Money, Money, Money

I hate that money is such a determining factor in every aspect of our lives. Well, the lack of money anyway. Right now both of our bank accounts are sparse. Tuition and paying off Bella's surgeries have sufficiently emptied out our pockets. It is the reason why I didn't go to Cornell. It is why Brandon and I can't see each other for Valentine's Day. It is also the reason why I am heading to work in an hour, despite the fact that I have food poisoning.

So how are we supposed to pay for a wedding in December, you ask? My unbelievable thriftyness and mad saving skills of course.

Growing up Chinese has taught me several things. Don't wear shoes in the house (although that rule has been broken because of a certain dog who leaves our floors filthy). Eat every grain of rice or else your face will grow a crater for every grain you leave in the bowl. Anything less than an A on your report card is unacceptable. Don't bang chopsticks on the tables or else you'll disturb the gods. And most importantly, always shop in the clearance/sale section. Never pay full price for anything.

So far, I have not paid full price on anything purchased for the wedding. Let me break it down for you.

Stationary (e.g. invitations, save-the-dates):

Adorable, no? Too bad letterpress invitations like this can cost over $1,000. This set from Costco is $964.50 for 100 invitations, RSVP cards and envelopes. After discovering this, I made the executive decision that we were not going to spend $1K for some paper. We are taking on the task of making the invitations ourselves. I'll describe that long process later when I actually start assembling them.

I am going to make my own STD cards and emboss them with powder and a heating gun. I bought my supplies all for 40% off at Michaels. The total for everything was $24.86. I saved $16.60.

We needed some nice card stock to print our invitations on, and we found some at my favorite store on earth: Target. Target began selling invitation kits containing 50 invitations, 50 rsvp cards, and 100 envelopes for $34.99, which is a steal as it is. My MOH found a design that would fit perfectly in the look we wanted and in our color scheme, and it just happened to be on sale for only $6.10 each. I grabbed three boxes and jumped for joy. I saved a whopping $84.87. What sweetened the deal was that a few weeks later they were back up to $34.99 per box.

The envelopes in the invitation kit from Target were not up to my Minzilla standards, so we purchased some gorgeous ones made from "beautiful well bred Italian paper, in a pearlescent dark, rich red" from Paper Source. They also happened to be 50% off. We paid $22.63 for 70 high-quality envelopes.

Total savings on stationary thus far: $124.31. When I get the chance, I will visit a local company that is going to print our invitations for about $60 or so.

We even booked our reception and ceremony site at a discount rate. Due to their own lack of communication, they offered the site to us for $500 less than the usual price. Score!

I've also purchased bits and pieces of gifts for my ladies (nothing for Tony yet). I have saved $136.78 on these fabulous gifts, which is fantastic because it allows me to buy more for these deserving people. I think they will appreciate my deal-hunting ways, especially since they are just as thrifty. I won't be able to post on the gifts until December though. I'm glad I got a head start!

Debbie has just about convinced me that I should buy my wedding dress from Ebay, but that one is up in the air. I really can't picture myself spending so much money on a single dress that I'll have on for maybe eight hours at the most. Maybe all of the money I'm saving can be put towards my dress. After all, if I'm going to splurge on anything, it's going to be my wedding dress.

Next up:

Must have pictures

Bridal fashion

Guest list politics