Great wedding food idea, or best wedding food idea ever? As I was doing my morning rounds of the wedding news, I cam across an article about a couple hiring a Korean barbeque food truck to show up to their reception at midnight. YUM!!!!

Okay, to be fair, the idea of having food trucks show up at a wedding isn’t an entirely unique concept. I’ve been to more than one wedding where there was a snack truck waiting outside at the end of the wedding, and I’ve been to plenty more weddings where the hosts generously offer late-night revelers a wedding snack. But for anyone who has ever planned a wedding, you know just about every additional amenity you provide guests costs another few thousand dollars, so in terms of wedding savings advice and whether or not you should spend money on providing a late night snack, let’s take a look at the bigger picture.

While a reception snack will definitely cost you a few bucks, it does have some distinct benefits. First, it’ll make your guests happy. Most of the weddings I’ve been to where a snack was provided always leave a more pleasant memory. As the host, it’s a nice way of saying “I know you’re here celebrating with us to the early hours, so I just want to thank you again for coming out.” A late night snack can also be important if your friends are heavy drinkers. And if they are, you’ve probably already considered why… nothing helps keep a party with an open bar going like late night munchies to absorb some of the extra alcohol.

Beyond those two bonuses, I’d have to say I don’t see any other major benefit. Sure it’s nice to offer guests a little extra food, but do folks expect it? What do y’all think? Has anyone out there either thrown a wedding with a late night snack or been to one and want to share your thoughts?

New York Just Got A Whole Lot More Fun!

The law allowing same-sex marriages in New York went into effect on July 24th, which is awesome. What an incredible step forward for one of our most populated states to take. That being said, the legalization of same sex marriages in in New York might not be nearly as good for your pocket book. According to this article in the Baltimore Sun, the legalization of same sex marriages has created a huge demand for weddings. And you know how good ole’ “supply and demand” works, right? The more demand, the less supply, and the more expensive. So what’s a New Yorker planning her (or his) wedding to do?

Good thing you’ve come to the rejuvenated wedding blog that’s all about wedding savings advice. If you’re in the Empire State and noticing a rising cost in weddings, let PEA.com offer a good solution: Wait to book. Yup… you read that right. PEA.com loves a wedding just as much as anyone else (OK… a lot more than everyone else) but if you’ve got time to wait, hold off. That includes holding off on booking everything from venues and wedding transportation, to florists, caterers, and even plane tickets. Why? Because the wedding rush is going to lead to an inevitable wedding bust. Right now wedding planners and wedding industries are getting hit with hundreds of extra requests, but in a few months, New York weddings will normalize again, and all those extra service providers will be desperate for more business, meaning you’ll be back in the driver’s seat.

So if you can afford the time to wait on your wedding purchases, know that you’ll be able to afford a lot more of them in a few months when wedding vendors in New York are desperate for more clients.

Yay! Practically Ever After Is Back!!!!!

Hi all! I know it’s been a long (loooooong) time since we last updated PracticallyEverAfter.com. So, first things first, I’m really sorry about that. We had a lot of readers who came to rely on good wedding advice from us on a daily basis, but the time commitment to keep posting updates got to be too much, and… well… no excuses. We’re just bad wedding bloggers, I guess.

But the crazy thing is that even after we stopped making new wedding savings posts, people kept coming to the site. And coming, and coming, and coming. So finally we’ve decided it’s time to start wedding blogging again, and that’s what we’re doing.

So welcome back to Practically Ever After. We’re sorry it’s been a while since our last wedding savings advice post, but we’re going to make it up to you by turning Practically Ever After into the best wedding blog on the Internet. Are you ready to live practically ever after?

As our wedding gets closer, more items are being purchased off of our registry. Don’t get me wrong- presents are great, but there are quite a few things where you can’t help but question, “do we really need this?” Mr. soon-to-be-Heather and I live in a fairly small  place with no storage, so we didn’t register for a lot of items. For example, I don’t have a use for fine china now and I certainly don’t have a place to put it, so it’s not on the list. What is on the list is a lot of “filler” items, to make a decent registry at a few stores, which are cool but not necessary.

That is why the Universal Registry concept is amazing! Through Amazon’s Universal Registry, you can now register for any item at any store. You don’t need to start a full registry at one store just to get a few items you like.  Happy Friday everyone!

This has nothing to do with wedding savings, but I think it is very important.  Finally, someone has addressed Facebook Wedding Etiquette.  Check it out!

I’m an animal lover. My two cats are easily my best friends in the world (even if they can sometimes be a little… well… catty, but what best friend isn’t sometimes catty?). Still, would I ever include my cats in my wedding? No. Not a chance. Call me old fashioned, but I believe weddings are for people. So my wedding advice is to leave the critters at home (or in a kennel), and let the bipedals enjoy their day. Unless you’re a bride who want to enter in a horse-drawn carriage.  Then you can have a four-legged creature… that’s OK, I guess.

I actually didn’t always feel this way about including animals in weddings. I honestly didn’t think much about it. But then I read this article, and specifically, one line from the article, that made me change my mind:

“Muffin Top, a two-year-old Pomapoo, will be wearing a pink satin harness dress while the maid of honour leads her down the aisle on a tiny pink leash.”
Muffin Top? Pomapoo? Pink satin harness dress? Maid of Honour? I don’t know if any two of those phrases should ever be used in the same sentence… but all four? I simply can’t support it. Just trust me on this one, gals. This isn’t wedding savings advice I’m offering up here at Practically Ever After. This is advice for how to save your wedding. Just leave the fuzzy creatures at home!

Beware of the green eyed monster: jealousy.  Brides are not only subjected to other friend’s or relative’s weddings, but they are also overwhelmed with wedding TV shows, magazines, blogs, etc.  Wedding envy can be very dangerous and damaging, here are some important things to remember while you are planning your budget affair:

1-  Your wedding is about marrying your soul-mate, and committing to one another.  Your commitment to one another should not be about throwing a platinum wedding.

2-  Your friends and family will come to your wedding because they love and support you, not because you will have string quartet, an all you can eat sushi buffet, or fireworks.

3-  Finance troubles and money arguments are one of the leading causes of divorce.  You’re getting married to start a life together, not hate each other.  Why spend an exorbitant amount of money on a wedding to start your your life together in debt?

4-  Many guests won’t actually admire frivolous details that just look like price tags, they will just think about how much money you wasted.

5-  Your wedding represents you and your soon-to-be-Mr.  Your wedding should not represent the latest bridal trend or the fancy thing that your friends did.

You don’t want to look back and regret your special day.  If you need to save money on your wedding, then that’s what you have to do.  Your day will still be special, perfect, and represent the right ideals.

Happy April Fool’s Day!

Whether you know or not, or whether you are prepared, the bridal party may play a practical joke on your wedding day.  The groom is typically the recipient of any wedding day jokes, but both the bride and groom should be prepared.  Here are some standard pranks:

Jacket Swap:  The groom goes to put on his jacket, and realizes it’s too small.

Secret Messages:  “Friends” may put “help me” or “kick me” messages on the bottom of your shoes or on the back of your jacket.

Long lost child:  When and if the marriage officiant asks “does anyone object to this marriage”, someone may send a mystery child down the aisle yelling “Daddy, Daddy!”

Key return:  The best man might ask all of the ladies who had keys to the grooms house to go and return their keys now that he is married.

Squeaky toy in bed:  It’s your wedding night, just think about it…

Obviously this doesn’t include all pranks, but keep on the look out- some people like to be the center of attention.   Good luck today, and on your wedding day!

Mr. soon-t0-be-Heather and I decided to host our wedding at a hotel where all vendor contracts were coordinated through a wedding package.  This process is really helpful for us because we’re planning the wedding a 10 hour drive from where we will actually be getting married.  Our only contract therefore is with our hotel.  Through work I am constantly hosting meetings and sessions through hotels, so I’m comfortable with our hotel contract.  For those of you who are working on contracts with multiple vendors, I thought this article from the DIY Bride and this article from Martha Stewart Weddings might be helpful.

Let’s face it- dry weddings are boring, and cash bars are tacky.  Yes, alcohol is expensive, but there are ways to provide drinks without breaking the bank.

First and foremost, anytime you can provide your own liquor you will save a fortune.  Suck it up, drive to your local liquor store and buy till your heart’s content.  Some liquor stores will even let you return un-opened bottles.  Check with your venue and then shop for the best deals.  Here is a an article suggesting how much alcohol you should buy.

Then, if you do have to purchase alcohol through your venue there are two options to cut down on your expenses.  You can limit your bar to beer and wine or you can provide one or two specialty cocktails.  Guests just won’t be able to drink as much beer, wine, or fru-fru cocktails.  And, not to be mean, but limiting your guests options will slow down how many drinks your guests take in.  Well, that would work with our guests.  Consider your audience, Mr. soon-to-be-Heather and I have explicitly told our bartender no shots because that is the expensive drinks our friends love to take in.