Cost-Effective Wedding Attire

Wedding attire can be expensive and we really wanted to allocate more of our wedding budget to things like food & drinks & food (we know where our priorities are).  That’s why we went to great lengths to find the best value and save money for our bridal party’s attire.  In total, we spent less than $1,200 on suits (& ties) for four groomsmen and the groom and dresses for four bridesmaids and the bride!  & we think all ten of us looked pretty fly.

Here’s how we did it

Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids dresses were ordered online from Donna Morgan.  I purchased final sale while there was an additional percentage off and they came out to be about $59.99 each (+ tax).  I wanted to find a dress that was long (so they could wear leggings under their dresses because it was really, really cold).  I love the ethereal, chiffon overlay on these dresses.

Bride

I got very lucky and purchased my dress from David’s Bridal on Black Friday over a year before my wedding when all sale items were an additional 50% off (who knew DB celebrated Black Friday, amiright?).  While I’ve heard many mixed opinions about David’s Bridal, their prices are very competitive because they want to move merchandise.  However, when searching for wedding dresses I went to several smaller, boutique stores to try dresses on.  The sales associates at these stores were much more knowledgeable about their products and asked great leading questions to get me to think about what dresses/styles/materials I liked or didn’t like which was very helpful because nine times out of ten I loved every single dress I tried on. Let’s face it, wedding dresses are (for the most part) all beautiful.

I opted for this princess cut champagne dress with tulle overlay by Oleg Cassini, because when else can a normal person were such a dress?  For that reason, I am currently selling the dress if anyone is interested.

Groom & Groomsmen

I balked at the price of renting tuxes and suits. So I set my heart on purchasing suits so our guys could wear them over and over again.  H&M actually has a fairly wide selection AND they are slim fit (an added bonus).  At retail, a set of grey jacket and pants would cost approximately $100 — REASONABLE.  But we took it a step further.  By signing up for H&M’s newsletter, you can get a coupon for 20% off one item.  H&M accepts coupons shown from your smart phone, and they don’t keep track of how many times the coupon has been used.  So, we purchased five jackets and five pairs of pants one at a time, using my 20% off coupon each time. We purchased the items on Georgia’s no-sales-tax-back-to-school day for additional savings.  The suits came out to be close to $80 each. We also purchased the matching vest from H&M for the groom.  We asked our groomsmen to bring their own white shirt and brown shoes.

For ties, we went to JC Penney and used their “spend $25 get $10 off” coupons (that’s a 40% discount!).  We broke our items into multiple transactions (Extreme Couponing style) getting as close as we could to $25 per transaction.  We got four ties to match the bridesmaid’s dresses and a  champagne tie for the groom, to match the bride.

Summary

Bride Dress: Oleg Cassini (CWG468); Jewelry: Necklace from Costco & Earrings from Macy’s (gifts from my mother-in-law); Shoes: Audrey Brooke Quillan Platform Pump from DSW; Shrug: previously owned from Old Navy (classy.)
Bridesmaids Dress: Donna Morgan Amy in Grey Ridge
Groomsmen Jacket & Pants: H&M; Ties: Stafford from JC Penney
Groom Jacket, Pants & Vest: H&M; Tie: Stafford from JC Penney; Shoes: Cole Haan; Watch: Motorola Moto 360

Your bridal party can still look good on a budget.