Its been the talk of the "wedding world" for a while now and is still very current - so, here are our favourite ways to help you save money on your wedding plans or get the most from your wedding budget:
* Look out for discounts on venues for days other than Saturday weddings – Thursdays, Fridays and event Sundays are ever increasing in popularity and can often present large savings on the Saturday costs
* A great way of savings money on food for your guests is to have your ceremony just that little later in the day say 3/4pm so that following photos, your wedding breakfast is more of an evening meal and you may avoid the need to serve evening food as well.
* What about a buffet, BBQ or hog roast rather than a full sit down menu – this will significantly cut your costs. If you have flexibility with your venue or are hiring your own venue then you can create your own menu and save a lot of money and if you serve in early evening you will not need to serve food again later on.
* Look at hiring a wedding planner. Planners can often advise you on your budget, help you get prices down, negotiate with suppliers for you and make savings through their connections in the wedding industry. You can often find you save money by having a planner involved.
* Cut down your day guest numbers and invite more people in the evening – this will significantly reduce your costs. If you have too many day guests you may not have time to speak to them all during the day anyway!
* Try to negotiate with your florist to be on hand if possible to move flowers from the Church to your reception venue so you are doubling up on the usage of the flowers. If your florist cannot offer this service maybe your wedding planner can help with this. Check with the Church that you can take them as some Churches require you to leave the flowers – especially if there are weddings after yours on the day. If there are weddings after yours on the day then speak to other couples and see if you can save money by all contributing towards the costs of the flowers for the Church. If your budget will not stretch to flowers in the Church – try candles instead – very effective and inexpensive.
* To keep the cost of flowers down – always take good advice from your florist and chose flowers which are in season – trying to get hold of flowers out of their season will always pump up the price. Invest in a simple flower book or look on line and only choose from the flowers which will be in season on your wedding day.
* Always ask for the corkage price from your venue. The corkage will include the service for the venue to chill, serve and dispose of the bottles for you. Wait for a great offer on mid range selection of wines and purchase in bulk. It does not matter if you over purchase – as long as you have not purchased too far in advance you should be able to return what you don’t use. Even if you make only a slight saving the quality of wine you will be able to afford should be higher and all smaller savings really add up.
* Its really easy to overspend on evening entertainment. It should not be necessary to hire a band AND a disco – most bands will bring their own equipment to play disco music before, between and after their sets or can set up an Ipod or CD of your favourite tunes during this time or you should be able to negotiate a disco from the band within their price. Shop around for this.
Do you have any other advice which you found useful when planning your wedding? Get in touch
