This is the moment you have been anticipating. You got engaged and now you are marrying the person you love. You want the wedding of your dreams, but then you have to consider reality. Let’s face it, weddings are expensive, but there is no need to break out the tissues just yet. Here are ten ways that you save money while planning a wedding. With these tips, you will still get a beautiful wedding that you will cherish forever but at a lower cost.
Budget First, Plan Later
The worst thing you could possibly do is start your married life with a mountain of debt from having the wedding of your dreams. That usually happens when you start planning first and then start thinking about how to pay for it later. The most realistic way plan your wedding is to start with a budget that you can afford. First you can list where the funding will come from, and then you can plan a wedding that will fit into that budget.
List your Priorities and Learn to Compromise
Remember that old adage, you can’t have it all? That’s certainly true when planning for a wedding on a limited budget. Make a list of your musts and wants and then allocate a portion of the budget for them. Prioritize paying for the musts and compromise with the wants.
Get Married During the Off Peak Season
Being a June bride can be expensive because the demand for venues and services are very high during the summer months. Consider setting a wedding date during a less popular month. Not only will you get the venue on your chosen date, hotels and restaurants will probably be willing to offer packages at a special rate.
Keep Your Wedding Party Small
Nobody will be offended if you don’t ask you third cousin once removed on your mother’s side to be a bridesmaid. With the economy the way it is and with most people affected by the recession, they will definitely understand that you want to keep costs at a minimum by having a small wedding party. You can take it even further, and you don’t have to invite the whole town to your wedding. Just invite those people who truly matter to you as a couple.
Ask the Wedding Party to Pay for their Outfits
In lieu of wedding gifts, you can just ask members of your wedding party to pay for their outfits. This has actually become more popular in recent years. It takes the cost of outfitting your bridesmaid and groomsmen off your back, and they would not have to think of what gift to give you. Just choose styles and colors that they can wear again in other formal occasions.
Make Your Own Invitations
Chances are you already have a computer that has some graphics software installed, and there are lots of great looking DIY wedding invitation ideas on the internet. You can easily go to the craft store and buy whatever you need. Making your own wedding invitations is often cheaper, and it is more personal as well.
Buy in Season and Buy Local
Choose flowers that bloom during the month of your wedding. Also choose a menu that features ingredients that are in season. As much as possible, choose items that are locally produced or made within the region. Buying in season means that supply is plentiful and prices are cheap. Buying local is cheaper because the transportation costs are lower.
Recruit Your Friends
Your friends are the best manual labor out there because they will either work for free or work for food (or booze). They can be put to work from delivering invitations and to helping decorate the venue to running errands and making the wedding souvenirs. If your friend works at a company that you can use for your wedding, you might also be to score some discounts. Your friends will most definitely help you out because they will probably have the same idea and recruit you for their own wedding.
Consider an Amateur Photographer
You don’t need to hire the best wedding photographer around, and there are many amateurs that are just as good. They’ve probably even invested in the same equipment. The difference is that amateur photographers are in it for the love of the art and do not really make a career out of it. They also work cheap with some small trade-offs like maybe entering a photo in an amateur competition. If you have a friend who is an amateur photographer, that’s even better since you could possibly ask for his or her services as a wedding gift. They might even be able to throw in wedding photo books for free.
Use a Coupon for Your Honeymoon
In the past, people took lavish month-long honeymoons in exotic places like Fiji or Bora Bora. You don’t have to jet off to far off places to enjoy your honeymoon. Chances are you won’t be leaving your hotel room anyway. If you plan early, you can score some great deals on airfares and getaways from online coupon sites. You can save as much as 50-60% off when you buy these deals. However, you should always read the fine print before you use these deals.
Weddings don’t need to be super expensive. What’s important is that you get to spend your life with the person you love.
In what ways were you able to save some money while planning for your wedding?
10 Money-Saving Tips For Your Wedding — 9 Comments
Due to finances, we cut costs by getting married in Vegas and more or less skipping a traditional honeymoon. Hearing how much people spend on weddings is crazy.
That are actually a lot of ways to save on your wedding day. Instead of hiring a planner, do it yourself or get your friends invoked. They would love to be a part of it. And give it a lot of tie, plan ahead and you will save a lot.
You can also have an “early” wedding with enough time for all the wedding professionals you hire to go to a second wedding later in the day. You can get a 20-30% discount on that basis alone.
Great tips! Planning your own wedding works if you really have time to do it, but if not you can still do it provided you ask your friends and family to help. It’s a lot easier to DIY things nowadays because of technology.
Puerto Rico and Mexico are extremely cheap honeymoon spots. Its only a few hundred dollars for airfare/ housing, and food is dirt cheap there! You can always sit on the beach in you tropical paradise for half the price of fiji!
We definitely had a budget for our wedding which wasn’t much at all and we planned it off season which really helped. Another thing we did was keep it private and small. We didn’t want all the hoopla so we had only close relatives and a couple of friends and that were it. We remember every minute of our wedding at it was perfect and we didn’t go broke to have it!
Budgeting first is crucial, Dominique – great point. Also, it will keep costs down to hire as much younger (i.e. college age) help as possible for some of the skilled tasks such as photography, as you point out.
1. DIY on invitations, wedding souvenirs, and flower arrangements.
2. Amateur photographer? We have a friend who is starting a photography business. He volunteered to cover our wedding for FREE! In return, we are going to promote his business to family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. He is now a famous wedding photographer in our city.
3. After the church ceremony, we had our reception in my grandfather’s house. Because I come from a big family, my grandfather’s garden is huge it can accommodate 200 guests.
4. Yes. My wedding party paid for their own outfit.
5. My auntie made my wedding dress.
This is the moment you have been anticipating. You got engaged and now you are marrying the person you love. You want the wedding of your dreams, but then you have to consider reality. Let’s face it, weddings are expensive, but there is no need to break out the tissues just yet. Here are ten ways that you save money while planning a wedding. With these tips, you will still get a beautiful wedding that you will cherish forever but at a lower cost. 
Due to finances, we cut costs by getting married in Vegas and more or less skipping a traditional honeymoon. Hearing how much people spend on weddings is crazy.
We plan on doing a lot of things ourselves. It will take more time, but I would actually prefer to make things myself luckily 🙂
That are actually a lot of ways to save on your wedding day. Instead of hiring a planner, do it yourself or get your friends invoked. They would love to be a part of it. And give it a lot of tie, plan ahead and you will save a lot.
You can also have an “early” wedding with enough time for all the wedding professionals you hire to go to a second wedding later in the day. You can get a 20-30% discount on that basis alone.
Great tips! Planning your own wedding works if you really have time to do it, but if not you can still do it provided you ask your friends and family to help. It’s a lot easier to DIY things nowadays because of technology.
Puerto Rico and Mexico are extremely cheap honeymoon spots. Its only a few hundred dollars for airfare/ housing, and food is dirt cheap there! You can always sit on the beach in you tropical paradise for half the price of fiji!
We definitely had a budget for our wedding which wasn’t much at all and we planned it off season which really helped. Another thing we did was keep it private and small. We didn’t want all the hoopla so we had only close relatives and a couple of friends and that were it. We remember every minute of our wedding at it was perfect and we didn’t go broke to have it!
Budgeting first is crucial, Dominique – great point. Also, it will keep costs down to hire as much younger (i.e. college age) help as possible for some of the skilled tasks such as photography, as you point out.
Here are ways I was able to save on our wedding:
1. DIY on invitations, wedding souvenirs, and flower arrangements.
2. Amateur photographer? We have a friend who is starting a photography business. He volunteered to cover our wedding for FREE! In return, we are going to promote his business to family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. He is now a famous wedding photographer in our city.
3. After the church ceremony, we had our reception in my grandfather’s house. Because I come from a big family, my grandfather’s garden is huge it can accommodate 200 guests.
4. Yes. My wedding party paid for their own outfit.
5. My auntie made my wedding dress.