You understand that the best way for your wedding to be a big success is to plan in advance. Many couples spend a solid year of their life planning for their big event. If you plan on doing it on a budget, you may need even more time if you intend to have an amazing wedding at a low, low price.
Whether you’re trying to learn more about a pink wedding dress that you can get very cheaply, or you’re trying to find low-cost flowers, an affordable banquet hall, or just about anything else for that matter, you have to be willing to put in the time and effort. Planning is going to help you get everything you want and so much more so definitely take this seriously.
Lastly, you may want to go on the perfect honeymoon and setting up a Honeyfund account might be the best way to go. Instead of getting traditional wedding gifts, you can ask your guests to contribute to your honeymoon fund to help you have the ideal dream vacation with your spouse right after you get married.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some tips to make it easier than ever to plan a wedding on a budget:
Tip #1: Try to Keep Your Guest List to a Minimum
As you can imagine, the bigger your guest list, the more expensive your wedding is going to be. So try to only invite your closest family members, friends, and coworkers and avoid attempting to throw the biggest wedding reception in history.
It can get really tempting to have a huge wedding and it’s often a lot of fun. But the costs are going to really add up quickly, so if you’re attempting to stick to a budget you need to keep your guest list as small as possible.
Having a destination wedding makes it a lot easier to keep your guest list at a minimum, and destination weddings in the Caribbean tend to be a lot cheaper than wedding close to home.
Tip #2: Pay Somebody You Know to Handle the Catering or Cater the Wedding Yourself
Do you love to cook? Are you an excellent chef? Or do you have someone in your family who can handle this for you very cheaply?
Food can get very expensive when hiring caterers for weddings. Instead of paying top dollar to have someone prepare your food, you can either prepare it yourself or have someone close to you prepare it very cheaply. This will cut down on your food costs drastically and leave this extra money available for other parts of the wedding.
Remember, people aren’t going to necessarily ask about your wedding caterer during the event. So if you can prepare healthy, good-looking, and delicious appetizers and dishes yourself or have somebody close to you do it for you, you’ll certainly save a great deal of money and make it easier to stick within your wedding budget.
If you’re open to doing something completely out of the norm, you may want to have your wedding catered by one of your favorite affordable restaurants. Let’s get real, how excited would you be if you went to a wedding and the food was Chipotle or even Chick-fil-A. The steak and chicken dishes at weddings are usually mediocre at best and the vegetarian options are usually sad and soggy.
Tip #3: Be Your Own DJ or Have Someone Close to You Do It
Hiring a DJ for your wedding reception is also relatively expensive. But you can bring your own stereo equipment or computer equipment and handle the music yourself.
Simply place speakers all around the dance floor of the reception hall or reception room and begin playing an amazing playlist on your iPod or phone.
Why pay somebody top dollar to play music when you or someone close to you can do it for free? Seriously consider handling DJ responsibilities yourself or ask a young cousin or your really hip best friend to take care of the musical selections on your big wedding day.
You could also reach out to an established DJ school/training center to see if you could hire one of their new alumni or a current student.
Tip #4: Mix Fake Flowers with Real Ones
Flowers are very expensive, way more expensive than you may think. Especially if you want flowers that are out of season for your area, or flowers that don’t grow locally at all. Instead of having multiple bouquets and center pieces with real flowers, mix in fake ones here and there to cut costs down. Believe me, people won’t even notice and you could save hundreds of dollars.
To prevent your flowers looking too fake, search Etsy. There are a ton of sellers that sell affordable fake flowers that look very realistic. You could also mix a plant like eucalyptus in your bouquet. Eucalyptus smells great, and this Australian plant tends to be affordable year-round. Plus, it smells great! Baby’s breath is another good option if that’s more your style.
It may seem nearly impossible to stick to a budget when planning your wedding but it doesn’t have to be. Use the tips and guidelines we’ve shared today and you’ll find it easier than ever to have an incredible wedding without going over your budget in the least.
For more help planning your wedding on a budget, consider checking out Boda Guide. I launched Boda Guide a few weeks ago to help couples plan their affordable destination weddings. Check it out! You can download my book for your Kindle here.
xoxo,
Amanda Raye Scozzafava
