Cost cutting for wedding, where to start?

Question

Ideas on how to minimise the costs for a wedding are desperately needed!!
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Bridesmaids & Groomsmen are paying for their own gear & we're in a public park but we need to lower costs further!
Thanks guys :)

wow some great answers thus far, while the idea of getting people to pay for their own food would certainly save a bundle, we're not too comfortable with that. The costs we're thinking of are things like flowers/table decorations/rings/car hire all that sort of extra stuff.
FYI blesshisname2005, we are using a celebrant & it has nothing to do with "being done with it"

Answer 1

Oh, do not have people pay for themselves! That is so tacky! If you can't afford to host the gathering for that many guests, then don't have that many guests. I'm so glad to hear that you're hesitant about taking this advice. Don't do it!

The best way to cut costs is to cut your guest list. This significantly lowers your cost, since about half your budget will go toward food and drinks for these people.

You can also skip the table decorations entirely. If you'll be outside, then there might be a breeze, and the decorations might fall over anyway. But if you really wanted centerpieces, go to the Dollar Tree and buy some shallow bowls. Fill them with water, and float a flower or candle in it.

You can also skip the car hire altogether. Have the bridal party drive themselves (a lot of them prefer this anyway, since they'll be able to leave at the end of the night without relying on anyone else for transportaton). Have your best man drive you and your groom, or hire a town car just for the two of you.

For favors, make bookmarks. Design them in Word and print them at Kinkos or OfficeMax. Cut them yourself. I did this and spent about $13 for 160 favors. For the bridal party gifts, think thoughtful instead of fancy. Buy each bridal party attendant a book that they'd be interested in, and write a heartfelt note of thanks on the inside cover or title page.

Answer 2

A lot of online sites are great. Try E-bay. You can get anything on E-bay. You can even go to Wal-Mart and buy invitation kits and print the information on your own computer and just insert the paper into the invitation. Wal-Mart has a whole aisle of wedding things, including the ring pillow. Maybe some of your family could take care of the food and entertainment. I know that when my friend got married, a bunch of us girls got together and made the dinner, and had a buffet style reception, and she saved money on a DJ by having some of her friends and relatives sing. Her brother was in a band and his band played for free, and we did a karaoke style reception. It was so fun, especially when the drunk best man thought it would be fun to sing the Ray Steven's song "The Streak," and the other two groomsmen actually streaked through the reception.

There were no kids, so it wasn't a big deal. We all had a lot of
fun.

Maybe you know someone with a classic car. See if you can borrow it. There are lots of good ideas! Try going to a wedding website. I'm not real sure of any, but you can find some on the internet, I'm sure. Also, buy a copy of "The Everything Wedding Checklist." It also gives you tips on hoe to have a budgeted wedding, even if your budget is small.

To the person who said buy the rings at Wal-Mart, I did that! I paid $14.00 for mine, and my husband's was about $40.00. Still, it was worth it!!

Congratulations on your wedding!

Answer 3

I am getting married in May and I have done several things to keep our budget of $2000 and still have a very pretty wedding! My dress I got at a bridal shop that was having a closeout. It was $250 for a very very pretty ball style gown with a long train. All of the flowers I bought half price when Hobby Lobby and Michaels had a flower sale. I used these to make the bouquets, lapel pins, and arch decorations. Which is very easy to make these things. Just get a bouquet handle ($2) from walmart and stick in some silk flowers you like. Wrap a few flowers with floral tape ($2) and hot glue a pin onto it. The dollar store was a wonder for table centerpieces. I bought glass plates with those flat gems to surround a candle with. Decorate the plate with a few flowers pulled off the stem. Use white plastic table cloths from the dollar store. Also, many state parks only charge $25 for the use of a pavilion on a saturday. As for food, the only way to go cheap is to make it yourself. Make food in crock pots to get a large amount of food for a low cost. Also, have guests bring side dishes. You can get a pretty 2 tier cake at walmart for $90 bucks. I didn't do this but you could have someone go to universal life ministries website and get ordained for free. I researched it and its legal in most states. All you really need is someone to sign your marriage licenses.

Answer 4

Here are some tips:

- Put your own floral arrangements together, or enlist a crafty friend. You can get inexpensive flowers at Costco or see if there is a wholesale florist in your area. You can do wonders with a bouquet of random flowers and some white satin (that you can purchase at a place like Michaels or the Rag Shop), you can easily save $500
- Buy your dress from a place like Express, Banana Republic, Macys or JCrew. They have adorable dresses and they aren't as expensive. (My big fancy wedding dress was $1500...here's one for $250)
http://www.jcrew.com/catalog/product.jhtml?id=prod72169401&catId=cat160130
- Ask a friend to videotape the ceremony and the major parts of the reception - this saves at least $1,000
- Definitely do a buffet v. a sit down dinner, buffets are a lot cheaper
- Serve beer and wine, you don't need to serve hard alcohol. You can get great wine from http://www.traderjoes.com/locations.asp if there isn't one in your area, visit a local winery and see if they have any specials
- Instead of favors, make a donation to a charity that is significant to you. You can just print cards for each table that says you had made that decision. I'm sure your guests will appreciate that more than a net bag filled with colored almonds.
- Instead of a band or DJ, just get a great pair of speakers and create a playlist on an iPod. If you don't have an iPod, ask to borrow one, or even buying one is probably cheaper than any DJ...my DJ was $1000...my iPod (30G) was $250!! That's a savings:)

I wouldn't skimp on the pictures. go to a local bridal show and price them out. I found a great photographer and ordered tons of pictures afterwards and spent $1500, some of my friends weren't happy with their packages and spent over $3K!!

Good Luck!!!!

Answer 5

When my family members get married we all get together for a few weekends and make the food ourselves...Freeze it and hire some servers to warm it and serve it that cuts costs hugely. Also for flowers and stuff anything you can grow yourselves is a huge plus or anything you can make yourself is a huge plus too. If you go to a grocery store and check out thier bouquet selections it is half the cost of a florist. For a cake check out your local university and hire a student for half the costs. A photographer the smae thing there a million ways to save money at your wedding the key is to stay away from ppl that do weddings regularly. I personally feel any wedding venues and shops are just out to scam thoes extra dollars like ppl getting married are just made of money. Get creative and look everywhere but the usual.

Answer 6

You big cost is cater or have friends and family cook. Cater is were you spend the most money. Pick a place where you can buy your own booze. Skip favors. Get cheap flowers- from a supermarket not a florist. Get a very tiny cake for the cutting and then serve the people with a sheet cake. Tons of stuff you can do to hide cost- just depends on what your willing to give up.
Photographer is another big $$$, can you have friend or family member take semi proffesional pictures for you??

Answer 7

There are so many things- the amount of people you're inviting, if you can cut down the list. Flowers are usually expensive. Maybe changing the kind to a less expensive flower, or making arrangements smaller. Maybe using artificial. Invitations can become expensive, try going to Michaels or A.C. Moore. Places have invitation kits. I spent 30 dollars on 100, and printed myself! (Bought with coupons)

If you're daring enough you could order dress online too and save. My sister in law did that- it worked out great for her, and she spent about 1/2 of what she would have in store.

Look for a lot of things online before making purchases. If you see something in a store, you can find it online- and probably a lot cheaper.

Answer 8

** Ok going back I realize now you're not in the US, so overlook the use of American stores that I listed, but I'm sure you get the idea! :-)

Food is a major pinpoint in celebrations. You can VERY easily eliminate major costs by serving your own food. I've yet to meet any parents who aren't willing to help out with their child's wedding! Ask some people in your family to help out by each person bringing something.

My mom made a huge amount of finger sandwiches that looked absolutely elegant for my sister's wedding. They looked and tasted just as good as any professional batch and ended up costing faaaar less!

You didn't specify how elaborate the wedding will look overall, so I can't really give any ideas on how to save with decorations because for all I know you may be okay in that department.

Some people want a DJ or live band/group but honestly, if you're going to be in a nice park setting, then there's no shame in creating your own CD with a collection of songs of your liking. Just about everyone has some form of CD player that I'm sure you could borrow and not have to pay for!

Let's see what else...

Again I don't know how much you're wanting to save on, so just to be safe, you can always have a beautiful wedding cake without having to pay an outrageous price.


*** Adding one from your additional info...

Flowers - Hmm, this can be tricky. I was fortunate enough to know the local florist where I was married and they graciously donated every last flower in my wedding. Know any florists? :-) If not, then as cheap as this sounds (it would be soooo much better if I was with you in person to show you...) try going to a local craft store such Michaels, AC Moore (are you even in the US?), etc. There truly is a difference between a fake flower from the dollar store and a fake flower from a nice craft store. You should be able to find some very realistic flowers there. Again though, for all I know where you live you may be able to get fresh flowers for less. So ultimately that's all up in the air! Sorry! :(

Table decorations - You know those really big round candle that are the diameter of a plate and have 3-4 wicks? Try this:

I've included links to pictures similar to what I'm talking about! So don't be turned off by the actual picture, I'm just trying to explain what I'm referring to!

1 large glass marble plate - http://www.countrylightcandle.com/i/Pillar%20Accessor/Glass_Plate_CR16.JPG

Smooth flat marbles in whatever color goes with your theme - http://www.petco.com/assets/product_images/4/4258367922B.jpg

Craft glitter spray - http://63.210.199.180/00/02/0/202.jpg.fpx?cell=300,340&cvt=jpeg

Just spray the candle lightly to give it a glittery effect. It should shimmer, not be caked on. Let the candle dry and then place in the center of the glass plate. Surround the candle with the marbles To take it one step further, you could add a wide, wire ribbon around the candle. As far as the candle goes, if you're going to use it just for decoration, then you could easily get these large candles from any cheap dollar store.

If you get the glass plates and candles from the dollar stores, you're looking at a max of $4-$5. Sometimes you can even get the marbles there, too!

Another simple option is just using a nice simple glass bowl and place some metallic confetti in the water and then put a few floating candles on top. Simple and beautiful!


Rings - This is an area where everyone's level of acceptance varies. Some people insist on paying $5000 for a wedding ring. I personally thing that it's absurd. Why pay that much for something that can so easily be lost? You can easily go to your local Wal Mart and find a simple men's wedding band for under $50 and it'll be 10K gold. The gold won't fade and it looks just as beautiful as any other solid band you'll find anywhere else. The same goes for your wedding band. It doesn't have to be eccentric! If anything else, save the money now with a simple ring and then save up the money for what you dream of later. What better 1st anniversary gift than that? :-)

Car hire - Unfortunately, this is an area I wasn't worried about. We got in our arrived in our own vehicles and left the same. So I'm not much help in this department. Sorry!

Congrats and I wish you two the very, very best!!

Answer 9

The biggest saving you'll make is not getting married on a Saturday. We could've saved £2000 on the venue alone by moving to Sunday.

The next biggest expense was the food for all of the guests, then the dress - but the mother in law paid for the dress.

Answer 10

Flowers
- Silk/fake flowers Cost a lot less that real and look life like.
-Larger the flower the less you will need, meaning less money
-Have a lot of greenery flowers which cost a lot less than coloured flowers, have a few coloured flowers with lots of greenery. makes the coloured ones pop
-Roses are much more money, so stick with a differernt group such as daisys

Centerpeices
-have a short but long leangth wise glass vase that you can add water and tea candles.
-Fish bowl like with tea candles and fish
-Fake/silk flowers in a tall skinny vase.
-Plastic not glass

Table clothes
-plastic
-smaller tables, table clothes will cost less

Food
-buffet
-have a few family members help cook some food, you can buy some trays already made up from the grocery store, and have a buffet on one long table.
-BBQ

Drinks
-Cheaper wine, but have a picture of you and the groom as the label.(looks more expensive)
-No name pop
-Frozen jucies, mix in the water youself in large plastic punch bowls

Congrats!