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    How Not to Have an Expensive Wedding
    How Not to Have an Expensive Wedding
    How Not to Have an Expensive Wedding
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    How Not to Have an Expensive Wedding

    By Justin Merm

    ()

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    About this ebook

    It's time to ring the bells! The magical day is upon us! Wait, it costs how much to have a wedding? 

    How Not to Have an Expensive Wedding will enlighten you on the pitfalls of modern-day wedding planning. You will be given a to-the-point, no-BS account of how my wife and I avoided spending copious amounts of money on our big day. The ideas and observations are blunt and real-world – a little slap in the face for the daydreamers! There is no reason to blow your nest egg and sacrifice your savings to throw a party. The tips and tricks included will guide you along a path to see your idea of a beautiful wedding come to fruition without going into debt.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJustin Mermelstein
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781516329311
    How Not to Have an Expensive Wedding

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      Book preview

      How Not to Have an Expensive Wedding - Justin Merm

      for anyone trying to save some dough

      How NOT to Have

      an Expensive Wedding

      Copyright © 2013, 2019 How NOT to Have an Expensive Wedding  | Justin Merm

      All rights reserved.

      This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

      If you’ve stumbled across this book without

      purchasing it and you like what you’ve read,

      please support the arts and purchase a copy.

      Thank you for supporting my work.

      Please consider spreading the word and leaving a

      review wherever you acquired this book. Every bit

      of positive feedback goes a long way.

      Thank you again!

      Preface.

      $6,102. That’s how much our wedding cost. No, it wasn’t in a recreation hall or an Elk’s lodge (not that there’s a damn thing wrong with either). Yes, we had a dance floor and drinks. We had great food, a beautiful ceremony, and nearly 100 people in attendance. We did most of the typical wedding day things. Anything we didn’t include could easily have been, had we wanted to go the traditional route. We were able to throw a great party with all of the people we love in attendance — and we were able to do so without breaking the bank. Without even going near the bank.

      "How? Can’t be real. The average wedding in the US is $28,000 blah blah blahblahblahblahblah."

      It’s real. We did it. And so can you. I promise. It’s a lot easier than you’d think, and it doesn’t have to be a headache to plan. It might even be fun. You will have to cut costs in certain places to make it all happen — this isn’t a book on how to create miracles. That’s the other book. But when you strip it all down to the core, it’s amazing how quickly you discover what is necessary and what isn’t.

      Whether you’re true novices like we were, without so much as a clue about how to throw a wedding, or you’re on your fourth wedding and still haven’t figured it out yet, we are here to help. The following is a recap of our story to guide you through the process, strewn with hints, cheats, hacks, and advice about how to save yourself some serious dough.

      A Few Points.

      Before we get to the nitty gritty of it all, there are a few points I’d like to make. These are random musings that don’t really fit in with the categories or are things I wanted to point out prior to you reading the material proceeding, instead of having you get halfway through the book and then coming across them only to realize they would’ve been more useful much earlier.

      There are two main objectives to this book: saving money while planning your wedding and getting along with your significant other while doing so. Both are fairly easy tasks to accomplish. It’s not rocket science. It’ll take time, research, and patience (both with the planning and with each other), but all of the answers are out there.

      We had our wedding in one of the most expensive areas on the planet. That’s not an exaggeration. The New York metropolitan area is beautiful, convenient, and loaded with options. It’s also overpriced, congested, and … loaded with options. The wedding industry is cut-throat, and because there are so many options, you can drown in it, or you can use it to your advantage. Pitting businesses against each other instead of letting them pit you against each other is the only chance you have at getting out unscathed. Avoiding them altogether is the only way to guarantee you won’t be getting screwed. That’s how we were able to having the perfect wedding for us without dealing with the bullshit. We did our homework. We crammed. We cut things out when they weren’t completely necessary. Were the decisions easy? Not always. But once you do the math, you’ll realize that a few-hour-long party isn’t worth going into debt.

      You’re not going to get everything you want. Resign to that fact right now. It’ll make this process 1000x easier. Write out a list of things that you cannot and will not do without. We knew we wanted the garter, cigars, some form of alcohol, and a dance floor. A few of those were hard to finagle, but we figured it out because we knew that we would not do without them. After that, write out a list of things that are cuttable. Know that you are likely going to do away with 80% of that. Again, resign yourselves to that. Once you get beyond the typical wedding state of mind and onto the same page, things will begin to flow for you.

      You both are going to want different things. This is natural. My wife and I were pretty close on everything. Scary close. But there were still things we differed on. An example of that was when we first walked into the restaurant we ultimately chose. She wasn’t head-over-heels in love with it. It was partitioned into two sections. A small foyer, where the wait staff kept some supplies, cannot the two rooms. I didn’t happen to think it was a big deal, and in the end, we both decided that for the money and for the quality it was the right choice.

      Use your resources. We all specialize in something. We all have strengths that can be used to our advantage when planning something that spans so many different skill sets. And what you cannot do yourself, enlist a friend. Everyone has a talented friend. We lucked out and have a bunch of them, but there is no doubt someone in your immediate (or not so immediate) circle possesses talents you can utilize. Don’t be afraid to ask. Barter. If these are friends who will be on the invite list anyway, ask them to forego their wedding gift in lieu of their skills. I can speak from experience that they will likely be thrilled not to have to shell out any money.

      There is also the very convenient option of bartering your own skills for their talents. Maybe there is something you are skilled in that doesn’t apply to the wedding but can be offered in exchange for your friends’ services. If you go this route, just make sure that what you offer is considerably more than what you’re asking for. After all, they are doing you the favor, not the other way around.

      Remember, you can always offer to barter with an external business that isn’t necessarily an acquaintance of yours. For example, a business that is just starting out and doesn’t have much of a reputation. If you’re a graphic designer, maybe you make their logo. If you’re a web designer, maybe you make their entire website. If you’re an accountant, you could file their first years business taxes for free. Where there is a will, there is a way. And with a wedding looming, you better have a will. Heh.

      I hate the term budget anything. We are talking low-budget weddings, that’s a truism, but the term budget sounds so very cheap, and cheap is not what this book is about. In reality, what you will come to know as a budget wedding should be what we classify as a normal wedding. But it’s not, and as long as people allow themselves to be exploited by conglomerates who will eat their soul alive just to extract as much money as possible, it never will be.

      Liberal propaganda out of the way, this is not a book for the outlandish wedding. It’s not for the destination wedding, either. It’s for the I want to get married because I love my significant other and don’t want to inconvenience anyone too much

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