How to get free wedding items
Top 5 FREE Wedding Planning Apps and Websites | *BEST* Resources for Budget Brides
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don't mind all my gray hair I haven't
been dyeing it so yeah hello YouTube
welcome or welcome back to my channel my
name is Tina and I make videos every
single week on DIY lifestyle and right
now I'm focusing on my wedding series
and I feel like a broken record because
I've said that so many times now but in
case you're new here that's what I'm all
about and for today's video I wanted to
talk about my five top favourite free
resources for planning your wedding a
few of you guys have been DMing me and
asking me specific questions about my
wedding things that I did to plan it and
I thought that putting my top favorites
in a video would be super helpful to a
lot of you guys so that is what we're
doing today I'm not gonna be mentioning
some more basic sites like Pinterest
because obviously Pinterest is such an
awesome resource but outside of
Pinterest I wanted to talk about some of
my favorite things that I use to plan
and I chose resources that are a little
bit more basic so then a lot of you guys
can use it and obviously I picked ones
that I use for free because I did not
want to pay for any services that were
like online and not tangible so I'm
gonna dive right into it and talk about
the platform that I used for my website
and that was actually Zola autumn
wedding writer the not and Zola I just
like their designs the best and the
design that I picked was called violin
it just had this beautiful calligraphy
it was nice and classic and it didn't
look too templatized which is what I was
kind of avoiding there are other
websites that you can obviously pay for
or you can also pay for a domain so
instead of having Zola calm slash Tina
and Brian wedding it could be Tina and
Brian wedding calm but I didn't really
care about that so obviously I just used
all the free applications on Zola so
definitely the top thing that I liked
from Zola was their website design I
absolutely loved how my wedding website
came out it was also really easy to use
the UI was very intuitive and it was
just easy to navigate easy to change
things and put things where I wanted
them to be it just had a nice clean look
and that's exactly what I was going for
so that was the number one thing and
just to keep in mind the capabilities
and Zola are also similar to things like
wedding wire and the not it is just
based on your preference of what you
value but for me the wedding website
aesthetic was like my number one concern
because I'm just a sucker
four things that are really pretty so
obviously having a beautiful website was
important to me I also used it for my
gift registry
that's what Sola is mainly used for is
for their wedding registry they have a
great app for that and it really pulls
in all different types of websites so
then you could put in exactly what you
want on your registry so that was really
helpful especially for my bridal shower
and also getting cash gifts or honeymoon
funds you can also do that on that so I
really liked using their platform for
that and lastly it was really easy to
just import your guest list and have
everyone RSVP on there I was really
grateful for this because I had four
different like meal options and it just
made it easy for me to put all the
choices on there get people's guest
names people can check in and it was
also nice because you can ask your
guests for music suggestions or any
little questions that you have dietary
restrictions all that good stuff so Zola
is definitely a good place to go not
only for registry but also for the
website so even though Zola was my
preferred platform for my wedding
website
I really enjoyed using the knot and
wedding wire to look at vendor
recommendations and reviews that is
where I want to go connect with
different vendors I actually found my
photographer on there and I really liked
how intuitive the platform is because
you're able to go in put in the zip code
of your venue or your local area put in
your budget it just has some great
filters in there so you can find exactly
who you're looking for for a good price
so instead of having to go to so many
different vendor websites it's all
listed there for you and then when
you're actually interested in a vendor
you can go ahead and click on their
profile see what they're all about go to
their website if it really piques your
interest and get in touch with them also
if anyone's looking for a great wedding
chart planner wedding wire has a great
one on there I don't have these all
linked down below so for my third
resource it's going to be the most basic
and most unshockable and that is Google
Google really has their ish together and
just is a great resource to use number
one if you haven't already please make a
wedding email it will just make your
life so much easier
that is basically where I would have all
my communications with vendor
I would sign up for email newsletters to
save some coin whenever there was like a
sale having an email for you and your
partner to check jointly it's just so
much easier and at the time might you
might email and at the time I had the
word wedding in my email address but if
I were to go back I would just make it
straight up like our two last names or
whatever the new last name will be
because we still use that email today
but it still says wedding in it so it's
kind of awkward so I wish that we just
didn't put the word wedding so that's a
tip for you guys if you're gonna make a
wedding email just make it your new
joint email together so you can have all
of your new accounts in that email it's
not only great for our organization but
it's just a great way for you to save
money because they're always gonna get
the latest sales and stuff in that inbox
without having to clutter your normal
inbox another great tool from Google is
using their forms that honestly was a
lifesaver especially for capturing
everyone's addresses I don't know why
but my friends are getting married are
still just like texting people or
Facebook messaging people for their
addresses but honestly just save
yourself the headache and make a basic
google form asking people for their
email address their mailing address all
of that information so you have it all
in one place instead of having to like
text everyone one by one and then like
in putting yourself like it's just gonna
take too long so make sure that you do
that and if you know that people are
gonna be moving around in the middle of
your wedding make sure you reach out to
them and ask for their new mailing
addresses because there's definitely a
few males that did not make it to the
new address so yeah just a quick tip and
then the third most helpful tool from
Google was just using their sheets
that's honestly how my husband and I
tracked all of our budgeting what are
you yelling well I hope no one heard it
and the third most helpful app from
Google is definitely using their Google
sheets that is honestly what my husband
and I use for our budgeting there are a
lot of apps out there that you can use
for budgeting for your wedding but for
some reason by husband I just really
liked using Google sheets
it's just what we know and love using
best so just using some simple formulas
setting aside a budget and making sure
that we were staying under that budget
was really helpful to see in Google
sheets and
only for budgeting but that's actually
what I use to make my timelines and I
can actually link down my actual
timeline in the description down below
but was this a good way to kind of
create a calendar especially for our
wedding party to have an overview of all
the things that they were committing to
so there are definitely a lot of ways to
use Google sheets but those are just two
examples and my fourth resource has to
be money-saving resources so places like
Rakuten and honey really saved us a lot
of money so in conjunction with getting
a new credit card to really rack up all
the points and all the mileage which
could be a whole video in itself using
Rakuten is honestly a great way to save
some money on top of the money that
you're getting back for cash back on
your credit cards this is not a
sponsored video by the way but Rakatan
is basically the new version of Ebates
so if you sign up for the first time you
get like $10 off and then you can
download their extension and just see
all the cash back rewards that they have
usually it's like 4% back but on certain
days things can jump up to like 8 or
even 12 percent cash back and that
really does just add up over time so I
would definitely recommend downloading
that extension as well as honey because
obviously honey just like gives you all
the coupon codes for free and the
extension just automatically populates
with the best coupon and I'm sure the
budget Brides already know all about
this but like if you don't already just
do yourself a favor and download those
two extensions
I still use both of those extensions
today and it just really helps me save
some money and it makes life a lot
easier and the fifth free resource I
want to talk about is Facebook I feel
like I talked about this in like every
other video but honestly I just love
Facebook marketplace so much because you
can find so many good things on there so
many brides are selling their use decor
and that is actually how I got some of
my decor so things for my centerpieces I
got on there for a lot price so I bought
like a hundred sixty votos for like $60
which is really awesome because they
almost look brand-new and it's just an
awesome way to like save some money
there but also just keep upcycling items
so Facebook marketplace is really
awesome but also Facebook groups are a
great resource because you can find
things locally and have
real recommendations from people I think
it's a great way to crowdsource things
especially when you're looking for local
vendors like a seamstress or a
photographer you can also crowdsource
things like your wedding hashtag I've
definitely have seen people go on there
and put their last name with their
future spouses last name and like all
the comments below are really creative
ways to kind of like play on the words
so if you're ever feeling stuck when
you're wedding planning definitely go to
a Facebook group like so many people are
there to the help and support and it's
just a great community to be a part of
I'm no longer a bride but I'm still on
there because but I'm still on those
things just in case anyone like asked a
question and I'm able to answer it and
I'm also selling things on those groups
so definitely check out Facebook groups
and the best way to find a Facebook
group is by putting in your local area
so I searched up Chicagoland wedding and
I joined like maybe three different
groups and it's just awesome being part
of a community of Brides that know
exactly what you're going through and
just like get advice from them and you
can give advice to other people so would
highly recommend if you haven't already
joined one join a Facebook group and
those were my five favorite online
resources for weddings again I just want
to say thank you guys all so much for
your support and for watching this
channel it really means so much to me
when I get nice comments it makes me
happy that can help someone out there
especially in this crazy time
we're almost at 3,000 so that is really
awesome I can't believe how fast that we
are growing thank you guys so so much it
just makes me so so happy and I love
filming these videos so if you have any
suggestions please leave them in the
comments down below and I would love to
make a video on whatever your suggestion
is don't forget to follow me on
Instagram I'm posting every single day
on there and that's it for today's video
I'll see you guys in the next one bye
[Music]
Related queries:
how to get free wedding stuff
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