Go with sheet cakes for the bulk of the guests to eat. I’m going to have a small fancy-decorated one for the official cutting, but it will be taken to the back room to cut for the guests so they won’t know they are eating sheet cakes. Not that they should care…free cake for them!

We bought the groomsmen gifts with three 33% off coupons, and an additional coupon I got at the register. Over all, with the coupons and that additional coupon, I got 26% off.

Never buy anything without checking for a coupon or comparing with some other store.

I made the bridesmaid gifts – pearl necklaces and earrings (REAL PEARLS!). I spent $140.11 on materials, and I made a set for 5 bridesmaids, 3 sisters not in the wedding, my mom, his mom, and his soon to be sister-in-law (his brother’s fiance) and me. I have enough material to make 1 more and probably a bracelet for me. That means their gifts are $100, and I’m not paying that!

A different sister took our engagement pictures with her digital camera and she had them developed at Walmart and gave me the CD. They look awesome! We are out in the country, so we had a lot of neat backdrops (in a barn, trees behind us, limestone bridges, etc) but if you are in town, you can use a nice park or arboretum.

Remember, postcards are much cheaper than a card and an envelope. The postcards themselves are cheaper, and the postage is definitely cheaper. We have a lot of people coming in from out of town, so I thought save the date cards would be a nice touch, so they could plan way ahead of getting the official invitation. Postcards can save you a LOT of money! I used one of the engagement pictures and went to printsmadeeasy.com and made them up myself. I got 300 of them for $44.84 (including shipping), or about $.15 a piece. Postage was $.26 each vs. $.41 for a card and envelope.

I bought a ream of gray paper and two 100-piece sets of vellum and printed them out. Some ribbon I found at an ebay store, and some time, and I tied them all together. I also made RSVP postcards out of the same gray paper. I had Copy Max cut them for $1 a cut. Much cheaper than buying kits.

I also made Thank You postcards using printsmadeeasy.com. Again, $.15 a piece plus $.26 for postage.

I’ve looked into getting those M&M’s with the words on them, but they are very underwhelming. I had a few friends have them for parties in the past, but you can’t hardly read the text and most people won’t notice anyway. So I won’t be getting those…and they are expensive!

I’m going to make my own veil. Veils cost > $100 at David’s Bridal, but tulle is like $1 a yard. I can make a lot of mistakes for $100!