A big wedding doesn’t come cheap, the UK average is a whopping £30k!? But the truth is your dream day should not be a financial struggle and it certainly shouldn’t mean you start your marital journey off with years worth of debt to pay off. So, I want to share with you these proven cost-cutting wedding budget tips that will ensure that your nuptials ceremony doesn’t outweigh your budget, and at the same time allows you to walk down the aisle in style.
Wedding Budget Tips
Decide on non-negotiables
Make a budgeting spreadsheet and tally expenses of the things you must have to have. Let your mindset decide this and not what other people are doing. A fancy dress or an expensive car shouldn’t be your priority just because everyone else is having it, really try and focus on what you want for your special day, rather than what the “done thing” is.
Venue – think outside the box
The cost of the venue eats up a major portion of the wedding budget. Instead of spending on a hotel and big packages, renting an Air B&B with a garden, booking a private school or a brewery will not only help you save money but give the nuptials a different feel. We chose to get married in a private school which had only done wedding a couple of times before. As soon as we walked into the school we knew it was “it” and it was so unique to any wedding I’d ever been to before which made it special to us.
Choose an alternative way
Instead of the traditional sit-down dinner, do something like a family-styled hog roast station. Not only will you save big (we saved £7,000!) it will be a wonderful way for guests to move around and socialize rather than sitting constrained in their chair for hours with people they may not know. This is one of our wedding budget tips that saved us a fortune.
Make your own decorations
You can make so many things yourselves by taking to eBay to save a fortune. Rope in your friends to help you. Not only is it fun, you will enjoy doing up the decor and it will be so special seeing it all come together.
Go paperless
Save a lot on stationery, cards and stamps by inviting your wedding guests digitally and posting all the information on your wedding website for nothing. Many sites offer tools galore to make your planning process simple as well as gift registry too.
Dress and makeup
A budget-friendly option is to think outside the box and look for websites which specialise in pre-loved wedding gowns. Even sites such as eBay, ASOS and Oxfam have a great selection of affordable wedding dresses. These are usually once-worn and are sold on after the wedding. You could spend thousands of pounds on a wedding dress only to be worn for one day. When booking your hair & makeup why not ask some of your talented friends if they would do it for you, or maybe do it yourself.
Ebay for bridesmaid dresses
Buying the bridesmaids dresses or wedding accessories on eBay is a very affordable way of dressing your bridesmaids, alternatively apps like Vinted and Depop often have bridesmaids dresses for sale at a fraction of the cost!
Enlist trainee photographers or students
Wedding photographers are expensive so this is one of my top wedding budget tips. A sure fire way to save funds is to seek out new talent. Social media is a great resource for budding photographers or someone up and coming, who will charge a fraction of the price professionals ask for.
Make your own cake
You don’t need to splurge on a four-tiered fondant cake when a friend who is a good baker can make it for you as a wedding gift or for a small fee. Enlist your aunts or ask anyone who loves to bake to whip up some wedding snacks for your guests. We went with homemade sausage rolls and pastries which went down a storm with our hungry guests and my talented sister-in-law made us this delicious white chocolate fudge cake!
Borrow the car from a friend
Many people have nice company cars these days or know someone with a fancy car. Often your guests wont even see you arrive or leave so why spend a fortune on this area of your budget? Borrow the cars you need to transport your bridal party to the church/registry office and then onto the venue and this will save a lot of money on hiring fancy cars with drivers.
Make your own favours
It’s easy to spend quite a lot of money on favors for every wedding guest, so think of a thoughtful gift you can print out and keep on the table. I did CD’s of our favourite songs to give a personal touch and something which is very useful for the guests. You can come up with something equally inexpensive like homemade cookies or key rings as a token of appreciation.
Book out of season
You can trim costs by choosing a venue and date out of the typical wedding season, like just after the winter ends in February/March or between the end of summer and the Christmas peak.
The guest list
This is always a point of contention. Previously, when parents were paying for the big day it would be that if they wanted Cheryl from book club to be there then it’s kinda their prerogative, but as couples are more likely to be paying for their big day nowadays don’t feel pressured to have your mum’s cousin who you haven’t seen since your Christening on the guest list. This is your day so limit your guest list to people you actually want there!
Make your own bouquet
If you are crafty or know someone who is, do your own flowers. This will save you lots of money as your entire floral budget with bouquets and table flowers will be covered in less than three hundred pounds.
Even If you devote the biggest part of your budget to areas which are important to you, these wedding budget tips can help you save a lot without having to compromise on what the things you want.
If you want to see how we saved £12,000 on our wedding and had our dream day and then went traveling for 6 months afterwards with the money we saved, watch the video here.
