Fiona form Savvy in Love shares her best savvy hacks for how to save money on your wedding.
If you’ve just started planning a wedding, you might be feeling a bit concerned about how much everything costs and whether you’ll be able to stick to your wedding budget.
Well, don’t worry – we’ve put together a fabulous list of ways you can save money on your wedding. Alongside these options, you can also create a wedding registry for cash. This can help pay for things you need and offset the cost of the wedding in general.
Table of Contents
1. Choose A Cheaper Day To Get Married
While Saturday is the most popular day to get married, it’s also the most expensive.
Friday and Sunday weddings are slightly cheaper but choose to get married on a Wednesday or Thursday and you could end up saving thousands of pounds.
Opting for a mid-week can also mean your budget stretches a lot further – so that dream venue that was out of budget on a Saturday may be an affordable option for a Monday to Thursday wedding.
2. Fake The Cake
There is no denying that wedding cakes are expensive. And it’s understandable with all the time and skill that goes into making them.
If you’ve always dreamed of a huge wedding cake with lots of tiers but you think it might be out of your price range, you could opt to have two or three cheap ‘dummy tiers’.
These are usually made of polystyrene and are decorated to look like the rest of your cake. As the wedding cake is usually taken to the kitchens to be cut up, your guests won’t be any the wiser.
3. Opt For A Second-Hand Dress
After the cost of the wedding venue itself and the catering, the bride’s dress is often the next most expensive thing that needs to be purchased.
Buying a second hand wedding dress could save you hundreds of pounds and it may have only been worn for a few hours.
You could also look for second-hand wedding dresses that were purchased but never worn – such as if a wedding was postponed or the bride changed her mind about what to wear. Find these on selling sites such as Vinted and eBay for discounts of 50% or more on the RRP.
Finally, in recent years there has been a trend for people wearing their grandmother’s wedding dresses, with some alterations to make them look a little more modern.This is a great way to both honour a family member and save cash.
4. DIY Everything
The more of your wedding you can do yourself, the less money you’ll need to spend as you won’t be paying other people to do it for you.
You could make your own bouquets, grow your own wildflowers, make your own table settings – the more you DIY, the more you’ll save!
Don’t forget to get family members involved too. Do you have an aunt that could bake your wedding cake? A friend that’s a dab hand at calligraphy? Most friends and family will be happy to lend a hand.
5. Ditch The Wedding Favours
Wedding favours can seem like a must-have but you may find that they just get left on tables at the end of the night and you’re left with fifty packs of sugared almonds you don’t know what to do with.
If you’re already providing something extra like a sweet cart then you absolutely do not need favours as well!
6. Get Married Later In The Day
There can be a lot of benefits to getting married later in the day. You’ll be hiring your vendors for less time so may be able to negotiate a discount.
You might also get away with providing less food and drink – for example,if you have the ceremony and 4pm and serve food at 6pm it’s unlikely you’ll need more food later in the evening.
7. Ask About Different Catering Options
When you visit a wedding venue they’ll be offering you all of their most expensive options, especially when it comes to the catering.
Try asking what other options they have available – for example, could you choose to serve just two courses instead of three. Is there an option for Afternoon Tea instead of a proper meal?
Even if the venue can’t accommodate these requests, there’s no harm in asking.
8. Go Minimalist On The Flowers
Wedding flowers are another area where costs can soon start to mount up. Taking a minimalist approach to your wedding flowers could be key to saving money.
For bridesmaids, have them carry a single stem such as rose or sunflower instead of a full bouquet. Pair smaller table flowers with other decorations like candles in mason jars.
While it is traditional for the groom and their party to have boutonnieres you could choose to forgo these all together.
Other options for saving money on floristry include growing your own flowers, choosing blooms that are in season and bulking out floral arrangements with lots of greenery which is much cheaper than the actual flowers.
9. Serve Your Cake As Dessert
Not all venues allow this but, there are plenty that do so it might be worth asking to serve your cake as dessert instead of paying for desserts as part of your wedding package.
You can also serve your cake as dessert if you’re having a smaller DIY wedding where you don’t have caterers. You’ll just need to put someone in charge of the cutting up and dishing out!
10. Opt For A Free Wedding Website
When it comes to your wedding, there are lots of things your guests will need to know. As well as the time and venue you’ll also want to give information about dietary requirements, local hotels and accommodation, taxi services, parking and so on.
Having a wedding website is a great way to be able to give your guests all the information they need about your wedding and there are loads of companies out there that offer wedding websites for free.
In turn, this should save you money on printing costs, as you won’t need to include as much info within your wedding invites. You could even ask your guests to RSVP online!
While to begin with it can feel overwhelming, the more time you spend wedding planning the more ways you’ll find to save money on your big day.
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