Planning a Wedding on a Small Budget
Posted on 10. Jul, 2008 by Forest in General, Saving Money & Finances
Getting hitched could possibly be the best moment of your life. For many, it is also the most expensive moment of their lives. Some people spend a year’s salary or higher! However, if you are living in a frugal way and want to have a frugal wedding too, there are many things you can do to cut wedding costs while still keeping the charm, class and style on your special day.
Planning a wedding is a huge deal with so many things to consider, we could not possibly list them all here. Below is a rough outline of tips to consider for cutting costs at each step. If you can think of any other aspects, please let us know.
The Engagement:
Obviously, this happens well before the actual event, but can also be a huge cost. I would advise talking to your parent(s) and seeing if there are any precious family heirloom diamond rings that can be passed down to you. Otherwise go modern. A simple high quality white gold ring could be perfect. If you choose the right ring, you could always have stones set into it at a later date (of course, this goes for the wedding rings as well).
You can find engagement and wedding rings at extremely reasonable prices here on ebay: Engagement Rings Now On eBay.com!
To announce your engagement, I would always suggest going for a home party with the intimate surroundings of your friends and/or close family. Or if you need to be out, then try finding a free space in a local bar…. don’t worry everyone will be buying you drinks
The Location
A church wedding is very traditional and remains very popular. Consequently, this makes it very expensive! So it could be cost effective to look for alternate places to tie the knot. Some places may even be close to free, such as public parkland and many other outdoor venues. Maybe a friend owns a beuttiful country house or has a fantastic scenic farm…
For the reception, like the engagement party, you find a place that will give you the venue for free in exchange for your business. Or again, if a friend has a great country home, or nice space, or barn this could be kitted out beautifully for your guests.
Guests and Invites
Once you have the date, venue and official stuff organized it may be a good time to invite some people. The best way to keep costs down is to keep the event intimate. Make a list of your best friends and closest family and then see if you have room left for others. Remember it’s your wedding so don’t worry about upsetting people. You can always tell more people to come later in the evening after the food has been served.
Invites can be found for very cheap now if you shop online. Places like Vista Print have a great selection of template designs that can be easily personalized at a very cheap price. Alternatively, if there is a conservative amount of guests, you could individually create the designs for an extra personal touch. The cheapest and completely free way of doing this would be to send Invites by email. Plus, one could create a blog to keep in touch with all guests.
Food and Music
Everyone, including you, will be expecting food and music at the reception.
Food is easy. The cheapest option is a buffet and you should be able to rope family members into doing the catering or cooking for you in exchange for guilt or a relatively small amount of money. If you want a full sit-down meal, then i suggest seriously researching the catering companies. Perhaps you could hire a local small outfit that prepares from home- these companies often have the best prices.
Wedding DJ’s are often pretty awful! Every knows, but everyone is always scared to say. So why not wire up your trusty iPod or MP3 player to the sound system. You can choose the exact music you want all the way to the end. It may even be a good way to trigger certain things. For example, if you suddenly hear “Summer of ’69″ coming over the speakers then you will know that it is only two songs until the final dance , or however it is planned.
Flowers
You may think that sneaking around in the middle of the night and stealing all the flowers you need from your neigbours garden is a good option…. But you may end up with a big fine or even in jail, so it is not recommended here!
However, you may know gardeners that can grow the flowers you need. If you have planned the wedding in advance, you may be able to get a large amount of flowers this way.
Alternatively, you can look for a local florist and only buy in-season flowers.
I like real flowers, but for the decoration you could rent plastic alternatives or buy them pretty cheap too (Check ebay again!)
Photography
This is a hard one as you really do want to keep your memories forever, thus need to make sure you get someone reliable. Ask friends if they know anyone reliable. See if there is anyone in your family who is qualified and can do it.
You could always hire the professional for the official style photos just before and after the wedding. This may save some money! Your friends and family can have photo duty for the rest of the night.
If the wedding photos are taken from a digital camera, they can be emailed to everyone or published on your blog. Only pick the best ones to print for your album.
The Dress and clothing!
The Dress is typically important. However, times are changing and people are getting married in many different types of clothes. You may be better off choosing a dress that you love very much from a normal store.
You could try shopping well in advance via online. This could allow you to pick a dress from another country at a cheap price. Measurements and photographs can be sent across the web now and a good dressmaker should be able to make your dress just right. If you order soon enough you could hire a local tailor to make final adjustments.
You could also consider picking a “once worn ” dress from a specialist store or somewhere like ebay (Wedding Dresses and Bridesmaid Dresses Now On eBay.com!). This could be ideal for suit rentals, especially if one really thinks it will be wore only once.
The Cake
Friends and family may be able to help you get this made.
You could go for a fake prop cake, complimented buy a cheaper, less decorated cake that’s stored behind the scenes, pre-cut, ready to swap once the ceremonies and toasts are completed. If you really want to cut the cake, then you could have only 1 real tier placed on the top of the fake, prop cake. Then proceed with the swap to pass around
the real, but less expensive cake afterwards.
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Photo source: http://www.adamsbrides.com/ (This site has some awesome Wedding Photography!!)
There are so many things that you can do to cut costs that we cannot even begin to list here. If you think of anything please leave a comment and let us know. We are sure it will benefit everyone.
Thanks!
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20 Responses to “Planning a Wedding on a Small Budget”
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July 10, 2008
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krantcents: I started teaching whe I was 55 years old. I am v...
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Jeremy: I think the media plays a big part in that. US me...
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Forest: Thanks for the comment Jeremy. I guess you are rig...
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SuiteJ
11. Jul, 2008
Forest, you could dedicate an entire blog to “Frugal Weddings”!
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Forest
11. Jul, 2008
@ Suite J, I know…. when I was doing this post I had to really hold myself back. It could have been 5000 words long at least!!
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Adamo Morgese
15. Aug, 2008
Hi, i have noticed that you are using one of my photo, the 2 guys on the boat.
Can you please link the photo to my web site please?
http://www.adamsbrides.com/
Thanks.
ADAMO MORGESE
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Forest
15. Aug, 2008
Hi Adam,
Sorry I thought that it linked back to your blog already… linking now.
Thanks for letting me keep it there!
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Robin Buckley
29. Oct, 2008
These days everybody is on a budget. However there is one thing for sure: Every bride is a high end bride when it comes to at least one thing.
What is it that is most important to you and go for the best professional possible. Is it the music, the food, or maybe the photography.
If the budget is small, skimp on the rest, but make sure you get what you want when it comes to what really matters to you.
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Carlo
19. May, 2009
To choose a reliable wedding photographer it is important to have a look at the portfolios just carried out. See the products, then (eventually) buy the service!
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Forest
19. May, 2009
Very true Carlo… Thanks for stopping by
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Helen Smeaton
14. Aug, 2009
A church wedding does NOT have to be expensive!
I got married in my local church. Flowers were arranged for free by the church flower ladies (Ok I knew one of them well!) as was my bouquet; we only needed a car to drive us 5 mins away to the reception down the road (no cost!); close friends and family only were invited and we had a great party minus all the friills that normally cost a fortune – oh yes the dress was bought off the peg and altered, a friend made the cake, I made all the invites, favors and place settings and we hired a great band with all the money we saved! What else do you need for a fabb wedding?
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Forest
25. Aug, 2009
Hey Helen, Awesome comment… And your wedding sounds very close and personal which is in my view a much better occasion.
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Kevin
11. May, 2010
Most people don’t realize how affordable you can actually make a wedding since most of the stuff you can actually do yourself. Except from certain things like makeing a wedding dress, you can do most things yourself as long as you have the patience to do it. It can even be a good trial for you can your partner to get through!
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Forest
11. May, 2010
Hey Kevin,
Exactly, a well executed and planned wedding need not be expensive at all…. Then the budget can be spent on the important things, like a good photographer and a nice dress.
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mel
24. Aug, 2010
i love this
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Forest
25. Aug, 2010
Great , thanks for commenting.
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Louis from www.cheapbridesmaiddressessite.com
25. Aug, 2010
What you have said about having a cheap or inexpensive wedding is true. However one thing that I believe you should not skimp out on, is your photographs/video. You need to make sure you hire some GOOD and with high quality work. You will want to have long lasting memories
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Forest
27. Aug, 2010
Hey Louis, you are right. I think competent friends can do the job but you have to be sure of them. It pays to shop around and be sure….. Never just have one camera at your weddding and always pool photos from guest… Your crazy old aunt may have accidentally taken the shot of the century!
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Charlotte Hodges
28. Sep, 2010
A really lovely wedding can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you want it to be, however I do agree that the one thing you should not cut back on is the quality of the photographs, either opt for a well known experienced photographer or send a willing friend or relative on a wedding photography course (unshaken-photography.co.uk) before hand to ensure that you end up with top quality photographs
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Forest
29. Sep, 2010
Hey Charlotte that is a great idea. Charge a friend with becoming a good photographer
….. Be a nice wedding gift.
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Veronica
28. Apr, 2011
We all know the reception is where you will spend the most money. I was able to cut back on my reception expense by having a buffet. The food at the Chart House was great, and it did not make my wedding look cheap. Everyone was so amazed by the ambiance, having to serve themselves was the last thing on their minds Anyway, another great site I checked out with inexpensive ideas was weddingandbridalfavors.com
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Forest
04. May, 2011
Thanks for the tips Veronica.
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