Clark's Big Book of Bargains (21 page)

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CHAPTER 6
EVENTS

Some events happen once in a lifetime, others once a year. No matter what the frequency, a little advance planning can make a big difference in how much you enjoy the event, and how enjoyable it is for your wallet.

There are so many ways that weddings, parties, and other events can be done more affordably. The events you have time to plan are the ones that provide the best opportunity to save money. They’re also the ones that can get us in the most trouble, because of the endless options. You lose track of your original goals and get caught up in lots of tempting possibilities. You reach just a little farther and deeper into your wallet.

Instead, take a step back as you plan an event, and think about what you remember most and enjoyed most about special functions you attended. Very likely it was the people you got to be with and the event itself, not every tiny detail. Keep that in perspective as you plan.

As long as you keep people well fed, all the rest is less significant. Come up with your budget and stick to it.

The same applies to shopping for annual events like birthdays and Christmas. You’ll read a lot in this section about how to plan, how to budget, and how to save. I hope you’ll take some of it to heart.

* PARTIES *

If you’re planning a big party—a graduation or engagement party or perhaps a religious celebration—you’ll find a wide range of prices on catering facilities. And the way to find the best deal is old-fashioned digging. You have to call place after place after place, and along the way you’ll discover more questions to ask.

One way to save is to take advantage of the weekly calendar. If you’re planning a weekend event, you can steal a deal on space at an airport hotel, or a hotel that caters to conventions, because they’re not as busy on the weekends as they are during the week. They want you to book a Friday night or Saturday night event, and they’ll negotiate to get your event.

We’re having a big party for my thirteen-year-old daughter, Rebecca, at a luxury hotel, because it was the cheapest place I could find—about a third cheaper than the next cheapest place. The hotel caters to business travelers and has no weekend business at all. The space was going to be empty anyway, so they basically waive the facilities charge. Then you pay the same food mark-up as you would anyplace else. If you live in a city that has a lot of conventions, contact the local convention and visitors bureau and get a schedule of major conventions. Schedule your special event when there are no big conventions in town.

On the other hand, you can save tons of money on events that traditionally are celebrated on the weekend, such as weddings, by shifting them to other nights of the week. Don’t laugh. A lot of brides actually are moving their weddings from Friday or Saturday night to Tuesday night or Thursday night, because of the incredible amount of money they can save by doing that. (For more on how to save on weddings, see the Weddings section of this book.)

Ask the restaurant or catering manager: “I know that’s your price for Saturday, but what would your price be if we did it on Sunday? What would be the price if we did it on Thursday?” Thursday’s becoming a big event night because it’s near the end of the work week, like Friday, but it’s a lot cheaper. It doesn’t sound as strange to people as having an event on Monday.

If you’re planning to have music at your event, you might be surprised to find out how inexpensive it is now to have a disc jockey versus a live band. The cost of the equipment has declined so much that a lot more people are working as party DJs, and that competition has driven the price down. I hired a DJ for Rebecca’s party, an on-air personality from a local radio station, for just $450 with karaoke.

If you’re hiring a live band, or maybe just a keyboardist, it’s critical to hear them play, and not hire just on price. If you don’t like how they sound, the price doesn’t matter.

The same is true for food. It’s easy to compare one menu to another, but if you don’t like the food, price is irrelevant. A caterer should give you free samples. If the event will be at a restaurant, go eat there before you decide. Generally, you’ll spend less money having the celebration at a restaurant than having a caterer come to your facility or your home. Surprisingly, having hot hors d’oeuvres isn’t necessarily a bargain. If you’re looking to stretch the budget and still serve people a substantial amount of food, a buffet is more cost effective than having hors d’oeuvres carried around by servers.

You can save money on every phase of a big party. Take flowers, for example. For Rebecca’s party, we’re going to buy the flowers ourselves on the day of the event and take them to the hotel instead of hiring a florist. That’s going to cut the cost of flowers by about 80 percent.

Because laser printers are so good, it’s now possible for you to print your own party invitations. You can design the invitation using something as simple as Microsoft Word. Print a draft on cheap paper first until you get a final version, and then laser-print the invitations onto blank invitation paper you can buy at a party store. By doing it this way, you can drive the cost down to fifteen to twenty cents per invitation, or less than twenty dollars for one hundred invitations.

You can also buy party invitations online. Go to your favorite search engine and search for “party invitations.” Pick any site, pick out an invitation style you like, and fill it out online. You can see exactly what it would look like, and then buy it. The finished invitations will show up in a few weeks, sooner if you put in a rush order. So there’s no more going to the typesetter and reviewing proofs. By cutting out the labor and going to this semi-automated process, you can reduce the cost tremendously.

There’s another option for a surprise birthday party or a housewarming—definitely not for a wedding—and that is “e-vites” (or one of their competitors), the online invitations that you e-mail to your guests. I think they’re really cute, and in this age, when people often don’t bother to RSVP to a party, e-vites allow you to send follow-up reminders, and allow guests to RSVP by e-mail. That brings the RSVP rate to close to 100 percent. They’re fun, free, and convenient.

You can save money on decorations by doing them yourself, and that doesn’t mean you have to paint murals on your walls. The place might not look like a million bucks, but it might look like a hundred thousand bucks, and you’ve spent only a few dollars. For a child’s birthday, the local dollar store is a great place to find party decorations, party favors, and wrapping paper. Party stores are pretty expensive, but still a lot cheaper than hiring someone to do it.

For a smaller party, maybe a housewarming or a going-away party for a co-worker, you can handle the food affordably and conveniently with food trays, available at supermarkets and the warehouse clubs. My brothers and I took full advantage of party trays when we agreed to arrange a hospitality suite for my nephew’s wedding. You buy them in advance and pick them up. They’re about twenty bucks a tray and each tray feeds a lot of people and looks terrific. You can get fruit trays, meat trays, cheese trays, and vegetable trays. You probably could make a cheese tray yourself and save a few dollars—but these things really are great and a good value.

• Tips on Parties •

• Shop around for the best deals on catering halls. Use the calendar to your advantage. Book a convention hotel on the weekend, or ask other catering halls if they will charge less if you hold the event on a weeknight.
  

• A disc jockey is a much cheaper alternative to live music. If you do decide on a band, listen to it play first.
  

• For huge savings, buy flowers yourself instead of hiring a florist.
  

• Print invitations yourself on a laser printer, or use invitations you can create online.
  

• The local dollar store is a great place to buy decorations for a child’s birthday party.
  

• Party trays, available at supermarkets and warehouse clubs, are a good food choice for a smaller party.