For years I’ve been telling brides how to plan their dream weddings on any kind of budget. I do it for several reasons, and not only because I want brides to know that they can have a great wedding with budget wedding planning the right way to save money.   But that’s not the only reason I’m here to help brides out with budget wedding planning. I understand that planning a wedding is hard, and it should be one of the happiest days of your life. If you’re stressed out over your budget wedding planning and think you can’t afford anything for a nice wedding, I’m here to lift you out of that hopeless feeling as well. Budget wedding planning is possible – and not nearly as hard as you would think. I’m not going to advise you to take up glass blowing so that you can make 200 wedding favors by hand for each guests – that’s foolish. You see, when I was planning my own wedding, I learned a lot about budget wedding planning, and I didn’t learn it the easy way. I mean, nobody took me aside and showed me all the different ways to save money on my wedding, not enough money to make a difference anyway. My wedding vendors certainly weren’t interested in the fact that I was budget wedding planning, they’re out to make their own money. No, I had to learn budget wedding planning the hard way, and many things I didn’t learn about until after the wedding (and believe me – I’m still kicking myself now!). So here are some great tips for budget wedding planning that can really help you out that I can show you right now. Read the rest of this entry »

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Many brides today want to look unique, different from any other bride out there. It’s hard to do that when most brides typically shop at the same stores you are looking at for your wedding dress. There are only so many dresses, and in my opinion, I’ve seen enough brides in strapless dresses to last me a lifetime. Trust me, not every body type out there looks good in a strapless wedding dress. If you’re unsure, check out my article, Find a Wedding Dress for Your Body Type and What Neckline Works Best with my Body Type? Many brides now are looking for ways to design their own wedding dresses, and its a good thing. Your wedding dress should reflect you and your personality, which is different and unique from everyone else out there. If you are wondering how you can design your won wedding dress, then here some great pointers to get you started.

Find out what you like

A wedding dress is different from any other dress that you will ever wear. They’re bigger, heavier and fancier than any dress I own, and I own a lot of dresses. So if you don’t already know what kind of wedding dresses you like, then go into a bridal shop and try on as many dresses as it takes. Look at the different necklines, waistlines, and beading, and patterns to help you decide which you like. Bring a camera and take pictures of what you like and a notebook to help you remember later.

Design Your Own Wedding Dress

You don’t have to have any special software or skills to do design your own wedding dress, just pictures of what you like. If you have a friend or family member who is a seamstress, go and talk to them about making your dress, and if not, then go to fabric stores and start asking around. Most fabric stores will have business cards of ladies who can make wedding dresses for you. Set up a meeting with your seamstress and take your pictures and notebook of ideas. A good seamstress can look at your pictures and be able to copy the different ideas that you have into one dress. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Learn to Love Fittings!

A lot of brides I know complain about having to go to fittings. I don’t understand it. Especially when you design your own wedding dress. You want to make sure during the dress making process that you are happy with the way the dress is coming out and making sure that it fits. Don’t be afraid to let your seamstress know if you don’t like something about the dress so that it can be changed early.

An Added Benefit

When you design your own wedding dress, the cost of the dress does decrease considerably. You will typically pay your seamstress a flat amount, along with the cost of materials (which is surprisingly inexpensive – the satin for my dress was only $7 a yard, and I only needed 7 yards). So, for less money you get a dress that you absolutely love, totally unique, for less money. Can’t beat it!!

If you’re still unsure if you want to create your own wedding dress, then check out my article, Custom Made Wedding Dresses. Find out why I chose to design my own wedding dress, and why I recommend it to everyone I know getting married. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me!

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