Top 10 Smart Ways To Reduce Your Wedding Budget. When you think about weddings, huge expenses are one of the first things that jump to mind. But while it’s true that planning a dream wedding can take a toll on your budget, there are many ways to lower your wedding expenses. Here are 10 ways to reduce your wedding budget.
1. Consider Your Wedding Style
We all have different goals when it comes to weddings, but the type of wedding you choose can make a huge difference in your budget. To lower the cost of the wedding, opt for a more relaxed wedding, preferably in the open air. Beach and wood weddings are very memorable and cost significantly less than a restaurant reception.
2. Ask Your Friends For Help
For your wedding, you will hire many professionals, including wedding planner, photographer, videographer, baker, makeup artist, and hairdresser. Bet you have friends or family members who do those things as a hobby! Asking your close friends to do your wedding makeup, photography, or cake can save you a lot of cash.
3. Go For Digital Invites
Designing your wedding invites has got to be one of the most exciting steps in the planning process. However, getting the invites professionally printed and sent out is also rather expensive. To save money, you can compromise by designing beautiful invites and then either sending them out via email or print them at home.
4. Accept Bids
You want your wedding to go over as smoothly as possible, which is why it’s not the best idea to go for the cheapest wedding professionals. Still, you need to remember that the wedding industry right now is very competitive and service providers are prepared to go to great length to secure your business. Simply let the providers offer their bids and then choose the one that fits your budget.
5. Trim Your Guest List
Your first instinct when planning a wedding is to invite everyone in your social and family circle. However, going from 150 to 100 guest will significantly reduce the cost of your wedding and will be barely noticeable since you will still have plenty of guests to chat to.
6. Make Your Own Schedule
At most weddings, the photographers and videographers are paid an hourly rate and stay until the cutting of the cake and the bouquet toss. You can take off some money from their rate by moving these wedding events a couple of hours earlier – your guests won’t know the difference!
7. Adjust Your Dress
A wedding dress is one of the most vital aspects of any wedding ceremony and you probably already know what kind of a dress you want even if your wedding is still far away. The good news is that by going for a cheaper fabric and fewer embellishments but keeping the style of the dress you want can help you save a chunk of the wedding budget.
8. Fewer Flowers
Delicate and beautiful flowers are closely associated with weddings, but they can also be quite expensive. You can leave the flowers for your bouquet and possibly hair accessories, but opt for flowerless decorations for your wedding venue and tables.
9. Hire Beginners
Experienced wedding professionals charge a fortune for their services simply because they have a strong reputation, but beginners offer much more competitive rates and may be just as good. Look for a wedding cake baker, MC, band, makeup artist, and other professionals who are only kick-starting their business to save some cash, but always make sure they provide an acceptable level of service beforehand.
10. No Wedding Favors
Giving your wedding guests party bags to take home is a relatively new tradition, and while it is surely lovely and thoughtful, the cost of the favors can account for a big chunk of your budget. You can either skip the wedding favor step in your planning at all or opt for something cute and very inexpensive like a customized cookie, a key-chain, or a candle.
