I will be getting married next spring and my wife-to-be and I are always looking for ways to help curb wedding costs. So, I thought it would be fun to see what the LinkedIn community has to give on this subject!
Great question! I work for the parent company of Complete Music in Omaha, Ne. We live and breathe the wedding industry. I just got married in May as well so the whole process is still fresh in my mind. I will just list some ideas.
1. Friday weddings are thousands of dollars cheaper than a Saturday wedding.
2. The most expensive part of the wedding is the reception. Do your best to find a hall that allows you to bring your own liquor and food. Organizing the liquor and food contractors takes a little extra work, but you will save thousands of dollars.
3. People get caught up in spending way too much money on flowers! Here is what people remember: How beautiful the brides dress and ring were as well as how much fun they had at the reception. 90% of the people that come to your wedding will forget what flowers you had sitting in the corner of the room. So only get enough flowers to create a wedding atmosphere.
4. Wedding Programs: There are thousands of templates online. Go find some elegant paper and shop around for some affordable printers.
5. Instead of spending a lot of money on a wedding planner, rally up the troops! If you have access to family members locally, don't be afraid to delegate some of the planning.
These are some of the main cost savers. If you need any additional help, please let me know. If you haven't booked your DJ or Wedding video, please call me asap and I will take care of you!
I can't see spending more than $2,000 on wedding and perhaps the same again on a honeymoon. My observation is a lot of people spend a lot of money on a wedding that starts their marriage off in debt. We all know one of the leading causes of divorce is financial problems.
I find it staggering that the average wedding costs are, and I believe I'm in the ballpark, are $25,000!
Cut down on flowers, the catering, open bars, photography, etc. A wedding should be a simple ceremony that focuses on the union and not a big Disney-like production in my opinion. Focs on the union and your bride and you'll realize what's important and what's not. The cost-cutting will sort itself out. Best of luck to you both!
Some simple things my wife did to keep the budget reasonable:
* Print out as much as your can on your own. Invitations, menus, programs, and so forth can all be done either at home or at Kinko's.
* Get married on a Sunday instead of a Saturday or Friday. Seriously, getting married on a Sunday saved us about $10k in fees from just about every vendor we hired.
* Instead of hiring a wedding planner, look for a husband and wife team for your DJ. In all likelihood, the wife can perform most of the duties of a wedding planner on the day of the event. If you're in the Dallas area, I'll be happy to forward you the contact information for our DJ.
* Trade your skills for theirs. Ask your vendors if there's anything they need that you can do. If you're a whiz at web design, check out your vendors' sites and offer to revamp them if needed. If you're good with accounting, offer to balance their books. Use your imagination here.
* Get a sponsor. Seriously, especially if you're going to have a sizable guest list, contact local insurance agents, real estate agents, or mortgage brokers. See if they'd be interested in subsidizing part of your costs in exchange for prominently displaying their information (and being invited, with a chance to talk to people).
Not all of those suggestions might be appropriate to your circumstances, but hopefully at least one of them is helpful.
The best way to save on wedding costs is to set a budget. Talk about who will pay for the wedding, will it just be you two, or will parents want to help? This is the least fun part, but it will give you an idea on how upscale or casual the wedding will be. It will also be a good exercise for your marriage in budgeting and saving.
Practical suggestions
Use flowers that are in season: ex. gerber daisies in spring, roses in summer, deep colored mums in the fall
Get crafty and make your favors
Ask a musical friend or relative play a song at the ceremony or reception (it's a cheap way to add live entertainment)
This isn't something you'd pay for, but bridesmaid dresses don't have to come from the bridal salon, your bride might find something appropriate at a department store
This is hardly a complete list; consult the bridal magazines... you can even borrow them from the library ;)
Best wishes on a long and fiscally responsible marriage!
Good question. I recently heard of friends spending $25k on the event and I couldn't figure it out--I'd rather put a down payment on a house or Porsche or maybe travel the world for 6 months.
Keep it real. I got married when I was a bartender in Germany. We had a professional photographer, a friend of a friend, do it free. We spent around $150 each on off the rack clothes, $150 on the cake and had friends put up the cost of the after party in their backyard. Plus, since I was a bartender, all my team pitched in, bought a 2nd wedding cake and free drinks all night for our group of 10 friends. The rings were $300 for both, 3 bands of gold: red, white and yellow. Our honeymoon was to Prague (close by) for about $1300 I think. So if you keep your expectations reasonable, you will have reasonable costs. We got married at the state ceremony only, since it was a medieval castle from the 1400s for $100. I had a kick-ass wedding for $2000 and came out positive after all costs, since we requested cash, not presents. If you are spending more than the guests are putting in, then you're wasting money. If they are your true friends, does it matter if you have a backyard brunch or lobster plates at $40 each? Who do you need to impress? The important thing is to enjoy yourselves and cherish the memory.
wyas that my friends have saved is to use an iPod and rent a sound system in place of a DJ. Just be sure to have yoru best man or someone make annoucements, and sort fo guide the party, and worry about the flow of music (eating music will be different from dancing music)
Another way is to offer buffet style food, serve only beer and wine ( or no alcohol at all). Depending on where you live, it might even be better if you can find a place that lets you stock your own alcohol, that way you get to keep want is unused.
I ahve had freinds through a wedding for as little as $2000 (dress was off the rack, or from a place like banana republic), reception was at a park, plastic utensils and plates, brought own alcohol, catered by wife's family (sort of like pot luc) ipod as DJ and if you rent 5 tuxes from Mens whearhouse (have 5 groomsmen?) theyn the groom can get his for free...
Wedding, like most other life events, require adequate planning. There is a simple equation. Planning plus people equals performance. This means that as you increase the amount of planning and people involved within the process, the greater results or performance that will be realized.
Questions that should be answered along the process:
. Where should we get the money to pay for this life event?
. How much is too much?
. How should we allocate expenditures? Wedding, Honeymoon, etc.
. How do we maximize gifts while minimizing wedding day expenditures?
. What should we do with the gifts?
It is essential when planning for such an important life event, to seek professional advice. Especially, when you consider the level of cost associated with this event and the overall financial (as well as social and spiritual) impact that this will have on several families' financial futures. For instance, by paying cash for a $50,000 wedding, could create a $500,000 unrealized financial loss in retirement savings and a $4,000 tax credit loss.
Best of wishes and great planning........
Get married at the same location as the reception. I don't see the point of paying money to rent a chapel for a 10 minute (or less) ceremony only to get in a car and drive to another paid-for location for the reception.
Better yet, if you own your home and have a large enough yard, get married there and spend the money you would have paid for a chapel, reception, flowers, etc. on landscaping. You can continue to enjoy the landscaping long after the wedding.
Getting married is a significant project... when shopping for clothing, cars, venues - do NOT tell anyone it is for a wedding.
It is possible to cut deals... I found a string quartet busking in a mall... offered them $400, and a month later we had them dressed in formal wear and playing for 3 hours !
Same deal with venue, leverage your contacts, I managed to secure an 80% discount at a 5 star+ Hotel ballroom...
I swapped my car (high end Audi) for a an SL500 Mercedes sedan for a weekend... ;-} we were both very happy - just had to re-fill the car..
You have a very understanding and thoughtful fiance, Zach. I was married a month ago and my wife and I went through the same thing.
We also needed to buy a house prior to the marriage, so we were very cost conscious.
We put together our guest list and then priced it out with some halls. Originally it was 135 people and the cost was growing to 30k. That was a hefty downpayment for the house, and both of us had problems parting with that kind of money for a 4 hour party.
What we actually did was cut all the guests out. Including us, the priest, and the photographer, we wound up being 42 people. Both my wife and I were tired of all the family and friends obligations. My parents wanted to invite some of their friends. And if we invited one couple, we'd have to invite 5. We dicided that it was our wedding. And since we were paying for it, we just wanted our closest family and friends to attend.
So basically here is how we got 30k down to 7k
- Got married on a Sunday (an off-day)
- Culled the guest list down to just our closest friends (the others fully understood)
- We bought the wine, champagne and beer ourselves
- We had our reception in a cozy restaurant. No band. Just a cozy atmosphere where you could actually sit down, talk and enjoy everybody's company.
Good luck!
