The Broke-Ass Bride's Wedding Guide: Hundreds of Tips and Tricks for Hitting Your Budget

by Dana LaRue, Astrid Mueller (Illustrator)

For budget brides, including fans of TheBrokeAssBride.com, this is a definitive guide to saving money and making every dollar count during wedding planning, from the engagement party to the big day, without sacrificing style or personality.

Brides-to-be, do you dream of rocking a wedding full of personality, pizzazz, and style, without compromising your dreams or kissing your budget goodbye? Well, bust out your happy dance because today is your lucky day...you're holding the key in your newly-betrothed hands!
 
In the pages of this witty guide, Dana LaRue, creator of thebrokeassbride.com, shares hundreds of tips and anecdotes for getting the most bang for your buck, celebrating your personality as a couple, and making wedding planning fun. She
 
·         The top 14 money-saving rules for choosing your location, dress, menu, and music—and most important of all, enjoying the day
·         Engagement party and rehearsal dinner ideas that won’t break the bank
·         4 tips for finding your dream theme
·         Sample budget breakdowns ($1,000; $5,000; $10,000; $15,000; and beyond) showing where couples saved and splurged
·         Her very own road-tested advice for becoming a negotiation ninja
·         7 ways to keep your booze budget under control
·         DIY décor projects and recipes you can make without risking a bridezilla meltdown
·         Online planning shortcuts, tools to find savings, and helpful websites for organization and style inspiration

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Amanda Knox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. First, I just don't know that this book is practically helpful. It certainly addresses the range of options out there, but it doesn't really talk about making what you want work for your budget (or visa versa). What I found most annoying was that LaRue claims to have written this book to be LGBTQ friendly, however the consistent she/he pronouns and white hetero images are almost blinding. Just too basic for what I was hoping for.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good tips (though some are a bit extreme)

[Erica Robyn Metcalf · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Broke-Ass Bride's Wedding Guide by Dana LaRue is a hilarious and incredibly helpful book that can help ease you into wedding planning mode!

I picked this up a few months after our engagement, but before we started really getting into the weeds of wedding planning. If you can, I highly recommend picking this up soon after getting engaged, before you let the stress of wedding planning kick in.

However, if you've already hit the wall of stress, you have to go get this book right away! Trust me. It really helped me! How? I'll explain in a minute.

Let's dive in!

My thoughts:
Right from the introduction, the authors fun and upbeat tone drew me right in!

It is very hard to explain... but the book is also written in a way that made me feel comfortable, like this was the perfect wedding planning book for me. So many lines in the intro really jumped out at me and made me feel both a bit calmer about the whole wedding planning process, but also excited and fired up rather than stressed!

And I mean…the font is purple. So of course I loved that feature! :)

There were SO many passages and pages that I took many notes from. But of course, as this isn't a one-size-fits-all kind of book, so there were other sections that I just skimmed or occasionally totally skipped.

Other sections made me crack up!

A few of the things that really stood out for me and where I am in the wedding planning process included:
* Sending out a group email to the wedding party to introduce everyone and giving them a way to contact one another if needed.
* Budget-friendly bachelorette/bachelor party tips.
* The pros and cons of various music options for the day of.
* Tips to keep in mind before hiring any vendors.
* Tips to make the most of the big day.

My favorite passages:
Embracing you inner Broke-Ass means using creativity as currency to rock a bad-ass wedding without breaking the bank.

Remember, you are a team. Thus, teamwork is to be expected. And there is no i in “teamwork,” but there is an ass in “forced assistance."

Like many things in this world, it's not the size of your wedding party that matters, but the motion of the… ocean? Wait, no. If this wedding party's a-rockin', don't come a... Oh, hell, let's take this back a tick.


My final thoughts:
This is a must read for any individual that is looking for wedding planning tips! You'll love the upbeat and fun tone. Happy planning!

[Dele Tosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're already thrifty you'd probably already know all the tips in this book. A good read nevertheless

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read this super thoroughly (more like skimmed and stopped at places that seemed relevant). It was entertaining, and I appreciated the reassurance that it is possible to not have a completely traditional wedding and still have it feel like a wedding. I'm not sure I got many concrete tips that I'll use (although I really liked the sample budget plans), but I liked the author's voice.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review:http://heathersreadinghideaway.blogsp...

Quick Review: This was so much fun to read! It gave me great ideas for my wedding and helped me feel more confident that I can actually tackle the daunting task of planning a wedding. I highly recommend this for anyone planning a wedding.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok guide, but it's not very comprehensive. It's more like a tip book. It gave me some good ideas for budgeting, but the style of writing was kind of corny. I have nothing else to compare it to, so it's as good as any other, I suppose.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview, and maybe a little less floofy-and-expensive than the rest, but not anything you can't easily find online. At this point in my process, not useful at all. Maybe if you're just starting out.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you can spend $20,000 dollars YOU ARE NOT BROKE!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas/tips, but it made me realize I wasn't as broke-ass as I thought.

[Jillian Salazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not meant to be read front to back but to pick out what applies to you. I'll be going back to this as a helpful guide up until the big day.

[Aiko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helping my cousin plan a low-budget wedding, but a lot of the sample budgets came from people who just happen to have a fabulous connection to get a free or discounted venue, caterer, etc., making them useless for our purposes. However, the gist of the book is to tap your creativity and cut out waste, and there were a few ideas that I hadn't seen elsewhere. A good springboard but by no means perfect.
3.5/5

[Kiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a helpful book- it had great tips and ideas for doing your own wedding on a budget- but it also helped normalize the process when so many of the other things that you see are unattainable pintrest weddings or celeb weddings.

[Kelsey Keys · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was definitely helpful in some ways, especially just letting you get an idea of what a wedding entails. However, it’s very dated. The website doesn’t exist anymore, the author is remarried with no social presence. I think it could be a solid, helpful book if it was updated!

[Kimbra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up as a broke-ass bride, and honestly found it to be a helpful read.

[Lesa Parnham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good information. more for a rustic outdoor wedding.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dana LaRue is hilarious, and as far as wedding planning goes, this book makes it seem a lot more painless. I'm going to be referring back to this over and over as we plan our wedding for the spring.

[Susan Schubert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful, I took extensive notes, and there are lots of good resources for further study.

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy read. Some helpful tips. Not super memorable, though.

[Alyssa Greatbanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. Unlike other books of this type where you read just the parts you need to know, I actually read through the whole thing, even stuff I knew we were not going to do.

I just really liked the friendly, open tone the book had, like you were just chatting it up with your bestie. Even with a more laid back and humorous tone it did have a lot of good information, it even had Pro and Con lists for some of the things so you could get a good idea of what you wanted to choose. I prefer reading how-to books that give you all the options and help you decide what is best, because it isn't like everyone is the same and is going to do things the same way. It even had a few 'Do Not's to hopefully help you avoid any disasters.

I would recommend this to anyone who is planning a wedding, it shouldn't be the only book you read, but it would be a strong start. Worth the money and the time. I just wish she had more books for me to read!

[Danielle Robertson Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. The author's personality really shines through her writing, which makes it that much more fun to read, and that much easier to relate to her intentions and her advice. I found a lot of great tips in this book and I have pages of notes of ideas that I'm going to implement in my own wedding. I especially liked the chapter on being green and saving green, because being environmentally friendly, and the amount of waste generated by a single wedding was not something I had previously considered. That chapter changed my mind, and changed my perspective. So much great advice in this book, I highly recommend it to anyone planning a wedding.

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was skeptical of wedding how-to guide books, because a lot of what I've read is useless to a couple that doesn't live anywhere near a big city in terms of resources and overall mindset. This book does have some things that don't apply to me, but it also offers a wealth of ideas for budgeting, planning, and execution, and reminds me of some of the little things that I may not have otherwise considered. My favorite aspect is that the author celebrates all types of weddings, and I don't feel like a schmuck for the decisions I'm making. This is a solid guide book for anyone planning a wedding.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a cute and funny book filled with great ideas. I loved it.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read for someone planning on wedding on a budget. Great tips and advice for the wedding I didn't have. I had a great wedding planned by family. However I had some ideas I would of loved to do.

[Avanti Bogle]

pretty interesting, had some good tips in it. Things I'll consider for the future

[Alicia]

DNF... No time