Still looking for some easy ways to cut the costs on your wedding while still ensuring a fabulous day for your guests and yourself? Here are some suggestions:
- Get married on a Sunday or Friday evening. Saturdays are the big wedding days and busy means expensive. Choose an off-peak day and reap the benefits; also, it’ll be more likely that your choice of venue, caterer, and photographer will be available.
- Can the custom bridesmaids’ dresses. Have your bridesmaids get together and choose a lovely off-the-rack dress instead of having them made individually. You’ll save hundreds of dollars in alterations and fittings.
- Go for drama. Have each bridesmaid carry a single rose or stemmed flower instead of a huge bouquet. Then spend the money on YOUR bouquet; yours will look even more dramatic and lovely when everyone else’s is simple.
- Canned music is fine. Let’s face it; the idea of marching down the aisle to a string quartet playing Pachelbel’s Canon in D is lovely, but who really cares if it’s played on a CD, a piano, or by members of the New York Philharmonic? Use a CD or the church’s pianist and save yourself big bucks. By the same token, a DJ is much less expensive than a live band, and can usually tailor the music to suit the crowd.
- Go simple on the invites. Embossing, foil-lined envelopes, and calligraphic address labels are gorgeous, but do you know where most invitations end up? Yup, the trash or recycling. Go basic and simple and put your cash where people will notice it.
- Skip the hors d’oeuvres. Hot, passed hors d’oeuvres do one thing: Fill people up so they won’t enjoy the dinner you so carefully chose! If there is a long delay between your ceremony and the reception, offer up a buffet of cheeses and crackers for guests to enjoy before the reception starts. Better yet, take photos BEFORE your ceremony and move right from the ceremony to the reception. No delay means no need to feed people.
- Cut your list. Keep your wedding list short. If you don’t know where to cut, cut at the point where if you invite one more person, you have to invite ten more (you know how it goes; “If I invite Cousin Janey, I have to invite Cousins Steve, Sally, Beth, Todd, and April.” DON’T invite Cousin Janey.)
- Get married in the morning. Catered or buffet lunches or brunches are less expensive than dinners.
- Get married locally. A wedding in Aruba sounds romantic, but think of all the added expenses: Hotels, out-of-country licenses, airfare… plus every meal you eat will be in a restaurant! Stay local and take advantage of being on your home turf.
- Elope. Yeah, it sounds silly, but so does going in debt or spending $25,000 on a one-day affair instead of putting that money towards your future. When you start adding up the numbers, heading to Vegas starts sounding pretty good!
- Start a Cash Gift Registry or a Down Payment Gift Registry, an alternative to the traditional retail or online "stuff" gift registry at department stores, Amazon or Zola. A cash registry on ourbridalfund.com will take the worry and hassle out of gift giving and you can use funds to buy what you actually need AS YOU NEED IT, pay off wedding debt, and save for a home. Better yet, go straight to the house with a down payment gift registry at downpayment.gift.