7 Clever Ways to Have a Beautiful, Budget-Friendly Wedding

A wedding is a significant part of peoples’ lives, which is why it's such a big deal when you're trying to plan one. However, not everyone has the luxury or the privilege to have a big, blown-out wedding of their dreams.

But just because they don't have a big blow-out wedding, it doesn't mean that their wedding won't be as beautiful as those luxurious types of weddings.

If you have a wedding coming up in the near future, one of the important parts of that wedding plan would be your budget. Having a set budget in place will make it much easier for you to plan a beautiful wedding that captures the magic of that milestone in your life without breaking the bank, so to speak.

There are many ways you can cut down on expenses with your wedding. Read on below to find out the things you can do for your wedding that will make it less heavy on your wallet.

1. Limit your wedding guest list

With as big a day as a wedding, you might be tempted to invite everyone you know to come to join you and your holy matrimony. However, catering to all of those guests as well as accommodation for them will be a tedious job both from a logistical and financial standpoint.

As much as possible, try to limit the guests you plan on inviting for your wedding. This makes the setting much more intimate and that much more lovely and warm because you know you’re inviting the most important people in your lives.

Don’t give in to far-off relatives wanting an invite for the free meal. This day is all about you and your partner, so your priority will be what you want for your wedding.

2. Find a flexible reception hall

Your location for the wedding is an important choice. Aside from where you plan on holding the ceremony, the second location you should be worrying about is the reception hall.

The tricky part with booking a reception hall is that it can be quite expensive when you’re booking them on weekends.

As much as possible, find a reception hall that will offer discounts if you book their place during the weekdays. You’ll be surprised how much you can save by holding a weekday wedding. Thursdays are a good weekday to hold a wedding because it’s not too far off the weekend but not too near it that it makes the booking more expensive.

Also, using your caterer of choice for the reception can save you from spending the big bucks. Make sure that you book a reception hall that allows you to hire your caterer instead of patronising in-house caterers.

3. Get your own wedding caterer

As mentioned before, getting your wedding caterer instead of in-house reception hall ones will be much cheaper if you know which ones to hire. Small business or catering services will be the best choice because they have that nice warm touch of a family-owned business and they’re cheaper than hiring a big caterer.

You can try handling the catering yourself if you think your family is able to handle it for an even cheaper catering option. The plus side to this is that you have people that you trust serving food that you are sure you’d love, but it requires more effort on your part to achieve.

4. Make your own invitations

Although there are services that help you create marvellous invitations for your wedding, it will be much cheaper to do this yourself. If you have a working computer and a fancy cursive font and a semi-fancy paper to print on, then you’re pretty much good to go.

Plus, if you’re a creative person who’s into calligraphy, it will be even better because the invites will have that special personal touch to it.

5. Go minimal with the flowers

If you’re a person who loves flowers and wants them for their wedding, then that’s no problem. All you need to do is make sure that you don’t go too overboard with the flowers.

You can save money from having flowers set up in the reception hall as well as the place where you’re holding the ceremony by having the flowers transferred to the reception hall before the guests’ arrival.

If you want to have flowers at your wedding but aren’t ready to carry the costs of a floral explosion of a wedding, then there are several steps you can take. You can try going to a flower farm directly to buy the flowers because they’re sure to be cheaper there.

According to Woollie Weddings, another option is to choose flowers that aren’t too expensive or are out of season. Roses are an inexpensive flower choice and so are hydrangeas, but they still manage to look elegant when used as decoration for your wedding.

6. Buy dresses that are on sale

You don’t have to spend full-price on a wedding dress, a dress that you’ll (hopefully) only be wearing once in your life. Thus, you should look around and window shop both online and offline until you find a wedding dress that is beautiful and stylish but is on sale.

If you have wedding dresses passed down, then this is a great option because all you need to pay for are modifications. Although if you want a unique wedding dress for yourself, then you need to make sure that you aren’t blowing your entire budget on this.

The moment you plan to get married, your priority should be the wedding dress so keep your eyes out for a hot sale. Some designers offer discounts after a wedding season, so keep an eye out for those.

7. Rent tuxedos as a group

You don’t have to buy a tuxedo ensemble if you don’t wear it often. Instead, it’s best that you rent one for the day. Better yet, for a discount, encourage other men of the party to rent out tuxedos as a group.

With these seven budgeting tips, you still get yourself a gorgeous wedding without having to spend thousands of dollars to get it done. A wedding is less about the decorations and more about uniting as a couple, so make sure that you have some fun along the way.

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