Celebrity Wedding Tips: Editing Your Guest List

Happy Friday Budget Brides!!

image via lauren conrad blog Here is a great article that Lauren Conrad wrote about editing her wedding guest list as she plans her big day.  Some snippets we love: * if I haven't had a sit down dinner with you in 2 years, your not invited * plus ones: if your not married, engaged, long-term relationship or don't know anyone else at the wedding you don't get a plus one. "Who knows, they might meet someone special…"
That last one had me cracking up. But hey you never know.
Checkout the full article here.

xoxo

Budget Bride

DIY: Wedding Monogramming

This post is for all my DIY budget brides. As I search the internet for new & innovative products to bring to you sometimes I find diamonds in the rough. Today I stumbled upon Brianna Nichole's Wedding Monogramming Tutorials which features tutorials on how to create a variety of monograms for all of your wedding needs. You can create invitations, aisle & table runners, candles and mores. Brianna Nichole gives you a step by step instruction on how to create the monogram of your dreams for your big day. Making your own monogram is so easy with these tutorials since the instructions are easy to follow and there are pictures for every step. What's even better is that Brianna Nichole's does not charge for expertise in helping all of you budget conscience brides with creating your wedding day monograms; however, she does have a paypal button on her site for any donation that you would want to provide. So with this post we both salute & thank Brianna Nichole from Brianna Nichole's Wedding Monogramming Tutorials for such a thoughtful idea.

Monogram Photoshop Tutorials

Letter Behind Monogram Tutorial

Power Point Monogram Tutorial

Shamrock Tutorial

Triple Box Monogram Tutorial

Twine Monogram Tutorial
How to Draw Lines Tutorial
Reception Menu Tutorial
Mr. & Mrs. Wedding Signs Tutorial

See Below for examples of monograms:

Images & Links from Brianna Nichole's Monogramming Tutorial

So You Like Chinese

Start your lives together off with the best of luck and good fortune. Fortune cookies are always a good way to add a little fun to any occassion. Now & Forever has colorful and flavorable Fortune Cookies in a variety of 11 colors & favors. You can add fun facts about the couples relationship, key dates that are important to you, remember family members who are no longer living, etc. Pricing for the fortune cookies are $112.00 for 200 fortune cookies which comes out to .56 cents per fortune cookie which is a $teal. You can find the chinese take-out boxes at Now & Forever for $45.00 for 50 which comes out to .90 cents per box. Personalized tags can be brought at Wedding Favorites starting at .35 cents. Altogether a wedding favor full of love and memories will cost you about $1.81 per person. Sweet!!!!

DIY - You will need fortune cookies, chinese take-out boxes, tissue paper and personalized tag. Place the tissue paper inside the chinese take-out boxes, place your desired amount of fortune cookies in the chinese take-out box, close the box and hot glue the personalized tag on the closure. Please note: You will only need a drop of the hot glue on the closure of the chinese take-out box.

Bluefly Weddings

Now some of you may know about online discount retailer Bluefly.com. But for those who have never heard the name it is a Mecca for fashionistas who want the latest trends or fabulous designers at discount prices. The online retailer has now launched a bridal division on their website called Wedding 2.0. Here you can find bridesmaids, engagement party and a whole lot more at up to 40% off the original price. Happy Shopping Budget Brides.

DIY - The Welcome Bag

The welcome bag is an esstenial for destinations weddings or when inviting out of town guests to your wedding. These bags give you the oppoortunity to supply your guest with an itinerary of events occuring throughout the duration of the wedding celebration, provides phone numbers of designated people in case of emergency or questions and gives them a list of local attractions to visit when they have some down time. You can also add a favor into your welcome bag. For example, if your having your wedding at a vineyard you can include wine bottle stoppers in your welcome bags.

Custom welcome bags can become expensive when most vendors are asking you to at least purchase 250+ bags from them plus you have to pay a plate charge for them to make your message custom for your bags. Here are a few tips to help you purchase at a minimal cost or DIY. To purchase at a minimal cost look for companies who sell welcome bags with a set of pre-determined templates. Usually a company will offer you about 5 to 6 templates to choose from and you can just give them the specifics in terms of your name & wedding date. This works out to be cheaper for you because the vendor is not creating a whole new template they are just adding your information to it. The Budget Brides Handbook Shop is currently offering a 10% discount on all purchases off welcome bags when you use promo code 3512TEN from now till October 31st.

You can also create your own welcome bags. Here are the following items that you will need.

Paper Shopping Bag
Sticker with you and your fiance's name on it including the wedding date
(you can also opt to use a design)
Ribbon (Color theme of wedding)
Favor
Itinerary
Emergency numbers

Info on Local Attractions & Maps

Paper Bags: A good place to purchase your paper bags is http://www.nashvillewraps.com/

Stickers: From Rhinestone Monogram Stickers to Personalized Labels & Tags http://www.weddingfavorites.com/ is a good place to start looking

See Below for suggestions on paper, maps and favors.

For the itinerary and emergency phone number cards you can go to your local stationary store or online store and purchase sheets of cardstock paper so that you can create these items at home. Kate's Paperie & Papyrus here in NYC are both havens for brides who are looking for paper for their special day.

You can also purchase travel maps for your out of town guests so they can navigate their way around the city you choose to celebrate your special day. Emapstore.com and maps.com are 2 websites where I have found maps starting at $4.95 & up. Another way of cutting costs is to ask the hotel that you have chosen for your guest to stay in if they will provide maps free of charge for your guests. Sometimes the front desk of many hotels will have maps to help there guest when they have travel questions.

Lastly, the welcome bag favor should be something small and relate to the theme of your wedding. Having a winter wedding place a snowflake bookmark or coffee cup candles in the bag to represent the time of the year. You can find tons of favors for your Welcome Bag at The Budget Brides Handbook Shop.

Questions: Email me at info@thebudgetbrideshandbook.com