Fun With Gift Wrapping: Coming up Rosey!

It's that time of year when we all start our holiday shopping and gift giving routines. It's also the season for engagements, and as many of our friends are proving, babies.

With tight budgets, many of us are scaling back on lavish, expensive gifts. Yet, that doesn;t mean you can't give a gift with the wow factor. One way to achieve this: creative gift wrapping.

For my sister-in-law's recent birthday, we took the stainless steel utensils and water pitcher and turned it into a spring bouqet. We cut out daisy style flower petal rounds and glued them around the utensils. We then arranged the utensils in the water pitcher and wrapped a pretty bow around it. It was a group gift that had a lot of compliments at the party.

A friend of ours also had the same idea for a kids party. They gave the kids flower pot, seed and soil, and made paper flowers around lolipops. The kids then had a treat of the suckers and also got to plant flowers of their own and watch them grow.

So instead of spending a ton of money that you don't have, spend some time on how your present the gift. And don't forget to take the time to stop and smell the roses.

Bookmark this on Delicious

Creating a Budget

One of the most worrisome aspects of any wedding has to be the budget. We can tell you from experience, when you create a budget, tack on at least an additional 5%. Why? Because not only will your taste change throughout the planning process, but also because things will simply will cost more than you expect. Many vendors just hear the word "wedding" and will mark up their prices drastically because they know most customers will pay it.

As stated in an earlier post, the greatest influence on your budget is the guest list. If you haven't read that post, we encourage you to do so and go through with the process of creating your guest list before your budget.

Be In Love Designs has created a simple formula to help you create your general budget. To calculate your budget, simply multiply your total budget by the percentage of each category. You can also modify your budget by slightly changing percentages in aareas where you know you'll spend more or less for those services, (such as a friend is doing your hair and makeup.) Using this formula, a $20,000 wedding would have spent approximately $800 on Wedding Stationery.

Wedding Expenses & Suggested Budget:
42% Reception: beverages, catering, cake, rentals
2% Ceremony: facility, clergy, rentals, license
9% Apparel: gown, formalwear, assessories
10% Photography & Videography: shoot, edit, prints
6% Flowers: ceremony, cocktail hour, reception
6% Music: ceremony, cocktail hour, reception
4% Stationery: invitations, menus, postage, place cards, etc.
1.5% Accessories: favors, flutes, cake & knife servers, etc.
1.5% Gifts: attendants, parents, hosts, to each other, etc.
2% Transportation: bride, wedding party, guests
(Optional)
8% Wedding Coordinator
1% Wedding Insurance
7% Overages: tax, tips, etc.

There are many great wedding planning sites that can help you with your budget. We suggest http://www.aboutweddings.com/

Lessons of this post:
• Start with your guest list.
• Create a budget using the formula
• Leave some "wiggle room" for unexpected expenses

Bookmark this on Delicious