13 Tips for Ballin' on a Wedding Budget
Let's face it, weddings are FREAKING expensive! There are hidden costs left and right and if you aren't careful you will quickly blow the budget you have. Here are 13 easy tips to keep you from going broke on your big day!
photo by amber rhodes lapoint
1. Read The Contracts
I cannot stress this enough, when you sign a contract with a vendor make sure that you know about deposits, late fees, processing charges, overage fees, taxes, damages etc. Make sure you understand the total cost and any hidden costs that might come up based on the contract. These will easily sneak up on you at the end if you are not careful with your vendor contracts. This is incredibly important especially when you are renting items, because if you spill something on a shirt, or a table linen gets ripped, or a chair gets broken then they may charge you, so you should be aware of what you are signing and how those contracts may add on additional amounts to your overall budget.
2. Beg, Borrow, and Steal
Maybe not the last part, BUT there are many times you can ask for a little bit of help here and there to save money. See if you can trade services, if you have a friend who is a wedding professional that can contribute their skills. I coordinated a friend’s wedding and she sang and played my first dance song at my wedding. Trading services allows both individuals to save on their wedding but still get high quality services. Reach out to friends and family to see if you can borrow jewelry, decor, china, serving platters, etc. People love to help make sure you have the wedding of your dreams and are usually happy to contribute.
3. Dwindle Down the Guest List
The easiest way to save money on your wedding without sacrificing style is knock a few people off your guest list. I always recommend categorizing your guest list into at least three tiers.
The first tier includes the people that MUST be there (even if you hop on a plane for an elopement in Iceland they would be there).
The next tier are the people that you would enjoy having there (extended family and good friends).
The final tier of your guest list are the people that you would like for them to be there but if it comes down to it you would be okay without them there (coworkers, long lost family that popped up after you got engaged, and friends you haven't talked to in 5 years).
Creating the list in tiers makes it much easier when it comes time to start cutting your guest list because you can start from the bottom and work up according to your budget.
To add to this tiered guest list approach, here are a few general rules that might help you narrow it down. If you or your S.O. has never met this person, it is not the day to be introduced to your long lost cousin Charlie. Do not feel obligated to invite people that invited you to their wedding, you are in a different financial place and have different priorities. You can always have coffee with them one day after the wedding but you won't rekindle any friendships within the two minutes you get to talk to each guest as your wedding. And if you wouldn't take this person out to eat and pay for their meal, you don't need to pay for them to attend your wedding.
4. Keep Your Receipts
Honestly, there are a couple of ways you can do this to help keep your wedding budget in check. You can set up a bank account with the money that you only want to use towards the wedding so that when you run out, you have to stop spending. If your wedding spending is on credit cards and you can't keep up with the paper receipts to save your life, take pictures of the receipts and have a folder on your phone that you can look at later to reconcile your spending with the budget. Or you can also keep a folder with all of the receipts and update your budget periodically. Whatever method you choose, you do keep up with what you are spending on the wedding!
5. Buy things you can reuse or resell
Let's be realistic for a minute. I still have things in my closet that I swore I was going to resell from weddings, parties, and events that have long since past! I promised myself that I would at least reuse them. Back to that begging, borrowing, and stealing - someone else will probably be getting married after you and could possibly use the things that you still have from your wedding. See if you can get with someone who would like to use the same table clothes, drink dispensers, arch, etc. for their wedding and either split the costs or sell the item to them after you use it.
6. Pick and Pay for Your Big Things FIRST
There will be a few things in your wedding budget that take up big chunks of it: venue, photographer, caterer, florist. When you are planning your budget you should make sure cover the biggest items first. If you want an extravagant venue, kick butt photographer (highly recommended), over the top florals, or a venue filled with farm tables......take them out of the budget first and then adjust the rest to what you have left. It may seem like a no brainer but I've seen too many people wait until it was too late and they ran out of money for the things they wanted most. Pay for the big stuff you care about up front and then find ways to save money and scrimp on the things you don’t care about with the money leftover.
7. Dress to impress but not to go broke
Please keep your dress within your allotted budget. This is one area where we see brides go beyond their allotted spending amount because they often try on dresses above their price point. It is a very important part of the day but not the only important thing. I know the drill, you are at the bridal shop and get in the zone and you grab a dress twice your budget and say you will JUST try it on. No ma'am! Put it down, and step away. A great photographer can make a less expensive dress look fabulous and making sure your dress fits perfectly is what will make it truly shine. Remember the upfront dress price will also have additional spending for alterations. Make sure you balance your budget and leave room for all of the important things besides your dress.
8. Weigh all of the options
In order too save money on your wedding you need to consider all options for each thing you are booking. There are venues that will be more expensive, but those venues will have all of your tables, chairs, and some decor (which saves you in delivery, set up, and rental costs). There will be cheaper venues but they will make you use specific vendors that might be more expensive. The overall package of what you are booking is important to consider. Talk to everyone you are considering and see what is included in the prices. Then take that information and weigh all of the options to see what fits your budget best!
9. Do a First Look!
I'm a huge advocate of first looks! They make weddings less stressful, photographers love them, and you can even save money too. Most ceremonies are around 6pm so by the time you get to pictures you lose daylight needed for making the best photographs. Guests have to wait while you take family and couple pictures, and this means feeding them hors d'oeuvres or opening the bar earlier so they are occupied and that adds to your catering bill. You may also need your photographer longer if you don’t do a first look in order to get everything in the timeline. Having a first look allows you to save money by compressing the timeline and it also allows you to be much more relaxed, saving money and grief!
10. Smaller Bridal Party
Sometimes you have so many friends it is difficult to decide who to choose to include in your bridal party. But keep in mind the costs that having a bigger party entails. You need more gifts, you need more bouquets and boutonnieres, and if you help pay for their hair and makeup or accessories it adds up. Each person you add to the bridal party will increase your overall costs. Instead of everyone being in the bridal party you can think of ways other friends can be a part of your day. They can read a verse or poem during your ceremony, sing a song, do a toast, etc. It doesn't mean you love them less, just that you have a budget you need to stick to!
11. Evites
I cringed typing that, just so everyone knows. I am very old fashion and LOOOOOOOVE stationery and traditional wedding invitations. I would not recommend ditching invitations all together (and please don't ditch the stamped and addressed return envelope for the RSVP) but if you are quickly dwindling down your budget and still wanting to invite your coworkers, and your fiancé’s fraternity friends and you know having a physical invitation doesn't matter to them then you might forgo giving EVERYONE a paper invitation.
12. Have One Location
Having one location for both your ceremony and reception saves a lot of time and money. It makes it easier to shuffle everyone from one room to another instead of directing everyone to a new location. Only having one location saves you money in a number of ways. You can reuse decorations, you can use one set of chairs, it takes fewer people to coordinate it and make everything happen. So overall, if you are wanting to save money on your wedding budget it is highly recommended to just have one location for the whole shebang.
13. Pick a different time or date
Most weddings occur on Saturdays and because of that fact, Saturday weddings are the most expensive. Fridays, Sundays, and midweek weddings are cheaper. You can actually save thousands on your venue by choosing to have your wedding on a less popular day. You're also more likely to have available dates to choose!
Another option is to choose a different time of day for your wedding. We’ve seen sunrise weddings, brunch weddings and more! You don’t have to always choose evening for your wedding and making a different time choice means you don't have to pay for an entire dinner, and people tend to drink less alcohol....just food for thought!
14. Hire a wedding planner or coordinator
I had to throw in this extra tip for your budget planning, because wedding planners are not here to make you spend more money. We've seen everything under the sun and are here to combat extra expenses that pop up and unnecessary spending. We help you find the best alternatives that fit your actual budget and do a lot of the leg work for you! Wedding coordinators know people and prices and can help you navigate your wedding planning process in a fabulous and graceful way without going over budget!
Want to learn more about keeping your budget in check? Check out our blog post about 24 wedding budget busters!
