Collaborative Post¦ Why are weddings so expensive? While it’s true that a lot of services offered by wedding suppliers and venues themselves are often costly, it doesn’t mean you need to break the bank. With the cost of living crisis, literally everything seems to be going up in price. Perhaps this has let you to wonder how you can save some money, or maybe you were on a budget to begin with? Let’s take a look at some ways you can save.
Look at the Budget
It may seem obvious, but reexamine your budget. Note how much you want to spend on your wedding as well as the highest amount you can possibly afford to spend to give yourself a margin. That way you’ll know if you can afford to go for something really special that catches your eye, or if you need to just pretend you never saw it. If you’ve been planning for a while, take a look back over your incoming and outgoing money. Are you still in the same financial situation for this wedding as the last time you checked, or do you need to make some savings?
Don’t Just Head to a Bridal Shop
Bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses can be very expensive…but they don’t have to be! The wedding dress of your dreams could be in a charity shop, online auction site or at an outlet shopping centre. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this, but I find a lot of the bridesmaids dresses in bridal shops quite boring – and they’re very expensive. Prom Dress Finder has beautiful dresses that would look great for bridesmaids of all colour schemes. Plus, they’re much easier on your bank account.
Prioritise
Think about what is most important to you both. For instance, would you rather have more entertainment and cheaper outfits, or just have a DJ in the evening and buy a more expensive dress or suit? It’s important to look at the big picture first, before you spend too much on one thing and have regrets.
Think about if there are any things you don’t need to spend on. For many people, a photographer is one of the things they’ll want to spend the most money on. After all, the day goes by so quickly and they capture the memories you’ll be looking back at for years to come. However, maybe you’re living in the moment kind of people and that doesn’t matter to you so much? Instead, you could use an app like Wedding Photo Swap to have all the memories of the day in one place from the perspective of your friends and families. While I loved our professional photos, some of our favourites were the photos and videos our guests took! We used a similar app which no longer exists and it was amazing.
Utilise Friends’ Talents
One of my personal biggest wedding savings was probably on my wedding cake. A work friend of mine got married the year before me and another work colleague made her wedding cake. It looked wonderful and tasted brilliant too. I don’t even usually like the traditional wedding fruit cake, but I really liked hers. In fact, I liked it so much that I asked her if she could make our wedding cake too! She said she would and when the day came, it was just perfect. I dread to think how much it would have cost if we’d gone to a cake shop to have it made…and it might not even have tasted as good.
If you have friends or family that are talented in different ways, why not ask if they could help? It could even be their wedding gift to you!
Say No to a Three Course Meal
Three course meals can often work out a lot more expensive than buffets, so that’s another way to cut down the cost. If a buffet isn’t your style, a wedding barbecue would be fun. Besides, sit down meals tend to take away time from socialising and dancing with your new spouse and guests which is arguably the best part of the day!
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.
Cover photo by Leonardo Miranda on Unsplash.