Painless Penny Pinching

Budgets? Right up there with root canals, for many. Too often associated with cuts and compromise, budgets actually help you get more of what you want, and wisely trim where it doesn’t hurt. We spoke with eight wedding wizards and found that setting budget boundaries actually frees you to set aside a bit more for must-haves, trim elsewhere, and play with all the elements until it feels just right. The sheer number of categories to consider can be overwhelming: food and beverage, room rental, flowers, photography, music, cake, stationery, transportation. At first, everything seems vital, but once you think about your priorities and your style, you’ll see some things that matter more than others. For instance, if a Saturday evening wedding—a pricier choice—is very important to you, make it dollar doable by shrinking the guest list or holding the picnic reception at your cabin. Say your aunt, a photographer, offers her services. Perfect—now you have more to spend on flowers, which you love. Destination weddings are a prime example of prioritizing in action: Caribbean beach, very important—200 guests, not so much. Joan Nilsen, wedding planner and owner of Ambiente, suggests choosing the two or three areas that are most important to you. “Setting priorities will ensure the wedding reflects your unique style and history while staying on budget,” she says. “Focus on those areas most important to you. Be creative, focus on those two or three different topics, and put your energy and expenses into that.” Nilsen also counsels couples to get estimates from several vendors in each area, even if they imagine at the outset that they won’t be able to afford it. “You never know how much things will cost until you see it print,” Nilsen says. “It’s important to create a wish list and cut back from there, versus stifling yourself by saying you can’t afford it.” Amy Rubins, professional bridal consultant and owner of Fête Perfection, says two simple (but devilishly difficult) exercises—trimming the guest list and considering a non-Saturday wedding—will cut costs across the board and allow seemingly lavish spending on things that matter. Rubins’ pruning shears for the guest list? Ask yourself: Have you seen this person in the past year? Have you been to this person’s house for dinner?

Dining Dollars
PARING DOWN THE GUEST LIST and avoiding Saturdays will have the most impact on that budget biggie, food and beverage. The experts at Mintahoe Hospitality Group are overflowing with ideas for getting the most dinner for your dollar. Take Sunday brunch—it’s easily as elegant as a Saturday dinner, but Sunday room rental and food and beverage minimums are significantly less. By hosting a single drink, such as mimosas, you’ll also avoid that bottomless pit, the open bar. Stuck on the glamour of an evening wedding? How about a Friday 6-ish wedding and cocktail reception with butler-passed tasty bites? No one will miss the sit-down dinner when you can splurge on an array of tempting tapas and a signature cocktail. And it encourages guests to mingle. Rubins of Fête Perfection also disspells the buffet myth: It’s not always cheaper than a plated meal. “You pay for a lot of food that is wasted by guests taking more than they can eat, and by the need to keep the buffet looking full,” she says. Mintahoe has more tasty tricks: Go family style instead of individually plated meals, have a relish tray per table instead of individual salads, and use the candles that Mintahoe includes in their catering fee or a petal-strewn cake as centerpieces. One last word—ask. It never hurts to ask for a discount on services such as linens, rentals, and delivery.

Sweet Savers 
DAVID MESS, AT BUTTERCREAM, has made dream cakes encrusted with Swarovski crystals and fairytale towers with LED lighting between the tiers, but he’s all about “bringing brides to the real world. Ninety-nine percent of brides imagine more people will come to the wedding than actually do,” he says. “Even if the couple is from the Twin Cities and so are the guests, about 74 percent of the guest list will attend.” Being realistic about numbers is the recipe for accurate dessert budgeting, Mess says. King-size grocery store sheet cakes may satisfy the teeming masses, but if, in reality, you’re serving just 70 of your nearest and dearest, you can afford to splurge a little. Or go with fanciful dessert shooters. Or a candy table. Dessert creativity stretches the budget and encourages guests to get up and mingle to claim their treat. Buttercream has a sweet deal for traditionalists who really are desserting an army: Their real-cream-and-butter-and-eggs sheet cake has the same fresh fruit filling and flavor impact as a tiered cake, but costs less.

Save the Date 
E-MAILED SAVE-THE-DATE messages may be fine for a casual wedding, but if you’re going with a formal affair, stick to the etiquette of paper, says Amy Zaroff, owner of Give My Regards To Events and Invitation Design. For luxe-looking invitations that cost less, consider reducing paper layers. “Great design will give you visual texture without the cost of actual layers,” Zaroff says. Printing methods also affect cost—flat print is cheaper and there’s no cost for multiple colors. Engraving or letterpress is more expensive, and there’s a charge for each additional color.

Photo Pointers 
ANDREW VICK, OWNER OF VICK Photography, suggests asking for rights to photographic images. That way, you have complete control over future use. Consider ordering à la carte images instead of packages, he recommends. What you’re really paying for in a photographer is the “eye,” the art of capturing the emotion and personality of the moment. No amount of enlarging, reprinting or formatting can bring back a missed opportunity. When interviewing photographers, “You should feel like you know the couples in the photographer’s portfolio, even though you’ve never met them,” says Vick. Once you’ve found a photographer you click with, plan to use his/ her time efficiently. Waltz right into the first dance at the reception instead of dancing after dinner. That gives guests something to watch as they arrive, allows wait staff a moment to prepare, and eliminates dead time for the photographer. Hire that fabulous photographer for six photo-rich hours instead of eight on-again-off-again hours. And those bride-and-bridesmaids-getting-ready shots? Limit it to a half-hour, tops. Your Budget

Budget Blooms
IF YOU FEEL STRONGLY about flowers and want to splash the cash on blooms, Kristi Svenkeson of Pazzobello will make it rain silk-tied orchids and rare blooms. “Or, you can have a very formal event with a single rose at each table,” she says. “It’s equally important to have a budget as it is a vision—then we know where to start.” Limiting the types of flowers (the florist gets a better deal on a single kind in quantity), creating two or three floral focal points instead of the same size arrangement on every table, and using seasonally appropriate flowers will give your budget more flower power.

Music to Your Ears
SHAWN PLANTE, OF INSTANT REQUEST Disc Jockey Entertainment, admits he’s a bit biased when he calls the DJ an inherently great value, coloring the wedding mood. “Down the road, people just remember that they danced a lot and had fun,” he says. For a symphony of musical entertainment, Plante recommends dueling pianos or a live trio with a DJ. For a quieter option, Instant Request will create a photomontage and provide the projector and screen. Plante has one caveat—“Cutting back on the DJ’s hours, so he’s clattering around with sound equipment during dinner, is not a good way to save money.”

Do It Yourself?
DIY CAN BE A BUDGET-FRIENDLY move—just be sure you're up to speed on the costs and requirements of the job. Doing your own flowers, for instance, involves more than you may realize. “There’s containers, storage, delivery, set-up, and clean-up—all of it time sensitive,” Nilsen says. “Sometimes, when couples see the big picture, the service of a professional seems a better value.” So stake out your budget, line up your priorities, and start building the wedding of your dreams. *