Practical suggestions to help save money on wedding costs
Use flowers that are in season: ex. gerber daisies in spring, roses in summer, deep colored mums in the fall
Get crafty and make your favors
Ask a musical friend or relative play a song at the ceremony or reception (it’s a cheap way to add live entertainment),www.dressesforbest.co.uk.
This isn’t something you’d pay for, but bridesmaid dresses don’t have to come from the bridal salon, your bride might find something appropriate at a department store
This is hardly a complete list; consult the bridal magazines… you can even borrow them from the library 😉
Best wishes on a long and fiscally responsible marriage!
Good question. I recently heard of friends spending $25k on the event and I couldn’t figure it out—I’d rather put a down payment on a house or Porsche or maybe travel the world for 6 months.
Keep it real. I got married when I was a bartender in Germany. We had a professional photographer, a friend of a friend, do it free. We spent around $150 each on off the rack clothes, $150 on the cake and had friends put up the cost of the after party in their backyard. Plus, since I was a bartender, all my team pitched in, bought a 2nd wedding cake and free drinks all night for our group of 10 friends. The rings were $300 for both, 3 bands of gold: red, white and yellow. Our honeymoon was to Prague (close by) for about $1300 I think. So if you keep your expectations reasonable, you will have reasonable costs. We got married at the state ceremony only, since it was a medieval castle from the 1400s for $100. I had a kick-ass wedding for $2000 and came out positive after all costs, since we requested cash, not presents. If you are spending more than the guests are putting in, then you’re wasting money. If they are your true friends, does it matter if you have a backyard brunch or lobster plates at $40 each? Who do you need to impress? The important thing is to enjoy yourselves and cherish the memory.
wyas that my friends have saved is to use an iPod and rent a sound system in place of a DJ. Just be sure to have yoru best man or someone make annoucements, and sort fo guide the party, and worry about the flow of music (eating music will be different from dancing music)
Another way is to offer buffet style food, serve only beer and wine ( or no alcohol at all). Depending on where you live, it might even be better if you can find a place that lets you stock your own alcohol, that way you get to keep want is unused.
I ahve had freinds through a wedding for as little as $2000 (dress was off the rack, www.dressesforbest.co.uk or from a place like banana republic), reception was at a park, plastic utensils and plates, brought own alcohol, catered by wife’s family (sort of like pot luc) ipod as DJ and if you rent 5 tuxes from Mens whearhouse (have 5 groomsmen?) theyn the groom can get his for free…
Wedding, like most other life events, require adequate planning. There is a simple equation. Planning plus people equals performance. This means that as you increase the amount of planning and people involved within the process, the greater results or performance that will be realized.
Questions that should be answered along the process:
. Where should we get the money to pay for this life event?
. How much is too much?
. How should we allocate expenditures? Wedding, Honeymoon, etc.
. How do we maximize gifts while minimizing wedding day expenditures?
. What should we do with the gifts?
