5 Easy Ways to Cut Your Wedding Budget Today

Are you looking for tips to save money on your wedding? Here are 5 easy tips that you can implement today to potentially save hundreds (perhaps thousands) of dollars which you can then redistribute to your wedding honeymoon fund!

1. The Wedding Guest List
If you haven’t already sent out your wedding invitations, you can potentially save hundreds by properly reviewing your guests list. These days it is quite the norm to not include a ‘plus one’ on your guest list and just invite friends that you actually know. This tip alone and can save you a significant amount. Assume that your reception is charging you $60 per guest. If you allow just 5 single friends to bring a guest, that will cost you an extra $300

2. Have a Limited Open Bar
If you are having an open bar, have a limited open bar which only runs for a set time period and stick to set drinks such as champagne, wine and beer. I’ve heard of horror stories when within a few brief hours the wedding couple end up forking thousands just on alcohol.

3. Broaden Your Search
I was having a look at a dress shop at a local shopping centre. There were so many beautiful gowns that could easily be worn as bridesmaid gowns.  You don’t need to buy a dress that is marketed as a bridesmaid gown.  General evening gowns and formal wear dresses are essentially bridesmaids gowns anyway.

4.  Have an Off-Peak Wedding
Typically most couples will get married on a Saturday afternoon with an evening reception, this is considered the ‘peak’ time to get married. By getting married on an alternative day, you could cut the cost of your wedding vendors and venues. When scouting for locations, ask the venue what the difference in costs would be.

5. The eBay Wedding
EBay can be a great source for finding inexpensive wedding favours and wedding décor.  Only buy from sellers that have good feedback and factor in delivery costs and be sure to use PayPal to pay for your purchases for added buyer protection.

Some couples end up buying the entire wedding attire online such as the wedding gown, bridesmaid gowns and groom and groomsmen tuxedos.  I’m always a little wary of buying clothes online, but I wouldn’t rule it out completely. After all you could be like Hannah Kovacs who spent $180 on a wedding gown that retails for $1500

You Don’t Need To Personalise Every Aspect of Your Wedding

Some couples want to personalise every aspect of their wedding. I’ve been to weddings where everything was personalised from the serviettes, table clothes, even the cutlery was engraved with the bride and groom’s initial. This same couple also had most of the lollies in the lolly buffet personalised with their name and wedding date. Most guests end up leaving the empty wrappers at the reception anyway.

Whilst the idea is nice in theory, you can end up spending quite a bit of money personalising everything, especially if you are stretching your budget to do so. So if you are looking for ways to trim the fat off your wedding budget, ditch the personalisation.

Shorter Wedding Engagments Could Save You Money

Shorter engagements can save you money

Many couples tend to think that by having a longer engagement they can save money on their wedding by finding and researching the best bargains.  There is truth to that logic. A longer engagement can also mean more time to save and budget for your wedding.   However, did you know that for many couples the opposite is true?  For some couples having a longer wedding engagement means that they are actually spending more money on their wedding than if they have had a shorter engagement.

If you take a moment to really think about it, you can see the logic.  When you have a longer engagement, there is more time to add ‘unessential’ luxuries into your wedding day. There is more time to browse wedding magazines, visit bridal shows and go to bridal shops. The longer the engagement period is, the more likely it is that your wedding may increase in scale. You may also feel obliged to invite more people to your wedding as the months (or years) pass and as more people find out about your wedding and you may meet new friends.

That’s not to say that all long engagements will result in a costlier wedding, it just means that you may have to work harder at sticking to your budget .

Ask Around for Great Wedding Savings

Often, you can find out about great wedding vendors from other wedding vendors, in non-competing specialities of course. For example, wedding photographers and videographers would take many photos and videos of wedding cakes, so they may be able to let you know about some great bakers. A recent wedding that a videographer worked  at, might have had a great emerging band that is looking for work, but are cheaply priced.

Freecycle Your Wedding

Freecycle is a fantastic concept where people give away unwanted goods instead of tossing them out. The goal is to reduce landfill and most items on offer are in good condition.

You have the option of putting in a ‘wanted’ ad, so you could ask for things that are suitable for weddings.

There are thousands of freecycles groups around the globe and probably one in your town too! Well worth a look into.
Visit http://www.freecycle.org.au

Utilise Existing memberships

When sourcing reception venues, don’t forget to consider any existing memberships that you and your partner hold as this could amount to great discounts. The first thing to do is to think of any direct memberships that you hold such as to golf or sporting clubs as often these types of establishments usually offer their function room and catering services at a discounted rate for their members. Secondly, you need to find out what third-party discounts you are entitled to. Generally, memberships to most organisations not only give you direct benefits and discounts, but they also throw in discounts to organisations that they are affiliated with.

If you hold a membership to a road care organisation you may find out that you have discounts to accommodation around Australia that would be perfect for a honeymoon and discounts to car hire that could be very convenient when selecting your wedding transport.

So before you begin your wedding planning, grab your partner and a sheet of paper and have a good look at all your current discounts available to you. Write down any that may come in handy. Don’t forget to take note of the terms and condition and the expiry date. Some suggested places to look are
-Road/driving clubs
-Existing credit cards usually offer benefits
-Private health organisations usually offer member some discounts to affiliated business
-Union’s are great for offering members great discounts.
By compiling a list of potential vendors and their associated discounts, it will help you get a more concise shortlist of businesses who are going to help you plan your wedding.

Daily Wedding Blog: Do You Know Your Wedding Priorities?

When you begin planning your wedding, you will naturally have big expectations. That might include the big wedding, expensive reception venue, top of the range caterers and gowns. What’s the problem with that you might ask? Well nothing if you have a bottomless wedding budget, but if you are on a budget you need to start prioritising what is actually important to you by actually writing out a list of the things that are the most important to you.

You may find that having the means to invite all your friends and family to your wedding is more important to you than using the top caterers and your choice of a bridal bouquet is more important to you than having those expensive bridal shoes.

There are no right or wrong answers when doing this exercise. It is merely a way of finding out what is important to you and allocating funds from your budget accordingly.