Cover credit: Lina Hayes
Your wedding is the biggest day of your life and if money were no option, you’d have a huge extravagant wedding day. But unfortunately, you don’t have an endless supply of money to spend. Weddings are pretty expensive these days and people can easily end up spending a huge amount of money on their big day. But if you’re just about to start a new life with your partner, you’ll need money to buy a house and start a family.
That’s why it’s often better to spend less on the wedding day itself and keep some of that money aside for the future. You’re probably disappointed right now because you think that means you won’t be able to have the wedding you always dreamed of, but that’s not the case. If you just use these simple tricks, you can massively cut the cost of your wedding without having to make too many big compromises.
1. Get Married Outside of The Weekend
Saturday is the most popular for weddings, which also means that they’re a lot more expensive than any other day. Obviously, it’s easier for everybody to attend the wedding on a Saturday because most people won’t be working, but if you do it in the week instead, you can save yourself a lot of money.
When you’re looking at a wedding venue ask what the price difference is between the weekend and a weekday, it’ll probably be quite a bit. Friday is a good day to do it because people will only need to take one day off work and they’ve still got the rest of the weekend. If you are going to get married on a weekday, just remember that you need to give people a bit more notice so they can arrange the time off work.
My ex-husband and I chose a Friday, for sailing reasons, but it actually saved us significantly from the ferry hire and the boat hire, to the cost of catering and band.
2. Use a Beauty App for your Wedding Hair and Makeup
You’ll want to look your best on the big day and beauty, hair and makeup is essential. Doing your own makeup is not really a great idea as you’ll be nervous and it is no time to experiment. There are many freelance makeup artists that are very expensive and the budget friendly makeup artists and hair stylists are pretty expensive, if you want a guarantee of quality.
If you want to have a guarantee of quality, head for apps like the Glamazon App vets all their therapists and the fees are surprisingly affordable. Your wedding makeup is too important to scrimp on, but an app like this can save you trialling a bunch of artists and they come to you.
3. Arrange Dates Around Your Suppliers
Your caterer, band, and florist for your wedding set their prices based upon the time of year, Spring being the most expensive. If they’ve got a period in which they don’t have that many weddings, you’ll many get a discounted price. Speak with suppliers and ask when their quiet periods are. If you can plan your dates around them a little bit, you’ll be able to get a better price from your suppliers.
4. DIY Invitations
If you have a creative flair, it might save you some money to DIY your own invitations, place cards, RSVP cards, menu cards, and so on.
Notes on where not to scrimp
Photography
I have witnessed and worked on many, many weddings and seen some total successes, but have also seen fails. You don’t need to choose the most expensive photographer in the world for great photos, but make sure you see genuine previous work, ask about cost of wedding prints and books. Most photographers make their money after the wedding on prints, so be mindful of this. The cover photograph was from Finnish photographer Lina Hayes.
Catering
The food is a lasting memory for guests and bad food will remain forever imprinted. I can still taste congealed gravy at probably the worst wedding I went to. If you can’t afford a meal, have canapes, but make sure they are great quality. With catering, less can be more if it means quality, pick your time of day, after lunch, before dinner mean people don’t expect a full meal. Do ensure there is enough food so people aren’t drinking but not eating enough.
You can have the wedding of your dreams but using your creativity and being savvy can save you a pretty penny.
