From flowers to food, planning a wedding is a big advantage for businesses, but a big blow for many couples. Getting married does not have to destroy your bank account. While the average cost of a wedding is around $ 25,000, a wedding you do yourself can save you a lot of money if you follow a few simple steps.
step 1 budget
Create a Vision First, you need to decide how you want your wedding to look and feel. Maybe you can not have everything you want, but no matter how much you want to spend, you should develop a general idea of the aesthetics of your wedding.
- Where will the ceremony and reception be? Inside or outside? In a church or other public place?
- Would you like a great event to invite all your acquaintances or an intimate service with a reduced guest list to your confidants?
- Would you like a wedding in spring, summer, autumn or winter?
- What is the style? Modern or retro? Traditional or daring? Rustic or urban?
- Will it have a topic?
- Prioritizing You may not be able to realize all the ideas of your vision, but some colorful and original details can make your wedding as memorable as any majestically-organized wedding.
- Discover which aspects of wedding design you can do yourself. If you do not need a lot of time, you can probably keep it.
- Pick some important details that you want to focus on your design and focus on making them stand out.
- Calculate how much you should spend on each aspect. Wedding planners recommend using the following formula to share the cost and prevent any item from getting out of hand.
- 48-50% for the reception. It’s easy to get caught in the ceremony, but the reception is just as important and expensive!
- 8-10% for flowers.
- 8-10% for entertainment and / or music.
- 10-12% for professional photos and videos.
- 2-3% for invitations.
- 8% for different expenses and possibly for a wedding coordinator.
- Make sure you book between 5 and 10% more for surprise issues, such as printing more invitations due to bugs, sewing preparations, rainy umbrellas, and wedding program affiliations.
- Set up a general budget. Think of all the things you need, but be honest and conservative about what you can spend. On the one hand, this is a one-time event, but on the other hand, it is hardly worth going bankrupt for a nice party. Set a total amount and try not to pass.
- Separate part of your budget for each issue. Create a budget table and place the money in each part of the event. Keep track of how much you spend and enter it on the sheet.
- Remember, if you can save on one thing, you can move that money to another side to have more space in other aspects (or to keep it economical). Make sure that the sheet compares your actual spend with the expected one to know if you are over budget or not.
step 2Find cheap suppliers
- Examine Talk to other newlywed couples you know. Surely you have consulted several suppliers for your wedding. Ask your suppliers as well. The wedding industry is very close so your photographer can recommend a good chef or the wedding clothing store can recommend a great florist.
- Call many providers. Compare the prices! Only decide for someone, if you have compared their prices with those of others.
- Recognize when you should decide. Find a balance between quality and price. Think carefully whether it is worth bringing a costly detail into the general idea of the wedding. Will someone notice the real golden ribbons in the decorations? Sometimes it’s better to opt for a cheaper version and keep up with other things.
- Change your budget according to your needs. Your budget is an idea, but it will have to change as you begin to enter real numbers.
step 3 You are original
- Print Your Invitations If you have an artistic vision or like design, this can be a great way to cut costs and personalize your wedding. Wedding invitation designers can charge you a lot of money for their services by comparing them to popular print types that you can use for your design.
- Use artificial flowers instead of natural flowers. This may seem common, but high quality flowers can be incredibly expensive. There are many alternatives of flowers that will look just as good remotely and have their charm at close range. Sometimes you can get these flowers for much less than the natural ones, and you can lend them to another couple once you’ve used them.
- Make your own decoration too That saves you a lot of money instead of professional decorations and you can add your personal touch and style to your wedding. In addition, it can be a fun creative experience.
- Buy in cheap stores. Luxury wedding dress stores can cost you several tens of thousands of dollars for a dress that you only wear once. However, there are cheap stores that offer similar dresses for a few hundred dollars. The same applies to the clothes of men.
step 4 Unite everything
- Get the money as fast as possible. If you can pay in cash and in advance, you have the ability to access suppliers that fit your budget and provide their most economical services, such as not spending any other expenses, such as: In addition, the economic providers are quickly exhausted, so it is better to have the money ready to rent their services as soon as possible.
- Keep track of what you spend. Every time you make an issue, write it in the spreadsheet. Do not exclude! If you do that, the costs will go out of control.
- Expect the Unexpected From a climate that does not contribute to a flaw in invitations, from suppliers to guests, you incur expenses that you have not calculated or foreseen. Stay calm and get ready for these extra expenses.
