Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life, but it can also be one of the most expensive. You want your day to be perfect, but with the average cost of a wedding in America totaling $25,200, that price tag is hard to swallow. That’s a lot of money to pay for a few hours of celebration.
It’s tough to cut back on your wedding. After all, it’s a celebration of love in front of the most important people in your life. But at the same time, spending the bulk of your savings doesn’t make sense either.
Thankfully, don’t have to spend your life savings to have a fabulous wedding. You can still have a beautiful event on a tight budget. Before you spend thousands on a wedding, here are 5 tips to help you save on your special day.
1. Set the Date During Off-Peak Seasons
One of the first steps to planning a wedding is setting the date. Choosing the right date for and your partner also has a big affect on your budget.
Wedding season tends to run from April to October, and during this time, costs can be a lot higher. If you’re flexible, consider scheduling your wedding during an off-peak season or less popular time of year.
Additionally, Saturdays and Sundays are the most popular days of the week for weddings by far. While it may be slightly inconvenient for you and your guests, a weekday wedding can save you a lot of cash.
2. Rent Your Dress
For women, choosing the dress is one of the most exciting parts of the wedding planning process. Your dress is something you dream about as a little girl, but most dresses don’t come cheap.
You could end up paying thousands of dollars for a dress you’re really only wearing for a few hours. In order to avoid this, many women are now renting wedding dresses for their big day. This way, you can get your dream dress and still save money.
3. Limit the Options at the Bar
Your guests will undoubtedly be looking forward to the open bar at your wedding. You don’t necessarily need to go all out, because alcohol isn’t cheap.
To save money on drinks, you have a couple options. You could limit the bar to wine and beer only — just don’t forget about champagne for toasts! You can also create a few signature drinks for your wedding. This way, only need to buy a couple types of alcohol, instead of getting a full bar.
Even though the selection will be limited, the drinks will be flowing and your guests will still have a great time.
4. Get Creative With the Venue
Traditionally, most weddings are held in a hotel, country club, or banquet hall, but these locations tend to be the most expensive. To save money, get creative with your venue.
Think of places that mean something to you and your partner, like a park or aquarium. You might be able to get a good deal on a non-traditional approach to your venue. Just be sure to get all the licenses and permits you need, before moving forward with the ceremony.
5. Stay True to the Purpose
Wedding planning can definitely get a little crazy. And sometimes, you might want to spend more money just to please everyone. However, the most important thing for you and your partner (as well as your budget!) to remember is that the wedding day is to celebrate you merging your lives into one.
Stay true to yourselves, and keep the purpose of the day in perspective. Do what you want, not what everyone else expects. Remember, it’s your big day. If there’s one thing to remember, it’s this: stop stressing and enjoy the celebration.
Coming into your special day with the right attitude will allow you to focus on the true purpose of what a wedding is supposed to be. And doing so will allow you to have more money to spend on the honeymoon and actual marriage!
What’s another non-traditional way to save money on your wedding day?
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We got married in September 1974, still married, eloped and had a hippie wedding, as we both were hippies. Our hippie friends were there, and one was the photographer. My other friend cooked, one baked a cake, and I went to a mall (very few at the time) to get a $35 dress. I did my hair myself (long) and my own makeup. My parents gave a get-together, for family, at my parents’ home We have owned 2 homes in our marriage, paid for, earned college degrees while married, just retired without pension plans, without debt, just social security and our savings, and we both do not regret one day of not having a “fancy” wedding. Reconsider cutting costs and the reasons why you need to spend so much on the affair. Use the money for a home and build assets. Godspeed on your life’s journey.
I forgot to get flowers for my wedding-Lol ! More money saved.
The big one is limit the number of guests. This does NOT necessarily mean you and 2 passers by as witnesses, but if you go a bit smaller (think sub-100 or sub 80 even), the cost per head will be removed… across the board. Drinks, food, table décor… all of it. That’s a massive saving. We were 72 at our wedding, and whilst we didn’t stint on the venue, had an open bar and gorgeous, sit-down dinner with waiters, the costs were relatively low… because it didn’t involve a cast of thousands… we also decided to have our beautiful, expensive wedding cake as dessert (chocolate ganache, so yum), plated with a bit of ice cream for 1/3 of the cost of a ”normal” dessert, and also had cheese platters with fruit, and even factoring that in, the menu cost was significantly lower than if we’d had cake AND dessert.
We didn’t do this ourselves, but a buffet dinner can also save a lot, rather than full-service catering.
Using sites like Theknot.com and Weddingwire.com, you can get a free wedding website which allows your guests to rsvp on. This can save alot of costs/time when it comes to printing rsvp cards to be sent via mail.
Also if you happen to leave near a field with flowers/plants you like for your wedding you can pick your own flowers. Flowers are one of the most expensive parts of a wedding so off-setting this could be huge.
It’s very interesting about these 5 Non-Traditional Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding Day. I’m sure many will be glad to read this article. Thanks for sharing it. Fantastic post!