Other Bargains

Today’s Guest Post is from Heidi at Budget a Wedding.   Heidi is a wonderful resource for saving for that Big Day! ~Sherri

Mori Lee Wedding Dress

Being frugal is about learning how to get what you want at a price that you can afford. Why be the sorry consumer who pays double for the exact same item?! We can all learn to be successful frugalites and that starts with learning how to combine deals.

One of my favorite examples for combining deals is when you or a loved one is shopping for a wedding gown. I write about ways to save money on weddings at my own site and the bridal gown is one of the best ways! Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to buy a knock off wedding gown or fight other brides at a basement sale. All you need to do is be a smart consumer. If you are a bride or know of a bride then these tips will save you lots of money! If you are not then hopefully you will learn something just by seeing how easy it is to combine deals.

Wedding gowns are usually important to brides. When asked what their priorities are, a wedding gown comes up as one of the top items. That is not surprising, a wedding gown is what most people will remember. Unfortunately, even a budget wedding magazine tends to showcase expensive gowns. If you walk into a bridal boutique you will pay top dollar for that bridal gown, but you can get the exact same wedding gown for less and here is how:

Do Your Research

I think budget wedding magazines are great! They provide inspiration and will help you pinpoint what it is that you really like. When you find a designer you like then you can go online to see the entire collection. Pick out a few bridal gowns that you really like and see if the style is similar.

Find the Gown you Want

Once you decide on your gown all you need is the designer and style number. Once you have that then you just need to do a simple internet search using that information. The wedding gown that I have pictured in this post is by Mori Lee and retails for $1431.95.

Search Online

The key to this step is to find a reputable bridal salon that sells the dress cheaper. Avoid locations that ship from overseas. There are many knock off sites that ship from China and the dresses are not the same quality (or the same label). Many salons will sell you the dress cheaper online because their own costs are lower when a bridal gown is purchased online. Once you find the best price print out the offer page. In the case of the dress above, there are many online bridal salons (with brick and mortar stores) selling it for $954. There are also a few selling it for around $300 that do not list a store address. Stay away from those ones! You want a deal, not a headache.

Price Match

Here is where your deal combining skills come into play. Head over to RKBridal, a brick and mortar store in New York, and use their price match program. This way you know exactly who is selling you the dress and the price you will get. You will have to fax them the offer page you found online and they will beat it by 5%. In the case of the Mori Lee dress, it would save an additional $47.70 to price match with RKBridal.

Learning to combine deals will always save you just a little bit more. And that little bit adds up, whether you are looking for ways to save money on weddings or ways to save money on your groceries. If you walk into a bridal salon you will pay $1431.95 plus tax ($1546.51 at an 8% rate) for the Mori Lee bridal gown. If you purchase it from a bridal salon online you will spend $954 and if you purchase it using RKBridals price match program you will spend $906.30. That extra $603 can go towards other things you would like to have on your wedding!

I hope you enjoyed this post. I’m Heidi and I write about how to budget cheap weddings at www.budgetawedding.com. I hope you stop by and learn more budget wedding tricks!

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