Have A Picnic Wedding
Think Dîner en Blanc an international event where strangers dress fancy and pack their own fancy picnics, and come together for a temporary evening of fancy-ness. What Im trying to say is that a picnic wedding can be elegant and chic, and also not cost you a fortune.
Consider either ordering platters of sandwiches which should be reasonably priced, or making the sandwiches yourself . And then serving them with side dishes, or asking some family members to bring side dishes. Serve with lots of lemonade, iced tea, and preferably an open bar.
You could even make a theme out of it, placing cute picnic baskets on the tables and filling them with the dinnerware. It could help inspire a sense of community and intimacy among guests to share a picnic together! So nice!
Not Allocating Funds Correctly
Garrett Richardson Photography
Just like buying shoes, an apartment or a pair of jeans, when it comes to financing a wedding, you should figure out how much you need to spend to get what you want. Set your expectations accordingly, and use our budget breakdown above as a guide. To avoid stress, also allot 5% of your budget for a “just-in-case” fund. If you’re paying for your honeymoon yourselves, remember to budget for that as well.
If you’re asking yourself how you can possibly save up for something as expensive as a wedding, don’t worryâit’s doable. As soon as you’re engaged, start putting aside as much of your income as you can for the wedding. Saving 20% of your monthly income is a goodâthough loftyâgoal. The longer your engagement, the more you’ll be able to put away. You can also save up by limiting your spending on small stuff . These changes will hardly affect your quality of life, but after a year, the extra cash will cover some wedding essentials.
Do A Group Tuxedo Rental
Most people dont have a reason to own a tuxedo, and renting one is almost always a better option.
If you and your groomsmen all rent tuxedos from the same retailer, you may be able to get a group rate on your rentals, cutting down costs.
Another option is to scale back the formalities, go the more casual route, and have everyone wear a matching suit instead.
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Say Yes To The Bargain Dress
Choosing your dream dress is a big part of wedding planning, but there are so many more options beyond visiting your local bridal shop if youre on a budget. While high street retailers including Whistles, French Connection and ASOS all have their own wedding dress lines, you could also look to websites like Still White, a pre-owned wedding dress marketplace, where you can find designer wedding dresses at a fraction of their original retail price.
READ: Best wedding dress hire sites in 2021: Selfridges, HURR & more
Buy A Small Cake Or Cupcakes From A Grocery Store
Brides Magazine reports that the average cost of a wedding cake is $350. This is an area where the cost can easily be trimmed by having something a bit more simple. Rather than heading straight to a wedding cake specialist, see what options are available for a smaller, simpler cake from a grocery store. In my area, the local grocery store chain, Hy-Vee, offered an enormous variety of cake options, ranging from very classy tiered wedding cakes that almost matched the $350 tag to much simpler options that would serve 50 guests for around $100.
Strategy: Look at grocery stores for cake options Savings: $250
Another option is to simply buy cupcakes. You can buy large numbers of cupcakes from many bakeries for as little as $1 each. Pair that with a $30 cake stand and you can provide 70 cupcakes with a beautiful display for just $100.
Strategy: Buy cupcakes and arrange them yourself Savings: $250
Also Check: How To Finance A Wedding
Average Cost Of A Wedding
How much does a typical wedding cost? In 2020, average wedding spending came to $28,964, according to data collected by Brides. This emphasizes why planning a wedding budget is so important.
Without a budget, you may be at greater risk of overspending or creating debt to pay for wedding expenses. Keep in mind that $28,964 is an average. What you actually spend on a wedding may be influenced by:
- Where you live
- Whether you choose a local wedding or a destination wedding
- How many people you invite
- Which wedding traditions you choose to uphold
The bigger the ceremony, the more it may cost. In 2020, Brides reports a growing trend of micro-weddings, typically with no more than 50 guests. And 42% of couples in a study by The Knotchose to hold an even tinier minimony, with up to 10 people, in place of a full-scale wedding. The typical minimony clocked in at only $1,400.
Factors such as inflation and supply chain disruptions can increase the average cost of a wedding, which is something to consider when planning your budget.
Everyday Savings Help Towards The Big Day
Small sacrifices can boost your wedding coffers. If your big day is a year away, cut out something today that you buy every day. If you cut out £2 on crisps and Coke each day, you’d have 365 x £2 to spend, making £730.
Try our Demotivator tool, which reveals your annual spend on coffees, snacks, cigs, mags and other discretionary purchases to help you cut back.
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How To Do Wedding Food On A Budget: A Complete Guide
- Post category:Budget-Friendly/Reception
We dont all want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on our wedding reception meals, and we dont have to. Ive written in the past about how to cater your own wedding, but in this post Ill discuss in detail how to do your wedding food on a budget.
You have options when planning your wedding meals, and there are plenty of ways to cut costs including:
- Reducing your guest list
- Not doing a plated, sit-down dinner that needs to be served
- Going with a caterer of your choice that isnt associated with your venue, and/or
- DIY-ing your own catering with the help of family and friends
This post concentrates on how to save money on your wedding food when self-catering, but many of the same principles can apply if working closely with a flexible catering service .
Couples spend anywhere from $10 $300 per guest for dinner at their weddings! You can potentially save thousands of dollars with the takeaways Ill discuss below. I hope it helps you and that you feel guided in some way with this information so that youre able to stay on the lower side of that cost range!
Locating Inexpensive And Free Wedding Venues
In general, the most expensive item on the wedding budget is the venue. Therefore, to keep the budget under $1000, youll need to pay special attention to it. The venue should have enough space that you and your guests can enjoy the part. But, choose wisely by finding a venue that fits your budgetideally, a free venue!
Depending on the number of guests youve invited, consider a small and inexpensive venue that offers everything you need for your big day. Dont hesitate to discuss the topic with friends and family. The venue you choose should be affordable and comfortable enough to host your wedding guests.
Church Wedding
One place for a budget wedding is your local church. Churches across America charge as little $200 for up to 100 guests. And that often includes the organist, the costs to ring the bells, and basic church decoration.
These days, its also becoming increasingly popular to save on wedding costs by booking the churchs hall as the wedding reception venue. Doing so will save you thousands on the wedding. However, youll likely have to find catering, and a DJ or band.
Outdoor Wedding
Another idea could be to plan a beach wedding. Contact your local municipality first for information. But if you can pull it off, you could potentially have the best wedding ever!
City Hall
Airbnb
Another place to get a cheap wedding venue is through Airbnb. Many homes can get rented for one night only and wont break the bank.
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Explore Cheap Wedding Favor Ideas
Favors are a little something special to show your friends and family you appreciate their coming to celebrate your day. They can also add up in costquickly. At $3 each, favors for 150 guests will cost $450.
Guest list control will help you out here, too. The same $3 favors for a guest list of 30 will cost you under $100. Beyond throwing a small wedding, here are some other ideas for low-cost wedding favors:
Don’t Be Embarrassed To Ask For Cash
Most people are happy to give cash as a wedding gift if asked many even prefer it to the hassle of picking a gift. Of the 21,000 who voted in our poll, 55% would prefer to give hard cash, while a further 34% would give it if requested .
Wedding gifts aren’t just a pleasant way of wishing a new couple a great life together. Historically, they’re there as a form of social banking.
So before you decide what to ask for on the big day, here’s what Martin has to say:
It’s worth understanding the function this ceremonial gift exchange performs.
Far too many think of wedding gifts as an added extra, yet financially it needs to play a core part in your plans. You’re likely to be shelling out a serious sum of cash for your wedding, but lots of people are willing to effectively pay you back in return for going to the ceremony.
Of course, etiquette rightly suggests no one should ‘ask for gifts’. So what we’re really talking about here is whether you can express a preference for cash over presents for those who want to give.
Gift giving is a form of social banking
Older generations would give gifts or money to younger ones to help them start off in life before they’d had time to build their own finances.
Then once that couple grew older they effectively gave back to the same community when they attended weddings of younger couples by giving them gifts. Thus the money moves in a circular way and is targeted at those who need it most.
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Order Food From Your Favorite Local Restaurant
Ive heard of couples ordering from their favorite local Mediterranean restaurant and getting quotes as low as $7 per head, plus all of the serving equipment and dinnerware. Some restaurants even offer to serve the food buffet style for a very reasonable fee. By going to a small or family restaurant instead of a caterer, expectations are not yet set for either party and can often be more easily negotiated. To know how much food to order, speak with the restaurant itself, but also look at the section at the bottom of this post, which explains how much food you need in more detail.
Find Cheap Wedding Venues
Make sure to look for a small, cheap, and intimate wedding venue that offers everything you need. By simply looking around and discussing it with your friends, you can actually find a venue that is affordable and willing to host the wedding.
You can choose from a variety of options. But make sure to find a venue where you can get all the facilities. The first option in this respect is the local church. Getting married in a church is a fascinating idea and holds customary values too.
An outdoor park may also serve as a viable option. However, you also need to contact a catering company to make all the arrangements. If you can get such services at cheap rates, there is no better option than this.
If you arent thinking of a lavish wedding venue, booking a City Hall would be a wise decision. This is the cheapest way to get married. Just contact the concerned person and seek information regarding the available dates.
Another cheap way of renting a wedding venue is to look for one among the Airbnb wedding venues. Look for a place that offers beautiful backyards and spacious indoor area to serve as an ideal place for your wedding.
Almost each of these options is inexpensive. Therefore, you should consider them one by one while finalizing a superb wedding venue that is affordable and meets all your requirements.
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Substitute Less Expensive Flowers
Choose flowers that are in season, and pick locally grown flowers rather than blooms that need to be flown in from afar to reduce costs. For example, if you exchange Black Magic roses for more reasonably priced, deeply colored dahlias in all your bouquets and table arrangements, you’ll save about $4 a stem. If you were planning on having five roses per bouquet and 10 per centerpiece, and have a wedding party of five ladies and a guest list of 150 people, you could save $700.
A Modern Loft In New York City
Is there anything cooler than a loft wedding in New York City? The owner has a full-service event planning company, making planning your big day so easy. With space for up to 65 guests and the perfect central location , your wedding will truly be a celebration to remember. Evening rentals begin at $1,500.
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Buy Your Dress Online
Now you definitely should try on dresses in real life to make sure you have a wedding dress style in mind. But once you do and youre ready to buy, start looking online.
This can be risky since you cant try on online dresses, but you can score some serious deals. I got mine for $100. The best part is I could put in my own measurements so it fit my body type as soon as I took it out of the box.
Do The Catering Yourself Or Hire A Family
While trimming the guest list saves quite a bit on catering, you can save more by finding a low-cost catering option. According to The Knot Real Weddings Study, the average cost per catered plate is $51, so if you have 50 guests, thats $2,550 in meal expenses even with a reduced guest list.
For our own wedding, catering was provided by family and friends, who prepared and served the meal in lieu of a wedding gift. This may work for you if you have someone who is interested in stepping up to that task.
Strategy: Have friends and family cater for you in lieu of a gift Savings: $2,550
If not, try asking a local family-owned restaurant to cater for you. They might be hesitant to cater a large event, but if your guest list is already relatively small, they may be willing to do this and work with you on a less expensive option. If a local family-owned restaurant can cater and save 25% per plate, thats still a nice savings.
Strategy: Ask a locally owned restaurant to cater the meal instead of a wedding catering service Savings: $638
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