Wedding Ideas

Your wedding day is coming, and you want everything to be perfect. The dress. The flowers. The cakes and the champagne. As the list goes on, you'll soon realize just how expensive weddings can be. It's a big day, to be sure, but it's just one day, and you can bet that you're not going to wear that wedding dress ever again.

Thank goodness for the growing market for gently used wedding items. Brides-to-be and newlyweds alike benefit from recycling wedding dresses, accessories, and decorations. It's a win-win: Everyone saves money and minimizes waste. If you're looking for designer brands, it's common to find them for a fraction of the list price.

There's no reason to be self-conscious about buying used items for your wedding. The New York Times wedding section covered the trend and included this quote from Nina Willdorf, author of Wedding Chic: The Savvy Bride's Guide to Getting More While Spending Less: "Smart shopping to find value for less is really chic right now," Ms. Wildorf said. "It's not like buying a used sweater that's been worn for years. A wedding dress has been worn once and only for a matter of hours."

Here are a few popular sites for buying and selling used wedding supplies:

Recycled Bride

What can't you find on Tradesy Weddings (formerly Recycled Bride), which bills itself as the world's largest wedding marketplace? In addition to wedding dresses and accessories, there's also plenty to browse for bridesmaids, Mother of the Bride (MOB), grooms and groomsmen. There's even a place to sell wedding gifts, should you happened to receive two waffle makers.

Encore Bridal 

Consignment site Encore Bride prides itself on curating stylish used wedding couture, limiting its stock to 100 dresses at a time and rejecting many of the dresses submitted for consignment. "You can have silk, European laces, high quality craftsmanship, and on-trend designs from celebrity-favorite designers," according to the site. Encore Bridal also provides a worry-free guarantee of a full refund plus a $25 gift card if you feel the quality was misrepresented.

Bravo Bride 

Bravo Bride is especially helpful if you're looking for a specific type of used wedding supplies. Under 'Browse Categories,' you can click on everything from 'Tiara' to 'Table Linens.' You can also search boutiques and local vendors who have registered on the site. In the Bridal Banter forum, you'll find topics such as Ceremony Ideas and Tips, Wedding Frustrations, and Wanted Wedding Items. 

If you want to shop local or examine the used items before you purchase them, Craigslist and Goodwill are good options, as well! 

Planning a wedding? Pick out an elegant, affordable wedding band set at My Trio Rings.

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Spring is just around the corner, which means that it's time to settle on the style for your upcoming wedding! There's plenty to love about spring weddings. Although you'll find more competition for venues, you'll also have a lot of options when it comes to style. Here are a few spring wedding ideas that you'll love.

Dress

• If you expect warm weather, you can show off your shoulders without needing a wrap. Look at strapless or sleeveless dresses in various lengths. They can be a traditional floor-length, but also consider a more modern look: tea-length dresses or those that fall above the knee. 
• Choose spring colors for your wedding. Bridesmaids dresses are lovely in colors like coral, mint, and lavender. Accent your dress with floral colors, pastel or vibrant, depending on your style and skin tone. Sashes or shoes themed to match your wedding colors will offset the white of your dress.
• Inscribe your matching wedding bands with the date of your spring wedding.

Decor

• Reflect your spring colors in table settings. You may choose pastel tablecloths, or napkins tied with natural twine, such as raffia fiber.
• Design your place cards in a spring theme, decorated with flowers, trees, or birds. Find some great ideas here.
• For an outdoor wedding, hang colorful lanterns from trees and will cast a soft glow as the sun sets. For more spring wedding ideas for decor, browse Google Images. 

Flowers

• You'll have quite a selection of flowers for your spring wedding, such as lilacs, orchids, tulips, daffodils, peonies, and freesia. See Borrowed & Bleu's guide to spring wedding flowers. Choose flowers based on scent, fit with your wedding colors, and cost. 
• Use flowers in many different ways: in table arrangements and bridal party bouquets, in your hair, on chairs or pews, and as cake decorations. Pinterest has plenty of ideas for spring floral arrangements.

Perhaps you are determined to buy your own budget wedding dress. But think about it this way – it is something you will only wear for one day, and then it will live in your attic forever. Your possible future daughter may not want anything to do with wearing your dress. It is a lot of money to spend on a gown that may only ever see the light of day one time.

Some brides are making a different budget wedding decision. They are choosing to rent anything from a budget wedding dress to a designer wedding dress, rather than try to buy or make one. If you are interested in an expensive designer look, this can be an excellent way to pull it off on a budget, while keeping the memories and the photos long after you return the dress. And your guests never have to know that you didn’t purchase the gown!

Sites such as Rent the Runway offer a wide selection of designer dresses and accessories. RTR does not specialize in weddings, but with over 35,000 dresses and 20,000 accessories available for rental much more cheaply than you could buy them, you’re sure to find something that fits the bill for yourself or even for your bridesmaids. When you’re finished, just mail your rented items back in an envelope, and enjoy the memories of your designer look!

Similar sites include Bag Borrow or Steal and Adorn.com. Adorn.com actually specializes in renting out diamond jewelry to brides. You obviously don’t want to rent out a trio ring set, which will be an important keepsake and accessory throughout your marriage, but you might like to select from a wide variety of diamond earrings, bracelets, and necklaces that could complement your diamond cluster wedding and engagement rings. After investing in a trio ring set, you might not have much money left over in your jewelry budget, but you, like many other modern brides, might have room in your budget to rent some stunning diamond jewelry just for the big day.

Would you consider renting a wedding dress or accessories for your wedding day? Share your thoughts in the comments.

You have found the perfect wedding dress to wear at your budget wedding. And since you are carefully planning a wedding on a budget, you were even able to get a great deal on the dress you wanted. However, don’t cross the wedding dress completely off of your to-do list quite yet. Before you hide your dress in a closet for the big day, you may want to take the dress with you to a specialty lingerie store or department store. Even though you are trying to save money for your budget wedding, it is important in invest in the right undergarments to wear with your wedding gown. It will be hard to look like a million dollars in your two hundred dollar gown if you have an obvious panty line or visible bra straps. Here are some items you may wish to shop for before the big day.

1. Bra

These days, it is hard to find a wedding dress with sleeves. Most wedding dresses today are sleeveless or strapless, and they are often designed to show some skin. This can make it difficult for women to find the right support to wear under their dress. Fortunately, many specialty lingerie stores and department stores carry innovative bras that give support without showing over your gown. Be certain to actually bring your dress with you to the store to try on the various options that might work best with your dress. If you can’t find the right option in a store, many seamstresses can also alter your gown to have hidden bra cups sewn into the top of the gown. If you are handy with a needle and thread, you might even be able to sew your own bra cups from a fabric store into the lining of the top of the dress if you are intent on planning a wedding on a budget, but be aware that this option might give you less support than a freestanding bra.

2. Underwear

If your wedding gown has a fuller skirt, then it is unlikely that you will have a panty line that is visible to your guests. However, if your dress is more form-fitting or made from a thinner fabric, then you will likely want to find underwear that is as invisible as possible. Many stores carry underwear that does not have a panty line. You will also want to consider color. An underwear color that is drastically different from your skin tone or from the wedding dress color is likely to be visible unless you have a very full skirt that hides it.

3. Shapewear

Many wedding dresses have built-in corsets or other structures that help to flatter your figure. If your wedding dress is made from a lighter weight fabric and does not have built-in structure, then you may want to purchase shapewear that can help smooth unflattering bulges into submission. This is another situation where you may wish to bring your budget wedding dress with you to be sure that the undergarments are not visible through the dress because of their shape, cut, or color.

Photo Credit: kf0nz1

Brides, one of the hardest times to keep your wedding on budget is while you are shopping for a wedding dress. Most women have an image in their minds of their perfect dress, and it is all too easy to forget about the price tag when you find the one. Maybe you have a little wiggle room in your budget as you are planning a cheap wedding because you found a beautiful discount wedding ring set online for less than you expected. Or perhaps you have found an inexpensive honeymoon package that will allow you to splurge a bit on your wedding dress. Or maybe you are completely strapped for cash. No matter how much money you have to spend on a wedding dress, here are five are easy ways to save on your perfect gown.

1. Go vintage.

Ask your mother, grandmother, aunt, older sister, or other female relatives or friends if you could alter and wear their dress. Many moms save their wedding dress in hopes that their daughter will want to wear it for her wedding. Wear the dress as-is if it is the right size and you like the vintage style, or find a tailor who specializes in wedding dresses to update the style or the fit. Some antique stores also sell beautiful wedding dresses at reasonable prices.

2. Buy used.

Most wedding dresses only get worn once, and then they get put in a box in the attic. Some women decide to sell their gown after the wedding to make some of the money back. If you like a specific designer gown, look on Craigslist or eBay to see if anyone is selling your ideal gown secondhand for a better price, then pay to have it steam cleaned by your local wedding store.

3. Shop sales.

When you are planning a cheap wedding, the last thing you need to do is walk into an expensive bridal boutique. Search inexpensive national bridal chains. Some stores such as David’s Bridal have regular $99 gown sales on select styles. Another possibility is to look for department store sales if you’re willing to look at nice white dresses in the prom or formalwear sections that might not be specifically designed as wedding gowns.

4. Make your own.

If you have strong sewing skills, look at your local fabric store for wedding dress patterns and fabrics to see if they carry anything you like. Sign up to receive store coupons via mail or email so that you can save even more money. Even if you are intimidated by the idea of sewing a dress, you can easily save money by sewing your own sash, veil, or other accessories. Or perhaps a sewing-savvy friend or relative will make your wedding dress as her gift to you.

5. Crowd-source.

Discover the best places to buy wedding dresses by polling social networks. Post a status update on Facebook asking, “Where do I buy an inexpensive wedding dress?” or search “cheap wedding dress” on Yelp.com. The results will show retailers whose descriptions and reviews include your search terms. That means you’ll find the stores that carry cheap wedding dresses and know to avoid the stores that are decidedly not cheap!

What tips do you have for buying a wedding dress on a budget?