Yes, you can have a beautiful wedding and still be true to your budget. Here's how:
Budgeting your wedding is like budgeting your own finances. You can go over the top and spend a more money than you have (and end up in debt) or you can be wise and work with what you have.
The key is to figuring out what is important to you and what you feel is worth spending more money on. The other side to that coin is saving on those apsects that will not remembered or are not as important. Follow this recipe and you will end up happy
With that said, only the bride and groom can determine which areas are more important and which are less. But from the experience of planning my own wedding and doing loads of research on budget friendly weddings, I can offer some money saving ideas I found on various wedding expenses.
Invitations: Invitations, RSVP cards and "Save The Date" cards are one place you can feel good skimping. Send as many of them via email as possible. Postcards are inexpensive to mail and get to job done just as well too!
You can set up a wedding website on TheKnot and had people either RSVP via the website, via e-mail or via the phone. and save the postage. You can also hand out the invitations to the people you see often and only mail those who don't use email or see often.
Location Venue: Your wedding’s location has largely to do with the size and style of your wedding. Some inexpensive ideas include having the wedding at your church (many church’s offer member discounts) or at a public park. Even if you choose to have your reception at a nicer venue, you still saved money on half of the event.
Another tip is to have your wedding on a Friday or Sunday, as wedding venue's charge less on non-peak days (meaning Saturday). This way you can get an upgraded location for the price of a cheap location.
Music / DJ: Some people spend lots of money on a DJ who will introduce the various reception activities and choose certain songs to play. Most of time the bride and groom meet with the DJ beforehand to choose the specific songs and genre of music they want played. Instead of paying someone to do that at our wedding, we just had one of our groomsmen who was good on the mic introduce the activities and we picked the songs and put them on CDs ourselves. A popular choice is pre-populating your iPod with your favorite music! Of course the ultimate is the live band. The more the guests, the more important it is to pump up the fsstivities.
Flowers: Here is another place to save. Sure, you will want a nice professional bouquest, but do you really need all those fancy floral reception centerpieces at your ceremony? Yes, do some nice arrangments but keep the quantity minimal. Flowers fade and this expense will last only a few hours!
Food / Cake: Here is an ideal place to save. First, you can have your wedding at a non-typical meal time. For example, a wedding at 2pm with the reception immediately following can get away with light snacks instead of a full dinner, which will drastically cut your bill! Another tip is have friends help make the majority of the food you do serve. Food is something that will be forgoteen - and that includes the cake. A popular option for 2009 weddings is a smaller wedding cake (even your grocery store will make them) along with wedding cupcakes. It is fun, easy and everyone wins.
If you don't drink, you can save even more by not serving alcohol (and avoid drunk guests). Simply buy some Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider for the toast. Here is a link to a $20 book that even has sample menus for guests from 15 to 75 along with other cost-saving wedding tips.
Honeymoon: Here’s an area where spending can get out of control. A honeymoon should be a relaxing vacation that the bride and groom get to take together after the wedding to spend some time alone. That can be accomplished without spending a fortune.
First of all, consider going somewhere local. Driving instead of flying can save you a ton of money. Plus you don’t have the added stress of making sure you catch your flight the day after the wedding, worrying about what you can and can’t carry on the airline, and possibly getting motion sick from the plane. Not to mention airline overbooking, late flights, missed connecting flights, and the list goes on and on.
Another idea is to register for a honeymoon. Many couples already have the typical household items that people normally register for and now many travel agencies offer the ability for wedding guests to contribute to the honeymoon fund. That way you save money on your honeymoon and aren’t stuck with a bunch you gifts you don’t need.
Pictures / Video: Wedding pictures are where all your memories are, so you will want to prioritize them. A cost-saving tip is to not have photographer to print them for you. Get a professional photographer that shoots using digital. That way you can print them yourselves from CD through your local drug store.
Did you know that all of Wedding Photographer Dallas's wedding photo packages come with all images on CD? They also come with your own online wedding photo gallery, which makes sharing your photos a snap. Your guests can even order any they want themselves right off of the gallery, without bugging you.
For a wedding video, many professional photographers offer a discount for shooting both wedding video and pictures through them. Wedding Photographer Dallas, for example, offer s a $200 discount on a combo Photo/Vicdeo package.
These are just a few ways you can have a beautiful wedding on a budget. Some of them may not be as extravagant as if you had spent a fortune on them, but in the grand scheme of things it’s a lot better spend where the memories are -- your photos and video -- than things that vanish.
Visit our Wedding Tips section of our website. In fact, at Wedding Photographer Dallas, we know lots of vendors, from bridal dresses to DJs and can remmond a great choice, so give us a call with your wedding date at 214-703-0360.
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