You all love reading our wedding advice articles so here’s another one but for those who are on a budget or maybe you’re just trying to stop the costs from escalating. Here are some tips that we have used for our own special days.
Make your own invitations
I always feel that sometimes the parts of wedding you perhaps don’t control are where you can lose a budget. Making your own invitations is a great way to cut printing costs and of course you could extend this to your order of service and name settings. It’s also worth looking for any discounts on the high street for blank invitation sets, you might spot these at a discounted price after the summer has passed.
Decorate the tables yourself
Buying table decorations can be really expensive but like above many craft stores will have discounts through the year and you could get yours at a discounted price. If you needed to buy a lot of decorations, ask to see the store manager as you might get a discount for buying in bulk.
Keep the guest list small
We’ve had big weddings and some of us have had smaller gatherings too. Those of us who have had larger weddings, cannot remember everyone who went to their special day and even said that the guest lists had got out of control. Those of us who had smaller weddings, felt that the day felt more poignant and enjoyed not having to make awkward chat with people you didn’t know that well.
Plan as much as you can yourself
As soon as you mention the word ‘wedding’ you can just add zeros onto the end of the quote they have been given. It can be hard to plan all of your day but be sure to enlist family and friends for help. We’ve all helped at weddings to try to ease the cost for family and friends.
Keep your stress down
There will be a lot of things that at some points through the process will seem out of your control and keeping up with your wedding budget tips might seem difficult at times. Try not to let it overwhelm you and remember to get the help that you need, as mentioned above, but don’t overcome the stress by paying for extra help. It’ll end up costing you more because it will probably be a last minute payment.
Hen and stag parties
We have mentioned about using the ‘wedding’ word can make costs escalate and the same can be said for hen and stag parties too. Asking your bridal party to arrange your hen do can sometimes mean that they plan something that maybe out of your budget. Remember to talk it over with them first and you’ll find that sometimes just booking a table for a meal without mentioning ‘hen party’ or ‘wedding’ is the best way to keep things on the lowdown. You can also look online for hen party games and on pinterest for hen party printables. We were informed by our male writers that stag parties are a lot more calm than they used to be but most preferred a night out in the pub.
Do you go with fake flowers?
Sometimes you’ll have seen weddings and wondered how much all the flowers cost, at the church at the reception – it must add up! Yes, it really does. You only really need flowers for yourself and or course the bridal party. If you’re using the tip from above about table decorations, you can move these around easily throughout your day so if you’re worried it will be too plain, don’t worry!
Some of us used fake flowers from craft shops as no one could even tell the difference. Obviously you might not want to do this and we get it but if you just keep the flowers to a smaller group then you can keep the cost down.
Wedding Favours
We can all remember making our own wedding favours and also helping family and friends too. You’ll find some great ideas for cheap wedding favours online and especially on pinterest too. Quite a few of us loved the idea of having a jar of old school sweets on every table for people to share. We also liked the idea of a pick n mix station too as you could easily get the sweets and bags cheap in advance.
Using your own playlist
Who doesn’t love making a playlist? How about making your very own for each part of your ceremony and celebration? Don’t pay out on a band or a DJ if this is something you’d like to do or could get someone to help. We all made sure that we picked at least ten songs that we wanted to listen to on the day and then also asked the bridal party too. It can be a great thing to ask on the invitations for each guest to pick a song.
Asking for help
We have already mentioned about asking for help but this time we mean something a little bit more. You may find that people have skills like photography or maybe a musical talent too that could be used instead of them giving you a wedding gift.
The main thing that we would say is that people will understand that you want to keep things on a budget and they will do all they can to help.