Beauty:
- If at all possible, buy your dress, shoes, purse, etc on E-bay. If the bride is using a chain like David's Bridal, this is a bit easier. Try on the dress in the store to be sure of the size, then try to find it on E-bay. Be sure to know the style number and the color. The same goes for shoes and accessories. Get that worn once dress at a fraction of the cost!
- Even if you buy the dress new, get the alterations done by a local seamstress. The bridal stores charge an arm and a leg.
- If the bride wants you to have your nails done, get them done at a local beauty college before you travel to the wedding. I got silk wraps for 15 dollars (I had a coupon!) at the beauty college. If the bride wants you to have a specific polish color that you can't get at the beauty college, get the fake nails at the college and do the polish at the bride's salon. A polish is much less expensive than acrylics or silk wraps.
- Getting your hair done at a beauty college can save you a small fortune as well.
- After the wedding, have your dress cleaned and sell it on E-bay. If you bought it on E-bay, you may well be able to get back all the money you paid. If you bought it new, you still will make something back. Be honest: will you really ever wear it again?
- If you stay in a hotel, try to stay in one with a kitchen. I have a long weekend- the rehearsal is tonight and the wedding is on Sunday. I am staying at a place with a kitchen, so I can go buy groceries and cook most meals for myself. Even if I buy full price things, it will be more healthful and less expensive than eating out three meals a day for four days.
- Use services like Priceline to find a hotel. If the bride and groom have reserved a block of rooms, compare the price to nearby hotels. Just because you're sleeping somewhere else does not mean you can't hang out with everybody.
8 comments:
Have a great time. So you did not tell us...did you get the dress on Ebay or are you going to sell it on Ebay.
Good tips. I've been a bridesmaid twice and maid of honor twice. It does become quite expensive!
Please tell me that the bride did not actually expect you to have your nails professionally done, especially fake nails! If you personally choose to do that, I understand, but if a friend ever told me to have fake nails put on for her wedding, we'd be having words! I'm not willing to do that to my nails. I hope I was just misunderstanding and you chose to do that yourself.
I don't find attending showers to be too costly as I can always put together a lovely gift without it costing an arm and a leg. What gets you is when you throw the shower. My advice for that is to co-host with someone, do it in a home, make all the food yourself, use your own china and silverware (not expensive throwaways), and don't let the guest list become enormous. Too many brides these days are forgetting that a shower itself is a gift to the bride, and she is not to dictate all that goes on. The hosts should tell her how many guests they are willing/able to accomodate, and her guest list should be made within those parameters.
She did want us to have our nails done- I did not mind because I love doing stuff like that but never do because of the expense. That's a good tip in itself though- don't let the bride bulldoze you into having a million beauty things you don't want to pay for! (Nails, facials, etc) My bride did not push the issue though- I was happy to do my nails, just not at her salon! She's a pretty mellow bride for the most part.
I looked and looked for my dress on E-bay- but never found it in the color I needed! I do plan to sell it on E-bay next week if anybody is interested in a banana yellow tea lenght halter top dress! Very pretty, but yellow is not a good color on me.
As long as you don't mind doing something the bride wants, that's fine. I was just afraid that you were told you HAD to have fake nails done. If you don't mind them, no problem. I just know that I would not be willing to do that because I prefer natural nails. I hope I didn't sound too harsh. :-)
Banana yellow, huh? That's a very difficult color to pull off! I'm sure you'll look lovely even if it isn't your color. (Is it anyone's?) :-)
I kind of miss the weddings. My friends are all busy having babies these days.
I would love to see the dress. I hate to tell you with my skin color it would be a perfect color for me. No weddings here, now we are all starting to look at our kids going into high school.
Bridal showers etc can be killer. If you know you have a lot coming up you can keep an eye out for things like crystal or silver picture frames, etc etc.
I saw a neat idea for an inexpensive but very thoughtful Christian shower gift over at The Homespun Heart. She calls it a "Blessing Basket".
http://thehomespunheart.blogspot.com/2007/04/blessing-basket.html
I had saved the link because I thought it was such a neat idea.
Another neat bridal shower idea-when my girlfriend threw one for me, we did it at one of those "paint your own ceramic" places. I brought in a piece of my everyday china, picked out the paint colors that matched, and then picked out some of the unpainted pieces that I liked (some can be very expensive, some aren't so bad. For example a mug may cost $10-but that includes using their space, paints, brushes, and then firing, glazing and firing again)
Then everyone picked out what they wanted to paint, paid for it and did it for me themselves right there. I wound up with 2 big serving bowls, a set of candlesticks and a bunch of trivets (which I use frequently). The artwork isn't picasso or anything, but it reminds me of all my friends who were there when I use them. The shop owner also let us bring in our own munchies etc.
Hi- I'm a long time lurker, first time commenter. Here's another tip in case the dress doesn't sell on eBay: have the dress hemmed to the knee post-wedding and you'll be much more inclined to wear it again. I've done this and have been happy to re-wear the dress to weddings where I'm a guest, graduations, etc.
Hope you had fun this weekend!
These are some great tips!
I agree with ewokgirl that showers do not need to be expensive. My shower was in my maid of honor's house and she served tea sandwiches, homemade pastries, and tea. She borrowed china tea cups from everyone she knew so she had enough. It was so perfect, I think I will always remember it.
My bridesmaids wore separates for their dresses, and I know they told me that they would wear the skirt and top again separately, but I just can't imagine them doing that. Selling on ebay sounds like a good idea to me!
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