Weddings are expensive and there is really no way around it.
However, while there are areas where you have to invest in order to have an amazing experience for you and your guests, there are also areas where you can really save money while wedding planning.
Of course, before you think about where you are going to spend vs. save while wedding planning, you have to have a rough idea of what your total wedding budget is. You might be thinking how the heck are you supposed to create a wedding budget if you don’t know the prices for anything yet. At least that was my thought, but get a general sense of the total you are working with and you can begin allocating your budget. You can also make changes to those allocations down the line if you suddenly decide you want to invest more in flowers for example. Check out this guide on ranges for each vendor to give you a head start. Also, think about what matters most to you on the big day. Do you care most about music, food, decor, dress?
Whether you are working on a tighter budget or just want to reduce spending where you can, here are a few areas where you can do just that and you or your guests won’t notice a thing.
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Guest favors:
What do you do with guests favors from the weddings you attend? Seriously, be honest…These favors usually end up misplaced, tossed in the trash, or in a drawer somewhere only to never be seen again. I suggest skipping favors entirely but if you really want to give your guests something to take home, consider giving something from the wedding that they used that night and can continue to use at home.
My escort cards were cups with champagne and these also doubled as the favors that guests could then take home with them. Another idea is small potted plants that guests are more likely to take care of when they bring those babies home.
Floral Decor:
You might be surprised to see floral on this list but seriously there are so many ways that you can cut costs on your floral decor. Florists like to go wild with the initial contract they show you. You will see flowers included in everything. However, think twice about whether you really need boutonniere (will your groom or anyone else really pay attention to those?), or flowers at the bar.
You can keep flowers to a minimum but just focusing them around the centerpieces and the bride and bridesmaid’s bouquets. You can also keep costs down with floral decor by selecting flowers that are in season only.
Off-Season Wedding Date:
Planning a wedding usually takes about a year but if you can add a few months or tighten the timeline by a few months to get your wedding to fall on off-season months, do it!
December through March are usually the off-season months. Vendors and venues should all have a slightly discounted price during this period of time.
Invites:
If you have a wedding planner, he or she might be suggesting that you use a fancy paper vendor to create your invites. This is absolutely not necessary. You can create amazing custom invites online nowadays and your guests will never know that you didn’t use a fancy paper vendor.
You can send your invites digitally or order prints online and mail them out to your guests. I customized our invites and save the dates with Minted and ordered prints to mail to our guests. They were a hit and so much cheaper!
Click here for wedding day essentials from Minted.com
Signage and Other Details:
Similar to wedding invites, there are tons of fancy paper vendors out there that charge an arm and a leg just to do one custom sign that stands in some corner of your wedding venue. Save your dollars on these details and spend a day browsing Etsy for custom signs, cocktail napkins, menus, table numbers, and more.
My welcome table had a gift box, signage, and other items that I purchased entirely off of Etsy. Some of these details you can even DIY if you have the time.
Wedding cake:
Dessert bars are so in right now! So why spend money on a cake that many people will leave on the table and you probably won’t even get a chance to enjoy. The photos of a cake and the cake cutting process are lovely, but is it worth the price? Consider skipping the cake and going for a beautiful display of mini desserts.
Bar tab:
I can’t tell you how long we debated on whether to pay by consumption or pay a fixed rate for our bar tab. Ultimately it came down to trying to guess how much our guests would drink.
You need to think about the mix of your guests. Do you have a lot of older people or kids that likely won’t drink at all? Are your families or family friends not big drinkers? Do you have a large bridal party that will be tossing back shots at the bar most of the night?
Here is a simple formula that will help you compare a fixed rate vs. paying by consumption:
- Estimate the average price per drink that your venue will charge. For example, we assigned $12 to a cocktail and $8 to a beer, so we took the average of the two and assigned $10 per drink.
- Take your total guest count and estimate the average number of drinks each person will drink. Don’t forget to take into consideration kids, older guests, or pregnant guests that might not drink at all!
- Multiply the total guest count times the average price per drink times the average number of drinks per person.
- This is your estimated cost by consumption.
To estimate the fixed rate based on your total guest count, just figure out how many hours you plan to have the bar open and multiply that by the hourly fixed rate per guest. For example $20 per guest per hour that the bar is open multiplied by the number of hours your bar is open for. You can then compare this fixed rate to the cost by consumption.
TIP: Think about when you can close down the bar during times that you think people won’t be grabbing drinks. We closed down the bar during the ceremony and about an hour during dinner when wine was being served.
xHappy Planning Bride Babes!x
