What was your single best deal?

[rockchalkchick]

Just curious - where have we saved the most? What's the single thing that you really made a killing on - got $500 worth of stuff for 12 bucks, or whatever? I'm willing to bet we can swap some good ideas here!

We're doing a lot of DIY/cheap/etc, trying to keep the total cost under $5K for 200+ people. I've got a lot of good bargains, but my absolute best has probably been the venue - we've rented a pair of buildings at the county fairground for $200 - we get a massive building for the reception/dancing, with a full professional kitchen attached, AND the building next door for staging and/or rain location... $100 per building for a WEEK! If there's no one booked the weekend before, we get to start setting up the weekend beforehand and have the keys to the place through Monday after the wedding for $200, total. It's got chairs and tables, a big piece of staging if we want an elevated head table, etc - it's practically ideal if you want a non-hotel ballroom space!

Ok, let's hear them - what's your best bargain? Or most likely to help other frugal brides?

[dizy1j62881]

Thats exactly what we're doing!!! We got our for 300 which included tables and chairs and ultities!!! Our building is right next to grand stands!!!

[Kay]

Beautiful State Park Pavillion - park even closes just for us - $65 a day for 8am to 10pm - includes lights, electricity, part of the chairs we need, inside brick (real) restrooms, beautiful waterfall to have pictures taken at before & after, etc... Best place to have a wedding, ever ~ and cheap!! We got it the rehearsal day and the wedding day for $130. Check is already in the mail....

[BarceloMayaPalaceBride]

I became addicted to DIY projects. :) I LOVED making various things for the wedding and of course it's nice to save a little money. The "best bargain" for me would have to be the veil I made. I spent like $12.00 on the materials and literally sewed it from scratch. I would have spent $300.00+ on it (I made it special to match my dress) I LOVED my veil and how beautiful it looked swaying in the ocean breeze ;)

[FFC]

I can't remember everything!

Alright, I'd say for the quality, the best deal I had was probably my cake. I got it from one of my bm's father in law for FREE as a wedding gift. It was 4 tiered and personalized to my specifications. Not only that, it tasted GREAT!

[RosieAngel]

Hmm...

I think the best deal was on the ceremony music, since we had our very talented friends play it for free! That was great. :)

[FFC]

That reminds me, I went to a bridal show and won my DJ as well. All we had to pay for was the rehearsal dinner :happy:

[mitch]

My biggest bargain was doing the Catering Myself. It worked out at $1 a head!!

And My Dress was a close second at under $30.

[nutfry]

I think our best deal so far is our photographer. My MOH's husband does incredible work and is doing our wedding for free (I think he usually costs at least a couple thousand dollars, but they live in an area where people can afford it). We still want to do something for him as a thank you, but we're still saving a lot on great pictures!

[acidcookie]

So far it's been my dress. I got a Maggie Sottero gown that originally sold for at least $1,000 for $199 because it was discontinued. And it's red which makes it an extra score because there aren't exactly a ton of red Maggie gowns.

Also, our photography will be free thanks to FH's advisor being a photographer. Although, he hasn't really done people and we have a friend who's pretty good so we want her to do it. Then we'd pay her some, but it'd certainly still be a steal!

[Nekochanpurr]

Photographer. Found her on Craigs list, and got 6 hrs, plus the rights to the photos, plus free engagement shoot.. $1,500.. i believe.

[savepaws]

My best deal was saving $700 on my dress. It was discontinued and put on the sale rack the day I went in to try on dresses.

I'm also happy about the photographer ($75 per hour & all photos on cds for $1 a pic).

And compared to what I'm seeing other brides having to pay, I think $5 a plate for my caterer is a great deal too. We can choose from smoked pork loin, pulled pork sandwiches or smoked chicken breast plus 2 sides. I can't even go and get that meal at a restaurant for $5. That includes the cost of the plates, silverware and napkins too!

[FFC]

$5 per plate is a heck of a deal!!!! Way to go!

I have to say I scored on my food - my dad cooked for me and he and some of our best friends kept the buffet stocked. Turned out GREAT.

[JJsWifey08]

I had so many deals it was ridiculous lol Our hotel for 2 nights was 39 a night and the beach was wonderful. The dress 99 bucks and the veil and tiara totaled 15. OMG I loved being a budget bride.

[espemartinez3]

Well so far we've really been blessed with alot of awesome deals!
My cousin (BM) is a student photographer, but she's in the wedding party so I had to find someone else to take the pics. Our budget just wasn't going to allow for a pro so I turned to an old high school buddy who absolutely refuses to get paid. He's going to take ALL of our photos for free (plus he's enlisting help from his friend who's also a student photographer) and give me my prints for free too!

The second best bargain that we got was when we were searching for a ceremony and reception venue. I found this really cute little church less than 5 minutes from our apartment and when we met with the pastor, he offered to let us have the place for free. PLUS they have 2 pavilion tents that they're allowing us to use for the reception (for free)!

yay us!

[FullyLitt]

I had so many deals it was ridiculous lol Our hotel for 2 nights was 39 a night and the beach was wonderful. The dress 99 bucks and the veil and tiara totaled 15. OMG I loved being a budget bride.
That is amazing...how was your hotel so CHEAP!!

[Deanna2112001]

bridesmaid Dresses are $150.00 Made to order from Alfred angelo. I got them for $50.00 plus 10 for shipping

[caligal85]

Hmm good question. There were 150 invites for $28, my dream dress for $99 and adorable chapel for $100.

[NOTKT]

Our biggest deal with the reception hall. 100 people, sit down dinner with free keg and all non-alcohol drinks for 6 hours was $2500. They provided all the linens, tables, silverware, napkins, the riser for the sweetheart table, and all the centerpieces.

[Gertie]

Lets see...when dh and I wed the best deal was the gown. I went into goodwill hoping to find a few crystal platters or bowls to use so that I could make up all the trays of things like veggies and dip in advance, and they could be set in the fridge so the teen I paid to keep the buffet stocked would just need to pull off the plastic and serve. I have a lot of this stuff but as we were in the midst of renovating our home a lot of it was not easily accessable in storage and I didn't want to spend much on it.

Well, I was chatting with the girl working the register about the fact I was searching for things for my wedding, and she said well first off...let me give you a deal on this stuff. I'm the manager and I can do that. And she gave me half a dozen crystal trays, including two that were leaded cut glass with the makers sticker on them still, one of which was waterford plus five cheapy molded crystal salad bowls for $5. Then I mentioned a stop at a wedding gown shop was next and she says to me oh yeah...we got a wedding gown in here yesterday. I don't know if it's your size, I haven't got it put out yet because it's new, the woman said she gained weight and can't wear it and I didn't know how to hang it out here so it wouldn't get dirty. Well, the gown turned out to fit me perfectly. I wore a poofy crinolin and didn't even need to hem it! She sold it to me for $15. It was new and had a tag saying over $500!

Here is a picture:

http://drivemeinsane.com/weddingpics/wedding104.jpg

[Nekochanpurr]

Holy Cow thats an awesome deal!!!! Beautiful dress, too!! O_O

[adrianna918]

our best deal is ceremony music. A family friend plays violin and offered to play our ceremony music for free. That worked out great because i've always wanted a string instrument for ceremony music!

[PGDesigns]

The biggest money saver was my dress. It was basically a Maggie knockoff from Bridal Online Store. The dress retails for over $1200, and I got mine for $399. The detail on it was amazing, and I got so many complements on it.

We also saved a TON by doing our own flowers. We got all of our flowers (red roses, shipped in from Ecuador) for less than $100 from Sam's Club, including shipping. My girls helped assemble all the bouquets, and our guests all thoughts we had them done by a professional florist.

[Danielle9608]

I got my photographer young and starting out. I booked her a little less then 2 years in advance, for $1,000.00 that included 8 hours of 2 shooters and full right sthe to digital negatives. She now charges over double that.

[f77g4]

Hmm I've gotten so many deals that I don't know where to begin:

- photographer - full-day coverage from salons to reception with an engagement shoot, a cd of the best 200 pics in high res, a cd of the other pics in low res, an album with best 200 pics, 2 parent albums, an album of 20 8*10's, 2 11*14's ready for framing and 1 16*20 ready for framing for $1900.

- invites - got them same ones I picked out at Michaels from kijiji - I was going to need 3 boxes at $49.99 +tax each (without a coupon) and I got 4 boxes plus a whole bunch of other things from kijiji for $80. My mom is going to print them.

- programs - got them from kijiji as well - got 120 programs + 24 menu cards for $60 including shipping since I saw them on the kijiji for an area 2 hours away. They are the Brides line from Michaels so I"m sure I got a deal there.

- bubble - got 96 bubble for $9 at Walmart on clearance for $2 for 24....my mom is doing the labels

- unity candle - my mom made a monogrammed one for us & she said total cost was maybe $5 and it didn't take her long to do. I bought the candle holders at the dollarama for $2 each so $6 total.

- meal is only $14 pp I believe which I think is great.

- I got 20 hurricane vases from kijiji for $80 - the cheapest I could find in store was $13 each.

- I got 10 centerpieces & 8 pewmarkers from kijiji for $30 - and when I went to pick them up she threw in a whole bunch of other stuff as well including 1 brand new package of 50 tealights and another package of tealights that look like they hardly had any taken out.

- I got 25 organza table runners for $80 I think on ebay

- My veil and tiara costs me a total of $30 ($9 for tiara & $20 for veil) - although I"m waiting for them to send me another veil as I wasn't really happy with it...both came from different vendors on ebay

- my shoes - I got ballet flats that tie up my leg for $35 on kijiji brand new as well

- my mom got me pearl earrings and a necklace for $25 total

- our cake is only going to cost us $100!

Thats everything I can think of for now...lol...sorry I couldn't just list one as I think I've gotten a lot of deals and I'm so happy.....although I have splurged in a couple of other areas (i.e. saxophone player)

[Tiffy1443]

I think mine so far is free photography, we won a 3 night two free hotel stay for the honey moon, the band we are having is a friend of the fiances so he said just pay me whatever you want, dj is also a friend for a local radio station, catering free that was done by my parents, center piece cylinders were bought in bulk 6 for 45 bucks! If you can't tell Im trying to stay on a tight budget lol.

[arlene]

Our best deals on our wedding were my bridesmaids dresses. I wanted my girls to wear dresses that they could wear again, so instead of going to wedding shops like Davids Bridal, I went to Rosses. It was Winter season so a lot of their dresses were formals, so I found their dresses for less than $20.00 each. I basically spent less than $100 for five dresses. I was more happy when the dresses barely needed any alterations.

[Chubear]

we got a lot of good deals. Knowing we were on a tight budget, i tried to save as much as possible:

Wedding dress $1041 with a half price voucher ( saved 1000$)

cake $50 plus delivery (saved $250 with a voucher i won at a bridal expo)

Stationery: ordered a lot form vista Print with deals like pay for postage only, so most of the invite inserts cost nothing but a little postage.

Venue: chose a friday in winter so got 800$ off plus didnt have to pay for every room ( 16 instead of 27) which saved something like 6-800$.

Made up our own menu so only paying $60 a head instead of up to 80-100.
For our honeymoon, i used not1night.com.au so got every night at less than $100 which is very hard to do!

I have just made our table plan which i had priced at 200 plus postage for a professional one, ours cost approx 25$ and had adjustable tables so i can still change things the last day.

unfortunately even for all that we still went way over budget!