What Worked For Us: Wedding $aving Tips

I've been meaning to put together a list of all the ways we saved money/found deals for our wedding but hadn't yet gotten around to it so, 3 months later...

What Worked For Us: Wedding $aving Tips*

*I call it "What Worked For Us" because these are things that helped us out, maybe they won't help anyone else. In the off chance that there are any other frugal, DIY-loving, clearance-shopping Maxxinistas out there that just can't accept that a wedding dress has to cost a few months worth of rent or that a cake has to cost a few weeks worth of groceries...here's how we managed! 

MY DRESS(ES): A few days after getting engaged, I stopped by the San Marcos Outlets. Didn't expect to find the dress but I did...and it was on clearance for $184. I went into the Neiman Marcus Last Call and checked the evening gown area, which was pretty sparse, and grabbed all of the white dresses that were under $300. Second dress I tried on was the winner. About 5 months later, I found that my dress was kind of snug and I could not dance in it, but since I loved it so much I still wanted to wear it at least for Mass. Instead of spending $$$ having it taken out, I just went back to the outlets, left RG in the car, walked into Saks Off Fifth, and came out 15 minutes later right with a second dress that was shorter and easier to breathe in.... and it was on clearance... with an additional 25% off... for $107.
 TL;DR: Check the outlets! Check anywhere that you can find a prom dress, basically. I saw a really pretty white dress at Marshall's a few weeks ago that would have been beautiful as a wedding dress. Outlets may be hit-or-miss, but if you do hit, you're in luck big time.
AVERAGE COST OF WEDDING DRESS: $1,281
MY DRESS #1: $184
MY DRESS #2: $107

PAPER GOODS: Save-The-Dates, Invitations, Programs, Thank You Cards... this stuff can get very expensive. We cut costs by designing our own everything. Problem is that this is time consuming, but I felt that it was so worth it. Made everything feel very personal for us. Also I love that stuff so it gave me some creative time to play. Our secret weapon to cheap paper goods: Vistaprint and Local Printing Centers. Vistaprint allows you to use premade designs or upload your own original design. Vistaprint is awesome because there are always coupons. If you're lucky, you'll even find a Vistaprint Groupon or LivingSocial deal. Local Printing Centers, like Office Depot or on campus printing centers, sometimes have great prices, too. Texas State's printing center has awesome prices. I used to work there and would see a lot of wedding paper goods come through there. Very smart.
TL;DR : Check Groupon and LivingSocial frequently for deals like "$25 for $50" for Vistaprint. Always Google: "coupon Vistaprint" before making your purchase. Also check out campus printing centers and Office Depot for quick turn around time. If you have any creative energy and some spare time, save money by designing paper goods yourself.
OUR PAPER GOODS: < $175 (not including stamps. Side note: stamp costs add up!)

suits look like a million bucks! but they were sixty-eight.

SUITS: I don't have too much to say about this, but basically Jos. A. Bank is hella cheap. Are they the finest quality suits? Doubt it, though I wouldn't know the difference between a great suit and a bad suit. The fact is that a three-piece suit for $68 is awesome. I had my bridesmaids pick out their own dresses because it feels wrong to tell someone to pay $$ for a dress they may not like and may not wear again, so when RG was looking at suits and trying to find reasonable prices, we were elated to find coupon codes and clearance suits on the Jos. A. Bank Factory website, along with additional X% off sales that brought a good looking three-piece suit down to $68. That's the same price that it costs to rent the cheapest tuxedo at Men's Wearhouse. 
TL;DR : If you aren't a suit snob and you care about your groomsmen's wallets, go the Jos. A. Bank route. Keep an eye out for special sales, e-mail coupons, etc.
COST OF THREE-PIECE SUIT: $68

FOOD: I love spaghetti and RG loves barbecue. We had spaghetti for rehearsal dinner and it was insanely cheap. A quick Google search to find out what the average rehearsal dinner cost was left me feeling nauseous (seriously???) and also really glad that my MIL and aunts-in-law were so gracious to cook for us. Our reception was catered by a local family-owned barbecue restaurant which was very reasonable and very sweet to work with. Shout-out to Fuschak's in San Marcos! The last thing that I did not care about was cake. Wedding cakes are pricey and fondant is gross, IMHO. So RG and I agreed on getting wedding cake from HEB and I made a cake topper at home. The cake was delicious! We ended up with too much cake and brought home 1.5 out of 5 cakes. TL;DR : If you want to save money, go with pasta and have family do the cooking. Barbecue is a great option for spring/outdoor wedding vibe. HEB cake is delish and cheap! Keep it simple.
COST OF 5 CAKES: $100

 

DECOR: My favorite category. My advice regarding DIY projects and wedding decor is to start ASAP. I felt like "oh there's plenty of time!" and kept adding things to my idea list and pinning things to our "Wedding To Make" board, but there is never enough time. Also, find friends whose sense of creativity is compatible with yours and enlist their help. Goodwill is always a good option for a good repurposed something-or-another. Our best random decor finds were on online garage sale sites. People are always getting rid of slabs of wood, tiles, vases, candles, Christmas lights... take advantage of that. Use Pinterest, but don't pin everything. Have an "oh this is cute for a wedding" board and then have a "but really, these are things that we will do for the wedding" board. Also, if you must buy things that are not on sale at Hobby Lobby, bring a team with you. When it comes time to check out, pull up the 40% off coupon and split up the transaction. Years of practice with my mom and some Sugar N' Cream yarn taught me well. Oh and NEVER pay full price for a frame at Hobby Lobby; they're 50% off like every other time I go there (and they're overpriced to begin with). Frames from Dollar Tree + Spray Paint = great decor & that way you can use a color spray paint that fits your theme. Other places where we found great deals on wedding items/decor: Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Ross. Also GREAT places to find cute ring bearer/flower girl attire. Ross has really cheap tea lights and cheap frames. Want custom wine glasses/beer mugs for your people? Buy the glasses cheap and paint them yourself. Save scrap craft paper. We made heart shaped garland out of all of my reject-scrap-cardstock. Cost about $0.02. Well, maybe a little more than that overall but it was going to be trash anyways. I put RG to work punching out hearts from the paper for an hour or two and had him tape the hearts to string. So easy.
TL;DR : To avoid having spray paint stains on your arms on your wedding day, start crafting early. Hobby Lobby's 40% off coupon = the best. Michael's craft stores accept Hobby Lobby coupons. Don't go Pinterest crazy. 

frame: came in a set of 20 different sized frames at Ross: $11 clearance, $1.81/each
G book: $0.99 book at Goodwill, Ryan sawed the books into G's. Anthro cost: $25, our cost: $0.99
paper flowers: made at home
vases: Hobby Lobby $3.99 + 50%: $1.98/each
candle holders: wedding hand me downs from a recently married friend: free!
placemats: bought at Marshalls in sets of 6. $1/each
succulents: free because my dad grew them!
Total centerpiece cost: $5.78
....and now we have enough placemats to last us forever!

Other recommendations/deals:

• Koozies $84 for 200 koozies (including shipping)
• Amazing photographer in Austin who did our engagement photos
• Best. DJ. Ever. Also, my favorite redhead best friend's brother, Kevin. Rocked da house.
• Bought tablecloths for $5/each ...instead of renting for $15/each #crazy. Google to find coupon codes!
• Sometimes Twin Liquors has this thing called Dollar Days where they "drop the price to rock bottom and add a buck." If you are going to buy liquor for rehearsal/reception, this is the time to buy (IMHO). Get on their email list if you want a heads up.
• We used The Knot for our wedding website. On your website, you can make a map of ceremony/reception locations. Don't assume everyone has GPS/smart phone access. It's helpful to print out directions and have available after ceremony for the technologically challenged who can't make it to your knot.com site on the day of the wedding.
• Check clearance everywhere you go. You never know what you might find! This is how we found Ryan's groomsmen's ties at Macy's for $7 each.... it was madness.
• Go into Anthropologie. Look around at the pretty decor and window displays. Sneak a few pictures on your phone. Then get the hell out of there and figure out how you can make the same decorations yourself. 
• If you're doing ANY online shopping at a major store, use eBates. RG is currently obsessed and we "earned" eBates rewards through some online wedding purchases we made.
• People make a big fuss about wedding shoes, but if your dress is long there really isn't much of a point to breaking the bank (IMHO). If you're partying right, you'll end up in flip flops anyway ;) If you buy practical shoes, you can re-wear them and think about your wedding every time you do! I wear my nude LifeStride heels at least once a week. SO COMFY. Awesome shoes.
• If you register at Target, they send you a coupon in the mail after your wedding that gives you 15% off any items left on your registry! Can only be used one day (on as many items as you want). Between that and the (amazing) Red card... such good deals!
• We didn't hire a wedding planner, but we did hire a friend to be our "wedding helper" for the reception. She was amazing and it was awesome to have someone we love/trust to help us with little details all night (where are the bridesmaid gifts? where is the camera? is the salsa out? where are the cakes? #THANKSBRITTANY). Oh and if you need to sign up for a Red card (mentioned in previous bullet), hit up Target's best employee, Brittany, and she'll hook you up. ;)
• 

Here's what RG has to add:

• If you're looking to get married in the Austin/San Marcos area, Three Dudes Winery is a great venue that's reasonably priced, and their event coordinator, Angie, is wonderful to work with.
• Seriously- as Sarah said, eBates is the best thing ever, for all online purchases... If you're not using ebates you're missing out on free money for online shopping that you're already doing!
• These customized flasks made for a fun groomsman present. I liked these better than the stainless steel engraved ones, because while less elegant, I found them to be a lot more fun. After shipping, they were about $10 each when I purchased them.
• Google docs spreadsheets worked really well for us to be able to collaborate on different things for the wedding, especially since we were able to access that information from anywhere. We used it to store all of our guests' addresses (and now we have that info stored future needs i.e. Christmas cards), and also to keep a running budget.
• One of my favorite new apps is something I discovered just a few weeks before the wedding when I was frantically looking for large tents in case it was going to rain. I was also at work during most business' hours, so I was unable to call them to figure out if they had any tents in stock. TalkTo is an amazing website & app that is almost like texting the business, and its completely free (I have NO idea how they make money...). I literally had TalkTo call about 10 local equipment rental places while I was at work, and I got 10 responses within 20 minutes. If you have a question for a company/restaurant/store but don't feel like talking to a human, check out TalkTo! I still use it often, and again its completely free, and most responses come back in less than 5 minutes. Its amazing!
• Thats about all I can think of- Sarah's craftiness and graphic design skills, combined with my organization and logistics mindset made for a stress-free 6 months of wedding planning, all on a tight budget :$ 

Hope some of this helps someone someday! Any questions about "where can I get the cheapest ____?" feel free to ask, because the odds are that we've asked ourselves that question during planning at some point. Happy planning!