Planning A Wedding? My List Of Cheap Wedding Ideas
If you are like most of the brides out there, than you know that there is a lot of planning involved with planning a wedding including finding ways to plan your wedding on a budget. Here’s my brainstorm of things you can do save you money on your wedding reception panning. They’re quick and easy to do, and they’re a good place to start.
Avoid goods and services labeled ‘wedding’ when you can.
As an example “wedding private dance lessons” could be $200 per hour. But go to a ballroom studio for “ballroom private lessons” and you may only pay $80 to $100. That’s a 50% discount. If you are able to apply that to EVERYTHING then your wedding budget just got cut in half. For example, you can find regular catering instead of “wedding” catering. You can find wholesale flowers instead of “wedding” flowers. And so on.
Think simple.
As an example, instead of going for specific flowers, feel free to use whatever is in season. It is definitely going to be cheaper as out-of-season flowers are significantly more expensive. As another example, keep your cake, favors, and the dress simple and that will cut down on costs too. If you pare down the menu a little bit, guests will likely not notice. Just make sure that the items you choose are tasty, because that’s what your guests will remember: if something was tasty or not tasty, not necessarily if lobster was available. I have been to one wedding where steak and lobster was available but it was not that good. Another wedding I was at had the most delicious chicken available. Even though it was the only choice, it was incredibly tasty. Going to food tastings can help you decide what’s good and what you can skip.
Instead of buying, see what you can borrow. If you must “purchase”, see if you can barter.
Can you borrow a fancy sports car for transportation? If you own your own business (like website design) can you barter with a wedding vendor to trade services? You might find there are quite a few skills you can use to bargain with. If you are flexible on vendor choice feel free to barter skills with all your vendors and see which one bites.
Shop around for good deals as you would any non-wedding item
Look online for heavy markdowns. In fact, google using the word “wholesale” such as “wholesale flowers”. Try eBay for hidden gems. Check corporate gift makers and corporate promotional item manufacturers as well. They specialize in personalizing all sorts of different items.
Buy an “older” wedding dress.
Unless you are a fashionista or your friends are fashionistas, no one will really know this year’s look compared to last year’s look or even the year before. Prices will definitely be lower for previous year’s styles. Many dressmakers will sell last year’s styles on eBay.
Book your venues early. Avoid the “desirable” times.
If you can lock in your venue a year in advance, you lock in the lower price as well. Unless you have your heart set on a certain date for the wedding, consider holding it in the off-season. Save money by booking any day besides Saturday evening, which is the most popular and hence most expensive. Evenings are also popular, so if you book during the day you can save a bit here too. A wedding brunch may be less conventional than an evening reception, but it can be just as elegant and memorable. One exception to this rule if you are daring is to book the date, and as your wedding date nears phone all wedding venues to see if there have been any cancellations. You may get a good deal this way. I don’t recommend it but I have heard this wedding tip thrown out there and wanted to repeat it in case it was interesting to you.
Select your vendors and services wisely and “minimalistically”.
This also goes along with keeping things simple. Only buy what you need. Do you really need the fancy photo album right now? My friends found a photographer they really liked. He was a bit more than others but they paid to get a cd of photos only, no prints, no wedding books. They wanted the quality now that they could print later. Also you can try to find non-profit venues where your payment to them is tax deductible. Or even consider seeing if you can find a charity to donate any of your wedding purchases too after the wedding. Flowers could possibly be quite easy to donate and then can be written off.
My last tip is actually an interesting and fun wedding and honeymoon idea. It is from Erica Yoon’s Amazing Wedding Planning ebook. (Check out my website if you want more wedding planning book and ebook recommendations).
“If you want a fun, exciting and cheap honeymoon, go to Las Vegas, Nevada. If you’ve heard about all the cheap gourmet food and services, I can tell you that it’s true. I happen to live just outside of Las Vegas, and it has so many gourmet foods and services that I love to jump in the car and hit the buffets for dinner.”
This idea is great because you can have a fun, inexpensive honeymoon and save money while you’re at it. And I love buffets, especially the ones in Vegas.
Those are my tips for today. I hope you find at least one or two of them applying to your situation right away and saving you some money! Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!
Stop by Kennly Yakamoto’s Wedding Planning site where you can find out all about how to be your own wedding planner.
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