With my wedding now being just under a year away (time has literally gone by so quickly), there is still so much that I need to book, research and plan for. It’s a wonder how I will actually find time to get any of my wedding planning done with the little time I do have. I know what a lot of people, including my parents are saying, a year is a very long time. But in Wedding terms, a year is next to nothing, it’s no time at all! Considering there is communication chains that need to be tackled from one supplier to another, research needs to be done on prices and where to get the best deal, time does get consumed fairly quickly.
It isn’t just time that proves to be a problem when wedding planning, the cost of weddings can steep up fairly quickly too, with every additional extra reducing the amount that is left in the wedding fund pot at the end of it all. I’ve currently been thinking of so many ways to try and plan my wedding whilst keeping the cost down. Both Ankit (my fiancé) and I have stable full time jobs, own a property and have two needy cats to look after, therefore budgeting for our wedding is essential. But, admittedly, we have seen the cost of our wedding (and the budget) rise up and up since we first started planning. There are so many special and innovative things we want to add to our wedding and share with our guests, it’s difficult to prioritise what we want and what we need. That’s really what it comes down to isn’t it? Both of us thought that by not having the 5 day Indian wedding event (my reasoning for this can be found HERE), the cost was going to be almost halved. We were so very mistaken. So how exactly can we plan a wedding on a budget? Well exactly that will be shared in my Wedding Diaries series, part 3.
❤ The Basics
Don’t get married on a weekend – weekend rates generally have a hefty peak rate on them, which doesn’t help with the cost of things. Yes, it might be difficult to get family together on a weekday, but I think the savings of not having a wedding on a weekend outweighs the inconvenience.
Take your time with things, don’t rush down the aisle. Ankit and I are having a two year engagement, which has meant that when booking suppliers we can book them at say 2014’s prices instead of 2016. Suppliers take into account inflation as well as how much they earned in the previous year, and add a surplus on top of their prices. Doing research on vendors helps too, if you’re rushing your wedding you’re more than likely to rush into paying for something that you can get so much cheaper. I’ve spent so long googling different suppliers and have found ways to help reduce the costs.
Pick the season smartly when getting married. Weddings in the summer months tend to be more expensive than those in the winter months. There’s nothing wrong at all with having a great winter wonderland wedding as opposed to be a lazy summer wedding. Even though it’s in the colder months, there are so many perfect ways to incorporate summer ideas into you wedding but with a winter theme.
❤ Food and Drink
Don’t have a sit down dinner when thinking about food, try a buffet or better yet a sit down buffet. There are so many designs for lazy suzans that can make your guests feel as though the sit down buffet is similar to a sit down dinner. If you don’t have that many guests and are struggling with the cost of lazy suzans, try a buffet where guests go and get there own food.
If you’re thinking of having a number of layers on your wedding cake, ask your baker to make fake tiers on the cake. This itself makes it cheaper than needing to pay for each layer. The top, bottom and one of the middle layers can be real cake, whereas the ones in the middle, surrounding these layers can be fake. The baker can decorate these layers just like the rest of the cake, and your guests would be none the wiser.
You don’t need to offer hundreds of alcohol options, your guests are likely to be more than happy with a few options and the drinks flowing. There isn’t a need to hire a cocktail maker who is able to make every cocktail under the sun. Just have a few cocktails that are your favourites, and have these ever flowing.
❤ The Venue
Some venues require you to use preferred suppliers that they have contracts with, it’s typically better to use a venue that does not have this as a requirement. The suppliers that these venues choose tend to need to add a surplus on top of the contract price to cover additional costs. You’re also less likely to get the best deal and discounts if you’re restricted to suppliers.
Have you found any other ways to save costs when planning a wedding?
Great posts! This is really gonna help with my wedding planning! 😀 so exciting!