Budgeting Inspiration!

Last week I talked about budgeting and how to establish a budget for you wedding.  This week I'm following up on with personal experience of mine on budgeting to give you a little inspiration!

Recently my fiance and I have been discussing options for flowers for the wedding (bouquets, buttonneires, corsages for the moms/grandmas etc.) and I have been struggling to find a reasonable explanation as to why we're going to spend $900 (this was the budget number based on our handy budget organizer) on something that we were literally going to throw away after the wedding. $900 is more than my total dress cost...on flowers..what?! I'm going to pass out...

So I got creative! (something I pride myself on) Last September (don't judge me!) I purchased my centerpieces that matched out color scheme from a bride that posted her items for sale on Craigslist.  She paid $900 for 24 cylinder vases, decorative stones for the bottom of the vases, about 50 Real Touch flowers (artificial flowers that look and feel real) for the vases, 20 yards of tulle, 20 white paper lanterns (she wound up not using) 125 silver chair sashes, 8 apothecary jars, and decorative willow branches.  I purchased all this from her for $300! Our wedding will be smaller then hers and we will definitely not need 24 centerpieces or possibly some of the other things but the flowers and vases alone made this a steal! Not to mention I could resell these things after our wedding..

Fast forward to needing flowers for the bridal party/family members....

I really liked the look of the flowers for our centerpieces (white and purple calla lilies) so I started doing research on what it would cost for real flowers through florists.  WOAH! Crazy! I'm talking $250+ for just the bridal bouquet! Now I know we have $900 to spend but I knew I could do better...I can coupon/save on anything...ask my friends and family..lol full price is NOT an option!

Enter step one of budgeting.  I wasn't sure where the bride I got my awesome centerpieces from got her Real Touch flowers so I Googled florists, etsy dealers, and the like to see if I could find someone that sold Real Touch bouquets. I found some but, I didn't like the looks of their bouquets and they were coming from over-seas and could literally take anywhere from 6-8 months to arrive! No returns or exchanges so if we didn't like them we were stuck with them. :( hmmm...More research.... and TADA! I found it! A weddingwire.com forum of brides discussing real touch flowers and where to buy them (cue Hallelujahs!)

Upon reading the reviews and opinions of these other brides, I knew this is the route I wanted to take! Hobby Lobby (those of you who don't know, this is the most AMAZING craft/home decor store ever!) sells these flowers..AND they have 50% all floral sales ever other week! OMG! OMG!

I sat down and made a list of flowers I would need to create bouquets for myself, my maids, and buttonniers for the men and other family members, as well as corsages.  In total in needed 70 flowers. I pulled up the Hobby Lobby website and discovered that the small size flowers typically sell for $1.99 and the large flowers sell for $3.99 (before the sale).  With some quick calculation  I estimated our cost to be around $150 for ALL flowers before the sale price and with a combination of large and small flowers depending on how they looked.  A quick check of the weekly flyer revealed that the flowers were indeed on sale this week! OMG AWESOME!

So yesterday I packed up my finance and we took a trip up to Hobby Lobby to see if they had the flowers that matched our centerpieces in stock. They did! But the large flowers were too large, and they did not have enough small flowers on the floor to fulfill the total we needed.  The weddingwire forum also mentioned that Hobby Lobby will allow you to order in bulk and get the sale price.

TO THE REGISTER!!!!!!!

This being my first experience at Hobby Lobby I kindly asked the lady at the register if it was possible to fill a bulk order for the flowers I needed, and she was very helpful in explaining the process.  I told her what I needed and she filled out the Rain Check form and gave me all the information I needed to pick up my order next week (the truck delivers on Tuesdays so my order should be ready for pick up on Wednesday!) Oh, and we still got the 50% off!

So to recap that, we got 70 small flowers (enough for all bridal party and family members) for 50% off $1.99.

In total we paid $75.22 including tax for our flowers. For a total savings for just the flowers, of $824.78
Yes you read that correctly! And now the girls/moms/grandmas can keep their bouquets/corsages for ever! How cute would that be to put them in a shadow box with pictures of the day and the invitation? What a great gift! :)

Our decorations budget was $450 and we were able to get the centerpieces for $300 for a total savings on centerpieces of $150.

Between centerpieces and flowers we've already saved $975!

Be smart! This process really does work! Keep calm and coupon (save) on!



I hope this inspires you to look for great deals! Have a great day!

Feel free to leave questions or comments below! :)