Maddie Eisenhart - Wedding Hacks: 500+ Ways to Stick to Your Budget, Stay Stress-Free, and Plan the Best Wedding Ever!

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First Adams Media hardcover edition November 2020

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Illustrations and hand lettering by Priscilla Yuen

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Eisenhart, Maddie, author.

Title: Wedding hacks / Maddie Eisenhart.

Description: Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2020. | Series: Hacks | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020034717 | ISBN 9781507214053 (hc) | ISBN 9781507214060 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Weddings--Planning.

Classification: LCC HQ745 .E37 2020 | DDC 395.2/2--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034717

ISBN 978-1-5072-1405-3

ISBN 978-1-5072-1406-0 (ebook)

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Acknowledgments

If I had known even a fraction of the information in this book when I got married, I would have saved so much time, money, and tears. Thank you, Adams Media, for letting me put ten years worth of knowledge and experience into something that will help couples avoid my novice mistakes.

A huge debt of gratitude is owed to Jessi Rutherford of Sentimental Fools Events (Baltimore, Maryland), Jordan A. Maney of All The Days (San Antonio, Texas), and Cindy Savage of Aisle Less Traveled, Super Gay Wedding podcast, and Choose Your Own Wedding (Seattle, Washington) for their invaluable insights as professional wedding planners. If you want smart, funny, experienced professionals in your corner on your wedding day, you would do well to hire one of these brilliant humans. Thank you also to Erin Dodd and Genevieve Dreizen for witnessing as many weddings as they have in order to provide such wise, witty contributions to this book. And to Kate Bolen for being my first reader and most trusted editor.

Lastly, my deepest appreciation goes to my family. Michael, none of this would have happened without your crazy notion to get married before either of us could legally rent a car. Lincoln, you made this project possible and worthwhile in so many ways. And, of course, to my mother, who agreed to let me dress up as a bride for my fifth birthday (my idea, not hers), thus sparking a lifelong interest in weddings and marriage.

And to anyone who read this book and felt a little calmer afterwardyou made it all worth it.

Introduction

Congratulations, youre getting hitched! Making it official. Tying the knot. While a wedding might be cause for celebration, the planning process isnt always confetti cannons and champagne toasts. Luckily Wedding Hacks is here to help you create an amazing big day.

Wedding Hacks is designed to be your pocket wedding plannercombining more than five hundred insider tips with practical advice for keeping your cool in the face of impractical expectations, family drama, and financial realities. This book will take you step-by-step through the planning process, from celebrating your engagement to kicking back on your honeymoonsaving you time, money, and stress along the way. Youll also learn how to avoid common wedding planning mistakes that could come back to haunt you later.

With Wedding Hacks, the planning process is covered from start to finish, so no matter where you are in your timeline you can jump right in and get the advice you need. So grab your partner and lets hack your way to the best wedding ever!

C HAPTER 1 Organizing Your Budget and To-Do List

Wait a minute before you plan. Its tempting to jump right in to booking a venue and picking your outfits the minute youre engaged, but hold off on making any major decisions until you have some big conversations with your partner (and families) about budgets and expectations. You cant book a venue if you dont know how much youre spending, and youll want to know in advance if any of your parents have unspoken expectations about the formality or size of your wedding. (They dont necessarily get to dictate those details, but their opinions will factor into your planning one way or another.)

Prepare yourself for sticker shock. The weddings weve seen in movies and TV are incredibly expensive. Most of them feature details that cost more than your whole catering budget, so one of the first reactions youre likely to have while wedding planning is sticker shock. Its helpful to remember that unrealistic expectations arent your fault (those on-screen weddings seemed so reasonable!) and sticker shock is normal. Start planning armed with this information and youre less likely to get your hopes up about the affordability of a five-tiered wedding cake.

Say No! Most wedding traditions arent that traditional at all (youd be surprised how many are pop culture or marketing inventions), so eliminate anything that isnt essential. Take a pause before making any major wedding planning decisions and ask yourselves, Is this really what we want? and give a hard no to anything that doesnt fit.

Research real wedding budgets. One of the most useful tools when youre trying to plan a wedding is seeing how other couples did it first. Reddits Weddings Under 10K forum and APracticalWedding.coms Real Weddings both share detailed breakdowns of wedding budgets and how each couple pulled things off. Even if the wedding isnt in your area, its helpful to know that an ultra-chic $3,000 wedding included a free venue, gifted photography, and a thrift store dress.

Rethink wedding. If youre planning a wedding for less than $10,000 (adjust that number for regional differences in wedding costs), the best thing you can do is reset your expectations around what a wedding should look like. A seated dinner in a fancy ballroom? Probably not going to work. But a family-style taco bar at your favorite park? Now were talking! And creativity can extend beyond your venue. A morning wedding with a breakfast buffet and mimosas will set you back significantly less than a steak and potatoes dinner (and can be just as fun!).