Wedding Wednesday: Vendor Hiring Guide

Photo Credit: Blue Orchid Blog

As soon as I saw this post come through my Twitter feed yesterday, I knew it would become my Wedding Wednesday post. Blue Orchid Designs is a wedding planning firm based out of Arizona, New York and DC and their blog is chock-full of useful information and inspiring images and ideas. Owner Liene Stevens also fronts a wedding industry social media consulting company called Splendid Communications with a great blog for vendors called Think Splendid. It is definitely some of my fave blog-candy around.

Yesterday she posted a compact little guide for brides on her blog to help them hire the necessary vendors to make their day a success. It is a compilation of posts from a series she authored over the course of a few months all neatly packaged together as a printable e-book. The Wedding Vendor Hiring Guide has useful information for hiring your wedding planner, florist, DJ, officiant, caterer, photographer and more. It covers some basic and not-so-basic questions to remember when interviewing your vendors and serves as an excellent jump-off point for your wedding planning if you are just starting.

Enjoy your free download!

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Frugal Friday: Will Anyone Notice?

There are hundreds, even thousands of ways to reduce the cost of your event. One great way to cut back? Ask yourself the following question whenever you find yourself coveting an upgrade or detail that you are having a hard time justifying: "Will anyone notice if we don't do/have this?". I recently had a meeting with one of my clients and we were discussing menu options from a list from our caterer. She was undecided between entrees and wanted to choose two different ones to satisfy everyone, even though she knew mostly everyone would be happy with the one [cheaper!] option. So I said to her "Your guests will enjoy this option very much, and if you don't offer them this other choice in addition, how will they know any different? They will simply enjoy the meal that they are served.". Needless to say, she nixed the idea of the second entree and stuck with only one, saving over $500 on catering costs.

Of course it is fun and fulfilling to work on small details of your event to make it your own and exactly as you envisioned it, but it is realistic to know that some guests probably won't notice or appreciate as much as you had hoped. If you have a budget to accommodate as many details large or small as you wish, then by all means, go crazy with as much as you want! But if you are looking for ways to trim your budget, give this trick a try and see how many things, when you take a step back and rationalise, really won't matter to you in the long run. Remember that events are about you and your guests having a great time and anything that will cause you stress or financial woes is not worth getting in the way of that goal!

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Frugal Friday: Michael's Email Club

Photo Credit: Onmidway.com

If you are all about DIY-ing ["Doing it yourself"] then there's probably a pretty good chance that you have stopped by a Michael's craft store once or twice. I'm pretty sure I keep my local store in business single-handedly- there is just so much stuff there that I covet! Even a walk through the store gets my creative juices flowing.

**Cue the Frugal Friday segue.** Are you a part of their e-mail newsletter club? If you are, then you know that you get a 50% off coupon immediately for joining and the weekly ad delivered to your email inbox as well as intermittant special offers and coupons. And if you aren't? Well... you are missing out! Click here to sign up and start saving on everything you need for your next event from cupcake liners to rubber stamps.

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Recessionista Party Tips: Free Magazine Download

Photo Credit: Wedding Style Guide

Although it's nice to have a hard copy of a magazine in your hands sometimes, a free digital issue isn't a bad thing once in a while! For a limited time (read: only 7 more days) you can download a free copy of the Wedding Style Guide, a gorgeous Australian publication overflowing with amazing inspiration. Check it out here.

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Recessionista Party Tips: Host a Swap Party

Photo Credit: Ellen Silverman

Real Simple recently posted a great article called "How to Host a Swap Party" with some tips about how to hold a party for you and your girlfriends to swap clothing, accessories, shoes, bags, whatever! Here are some highlights along with my added ideas.

• [Invite] friends with similar taste. For a good variety of merchandise, eight people is a manageable number, though anywhere from 3 to 20 is doable.
• Serve delicious snacks that you can eat with one hand, leaving the other free to root for loot. Make it a true "swap" party and have each guest bring a plate of portable snacks.
• Be clear about what’s swap-worthy. Ask friends to bring clean goods in gently used condition. Even further, make sure people are bringing items of the same theme. Let your guests know if it is a strictly clothing-and-accessories swap or all-out swap-fest where everything but the kitchen sink is fair game to bring.
  
• Guests should also come with an extra tote bag for carting home their finds. As a party favour, purchase a reusable bag for each of your guests to bring home their "new" clothes and accessories. Try this one from reusablebags.com or these from pop deluxe.
• Give guests room to spread out their items by clearing off surfaces, such as dining and side tables, and using bins and trunks to serve as display space.
• Set up a garment rack with hangers, or string up a clothesline, then prop up a full-length mirror. Make signs, and sort fashions by size, type, season, or even personality.

Have you ever hosted or been to a swap party?

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party pick: Baskin Robbins 31 cent Scoop Night

Photo Credit: Eric E Yang

Tomorrow [Wednesday April 29th 2009] is 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins and Baskin Robbins Canada. Bring your friends and family in to your local Baskin Robbins location and enjoy a scoop of your favourite BR ice cream for only 31 cents plus tax. Baskin Robbins Canada is donating $10,000 to the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation in celebration of this annual event. Since the boy is a firefighter, it is a cause that I personally find important, so I encourage you to get out there and get some ice cream!You can also make an individual donation to CFFF at your Baskin Robbins location. Baskin Robbins in the US will be making a $100,000 donation to the National Volunteer Fire Council National Junior Firefighter Program.

So head over to Baskin Robbins tomorrow night between 5pm and 10pm. There may even be a firetruck at your location and firemen on hand to serve your scoops! You can RSVP to the Canadian event on Facebook here. Follow the American event page here. For more information, visit the Baskin Robbins 31 cent Scoop Night home pages here and here.

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free greeting cards

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How to Enter
1. Make a blog post on your own blog about the contest.
2. Then leave a comment at the end of this post, describing what you would use the free greeting cards for. Include the URL of your blog post along with your comment to be eligible to win.

Prize
250 greeting cards for one winner

Rules
Printing is free, winner only pays the shipping fee.


Good luck!!

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free Earth Day e-cards

Photo Credit: Nasa, The Visible Earth

Earth Day is fast approaching! I am a big eco-freak so I love Earth Day. I just received an email from World Wildlife Fund containing this year's batch of free e-cards. I am obsessed with e-cards! While I love love love real cards, e-cards can be sent out at any time, even the day-of the event or occasion and there are so many different holidays and milestones to be celebrated, it can get expensive to send out real cards all over the world to friends and family for each one.

So, without further ado, you can access the WWF e-cards here to send to your friends and family. Come back on APril 22nd for my Earth Day party phD!

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recessionista party tips: $5 coupon from Party Packagers

I am a coupon queen. I love to print out money saving deals or clip them from print ads. I received this one in my email inbox a few days ago from one of my go-to party stores, Party Packagers.
Party Packagers has toys, candy, balloons, favours, décor items and gifts galore. Sometimes I find that their stuff is a little overpriced, and sometimes I find amazing deals. I guess it depends on the location and the time of year. They do have things that I don't see anywhere else though, and I enjoy just perusing the aisles and getting inspired.

So click here for the ad and a $5 coupon when you spend $25 or more. Have fun finding fabulous party supplies!

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recessionista party tips

Photo Credit: Dominic Hallau

planning a party on a tight budget? take heart, everyone feels the pinch in some way or another and what better time to host a celebration than at a time when we all could use a boost?

Read on for some money saving party planning tips.

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