As someone who just finished planning a large wedding on a budget, I can tell you it isn’t easy! Depending on where you live, the average cost of a wedding is upwards of $30,000.
My then-fiance (now husband) and I were unwilling to spend that much on our wedding. While we still wanted a large wedding (we invited 300 people!), we were trying to do it on a significant budget.
This was no easy feat, either, considering that we live in Charleston, which is one of the biggest destination wedding locations in the country. Prices here are astronomical. But we were determined to plan our wedding on a budget, regardless. Here are 9 tips for anyone trying to plan a wedding on a budget.
Prioritize What’s Important to You
If you’re planning a wedding on a budget, this is the top thing you need to keep in mind. Unfortunately, you cannot have it all.
You’ll quickly find that if you don’t prioritize what’s important to you, then every small detail will become important. And this is where costs get out of control. Hiring a band over a DJ is a few extra thousand dollars, and picking orchids instead of roses is additional money. If you are truly trying to plan on a budget, you will need to decide what is worth your money, and what details you can let slide with being less than your standard of perfect.
For us, we really wanted a beautiful, all-inclusive venue and amazing and fun food. Those were our biggest priorities. With everything else, we had to compromise. And honestly, in the long run, I’m glad we didn’t spend money on everything we thought we wanted.
Look at Alternative Dates
No matter where you live, there are likely busy seasons when everyone is getting married. For us, April and May, and then September and October are the busiest season for weddings, and the cost at those times was double what we paid by having our wedding in March.
If we wanted to save even more money, we could have had our wedding on a Friday or Sunday instead of a Saturday. You could also have a day wedding instead of an evening wedding to save money.
Host a Smaller Celebration
It might seem obvious, but every person you invite to a wedding costs a certain amount of money. From the invites to the dinner, you basically are paying per head. Keeping your guest list small is one sure way to save money.
Rethink Food
Traditional wedding food is incredibly expensive, and most of the time, it often goes wasted. Consider some non traditional options to save money.
Instead of having a plated meal or buffet, we did stations all around the venue. Guests could go up and grab whatever they wanted. This was not only fun for them, but it was about half the cost of traditional meals.
Look for an All-Inclusive Venue
Venues can be costly because many of them are just that – space. They don’t include the cost of chairs, tables, flatware, linens, and a dance floor that you have to rent through a rental company.
Finding a venue that included all of this not only saved us a ton of money, but it saved us a headache as well. It was so much easier to have everything already provided and setup.
Get Creative with Attire
Dresses are incredibly expensive, but there are some ways to save money.
I found my wedding dress off-the-rack and saved over $2,000 on it. I know some brides who have purchased dresses online, or gently used ones from PreownedWeddingDress.com.
And instead of ordering bridesmaid dresses through a traditional bridal store, I ordered them custom made through Etsy. The dresses were beautiful and required no altering, plus they were around $100 cheaper per dress.
Another thing we were creative with is wedding bands. Knowing how my husband is, I didn’t want to spend a ton on a wedding band that was likely going to get scratched, rubbed, or potentially even lost. We agreed to purchase a cobalt ring for $80. His ring looks just like silver, and is actually even more durable.
And since we didn’t spend much on his ring, I opted to purchase cheap fashion rings off Amazon instead of a wedding band. The shape of my engagement ring would have required a custom band, which would have been much more expensive than I wanted. I like having a separate band so I can mix and match, or just wear my engagement ring or just the band.
Do Your Own Floral Arrangements
I am not a crafty person at all, so I originally wanted to purchase bouquets. But after being quoted over $100 per bouquet, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
I used afloral.com and bought some premade bouquets for $9 a piece. My three bridesmaids each had one, and I combined three of the bouquets I bought into one to create a larger bridal bouquet. It was super easy to do, and it saved me around $400.
I also bought boutonnieres for the men through afloral.com and had my craftier sister make wrist corsages for the ladies in my bridal party. Overall, I think we spent $100 on flowers for the bridal party.
Bring in Your Own Liquor
Not many venues allow you to bring in your own liquor, but if you find one that does, it is well worth considering.
Alcohol will be one of your most expensive costs if you are having an open bar. And unfortunately, alcohol is one of the most up marked items in price. If you can buy it ahead of time and bring it in yourself, you will save hundreds, if not more.
Consider Taxes
After talking to a friend who is an event planner in the area, he pointed out that wedding venues downtown are not only more expensive up front, but that they charge significantly more in taxes due to different tourism and liquor laws for the city.
Knowing this, we decided to look outside of the city for some venues. Ultimately, we chose a spot a few miles outside of the city, but the venue was still beautiful and we paid a lot less.
My husband and I skipped ours. We did the drive thru thing (literally; not the Las Vegas kind), not very romantic but we went to bed happy and we’re still happily together. It isn’t a money thing per say I’m just a lazy girl person =) Just reading this post and all the things you had to plan, I am breaking into sweats.
Was there any photography done? Photographers from what I heard are super pricey (if you want it done right)
I don’t blame you! Weddings are hard work. My husband really wanted the bigger wedding, so we went that route, but we both agree that we are glad planning is over! We did have great photography, but we found a steal of a deal on one. Our photographer actually typically traveled the world shooting local models, but he was trying to break into the local wedding scene. We actually got 3 photographers during the day-of, and spent about $6000 less than what I saw to be typical. Worked for us!