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Nov 12 2007

Our wedding: Hair and makeup

Having a great hairdo and makeup is important for a bride. She’s gotta look great for her groom, and don’t forget all of those pictures that will be taken!

I typically don’t wear much makeup, but that look just wouldn’t be right on my wedding day. I wanted to look great, but I knew my budget wouldn’t let me spend much on hair or makeup.

I mentioned to one of my friends (thanks, Rachel!) that I was considering going to get my hair done at a beauty school, since their rates for updos were affordable.

She told me that she has a friend who does hair very well. AND, said friend has a roommate that does makeup. Woo!

It turns out, they’re wonderful at it.

The hair stylist gave me a very excellent deal, including a trial hairdo and makeup application, and she did my hair on my wedding day AND the hair of my four bridesmaids.

As part of my gift to my bridesmaids, I paid for their hairdos.

What’s even cooler, is that she came to us. We all met in the church basement early in the morning on my wedding day, and she and her lovely assistants did our hair very quickly. It was really nice not having to drive to a salon.

And I’m glad I didn’t do my hair or makeup myself. For one, it would look terrible. And two, I was far too nervous and preoccupied to even try doing it myself. Leave it to the pros.

Some tips for getting lower-costing hair and makeup on your wedding day:

Ask around! Surely you have a friend who has a friend who’s neighbor does hair. Everyone does, whether you know it or not. You might find someone willing to do yours for a reasonable price.
Call the local beauty college and find out what they might charge, and if you can have a practice-run with the same stylist.
Call a moderate or high-end salon to get a price quote. Be polite, and then when you hang up, laugh at how much they wanted you to pay.
Always get a practice hairstyle. This way, your stylist won’t be rushed. She’ll see how your hair responds to the style, and be able to make adjustments as necessary. You’ll see how long the style holds, and you’ll have a sense for how long it will take to style.
For makeup, ask your hair stylist if she has any recommendations. Or maybe you have a cousin or friend who would love to help you out.

Pictured is me with my um…”little” sister. I was wearing flat shoes, she was wearing heels. But still, she’s a tiny bit taller than me. If you’re curious, I’m 5’10″.

Nov 06 2007

Our wedding: The guest list

If you’re looking to save money on your wedding, one way to do it is to have a small guest list. Unfortunately, this is the least fun option. However, having a smallish guest list will keep costs down.

For example, you’ll have less invitations to buy, which means less postage to use.

You’ll need to print/buy fewer programs.

You’ll have to buy/make less favors for your guests.

You’ll be able to use smaller (and often more affordable) venues such as your church site and reception site. A ballroom that can fit 2,500 people will cost a lot more than a reception hall that can fit 300.

Most significantly, you’ll spend much less on food. That’s less cake and fewer meals.

I really wish we could have invited more friends to our wedding. I feel like I upset a few people, and left some feeling excluded. I hope that they realize this was not meant as a snub, but simply, we were getting married on a tight budget. And my husband has a massive family with more aunts, uncles and cousins than I can count.

Looking back, we could have skipped the meal and simply served cake, punch and a few small snacks. However, that would have meant we would have paid for the reception hall (the hall was free when we bought food from the caterer). I don’t know if people would have appreciated this as much. When we’re asking people to spend a large portion of their Saturday with us, the least we can do is feed them a late lunch/early dinner.

So, our guest list was at about 175 or so. About 130 came. Unfortunately, we hadn’t heard from about 50 people, and by the time we figured out they weren’t coming, it was too late to invite more friends. That’s how it goes, sometimes.

For those of you planning a wedding, do what you can to keep your guest list low. For those of you who will be invited to a wedding at any point in the rest of your life (probably everyone!) be sure to RSVP right away. Give the bride and groom an accurate head count. If you can’t make it, tell them!

That could mean they could invite someone else.

Our church could only hold 175 people comfortably, maybe a few more if people were sitting on each other’s laps.

If we had more money to work with, we definitely would have invited more guests. Sigh.

Oct 26 2007

Our wedding: The stationery

Sending wedding invitations, creating programs, and thank-you cards can cost a ton of money. Some designer styles can cost $5-10 each–I’m not joking. Just check the bridal magazines. That would be fine if you planned to invite, oh, 10 guests. But anything more than that, and really, I think you’re throwing away your money.

I really lucked out in the stationery department, but even if you don’t get freebies, you can still get good deals on wedding stationery.

As it turns out, my husband’s sister had a huge stockpile of invitations and programs she didn’t need. They were the kind you print yourself.

To add our own touch to it (and possibly reduce the weight of the envelope, thereby reducing postage), we used a special hole punch stamp to cut out little hearts around the corners of the invitation and the reply cards.

It looked cute, I thought.

Printing our own free invites turned out to be an easy thing for us. I needed to replace my ink cartridge once–but that was no big deal.

Our programs were a bit too fussy for my liking. They looked good, but putting them together was…ugh! I had one or two boxes of programs free from my sister-in-law, but we needed more. Fortunately, Hobby Lobby had the same pattern. I bought remaining boxes during a 50% off wedding sale and spent about $15.

The programs were two sheets of paper laced together with a ribbon. Because I’m a champion procrastinator, these weren’t finished until after the rehearsal dinner. [A BIG thank-you to the wedding party and a few other friends who helped finish these off!]

Unless you absolutely adore the look, I’d say forget the ribbon and just have sturdy paper–folded or not. Or, be good and do it way in advance. Heh.

Finally, the thank-you cards. eBay all the way. Your thank-you cards do not have to match your other stationery, believe it or not. Guests will not remember. The will not match your invitation to your thank-you note. Really.

However, by a cool twist of luck, our cards did match. They had a similar heart pattern on the front, which went well with our invitations. Who knew?

Some final tips:

Be sure your final invitation package (all of the envelopes and paper) weigh less than 1 ounce. You really don’t want to spend twice the postage for having 1.1 oz. stuff, do ya? I took mine to the post office where they have a scale. Mine averaged .7 oz.
Don’t forget to budget for stamps. I spent $50 or so, maybe more.
Consider searching for pretty card stock at a craft store to design your own. You can use punch outs, ribbon–and whatever else you can think of–to personalize your invitations.
If you have pretty handwriting or know someone who does, you could hand-write the invitations, rather than use your printer.
Don’t put a lot of money into these. Save it for something else, like food. People remember food.

Tags: Wedding
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Hey! I'm Kacie, wife to Shane and mother to Jonathan (3) and Vivienne (1). I write about my family's finance: how we save money, improve our spending, and plan for the future.

I hope I can inspire and encourage you to improve your situation. See disclosure.

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