Guest Post – Down With Fraggle Rock

 

Happy Friday everyone! Wow! Friday already…kind of sad! Today, I’d like to introduce you all to the lovely Kayleigh from Down at Fraggle Rock! I have been a bloggy friend with Kayleigh for a shorter period of time but she has been wonderful! We have been each other's wedding therapists! She is getting married in less then 4 months (Eeee!) and you should really head over to read about her coming nuptials!

Please give Kayleigh a very warm welcome! :-)

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Hello Lovelies! I’m Kayleigh from over at Down at Fraggle Rock, and I’m filling in for the wonderful Lindsay while she is off enjoying her newly wedded bliss. Congrats to the happy couple and I can’t WAIT to see the pictures (I’ve been stalking her wedding planning for months, so this is kind of a big deal haha).

I myself will be taking the big plunge into marriage in a few short months. Seriously, we just hit the four month mark and I may or may not be starting to freak out about everything I still have to do. Yowzas!

Wait… let’s back up. Let’s introduce the fiancé since he’s a pretty important part of this whole equation too! This is Big A. My main man. My best friend. And, of course it helps that he is ridiculously handsome… but I know I’m biased.

I’m here to talk about, what else… wedding planning! I’ve spent the better part of the past year searching, buying, refining, designing, you name it, I’ve done it. It has been full blown wedding, wedding, wedding.

We are paying for a good chunk of the wedding ourselves, so we have had to be smart about our purchases (I say we, but we all know that I just mean me!)

The most important advice that I can give you when it comes to buying things for your wedding, is that you hardly EVER have to pay full price for ANYTHING.

Seriously… I paid full price for my dress and the lights for the centerpieces (but the lights were $10-$15 cheaper EACH than any other website that I found). That’s it. The following websites & tips will be a dream come true when it comes to staying in your budget.

First of all… ALWAYS look for coupon codes. I Google everything. Just Google the name of the website and either “coupon code” or “promo code” and you will get some good websites.

Also, sign-up for every websites newsletter. You will get a million e-mails a day, but then send you updates on sales and special coupon codes.

My last tip… patience is a virtue. If you wait on something, then it will probably go on sale. They will probably come up with a coupon code for it. (Note: if there is something that you HAVE to have and it seems too good to be true, don’t wait. Just buy it if you have the money, otherwise you may have to pay more or not get it. I waited on the centerpiece lights and almost had to pay double the price!)

Seriously, because of this I saved us almost $100 on our Save the Dates, $50 on the groomsmen gifts, $100 on one of the bridesmaid gifts, $120 on our invitations, and LOTS more. And that adds up fast, trust me! (Plus let’s not forget the rush you get when you know you are getting something amazing for a great deal!)

Now… for the websites:

Save on Crafts: 

This site has some seriously great stuff. They don’t do promo codes, but their prices are still really good.

Michaels:

Sign up for their e-mails and you will get coupons almost daily. Also, we got our invitations from their MiDesign line. We waited months and months, and ended up getting 30% off with a promo code.

My Wedding Favors:

They have some great stuff. And their clearance, you can name your own price on some stuff. I literally just put in low numbers until they finally accepted the lowest they would go. I ended up getting something for $10 each instead of the $22.99 price tag.

Cards & Pockets: 

These guys make some great paper products. I bought our monograms for our invitations from here. There prices aren’t bad (although, I strongly suggest just ordering the monograms on one sheet and not paying the price to cut them, I ended up borrowing a paper cutter anyway and wasted like $15 total to get them cut) and they have promo codes from time to time.

Etsy:

I found some awesome things on Etsy. And most of the sellers are AMAZING! They even sometimes give you discounts when you are ordering more than one of something. Here are the ones I have worked with on wedding stuff and have nothing but AMAZING things to say about them:

Wedding Planner: Annelyn Designs

Engagement Ornament: Sunshine Ceramics (I didn’t want to wait and see if someone bought us one since we would only have one Christmas engaged!

Iron On Transfers: Something Glitzy (Everywhere I looked was really expensive for something small, these are a great price for a great size!)

Jewelry: Dos Puntos Accessories (I’m obsessed with skulls so I bought myself a fancy little bracelet to wear at the wedding)

So, those are my tips and tricks. I’ve found some great websites along the way. I can NOT stress more that if you find a random website that seems like a dream come true, Google it. I almost ordered from one website that had so many bad reviews about them double charging and not sending your order, I am SO happy that I looked them up before ordering. You can just enter the name of the website and put “reviews” after it. Google is a beautiful thing!

Well ladies (and gents?) that’s all I have for today. I hope that Lindsay is having an amazing time and I know we all can’t wait for her to get back to hear all about it.

Until then… if you need a wedding planning fix… head on Down to Fraggle Rock… I promise it will be nothing less than entertaining.

Smooches!