Planning an Event on a Budget
Alright, quite a few readers need your help! You see, I’ve received numerous emails asking how to plan an event on a budget. Since I have so many smart and savvy readers, I thought instead of answering myself, I’d go ahead and ask for your tips and ideas!
Here are a few of the emails I’ve received:
“Hi Collin, I know that you are extremely busy but I was hoping you could give me some tips on planning a wedding on a budget. Any insight is greatly appreciated! Thank you :)”
“I am wondering if I can get some ideas from you and your readers on something… My parents are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this April and I am wanting to host a dinner/open house in their honor. It has been a tough 25 years and they are amazing parents and grandparents to my children. My question is how do I do something elegant and wonderful, but minimizing my costs. I need some creative ideas for this party.”
“Hey Collin! I’m wondering if you have any ideas on cheap food for my daughter’s birthday party. She’ll be 1 in a few weeks and I can’t for the life of me find any inexpensive sandwich platters or meats, cheeses, etc. There will be about 40 people including kids and parents and I don’t have any ideas on how to make both groups happy. Thanks!”
“My daughter is a Junior in High School and was invited to the prom.I do not have much $ to spend on a dress and was hoping you might have some ideas for us. We have been to the thrift shops and Craigslist but we haven’t had any luck yet. Any help would be appreciated.”
“My son is turning 3 in March, and I am looking for suggestions for a birthday party for him. We would love to have this in a location other than our home and I could really use some suggestions.”
Any Ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much for your help!
For both Prom and my daughter’s wedding (bridesmaids) we went to younkers, sears, Jc Penney’s, and Dillards. We went straight to the clearance area and was able to snag beautiful gowns for 70% off. We paid around $30 each time. Also for weddings, they can check inventory at other stores and have it shipped to their store so you can get matching. We picked the wedding colors after we saw which dressed we could buy and then accessorized with other accent colors.
For my daughter’s wedding, it was beautiful, but very frugal. I borrowed roasters from friends and relatives. We purchased ham when it was on sale and had the meat counter slice it into sandwich slices then froze it till the wedding. We just put it in the roaster with some pineapple juice and water then cooked according to the directions. We bought large containers of dry scalloped potatoes and gallons of baked beans from Walmart and cooked that in roasters also. We just took turns watching the food throughout the day!
I googled searched cooking for 100 people and came across some good websites. We also just had one small wedding cake but then baked our own sheet cakes (we had pans from other occasions) The meal was served buffet style and was hot and delicious and under $500 for a wedding reception of 150-175 people. Our hall rental was $100 for our local legion. For the flowers, we bought all of the supplies at Hobby Lobby and michaels when they had sales and made our own. We checked around for the cheapest tuxes and just went with that with the exception of the ringbearers. You can get that off of ebay for around $20. We also got the flower girl dress off of there for less than $20 new and it looked like a mini bridal gown.
All in all, if you are used to do a bit of th leg work yourself and know how to read directions to make scalloped potatoes and are able to turn a knob of a roaster, you can do it yourself for a fraction of the cost. Just do some websearches and have fun! If anyone has any questions feel free to email me. I would love to help~
For the prom, I’d recommend checking local retail stores like JC Penny and Sears – look in the juniors/women’s dress section clearance racks. When I went to prom (granted, this was about 10 years ago) I was able to find a gorgeous dress originally $170 on sale for $17 at JC Penny, right around prom season. Right now I know there are a lot of “holiday” dresses that have been discounted down quite a bit – if you don’t mind deep, rich colors, these would be a good bet. Someone else mentioned the discount racks at bridal stores, and I’d defintely check those as well. I found a great dress for my other prom there on sale for $25.
For birthdays for kids who are a little older (probably 4 through 10 or 11), I think this idea is awesome – https://www.family-to-family.org/giving_partyA.htm
Basically, it’s a way to “give back” to kids who can’t afford birthdays. You ask each family whose bringing a child to your party bring an empty shoe box, a box of cake mix/frosting, a used children’s book that the child no longer needs/reads, and (if available) a gently used outfit that they’ve outgrown. Then the kids decorate the boxes at the party with craft supplies and make a birthday card for “their” child. Of course, you want to do something during the party to focus on your child as well – but I think it’s a neat, low cost way to do something creative, fun, and teaches children a great way to give back. At the end of the party, these boxes of goodies that each person brought get sent to a child from a less lucky family who can’t afford to have a birthday party!
Also, I agree with the people who said to look at Sams/Costco for cakes – we got a huge one for a party a month ago (enought to serve 40 people) complete with a real picture put on for less than 20 bucks.
for the wedding- we did our wedding on $2,000 budget. we rented the hall at our church (free) and i bought my dress used ($500 for a GORGEOUS GOWN) invitations we had a friend who has a printing shop help- but I have seen since then CUTER ones at Target and you can print them off the computer. Our friends and family helped with the buffet at the reception- I wanted all salads & breads every kind! chicken salad, fruit salad, Caesar salad, french bread, sourdough bread… the list could go on & on! We also had a friend dj songs off some cds for a small fee (he had the equipment) but I would have been happy with a cd just re-playing all night really. my cousin also took wedding photos (she dabbled in photography)
I have also heard of people asking vendors for things ans let them put up advertisements at the wedding! (not for everyone, although.) You can also rent your dress.
cupcakes are really in style right now for weddings & easy to do yourself.
sorry i keep adding ideas…
we also made homemade suckers for the favors- at valentines you might be able to buy heart suckers or candies & re-wrap them in cellophane & nice ribbon.
If you look on craigslist there might be a student photographer who is ready to graduate & looking to do a wedding for his/her portfolio.
Love making homemade suckers! Big hit at family gatherings (and cheap) Might try for my wedding…
We just did a 50th wedding Anv. for my grandparents, and we bought the invitions from Micheals and Big Lots and tok them to a local shop to have them printed. This would also be good for a wedding. We got our meat and cheese trays from Wal-Mart.
You can get napkins, plates, silverware from the dollar tree for both also.
To the one that is planning the wedding I got married for around $2,500 and had 100 poeple.
I got married at my church and had my husband’s dad marry us. SO all we had to do was pay for the church. If you don’t belong to a church see if on of your family memebers can get you a discount at their church or have it at a nice park. Have a freind take pictures is a nice digital carmera and put them onto a CD, and you can go to I-Tunes and download all your wedding music. I shopped at 5 different places for my dress,and found the best price. I would suggest Davis’d $99 sale. If you need flowers for your braidmaids I would go to Wal-MArt your your local grocery store and ask them how much they will charge to make a simple flower arrangements. You can always buy the flowers and do them yourself. My braidmaids had a stafoam ball with fake flowers and I had real flowers and so did my husbnad, dad, granparents, and groomsman. We got marreid the week before Valentines Day so this hleped us save alot of maoney buy making the things ourselves. Also there are many sites were you can find cheap braidmaid dresses or wait until after prom and have them look around at prom dresses. For food you can cut cost big time if you only have cake and no dinner. We had a dinner we did BBQ, but many of my friends to save cost only had cake. Try to book on a Thursday night, Friday night or even Sunday. The cake you can get from Wal-Mart or call around to try to find the best deal, there are even people who do them on the side so ask other people who made their cake.
I know we all want to the “hostess with the mostest,” but honestly, when we’re having little ones’ parties, we don’t have to provide food, just cake and ice cream! I found out that if we have (an outdoor party) with ice cream cones, the kids often don’t want cake.
Our house isn’t very big, so we’ve had the kids’ parties at our church or the grandparents’.
I read a great article one time about a money-saving wedding reception. I wish I could find the blog or link for it! They shared recipes and how they made everything ahead and froze it to save money on catering. Plus, they could make family favorites. Personally, I had friends who helped with the wedding in lieu of a gift for both the cake and flowers! Maybe friends and family have more time than money and could pitch in and make more memories that way!
For the wedding:
My husband and I payed for our wedding completely on our own, and we were both still in college when we got married. We were able to pay for our wedding debt-free and were completely happy with the way everything turned out.
The only two splurges we had were my dress and our photographer. Our photographer was a flop even though we paid good money, so I would suggest finding someone who is just getting started, but make sure they do good work also! I did artificial flowers from Hobby Lobby, and a family member assembled all of our bouquets. A church friend made my cake at cost. We had our wedding at my parent’s church, so it was free. Also, our rehearsal was a decorating party that turned into a rehearsal, so we got a ton of free help decorating the church.
Finally, we only had a cake and punch reception as a way to save money. We had it on a Monday (Memorial Day) and at a time when people would not be expecting food (of course we also told them on the invites that it would be a cake reception).
I just did a post today on how to do a cheap birthday for little girls…
https://mylitterofsix.blogspot.com/2009/05/girl-birthday-party-ideas-webkinz.html
Tiffany
IF YOU ARE PLANNING A WEDDING, NEXT MONTH IS THE TIME TO STOCK UP ON “LOVE” ITEMS ONCE THEY GO CLEARANCE POST-VALENTINE’S. Also, shop after other holidays when possible. I got dessert plates on clearance at Crate and Barrel post Xmas. They had the most beautiful silver etching of fern leaves on the edge. I found light green candles on clearance (again post-Xmas) at Target. That + some cheap glass marbles (Michael’s – coupons) = beautiful centerpieces. My friend picked up some cut fern leaves from the florist that morning (literally about $2) and put them under the plates, candle on top with marbles around. Cheap, pretty and people could see each other across the table (big annoyance with guests). Best of all, everytime we use our dessert plates, we remember our wedding.
I dont know if this place has been mentioned yet but I use it to supply loads of parties with cheapo giveaway items on up to good prizes for games. I get the catalog sent to my home and often plan way in advance as the discounts come in the catalog. It is worth a shot for alot of items. they even do theme supplies. https://www.orientaltrading.com/
Hope this helps
Our wedding ended up being VERY budget – we were planning a big wedding and while going over the guest list one night with now hubby I had an ephiphany – we were getting married and that was what was most important so we decided to scale WAY back – we had 15 guests (our most important family and friends) at our evening outdoor wedding, I bought a used (but still pretty expensive at $700) dress, hubby rented a tux and we had the receiption inside my grandparents house (we were married at 8pm so we didn’t need to provide a meal afterwards). Each family member instead of giving us a gift agreed to pay for an item for the wedding – my mom bought the cake, grandparents paid for photography & in laws gave us a night in a nearby hotel for our honeymoon and some spending money. We are still happily married more than 10 years later and looking back I wouldn’t change a thing – who wants to start married life loaded down with stress and debt from feeding a bunch of family members we rarely see and barely like.
Oh and for my bouquet I went to a floral supply store and bought artifical flowers – no one knew the difference and they look the same as fresh (for a fraction of the cost) in my photo’s. Mine turned out so nice that my Sister-In-Law asked me to make hers for her wedding a few months ago.
We’ve been marries 16 years and I TOTALLY agree with you!!!!
The wedding details and luxuries are soon forgotten, what remains is the relationship:-)
Depending on the dress you want for prom, I always bought my prom dresses at Marshalls/TJ Maxx/JC Penneys. I liked the sleek look, and I was able to buy each dress for about $20. Also, Plato’s Closet is a resale shop for teens. Oh, and for one prom I even asked some older friends who had already graduated. They had plenty to choose from!
For the wedding (but it can apply to other events): So, this isn’t a specific tip, but more of an over-all principle. Decide what aspect of things is most important to you, then don’t worry so much about the rest. For example, I wanted really nice pictures, so I spent lots of time shopping around for good quality at a good price (I wanted the CD, but didn’t care so much about prints, those can come later). That took most of my budget. I wanted people to look nice, but we found clothes in different colors that I had picked. The family still looked great, I got great pictures, everyone was happy!
Anyhow, focus on what’s most important, and compromise on the lesser important stuff.
I have not read all the comments, so sorry if this has already been shared. I am just starting out in photography and have seen a lot of money saving ideas in the last year as well as planning my own wedding for next to nothing. Costco is an amazing way to save money for weddings. If you know anyone who is good with flowers have them do them! We got 100 roses for $75.00. That was bouquets, corsages, and some decorations! Huge money saver- they looked great too!! If you are not set on a summer wedding- getting married in the winter can be a lot cheaper (especially christmas when most venues or churches already have a lot of decorations up). Look on craigslist for djs, photographers, bakers that are just starting. I am a newer photographer charging $350 for all day coverage- I know that its cheap but it is affordable! There are people trying to start out. I know that doing the food yourself can be huge too. I have seen aunts in the back cooking, lasagna’s from costco being cooked- I did not do those options, but it worked for some! Hope that helps!
Prom Dress: Like said before, if you live close to a military installation most have a closet (like 100s of dresses!) that they will rent out for a small fee or loan out for free you just pay dry cleaning fee. You could see if her friends or older girls in the area have dresses that she can borrow also.
Wedding: Have wedding in a backyard of a friends house. We had ours in our youth pastor’s backyard that had palm trees, swimming pool, flowers, pretty scenery. My best friend had hers and her reception at a local park. And her mom and her did everything. They even took a free cake decorating class through the city or a local store and made her cake (and everybody else’s the past couple of years, they are really really good at it!). Can find a friend or family member to take pics or look at local college photography classes and see if you can get a discounted photographer.
Birthday Parties: Don’t have a big party. Go and do a family fun thing and make it a special day. This past year our daughter turned 4 so we planned a whole day at Sea World for her. We actually gave her a couple of options (that were in our price range and relatively close) and she chose Shamu. We had a blast! She had so much fun seeing everything. And she got to choose where we ate dinner after we left Sea World. It was a lot cheaper than having a party and a lot more fun and stress free too.
You can probably do a meat & cheese platter cheaper by buying meat and cheese in bulk.
for daughter going to Prom.. there are alot of places that have prom dresses for free. Especially if you live in a big city. My dil lives in Philly and she donates her bridesmaid dresses to a group who gives dresses, accessories and even shops that donate hair updos for prom for girls who can not afford it. If you can not afford it at all, I would ask around the school would surely know. I know alot of areas have this type of thing. And normally these dresses are only worn 1 or 2 times that are donated.
So many ideas, I hope I’m not repeating, I honestly did not read all of these before responding. Collin, I hope you leave this feature on the site, I think it’s a great idea and may be a go to for many of us in the future.
Prom girl – when I was in high school there were quite a few of us who went to a few proms and one year we all just borrowed each others dresses from past proms. No one really noticed, one borrowed a dress for a jr prom from a girl who graduated and wore it to sr prom. You get the idea. Ask your friends, put the word out, someone will have something great you can borrow.
Bday party – for my son’s early bdays I always did English muffin pizza’s. Just make them ahead, put them on cookie sheets and pop them in the oven. You would be amazed how many adults loved the English muffin pizzas too. I ended up making more while the party was going on!
Wedding and anniversary folks – my friend’s son just got married on a budget. The caterer recommended going to bjs/costco/sams club and buy the plastic ware that “looks” like china. As well as the linen like clothes. I have to admit, I was turned off by the idea….then I helped set up the hall and I have to say, it looked very elegant and it was NOT a big deal that it was plastic. The “silverware” does not look or feel plastic. It’s heavy duty and holds up well. Check it out.
Also, centerpieces, we bought vases with coupons at acmoore, ordered a case of lemons from grocery store, put the whole lemons in – you have to wedge them so they don’t pop up and we put a wide ribbon with dab of hot glue about an inch or so down from the mouth of the vase (more urn shaped) with the ends folded in. they looked very nice. If anyone wants pics of the centerpiece or hall set up to see how the paper goods looked on the table just shoot me an email and I’m sure I can get a few pics out. jd625@myfairpoint.net
I just saw comment about love stuff going on clearance next month. Another one to watch out for if the timing is right – the wedding I helped with the colors were green and yellow. We went after easter and stocked up on the colored cadbury mini eggs for favors, also m&ms have the nice spring colors. So if your colors aren’t in the pinks and reds of valentine’s you can wait till easter and stock up on some other pretty pastel candy to put in little sachels or whatever for favors.
I do event planning on the side *as well as my business that you can click on my name to see* but for weddings…I did a super cute mason jar thing for an outdoor wedding this last summer where I wrapped wire around the mason jar and hung them and added votives inside the jars for super sweet mood lighting. For the flower petals down the isle I used petals from local growers that their plants were about to drop the petals anyhow and I loaded up boxes of petals! It turned out super pretty! For the wedding favors I set up a table full of help yourself style candy jars (that were decorated up of course) and had candy bags and stickers available for sealing them. I did a wishing tree instead of a guest book ordered in a willow tree branch that had been sand blasted…found a cute vase that was sturdy at a garage sale and filled it with river rocks (the shiny ones) that I bought at the dollar store and then stuck the branch down the center so it was being held up by the rocks and covored the top with spanish moss. It was GORGEOUS!
I “do it up” for my kids birthdays! We are on a budget so I make ALL the decos but for super cheap! My daughter just turned 3 and we did a princess theme but I thought whimsical instead of disney. I put strawberry marshmallows on candy sticks dipped them in white chocolate (just the ends) dusted them with sugar sprinkles and put a jelly belly on top. Stuck them all in oasis (bought at the $1 store) and covered with the shredded green paper. I placed butterflys all around…made a garland of roses (bought the flowers at the $1 store…turned out SO pretty!).
A super easy food dish is meatballs. Everyone loves them including the kids! Take 1 bottle of WELCHES GRAPE JELLY (only use this kind…trust me the flavor is way better!) and 2 bottles of BBQ sauce (I use 1 kraft regular and 1 sweet baby rays regular) mix together in a crock pot and dump in as many meatballs (Costco frozen kind) in the crock that you can fit. Cook on high for the first 2 hours till meatballs are thawed out totally and then turn to low! A crowd pleaser we have found!
Do crudets (we do: carrots, celery, broccoli and olives) and make a dip (1 cup cottage cheese, 1 cup sour cream, 1 packet italian dressing seasoning and dill to taste) and then go with Papa murphy take and bake pizzas and a few other things!
Got more ideas if you need them! My sons 1st bday was all monkey themed! Turned out fabulous!
One more comment for the person looking for a venue for kids party. Friends have done bowling and that’s pretty affordable. I can’t remember the age of kids, but for my son’s 7th birthday next week are doing rollerskating – $100 for 10 kids for 2hrs. If you go the chuck e cheese route and don’t have a huge guest list consider skipping their party package. You can plan to go at a quieter time, get there early to get some tables, order your food, your tokens and bring your own cupcakes. You won’t get the crazy party hat or reserved area, but how long are the kids really sitting at the reserved table, which I find a pain for adults because it’s so far away from the play area and you can’t keep an eye on your kids. So the parents just end up moving to the play area anyway.
All things I have had personal experience with in cost effective wedding planning:
-Cake from Wal-Mart for less than $150
-Order fresh flowers from the grocery store
-Borrow punch bowls from yours and his grandmothers and aunts, chances are they have the cups to match, borrow those too.
-Make your own punch. There are lots of recipes online, but the easiest is pineapple juice and Sprite
-Thaw and serve hors d’oeuvres from Sam’s or Costco
-Fresh fruit and cheese from Costco
-Vases and silk flowers from Dollar Tree
-Wedding items at Hobby Lobby frequently 50% off
-Have a friend perform the service (anyone can be ordained online by the Universal Life Church)
-Get married in a garden, decorations for the ceremony are a part of the venue
-Shop around for a venue, you would be surprised at what you can get for under $1000
-Make your own favors (paper fans made from scrapbook paper in your colors are perfect–fan fold paper, bend and glue, tie with ribbon)
-Invite only people who you think you will still consider friends in 5-10 years
-Remember, simple = elegant
After attending weddings that cost upwards of $30,000, my family still agrees that my wedding was the most beautiful wedding they have ever attended… it totaled to about $4000
Some states require specific paperwork to perform marriages. Nevada being a big one! My dad had to write a book to become licensed to perform weddings when he was a pastor there. So be sure to find somebody who is licensed in the state you are getting married. Not just everybody can go and do it.
Flowers – we used my bouquet and bridesmaids flowers for decorations at the reception hall. We had the vases set up so that when we arrived we just set the flowers right down in them.
Also – If you’re stuck on a Saturday wedding do it at 1pm to get better deals!! Finding a hall that allows you to bring your own food can be difficult but will save you a ton of $ if you can do your own food.
Kids b-day – do it at a public park with a shelter!! If you do it at your house ask your local fire dept to come with a firetruck. We did this for my son’s b-day. It’s free and it was fun for the kids. We did Fireman decorations and made our own firetruck cake (and had an extra costco sheetcake). We also made an extra cake for the fireman to take with them that said “Thanks”.You can get cheap fireman hats at oriental trading. We took pictures of each guest on the firetruck and used them as “Thank Yous”.
I just planned my wedding (on a tight budget) and the number one advice I would give is DIY! I made my own invites, favors, programs, etc – and definitely saved a bundle. Also, check out ebay and craigslist – I got some really cute table sign holders there along with some other accessories. Check out the message boards on theknot.com for DIY how to’s and advice – very helpful! Also, I hired my photographer through a local photography school – she was a teacher there, not a student – the pictures came out amazing and she gave me a great deal. Make sure you book everything in advance – the guarantee of work months down the road gives you a little bargaining room, especially for deejays and photogs. Best of luck!
For our wedding we had small cakes on each table for centerpieces and instead of having one big cake. I ordered them from a bakery just decorated in white frosting. I put berries on top to add a little color. Everyone got to cut their own piece after dinner. That was the biggest hit of the night:)
We had a relative take pictures. We had a friend DJ. We picked out the music and burned it onto cd’s. An ipod would work the same now.
We had a local restaurant to the catering. They set up the buffet and took it back down. It cost less than 10 a person and we had steak and chicken. YUMMY.
I Planned my wedding on a very small budget. I made everything myself except for the cake and other things like that. For the invitations, i used a site called lcipaper.com. They have tons of different wedding/other stationary that you can print yourself. I bought place cards from Office Max or Staples and i printed them myself as well. I made my own programs. For favors, i got wedding candy molds and made chocolates. I tied them with ribbon and mesh and put them in little plastic hearts. I even bought bubbles and specially wrapped dinner mints for dirt cheap from orientaltrading.com. For the wedding, we rented a place called Sonnenberg Gardens which we were able to pay 1000$ for the full wedding. For the reception we hired a banquet center for 11.95 a person. The reception costed just over 3000 without the cake which was about 300$. Another tip was get a smaller cake and have a sheet cake hidden in the back. This saved lots too. If you price it all, you can get a pretty good deal but it will take some careful planning and calling around for prices. The biggest tip though, be crafty. It is not hard to make it yourself. You can find all kinds of verses just by looking at sites that sell this stuff. Also, a great tool is a site called verseit.com. I did everything myself and saved tons. Also, David’s Bridal is reasonable. For veils, Jo Ann’s or Michael’s. They also have wedding lights and other fun goodies.
I forgot to add that other places for receptions and weddings are lodges in local parks, and local gardens you might have. You can usually rent them out for a hundred or so per day. Then, all you need is a caterer. That could run less than the traditional reception in many cases.
For the wedding, I just recently got married and planned it all by myself on a small budget. I had help from several friends and family. Use your resources!!! I cannot stress that enough. If you have a girlfriend that does makeup, ask her to do your makeup and you can get your bridemaids to pay her a small fee! Get your girlfriends over and help you design your invitations. Target has really cute invitations that you can find on clearance! I used the knot.com to help come up with my own design. Have the wedding and reception all in one place! this saves major money! Have the wedding on an off day! You could save major money! Also, Wedding bee and etsy.com are great websites. There are many books out there for DIY projects. I got several items for the wedding from michaels and hobby lobby, and used the 40% off online! You can make your wedding still look nice on a budget! I would also suggest looking at ebay. ONe of my friends suggested to me about a wedding dress, look in formal gown or beach, if you want simple and you won’t pay half the cost. Well that’s all I have! Good luck and congrads on your wedding!
– GET SOMEONE TO PLAN YOUR EVENT FOR FREE, REALLY!!!! –
My best tip for bigger parties and functions – like anniversary parties, weddings, work meetings/functions and family reunions – Call your local Convention & Visitors Bureau (or the CVB of the city/town/area of where you are wanting to party) and THEY will help you find a location by getting your info (how many you are expecting, what you are wanting to do, your budget) and sending it out to all of their partners (hotels, banquet halls, venders, etc); THOSE partners will then ALL be vying for your business – because instead of you contacting one or two venues/vendors, everyone in town will now know about your event – and they will all start offering up their best prices and deals because they know that there are other venues in the area who are doing the same thing and you’re going to go with the best offer.
The best part? The CVB offers this service FOR FREE because they are funded by the taxes that you will eventually pay the hotel/venue; because of that, they will only suggest venues in their city (so if you call Dallas, they won’t send the info to Fort Worth or the other ‘burbs) so if you want to plan a whole weekend, you shouldn’t have to travel too far from say the Church to the Reception Hall. AND the CVB can suggest other fun, interesting, and important things that you might not have thought of – like if you aren’t set on a date of the reunion, they will let you know when all the holiday decorations go up or if the town is usually packed during the 4th of July or that a brand-new hotel is set to open that same week that you’re looking at.
(The CVB is also a LIFE SAVER if you’re trying to plan something from another part of the area, state or even country.)
~K, a certified meeting planner
Birthday Parties- For your child’s 1st birthday Albertsons will give you a free cake and they will decorate it supper cute. I actually made my own deli, veggie, and fruit, trays and it was so much cheaper than you can buy. Buy the trays at the 1.00 store and I got all my meat, veggies, and fruit on sale. Make sure you buy what is in season. I also bought my hoggie rolls from Albertsons for .30 a roll. It was inexpensive. We served it with chips and dips. I made cup cakes for all the guests. We had the party at our local apartment club house but you can also have it at the park.
Wedding- At the 1.00 store they have fish bowels and you can do so much with them. Just google ideas and the ideas are endless. There are also the floating candles you can buy, the colored rocks, the simple tea lights, silk flowers, ect. Check out the 1.00 store and you can get a good deal. You can also buy photo frames and put pictures of the 2 of you and make that a part of your center piece. Another cute thing you can buy the mirrors and out them on the table and your center piece on top of it. We also did finger foods and a chocolate fountain for the food at our reception. We had it at our church which was free. We had my mother-in-law take our pictures and we designed the announcement. We did the picture invites and got them printed at Wal Mart for .45 each.
I wish you all luck and thanks to the others for the ideas.
One way to save on wedding cake costs is to just have a small tiered cake to display, and then for the rest of the servings order sheet cakes. This is a big savings. And I often see cake toppers, cake servers, guest books, etc. at the thrift store. Put the word out to frugal friends who thrift and rummage. All the little savings adds up.
As far as dresses go for prom, they should check the malls and big stores (or even ROSS etc). Now that New Years just ended and some big awards shows, there may be some great clearance items.
We had a great budget wedding. The standard for the area we married in was over $80,000+. We got away with about 1/10th of that doing alot of DIY.
I love pashweddings.com for DIY wedding ideas.
We were able to rent out the community center at a friends townhome complex. ($70)Everyone was stunned at how we transformed the place! Cake- shop around at supermarkets or check craigslist for someone starting out. I was on the local forum on theknot.com and found a new up and comming photographer.
**decide what is important to you!
We also got alot of items off ebay and did really pretty $1 frames as our seating cards/favors.
We made fill in the blank pages that fit in a scrapbook for our guest sign in… it’s a treasure!
For Prom; have you asked around to friend and those with older sisters to perhaps borrow a dress? Otherwise; EBAY! or check out the clearance section at Davidsbridal!
For the 3 yr old party…For my son’s 4th Birthday I contacted our local fire department and scheduled a visit on the day of his party. We had a table set up with fire, fire safety printables and crayons for the kids to color while everyone was arriving. I had individual lunches made in brown lunch sacks ( I called them Fire Packs or something cute) with PB&J, chip, etc and after we ate and had cake we loaded up for a tour of the Fire House. The kids loved it and It was free!! And the fire department even gave them a treat while we were there too. Enjoy planning your party 🙂
Prom:
-Call and ask the school and see if they have any plans for a dress resale. I work at a middle school. Each year we have a pageant in the fall and a prom in the spring. Two months, or so, ahead of time we host a resale at our school on a Saturday. High school girls bring their dresses, and some resale shops, to sell to our girls. Your school may plan on something of the like. Or some other school.
-When I graduated high school 5 years ago I wanted to sell my dresses at a consignment shop. All of the ones in my area were a little outrageous for me. You had to pay a $50 fee to have it put on the shelves and then only received 40% of selling price. Now that doesn’t apply to you, but I said all that to say I chose to take my dress to a seamstress. We have several local seamstress who make dresses, they also have a little shop with prom dresses. You can check and see if you have any in your area. I sold mine within 2 weeks of giving it to the lady.
– I live in a Mardi Gras town. Mardi Gras is the Tuesday after Valentiine’s Day dresses will go on clearance after that. You may or may not live near enough to take advantage.
-I know that we girls NEVER wear the same dress twice, hahaha, if she has any same size friends who have been before maybe she can borrow/buy from them.
-If all else fails and she wants to possibly make some $$ if she wins, you can use a bunch of coupons and she can make a duct tape dress!
For the 25th Anniversary. Don’t know what your budget is or how many people you are having.
One suggestion: Is it going to be an openhouse with finger foods or are you wanting a several course meal ie: appetizers, salad, dinner, desert.
Since it is in April, you have some time to spread out your purchases. Some things I have done in the past: I’m a huge Costco shopper. So I like to purchases the pre-marinated pork loin roast. Almost fool proof. Easy to cook, lots of flavor and feeds a good number of people.
Another thing is to make a roast beef type dish (I recently saw some nice elegant ones on Food Network over the weekend)
I have also gone the meat section of the store and purchased turkey, and ham (the precooked versions) and sliced them myself as well as salami. I get block cheeses when they are on sale and cut those myself as well. Then I go to the store and get a presliced baguette and serve it along with the cold cuts. This is standard but if you are looking for finger food type things, this is good.
I also purchased Nonni’s Panetini which is an oven baked italian toast….garlic parmesean. Makes great bruchetta, great for spreads like cambazola cheese or just to dip.
These are my ramblings so far. you can email me if you like at luedchic at gmail dot com
For the birthday party-buy little gifts when they’re on clearance! It makes great goodie bags. Also make your cake, so much cheaper and most of the time more appreciated. You can even make cupcakes, since it’s easier to serve!
The Lego Store will do birthday parties for $125, which I know sound steep BUT that includes a $100 gift card to spend as you wish.
I agree that DIY is the way to go. For one thing, your celebration will be unique, and to your taste. However, it takes much more time than you can imagine to actually get everything done. My daughter and I did almost everything for my son’s wedding, but we had the time to do it…and at the last minute we still needed help from friends. Try to focus on your likes, and skip the manufactured craziness of gifts for the guests (new to me!), everything printed with your names, etc. We did a backyard wedding, and used small potted herb plants as part of the table decorations (painted the pots). Then the guests were invited to take the plants home with them (this was early July), and they loved it. You could probably think of something similar where the decorations become the remembrance gifts.
As for kid’s birthday parties, one year olds are pretty clueless about what’s going on, so try to keep it simple. It’s really the parents you’re impressing, so think about how much effort you want to devote to that. (I really mean, try not to get pulled into that competition–just think about what would be fun for everyone.)
And for all do-it-yourselfers, the website http://www.oneprettything.com collects great ideas for all kinds of parties including weddings and directs you to the original website. It’s really great for ideas. Good luck, and try to stick to your own tastes and preferences–there are always people trying to push you one way or another “for your own good”! Cheers, Kate
for your daughter going to the prom, i am a military wife like collin and i have a few dresses from my proms that i worn once and put away. they dont fit me anymore and i am more then happy do give any of them away to someone who needs one. i am a tiny girl and if you would like to see the dresses i have you can email me stefanier14@hotmail.com and i can send you pictures.
for the wedding, i agree making the cake would be cheaper and more thoughtful because you made it. you can get some really cool stuff on clearance and stores to make your own party favors i did that for my sisters wedding and all her showers i hosted for her. you can print your own invitations at home. i bought some really pretty blank ones on clearance at target in the wedding section and printed my own. i do that alot for my partys i do!
For the wedding and anniversary party, I would recommend getting in touch with a local grocery store to see how they can help you… We had our more upscale local grocery store’s bakery make our wedding cake. It was beautiful and all our guests raved about how delicious it was… and it was about $250 I think (to serve 300). Very cheap compared to any other bakeries we looked at! We also had that same grocery store do our flowers. We ordered bulk flowers through them (you can also do that at Costco for probably a little less expensive, but they wouldn’t let me choose the color of roses). Then my husbands aunts all assembled the flowers for bridesmaids’ bouquets that morning. I wanted my bouquet professionally made so got it done at the same grocery store and it was gorgeous! I found a photo of what I wanted online and they did exactly what I wanted for $80!! I still have people ask me where I got my bouquet done when they see our photos and the same bouquet at a stand-alone florist would have cost hundreds! We didn’t do any stand-alone arrangements because our church didn’t need them, but I’m sure they could do those for the anniversary party or wedding too.
Hope that helps! Congratulations!
Our daughter got married 2 years ago since she was in her last year of college I did all of the wedding planning. There are a lot good ideas for saving money in the posts above. One thing that help us was to decide which things were important and which things were not important to the BRIDE. I cut cost on everything that my daughter didn’t think was important. Buy a smaller wedding cake and have a sheet cake. You can add another flavor this way as well. The biggest mistake people make is trying to more than they should themselves. Be very honest with yourself about how crafty you are, how much people near and dear can and will help, and how much stress you can handle.
Wondering if anyone might have any prom dresses in a 15/16. My daughter needs a larger size because she has a larger bust. Somethng she would change if she could!! Its hard to find cute dresses that arent for tiny girls! THANKS!!!!
These are all great tips!!
Im also looking for tips for a surprise party for her, she will be 18 real soon!!
I’m a big fan of Costco. We bought a membership there after tasting some yummy cake they had at church on Sunday. I fell in love and wanted that for my wedding (which was about 3 months away at the time). Final cost: $15/each for 4 cakes and $50 for the membership. I was playing on their website a short time after and realized they offer discounts for rental cars. I called the place that we had rented a Mustang from for the day and my rate went down by $100! So I was making money already! I’ve also gotten rave reviews for their chicken pot pie and sandwich platters, both of which I think are very reasonable. Everything is sold in bulk and perfect for parties. They will even do custom flowers for you for the wedding. Depending on how much you plan on spending, you can also upgrade to the executive membership – $100/year but you get 2% back of everything you spend. I figure as long as I’m getting more than $50 back it’s a good deal (since I’d buy the $50 membership no matter what) but I have always gotten more than $100 – I make money on my membership! I do all my party shopping there. Not to mention the milk is the cheapest in town by far!
Collin, I dont know if you can pass my email along to the one looking for prom dress or not??? My daughter has several!!! If they are the same size or similar maybe I could help her out??
I just got married on a tight budget. We had the ceremony and reception at the college I graduated from (got an alumni discount). We got married on a Sunday, which saved us well over $1,000 (vendors gave ‘off-day’ discounts). We found our photographer on Craigslist, he was awesome!!! (www.shutterspeedster.com) You can also find decorations for sale really cheap on Craigslist. We used a TON of Michaels supplies (invitations, programs, favors), with coupons, which were beautiful. They required more work than having them made for us, but they were super cheap (and looked expensive!). We had family friends do the cake and flowers. Good luck!
For winter Birthdays, soup can be a cheap option! My aunt always makes a yummy soup for her girl’s birthdays and she provides hot dogs in case the kids don’t like the soup. I make split pea soup every year for our Halloween party. I triple the recipe and skip out on the Ham and it’s only $10 or so and fills my large crock pot. The first year I made it, I didn’t think anyone would eat it, but now it’s the first thing people go to when they get here!
Whenever I have a party I shop at the local Polish or German grocery stores for my sandwich tray. Their delis always seem to be cheaper than chain grocery store. Or if there is a Centrella store near you, shop their deli. They all have the same brands as the big chain grocery stores, but are SOOOOOOO much cheaper! Also, I usually make a tray of PB&J sandwiches for the kids and cut them into fun shapes with big cookie cutters.
Wedding Budget…. I read that someone said sthg similar, but we ordered a small wedding cake from publix w/ two layers then ordered several sheetcakes from costco. It saved hundreds of dollars. Also, I do wedding flowers (my own business) and it is very easy, I’m on hiatus right now since I am having a baby. easy to do, and you also can get a great deal on roses/flowers from costco. If you would like me to show you how to do them, I would gladly do so for free. Just reply t this comment.
Kids Bday party- I do this every year. I think of a food theme and then run with it. For example I do a hotdog bar with every imagineable topping. Everyone gets to make it the way they like it, and it is relatively inexpensive. You could do this with pasta, potatoes, and nachos, etc. For hotdogs I put out coleslaw, cheese, chili, ketchup, mustard, relis, onions, and a few other things. Also, depending on where you are located, you can rent a park pavillion very inexpensively and everyone chases the kids around the playground. Sometimes hotels let you rent out their indoor pool.
Dinner Party for Parents- again, BJ’s or costco, their prices are unbeatable. BJs even takes coupons! Any time the lights are dimmed, music is playing, and candles are lit it transforms an entire atmosphere. Oh and amazingly dollar stores usually have super nice serving trays! As for food, take on what you can handle and enjoy! If it is a dinner do some searching around online. There are some incredibly posh meals that you can make for very little! GL!!!
Some of my ideas are the same as others mentioned. I do not have a large family or huge number of friends, but I did make it known that I was planning the wedding myself and had a lot of people volunteer to help.
When I got married 5 years ago, we were on a tight budget. We planned to pay for the wedding ourselves and to keep things small; neither of us desired to have an over the top wedding but wanted to enjoy time with friends and family.
My parents pitched in and helped with a lot of the prep and expense as part of their gift to us.
My stepmom did all of the food including our rehearsal dinner. I’m sure it cost several hundred dollars, but she made a big ham and bought the cans of veggies from Sam’s for the rehearsal dinner and had a lot of appetizers, etc. from Sam’s for the wedding reception. She made the cake using cheesecakes ( again, from Sam’s) that were iced with cream cheese frosting, frozen and then set out just long enough so they would be ready to cut after the ceremony ( rich, but yummy!).
The wedding/reception were held at my stepmom’s parent’s house ( I lived next door at the time!) outdoors near their rose garden. My grandmother borrowed chairs and tables from the church and my husband and other strong men managed to get them to the house on time!
A friend of the family conducted the ceremony for us at no charge.
My husband and I paid for the invitations, which we made ourselves using a kit from Hobby Lobby and the help of our techie friend who was his best man. I also purchased a guest book, toasting glasses, garters ( 1 to toss, 1 to keep) bubbles and 2 bubble machines at discounted prices at Hobby Lobby.We had a “fairy tale” theme and I purchased plastic “glass” slippers for favors and made labels that read ” Tracy and Samantha lived happily ever after,” for the bubble bottles. I still have a bottle and so does my mom.
My mom did the flowers for us. Since we were outdoors, she mainly did the bouquets, corsages and boutoinniers and they were beautiful and since she used artificial flowers I still have my bouquet.
For my dress, we went to a department store and bought a white formal that looked like it was made for me for right at $100 and it required no alterations.
The mother-in-laws just chose their own dresses. I had 2 bridesmaids and we were going to find pretty, non-bridal dresses for them but it worked out really well that one of the bridesmaids had a red dress ( my wedding color) from another wedding and a friend who was in the same wedding was the same size as my maid of honor and loaned her the dress!
My husband ( who is not as frugal as I am LOL) thought we needed to pay for the tuxes and that and postage for the invitations were probably our biggest expenses. We did take advantage of the rent 3 get 1 free deal at Men’s Wearhouse. He only had 2 groomsmen, but my dad got a free tux!
For the honeymoon, we spent 2 nights at one of the local casino hotels and then came home for 1 night before going back to work. It was nice to not worry about packing to go out of town and we had a nice trip the next month.
Tip: If you rent a tux that has to be returned the next day, change clothes before leaving the wedding! We didn’t realize until the last minute and my new husband was in the middle of my mom’s bedroom taking off his tux so they could return it for us the next day. We arrived at the hotel with me in my wedding dress, and him wearing camo pants, a T shirt and army boots!
For the first birthday:
My daughter turned 1 last July. We also did the pulled pork in the crockpot; a stand by for me. Makes great BBQ nachos for Super Bowl, too! We served all the grandparents and great-grandparents a full meal with BBQ, hot dogs and a lot of things I got using coupons ( Pringles, macadamia nuts that were on clearance, pineapple, etc for the luau theme) and I made the cake myself….all for under $100 including plates, cups, etc.
I also used the 5 free photo books from CVS as gifts for the grandparents and great-grandparents and had 2 free DVDs made that I showed with pictures from her first year.
I got married 1 1/2 years ago and had a small budget! Wrote a little article about it, but here are the highlights:
-eBay: Check your seller’s feedback rating, check the return policy, check the shipping costs, and wait as long as possible to bid on your item. I recommend Veils by Lana for great variety of high-quality veils.
-Target: Target is also a great source for creative wrapping ideas and shower party plates and favors. Their $1 display at the store entrance also features seasonal merchandise that sometimes includes bachelorette or wedding shower accessories like veiled baseball caps or “Bride” and “Groom” flip-flops.
Michael’s/A.C. Moore/Hobby Lobby: All of the Big Three post their sales papers online, so there’s no need to run out for a Sunday paper every week just to check the circulars. As an added bonus, A.C. Moore and Hobby Lobby post a printable coupon on their websites, usually for about 40% off a regular-priced item. This is a wonderful option for bigger items that never seem to go on sale. A.C. Moore also has “Moonlight Madness” sales about one Sunday a month, where their hours are later but the sales are store-wide.
Dollar Tree: Great gift bags, greeting cards, candles, and favors. Plus, there are great $1 items for children, in case you want to keep younger guests entertained during the ceremony with a coloring book or small toy.
Oriental Trading Company: You can view the entire inventory online or get a free catalogue through their website. *Note: double-check any items you see on eBay with OTC or Sav-On Crafts (another online craft store). I frequently see these items purchased from OTC or SOC and re-sold up to unsuspecting eBay shoppers.
Your Local Library and Friends: Chances are that your library has plenty of wedding idea and etiquette books, as well as subscriptions to popular magazines. You can also review past issues for seasonal ideas, whereas your local bookstore will rarely carry a winter-season _Martha Stewart Weddings_ while you are planning your November wedding over your summer vacation. Newlywed friends are also a great source for gently-used wedding books.
We had a baseball theme for my 1 year old last May and it was a blast. We had it at the park where there was a playground and baseball field. We set up the t-ball set we already had (a real one and the little tikes one) and just let the kids play either ball or on the playground. We had baseball themed plates, but everything else was just red, white, and blue. I was able to stock up on inexpensive hotdogs, buns, chili, chips, cokes, juice boxes, etc. I was even able to get a good deal on the cake at publix using some coupons I had received. All in all, we spent about $75.
One thing for the mother who was looking for surprise 18th b’day party ideas for her daughter…this isn’t really for an 18th b’day but I thought she may be going to college soon, so it may still be helpful. My mother through me surprise “college shower. ” (I was the first to be going so it was a HUGE deal in my family) She only invited family and close close adult friends of hers to the shower since gifts were being brought. Basically, she treated it like any other shower except my family members brought things like snacks, towels, my favorite shampoo, razors, etc. Anything I needed. I don’t think I had to buy ANY personal items until my senior year of college. Pretty much anything a college kid needed I got that night. I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this, but I thought it was super sweet of my whole family to plan it because they knew it was going to be so tight for me in college. I even got gift cards to grocery stores.
for a wedding, don’t do dinner, just do desserts or a buffet, but DO hire a good photographer, the pictures (and the marriage) is all you will have after the wedding is over
I’ve had more than one friend regret not hiring a professional
Love this website for planning birthday parties for my daughter. https://www.birthdaypartyideas.com It may not be cheap, but if you plan several months ahead of time you can get items on sale easier. I had a Candyland party for her 2 years ago and lined the front walk with clearance large plastic candy canes from Lowes.
Also, I have printed out 3 ft black and white prints of characters at Kinkos for about $5 each. These are great to stick on cardboard or on walls for extra decorations. My daughter loves this cause she is the same size as Strawberry Shortcake and her friends!!
My thought on budget is start planning really early, pick a price and stick to it, and have fun, they are only young once!!