How do I keep a wedding affordable?

Question

A month ago, I (living in South Africa) went to a wedding and I was shocked by the amount f money spent. The wedding before, was also an expensive one. Now I am wondering - when I get married: Do I need to spend a fortune as well? How can I keep the costs in hand while having a fab time? Thanks!

Answer 1

Set a budget and work around it. If you only have a couple grand - or even a couple hundred - work with it. Splurge in the areas that are important to you. If you REALLY want beautiful flowers - spend there. If you really want great liquor - spend there. Or wherever.

Some ways to save:

The invites/thank you notes. You can make them yourself on the computer. All kinds of kits you can buy these days.

Your dress - it can be used or a hand me down

The tuxes - Well - they need not be tuxes. The guys can wear white shirts and colorful vests - or whatever.

The bridesmaid dresses - ask them to provide them. Or ask them simply to find a "nice black dress" or a "nice solid colored pastel dress differing in color from the other girls" You will have different styles and such - but so what?

The place - it can be your back yard or a public park - OR - if you belong to a church it is much less.

The officiator - many of them will work with you if you are on a budget. You can shop around on the net to find the perfect person to perform your ceremony.

The music. Have any friends who sing or are in a band - or are a DJ - ask them for a "special" wedding present and have them perform

The food. You can have anything from spaghetti made by the ladies at your church - or your uncle's family - to a sit down dinner catered by a top notch caterer. OR - you can ask several family members to provide a fancy appetizer - and not have a dinner. Perfectly acceptable if you wedding is not around a meal time. I've even heard of pot luck weddings. Tacky? maybe. But it truly depends on your style.

The transportation. Is a limo really necessary?

The flowers - they can be from somebody's yard. I mean really - they are just going to die anyway. If you know someone with a particularly beautiful garden - ask them if they would provide you with flowers for your wedding. They will more than likely be thrilled to share them with you.

The liquor/wine - start noting things on sale and putting it away for the big day as soon as you have a date. Ask friends to take turns bartending. Most people love having a little job at a wedding.

Your wedding day will be your day. If you feel it is a time to impress people - then by all means - spend lots of money and do that. If you feel like its a time to celebrate your love and decision to spend your lifetime with a very special person without going into debt - then stick to a budget - and you can still celebrate with your loved ones surrounding you.

Guests bring a gift to honor your union - and because it is a tradition. But if you don't need a bunch of stuff - because you're older or whatever - you can ask them to bring food or provide entertainment or whatever INSTEAD - and you can word it cleverly on your invites. People may expect to be fed and entertained at your wedding because they are showing up with a $100.00 vase. You can change all of that. If you'd rather have their love, support, and a tray of deviled eggs - TELL THEM.

Remember - the wedding day is about you and your chosen one - and as long as you do things in a loving way - it can't be wrong! Spend only what you want to spend. Having a fab time has a lot to do with your mindset - and very little to do with money.

Answer 2

I know what you mean. Even a reasonably priced wedding these days is about £10,000. However, the best way to keep costs down is remember what the meaning of the day is and keep it simple. A lot of people I know have decided to get married abroad. That way you have a holiday and really cut costs down because only close friends and family will be invited. However if you prefer a more traditional wedding day like I would there are plenty of ways to save money. Instead of having a wedding breakfast, get married late afternoon and go straight into the evening reception. A sit down meal for guests can be anything from £80 per head so you're instantly saving thousands just by going straight to the evening disco and buffet. Rent your dress and bridesmaid dresses. Not only will you be able to rent a much more expensive dress than you could afford to buy but you save hundreds if not thousands again. A friend of mine recently got married and by the end of the day her £800 dress was filthy. You'll never wear it again anyway so what’s the point in spending loads. Alternatively, you could get a friend to make it for you at cost price. Instead of hiring expensive wedding cars, talk to people you know with nice cars and ask if they would mind driving you to the wedding. Make y our own stationary, invites and place settings and again save hundreds. Just keep things simple and remember the point of getting married is showing your commitment to one another for life, not a big party. Hope this helps..

Answer 3

Having some experience in wedding planning and also attending weddings, the main way to keep costs down is to invite less people and don't try to impress your guests.

Most of the time you spend so much money on a venue and food and people turn around and complain about bad or too little food, no alcohol and bad music so, delicious food, an open bar/tab for certain drinks and a great DJ would do the trick!

Alot of people think doing a wedding yourself is better, it is stressful and your wedding planner/ florist can source and hire most of the stuff you need much cheaper than getting it yourself.

Flowers - You really don't need to go as far as picking flowers in someones garden! You can have lovely centerpieces and bouquets from a florist at affordable prices. Make sure you use seasonal flowers and shop around. here is a step by step guide that might be helpful http://www.inmotionflowers.co.za/blog/wedding-flower-guide/

Answer 4

Mir. Don't get trapped into it at all. The wedding industry (for that is what it is) is a con designed to separate the gullible from their money. Use "Wedding" as an adjective and the price doubles. Ignore any peer pressure you may under. Ignore the fact that your best friend just splurged thousands on her "big day". Ignore "Brides" magazine and all that hype...

If you love you partner just get married and invite only your family and very closest friends. Don't let anyone try and sell you ANYTHING that you don't really want in your married life. Instead of spending a fortune on a meringue wedding dress that will gather dust in your wardrobe for ever after the event spend the money on a nice outfit form a good store that you can wear lots of times. Keep the free loaders away. Why should you pay money for half forgotten relatives to get pissed on overpriced wine? Keep pretentious professional photographers away and get the photos taken by whichever of your friends or family is the keenest photographer.

My wife and I married in a registry office (£7 for the licence) and had our best friends and closest family (20 in all) back to our flat for wine and nibbles in the garden (£25). This was admittedly 38 years ago - but I doubt that you would pay more than a few hundred rand for the same today.

Above all have confidence to do your own thing and don't be pressurised by anybody - especially the greedy folks who want to make a buck out of you!

Answer 5

You can keep the costs down. By doing the following keep the guest list small, just invite close family and friends. Don't have lots and lots of flowers, keep it simple. If you decide that you want to splash out on your dress, and then make sure that your accessories are simple but tasteful. Instead of spending lots on shoes get a nice cream or white pair from a department store after all people aren't necessarily going to see them. Also have your friends and family help you with things.

Also you could have your wedding overseas and combine the wedding and the honeymoon, not only will this save on cost, but you will save because you will only have a few guests and if you get the hotel that you are staying in to help with the arrangements because your guests will hopefully also be staying at the hotel they wouldn't have to pay as much for their rooms.

Also wedding photographer-wise if you have a friend that is good at taking photo's get them to do your photo's or if you do hirer a professional find out if they have a small wedding package, as some of them do

Answer 6

There are many of people out there that make money of the back of weddings. Never loose site of why you are getting married and also the most expensive flowers or cake or even the dress isn't the best for you. My mother made my dress, my aunt and I made the flowers, my hubbies friends (chef's) did the food. We had a fab wedding. My flowers meant so much because my aunt did them for me. As for my dress! It was perfect.
You can have the best wedding, look at alternatives for table decorations, venue's as well. Instead of having a photographer buy disposable camera and give them to your guests let your friends and family take them. Much more personal. Look on the Internet at different weddings to give you an idea of how you might be able to adapt them for yourself.
I wish you luck and happiness.

Answer 7

The biggest way we managed to save money was to limit our guest list, but I know a lot of people aren't willing (or able) to do so ... originally we'd been thinking 15-20 people would cover family and close friends, but we still ended up with over 30 (which means more than twice as expensive for the food! it adds up quickly...)


There are a lot of little ways you can save money, and by choosing which aspects of the wedding are most important to the couple, it's easy to start shaving off expenses.

Fresh flowers are lovely, but is a florist necessary? Would dried or silk flowers work instead? Do you need musicians, or would a cd or friend with a guitar work just as well? Invitation kits are available at craft stores and sometimes even supermarts, and they work really well with most inkjet or even some laser printers from your own home. Alcohol becomes very expensive very quickly ... a lot of venues will let you serve everyone a drink with dinner (charging you for an hour or so of open bar) and then keep a closed bar available for those who wish to drink further.

If you decide to have a large wedding, taking advantage of special bundle deals from wedding magazines or a wedding in the off-season will save you a bit of money (and headaches, if your location will take care of many of the details for you). Sometimes having the ceremony and the reception in the same location will save money.

For smaller weddings, don't discount having the reception in a restaurant instead of one of a banquet hall! We had ours in at our favorite chinese restaurant, and the party room would have seated up to 200 guests! Often they have buffet deals and bar packages available and rooms with dance floors so you can hire a DJ or bring your own music. Don't hire a photographer or videographer for the entire ceremony and reception ... or if you trust them, ask a relative to help take some posed photos with a nicer camera for the "wedding shots," then hand out disposable cameras to your guests!

I think at some point couples have to realize that it's not terribly romantic to start out in their life together with an extra $10-15k debt hanging over their heads. Being flexible on all the big expenses can help keep the costs down, and it's a nice feeling to stand there in your beautiful-but-economical dress and know that all you'll have to worry about for the next couple of weeks is whether your face will crack from all the smiling. :)

Answer 8

My sister got married last year and although had a buget went way over. It got me thinking for my own wedding. And I asked myself several questions, do I want to invite every man and his dog? Or just those very close people to you? Then I looked at things like dresses, venues etc etc etc. Spending a £100 and then having a pub lunch or a picnic in the park makes the day just as special as having the ornate hotel and church, the ice statues etc.

One tip though is to ask your friends and family what skills they have, someone can make you a really nice cake, we had a chocolate sponge. Another friend made all the invites and wedding stationary using cheap stuff from Hobby Craft, but it looked far from tacky. Someone else did the bouquets.

Have a great day and good luck.

Answer 9

There are things that you can do to keep the costs down:

1. Make your own invitation
2. Decorate the venue/s yourself or with friends & family
3. Ask your friend or family who can bake to make the wedding cake
4. Ask your friends or family who can take pictures, to be your photographer.The same goes for the videographer
5. Make your guest list and stick to it.
6. Do not have an open bar.Mixed drinks add to the price.Have selected drink available and if the guests want anything else, they have to pay for it.

These are some of the things that I can think of off hand that you can do.Some people may say that some of then sound tacky but if you are not rich, you do what you have to do to make your ceremony as classy as possible but also try not to break the bank.Good luck and congratulations.

Answer 10

I had the most fabulous wedding and actually made money on it. I had just family and my closest friends. We got married in a registery office, had a meal at a michellen star restaurant, which our parents paid for, it was only £300 total. I brought a brand new wedding dress off ebay for £100 and ended up selling it for £580 second hand. For mine, my bridesmaid and 8 bottleholes my flowers were £70 and they were gorgeous. In the evening we all went out and got totally hammered and stayed in a lovely hotel. It was fantastic and a day to remember, honestly I am not an ebay freak but you can get everything you want and need so much cheaper on there.