Wedding Savings Tips for Matrimony Monday

I had no idea that today, Monday, January 4th was Matrimony Monday until I got a press release from OneWed.com, an online wedding-planning resource. According to OneWed.com, the Monday after New Year’s is the biggest day of the year for wedding planning. That’s because nearly 35-40 percent of all proposals in the United States happen during the winter holidays, and the first day back at work after engagement season is when brides immediately jump online to start the planning process. I’m guessing some were already doing research online before then but let’s just go with the idea here and consider this to be like the Cyber Monday of wedding plans.

In case that is true for you (Congratulations on your engagement!) or someone you know, I thought I’d revisit my frugal wedding-planning tips. Many of these are also eco-friendly tips that happen to save you money as well.

1. Think local and in season. If your food and flowers don’t have to travel a great distance to get to your reception, then you won’t pay a premium to get them. Figure out what food is available locally and in season around the time of your wedding, and plan your wedding around them.
2. Use social media connections to your advantage. Knowing someone in the business is a great way to get a discount on everything wedding related. So as soon as you get engaged, update your Facebook status or your LinkedIn “what are you working on” statement to mention your upcoming nuptials. Feel out family members to see if they might be able to score you some savings on a limo or the band.
3. Don’t forget about Freecyle or Goodwill. Depending on what you need for your wedding–from ribbons to tablecloths–you just might be able to find it for free from your local Freecycle list. At the same time don’t forget to check in with your local Goodwill or thrift store for affordable options for your wedding, including a gown or bridesmaid dresses.
4. Do as much virtual planning and inviting as possible. If money is super tight, using Evite or Pingg instead of a fancy (and expensively) printed invitation can help you keep your budget in line. Don’t want to offend the older generation with virtual invitations? Choose a company with inexpensive options, like VistaPrint to print your invitations. Then save even more money by using a postcard for RSVPs and having your directions online that your guests can print out so you don’t have to pay extra for those to be printed as well. Or take RSVPs by email.
5. When in doubt, think Super Bowl Sunday. Moving your wedding to a non-traditional day of the week for a wedding, like Monday or Thursday (unless New Year’s Eve happens to fall one those non-weekend days) can save you a ton of money. Someone once told me that the cheapest day of the year for a wedding is Super Bowl Sunday, which would be Sunday, February 7, 2010 if you could throw together a wedding celebration that fast!

Here’s another money-saver: remember that press release I’d mentioned receiving from OneWed.com? It was to promote a wedding sweepstakes that could have one lucky bride and groom getting $15,000 worth of wedding services for free. If you’re interested in entering, here are the details:

OneWed.com is thrilled to treat brides-to-be with a special wedding giveaway, with a grand prize featuring items that typically aren’t included in traditional wedding budgeting charts. The “Off-the-Chart” Wedding Giveaway, running through the month of January, provides future brides with the opportunity to win approximately $15,000 worth of wedding essentials like a honeymoon from Sandals Resorts, wedding bands from Whiteflash.com, dresses from The Dessy Group, and many more wedding essentials. Brides can automatically enter by simply creating their own Wedding Pre-Party, OneWed’s social wedding planning tools and platform connecting the couple, wedding party, wedding guests and vendors.

Tags: evite, OneWed.com, Pingg, VistaPrint