chef during one of our nights out and he offered to cook us dinner at his restaurant one night. Lastly, with the bride's savvy bargaining skills, she was able to convince the manager to give each one of us girls one free meal per day at either the breakfast buffet or the beachfront restaurant. Yes, we worked hard for our food =) Good times!

2. Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Playa del Carmen is one of those places that I wouldn't mind going to every year. It's such a versatile destination that would be good for a romantic getaway, family vacation, and yes, even a bachelorette party! Because I had previously visited, it made it a bit easier for me to plan my older sister's bachelorette party last year and again for my friend's bachelorette party this year. Gee, can you tell that I really like PdC??

In 2010, booking our flight was super easy. I found a deal on AirMexicana (since bankrupt) that cost each person only $297 each round trip. In terms of accommodations, we booked a three bedroom beachfront condo that cost each person $133 for the 4 days that we were there. For the eight girls that went, the condo was plenty big for everyone. A huge plus was that the condo was literally ON the beach - meaning you open the patio door and your first step is sand. You can book it here: http://aquazulplaya.com/ (we booked Ocean Plaza 3)

[view as soon as you open the patio door]

The location of this condo was perfect. Out on the beach was a beachfront massage place which according to my friend only cost $25/hr. I'm still kicking myself for not getting a massage there but you better believe that I'm going to get one everyday next time I go! One block from our condo was "club row". Alot of the bars and clubs were located there and we frequented Blue Parrot which was a beachfront bar/club. Ok, frequented means we went there EVERY night! It was just so much fun and the music was great that we didn't feel the need to go anywhere else. Although we did try other places, we always ended the night there.

For some daytime fun an adventure, we also booked an all day tour zip lining, cliff jumping, and cave snorkeling with a company called Edventure (http://www.edventure.org/). We opted for a shorter version of the tour they offer and paid $80/person including transportation. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip and we all got to do something we would never do... like zip lining upside down!

[Yup, it's as fun as it looks!]

[walking around the cute streets of PdC]

To save money on drinks, we walked to a local convenient store and bought rum and juice there. The condo came with a blender and we made our own blended drinks for the beach everyday. The food was pretty inexpensive as well. We did have one dinner on the expensive side but otherwise, we ordered pizza or went to a well known taco place that was really cheap. In total, each person spent $540 which includes airfare, accommodations, airport transportation, and the all day excursion.

So that's it for now! Next recap: last year's Bachelorette party to New Orleans and the one I'm going to tomorrow back in Playa del Carmen =)

DIY Project: Flowers

When we put together our wedding budget last year, we estimated a certain amount that we could spend on floral arrangements, bouquets, and anything flower related. Flowers wasn't even something that I thought I needed to address until much later on the planning process so I started focusing on other things that needed more immediate attention. However, while sifting through wedding forums like theknot, I quickly realized that we REALLY under-budgeted for a florist. Alot of the forum posts commented that a $3k florist quotes were "reasonable"and "cheap" to which I responded with (to myself of course), F-THAT! I mean really? $3k on flowers that will wilt within a few days??

So I started researching other options...took some trips to Michaels and went online to see how much "fake" flower arrangements would cost me. Surprisingly, those weren't that affordable either costing up to $6 PER fake rose....to which I responded, F-THAT too!

I considered forgoing florals (at least for centerpieces) all together and looked into options like crystal candelabras and manzanita tree centerpieces.

So pretty right??

And even though I've finally settled on having a non-floral centerpiece (which will be another post), the table-scape just didn't seem complete without any.

Then came Martha Stewart...or rather, her website which provided me with a tutorial for DIY roses made out of coffee filters. I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least give it a try and see how fast I could make one because I estimated that I would need about 500 roses total.

Progression of the project...

First, Martha tells you to cut up 8 different types of petals. At first try, I followed the directions to a tee and did just that. But I eventually figured out that I could use just three types of petals to yield the same looking rose.

Picture of my first few flowers before and after I painted it.

Martha also tells you to paint each petal after you've already assembled one rose. This was pretty annoying so I decided to paint all my petals beforehand.

I finally put my old acrylic set to use which I had to dig out at the very back of our storage. Sad...

All the little petals drying after painting...

And here's a bunch more of the final product...

I'm not 100% sure that I should really invest the time and effort into making 500 of these. To be perfectly honest, it was a bit tedious to cut so many petals, paint them and then assemble them into a rose....but at the cost of close to nothing and the fact that my wedding is still a year and a half away, it's hard to not give this idea a serious thought.

Total cost approx breakdown for 500 roses:

Coffee Filters: $50

Floral Wire: $17

Floral Tape: $5

Painting tools: Free

Labor: $10000000000000000000000000000000000 =)

First DIY Project: Invitations!

My first attempt at breaking the robot in me was to get back in touch with my crafty/artsy side by practicing how to emboss for my future invitations. Sad as it may sound, I haven't felt this excited since high school when things like going to art lessonsand making home-made cards were what I looked forward to doing most after school.

Sitting in my parent's dining room, I opened up all the goodies I purchased right before the snow storm, which included some plain invitations, stamps, clear ink, embossing powder, and an embossing heating tool.

My goal was to at least learn how to emboss so that sometime next year, I can make my invitations to look somewhat like these (from the weddingbee):

At first attempt, I practiced embossing initials because I wanted to incorporate our initials on the outside of our pocketfolds. I got a little excited and actually ended up embossing these upside down on the first two cards. Really, I was THAT excited! At the third attempt, I finally got this:

For the inside, I practiced embossing a pattern with some of the stamps I found. For the actual invite, I'm having a pretty hard time finding a stamp with a pattern that I really like (i.e. the exact ones from the weddingbee inspiration). At least for practice, I ended up with this:

So you're probably wondering - Is it really worth all the effort to do your own invitations? As I expressed frustration in messing up my first two trials, I could see my family (who thought I was crazy for doing all this), ask themselves this very question. Through online research, I actually found that I could probably have invitations (which would I be perfectly happy with) professionally made for fairly cheap - maybe even cheaper than what it would cost for me to do it myself.

What makes it worth it for me is the prospect of creating again - to experience that joy and sense of accomplishment of starting from scratch and then see your final product come to life. I'm sure my patience will be tested. I'm sure that at some point during this process, I'll want to give up and just order the invites online. Still, I have a smile on my face just thinking about the work it will take to get all of this done and that's just something you can't put a price tag on.

The mess I made at my parent's house:

To my neat freak fiance - "I'm sorry" in advance!

Five Hundred and Twenty Two

....days to go until May 5, 2012 - Our wedding day

Must I really wait 522 days to see all of my ideas come to life? I wonder how many more dresses I'll buy (and hopefully sell). I wonder how many times I'll change my colors. More importantly, I wonder how much money I'll be able to save!

Looking to save on the big ticket items by locking in 2010 rates, I was luckily able to book the following:

1) Venue: From the previous post, we had a very hard time deciding. In the end, my upfront research definitely paid off because the venue we picked raised their rates less than a week after our appointment. (Picture from the open house below!)

2) DJ: A highlight of my sister's wedding was the music and party atmosphere. One of the reasons for this (other than all the fun guests) was their DJ. To top it off, they offer a very reasonable rate!

3) Transportation: Although this isn't really something that people book THIS early, the venue that we selected partners with a trolley company and quoted me what seemed to be a good rate for an all-day trolley service for the bridal party and for guests to be picked up from the hotel to the reception. So I figured...why not? I might as well book them now before prices go up in 2011 and again in 2012!

4) Church: This doesn't really fall into the category of raising rates but this was the first thing that I made sure to research before I did anything else because I was not a parishioner in any of the Philadelphia churches. But through some research, I now feel better knowing that there are options for us in Philly. Pending a meeting with their priest, I hope to officially tie the knot and walk down the aisle at St. Rita of Cascia.


Venue Sneak Peak at the open house this past Sunday taken with my new camera =)



522 more days....really?!?!?

The Cronicles of an Indecisive Bride To Be...

...Should be the name of this blog.

A few people - ok most of you - know about my wedding dress "issue" and how many I have racked up even though the wedding is not until 2012. My problem is that I happen to like...no absolutely Loooove...alot of different options. I'm picky but not really. I don't even know if that makes sense.

Unfortunately, in the wedding business, there's no such thing as returns or exchanges so being indecisive is not a good thing. Most wedding dresses are final sales especially if you've altered it or purchased it at a sample sale. Wedding venues require that you put a non-refundable deposit which are at least $1000.

The issue of absolutely loving everything definitely came into play when the fiance and I booked seven wedding venue appointments yesterday. We managed to make it through all of them but one and surprise surprise, I absolutely loved every single one of them. I walked into each venue like a girl who had just realized that her dream wedding could actually come true. I "ooohed and ahhhed" and twirled around every venue's dance floor despite running on 4 hrs of sleep the night before.

At the end of the day, I knew EXACTLY where we would have our wedding (emphasize the "I knew" and not "WE knew"). The more I saw (or didn't see) the same level of enthusiasm from the fiance, the more I second guessed my choice. Luckily, contracts haven't been signed and we have two weeks to decide.


I'll save the reviews on the other venues at a later time. For now, I'd like to focus on the two that are in the running.


Option 1: Ballroom at the Ben

Pros: + Meets the budget BUT wedding must be done in March

+ Ballroom with built in up lighting and pin spot lighting on tables (only brides will appreciate this!) which is typically extra cost everywhere else (at least $500)

+ Lots of weddings have happened here and it s well photographed so I've seen lots of pictures online that validate how beautiful it is and that it can hold the number of guests that we'll be expecting

+ Slightly closer to hotels downtown


+ Fiance loves it and prefers this over Option 2


Cons: - Wedding MUST be before end of March to meet budget which is still cold weather and wedding will be during lent

- Guests park a block away in a lot and must navigate themselves to the ballroom inside a multi-purpose building (office space and condos). We can choose to pay for everyone's parking and they are given a voucher ticket at the ballroom to present to the garage attendant. I've heard from a review that didn't work out so well and guests had to pay for parking even though bride and groom pre-paid.


- Must pay extra for linens other than ivory or white

- Cocktail hour area (balcony above ballroom) looks dated


- Guests must go down elevators and out lobby of the building to get some air

Here are professional pictures...

[Source] [Source]

Option 2: Tendenza
Pros + A very unique venue that is unlike anything that I've seen. I was blown away as soon as I walked into the space


+ For a little bit more than budget, we can have the wedding in April or May which is warmer than March.

+ Included in the price is the only thing that fiance asked for which is a raw bar

+ No additional cost for different linen options and square tables

+ No additional fee for duet entree which is one of the things we are considering to have

+ For an extra fee (similar to Option 1's parking fee) our guests will have valet parking right outside of the venue at no cost to them

+ Common outdoor courtyard on the same level as venue so easy access to get air

+ Color scheme of the place matches what I wanted for our wedding colors (black, ivory, and a couple of accent colors that I haven't decided on)


Cons - It is brand new and has not officially opened so no history of weddings or online pictures to better visualize a wedding set-up

- Planner says they max out at 40 people over our planned party size. Fiance is worried that it will be tight for our size party

- Over budget by $10 per person

- Light colored floors and walls (in some areas) which look great now but worried that it will look dirty and worn by the time our wedding comes around (space is booking fast even though they haven't opened yet)

- Fiance is worried that it looks like a club


Here are some pics from my iphone. I REALLY wish I brought a camera with me that day.

Cocktail Hour space - stairs lead up to dinner/dance space




Dinner/Dance Space



One of two Bars (they are back to back - one in the Cocktail reception area and one ine the dinner/dance area)






So long story short, I'm confused yet again. Help?

It's House Hunting all Over Again!

...actually, I meant to say it's venue hunting but so far, it sure does feel like house hunting all over again

Putting the same rigor in researching venues as I did our house, all options are being considered. For the time being, I'm setting my eyes on downtown Philadelphia which is almost exactly halfway between our families. Through all the research (mainly photographer websites and wedding forums), I've found a few places that are somewhat within reach of our budget. To be exact, we're visiting seven venues and one church... all within one day during our next trip to Philadelphia.

I'm not quite sure how the day will go or if we'll actually be able to pull it off. But I am sure that the fiance and I will need lots of coffee, patience, and time management skills. In preparation for our venue-hunting day, I carefully planned out our appointment times so that we're hopping around Philly through the best, most efficient route:

Beginning at 10 am at Old St. Joseph's Church and ending at 4pm in the Northern Liberties neighborhood to see Cescaphe Ballroom and their new location Tendenza, I'm hoping that by the end of the day, we'll get a very good idea of how feasible a downtown Philadelphia wedding will be.


More updates to come once we actually see these places in person. For the time being, wish us luck!

Also, please share any questions that we should be asking the coordinators of these venues.

Thanks!