When you’re planning your wedding you want every aspect of it to be just wonderful; something to remember and not something to think back on and wish you had done differently. You may think that if you have a small budget that isn’t going to be possible and you’ll need to compromise somewhere, but actually that’s not quite accurate – you can have a gorgeous wedding on a budget, and here are some ideas on how to do it.
Catering
Often one of the biggest expenses in any wedding is going to be the food. You may want to offer guests a three-course meal, but that can be prohibitively expensive. Therefore, if you time your wedding correctly, you can simply offer a buffet style meal and if the food is good and there is a lot of it, no one is going to mind at all. In order to minimize costs, you could take a look at a site such as Pocket Change Gourmet that specializes in offering inexpensive but delicious food ideas.
Invitations
Invitations are another big cost that is often overlooked, but when it comes to getting quotes it can be quite a surprise. All that printing, not to mention sending the invitations through the mail, and it can really add up. Luckily, there are places you can go to make your own wedding invitations and you can design them so that they can be emailed to your guests. If you don’t have an email address for some people then you can still mail them, but it will be a lot less expensive than if you had sent them to everyone in this way.
The Dress
The wedding dress is the thing that everyone wants to see and no one wants something that is disappointing or ugly. However, designer dresses can cost many thousands of dollars, and compared to the rest of the wedding, it just doesn’t seem right to pay so much for just one item. There are stores you can visit (or even check out online) that offer second hand wedding dresses. Remember that these dresses have only been worn once for a few hours, so in most cases they are in perfect condition, and they are just a fraction of the price of a brand new one. Plus no one is ever going to know that it’s a second hand dress unless you tell them.
Don’t Ask For Gifts
Many weddings will have a gift list that details everything the happy couple would like guests to bring as presents. It might make more sense – especially if you’re already living together, or you’ve been living independently and you already have everything you need – to ask for wedding help rather than gifts. So if you know a photographer, ask them to take snapshots of the day instead of buying you something. The same for a cake maker, or a dress maker, a florist, or anyone else who might be able to help out. It will save a lot of money and you won’t end up with any unwanted gifts.
