Archive for November, 2006
This is less a wedding specific money saving tip and more a general personal finance tip: No matter when you get married, you’ll file as married for that year when you prepare your tax return. If you get married on December 31st, 2006, then come April 15th, 2007, you will file a return as either a Married Filed Jointly or Married Filed Separately – not as a Single. If you get married on January 1st, 2007, when you file your 2006 Tax Return, you’ll file it as a Single.
How does this affect you? Take a look at the Married Filing Jointly tax brackets, they’re considerably larger than the Single tax brackets (but less than two Single brackets put together), which means that if your combined income is in the right range, you could save in taxes by filing jointly.
For example, if between you earn $60,000 and your spouse earns $0 – you would pay $11,557.50 in taxes if you filed as a Single. If you two wed in December 31st and filed 2006 as a Married Filing Jointly, you’d only see a tax bill of $8,245 – a difference of $3,312.50.
If you’ve ever been to a wedding you’ll likely have seen, along with the invitation, information that indicated that the happy couple has negotiated a special rate with the hotel on a block of rooms. Well, now it’s your turn to negotiate this block of rooms and it’s your job to make sure two things happen:
- The deal is actually a deal and,
- You get something out of it.
When you negotiate, be sure to have a general idea of how many rooms you will need and for how many days. Hotels hate having empty rooms and hotels that occur on weekends where that hotel won’t be jam packed (concert or convention weekends would thus be a bad weekend to pick) are great opportunities to negotiate a better deal for your guests. After you get a deal, check to see that you can’t beat (or even match) that deal through travel websites – it’s not a deal if anyone can get it.
Second, make sure you get something out of it like a free room for yourself or some other perk. It’s not uncommon for a hotel to throw in a free room if you hold the reception there or get a whole block of rooms actually reserved and used.
This isn’t so much a frugal tip as it is a smart tip for any couple getting married, you will often reserve a reception area or order flowers or set up any of the various wedding services months (if not more than a whole year) in advance and it’s not uncommon for a vendor to go out of business before your big day. So, it’s wise to contact the vendor every few months to check their temperature and make sure they’re still in business and still have you on their books (mistakes happen all the time, even big ones). You don’t want to find out the night before that the reception hall burned down or the videographer went bankrupt, you’d much rather find out as soon as possible so you can resolve the situation.
Doesn’t that look a lot like a rose? Well, it’s a ranunculus and it’s not actually a rose but it sure looks a lot like an open rose doesn’t it? Well, it looks a lot like an open rose but is remarkably cheaper. For all you trivial buffs, the ranunculus has its origins in the Middle East and is commonly called a “Turban Buttercup”. As for colors, the ranunculus comes in three color groups: reds, pinks, and yellows. They’re also available during February and March when roses are the most expensive, making them an excellent alternative if you’re getting married in the Spring.
You won’t “trick” anyone into believing their roses, if that’s what you’re thinking, but if you don’t mind having something a little cheaper that looks similar, give the ranunculus a whirl.
If you’re going with the pay as you go method when it comes to the bar (where you pay what your guests drink), consider springing for a keg instead of individual bottles. Just as it was in college, a keg of beer, even with the location markup, will be far cheaper than a keg of beer. When you go to negotiate with the location with respect to the bar, mention that you want to get a keg (you may have to provide a tap if they don’t have one) instead of going with individual bottles.
Ounce per ounce, champagne is the most expensive alcohol beverage – even more expensive than the most top shelf liquor. Even with the cheapest champagne, this rule of thumb still holds true. Plus, champagne isn’t even that good! 
So, on your wedding night, consider using champagne (or even a non alcoholic apple cider) for toasts only.
I know it seems kind of overly frugal but ask the reception hall to box up the meals of guests that never made it to the reception. It really is unfortunate when guests RSVP and then don’t show up (they usually won’t do this on purpose) but you can take a little bit of the sting out of it by asking for the reception hall to box up the meals that go un-served. If you’re paying $100 a head and ten people don’t show, at least you’ll have ten prime rib dinners waiting for you instead of a big empty $1,000 hole.
Now, be prepared for the reception hall to reject your request for the meals to be boxed up because of health regulations but if you’re persistent, you might be able to walk away with at least a little something.
A rule of thumb is that the reception will account for 50% of your wedding costs and one of the most common techniques for reducing your wedding bill is to reduce the number of guests attending your joyous day. However, cutting guests may not save as much as you think and here’s why.
A reception hall will have a number of fixed costs such as the rental costs of the location, the catering staff, lights, etc; that the hall likely accounted for whenever they quoted the price per guest. So, when you go back and inform them that the number of guests will be pared down, they may come back and inform you that the cost per guest will increase.
So, be prepared not to save as much money as you thought if you decide to go the route of reducing the number of guests you invite.
If you’ve ever received a wedding invitation in the mail, you’ve likely seen photo stamps. Photo stamps are stamps with a picture of the happy couple and they’re all the rage these days. Now, you might think to yourself how photo stamps are probably really expensive and how you’re not really looking for that but before you dismiss it, Stamps.com has a really good offer on the table that will save you on postage.
When you sign up, Stamps.com will give you $25 in postage, a free scale, and $5 worth of supplies. The free $25 in stamps will send 64 letters (or 32 invitations and reply envelopes).
Now, onto the PhotoStamps. All you need to do in order to print up PhotoStamps is to upload images to the Stamps.com website and place your order. Unfortunately, the stamps are far more expensive than their actual worth. A single sheet costs $17.99 and has only $7.80, a markup of $10.19!
So, if you’re really thinking about getting PhotoStamps, you might as well get $25 off. There are other options, however, that may be worth investigating.