If you’re planning a wedding on a budget, everything from lunches for work to date night can be cut to save money to spend on the wedding. While you want to come in under budget, you still want to have the wedding you always dreamed about.
Luckily, there are ways to plan a wedding frugally, without going so cheap that your wedding suffers for it. So, without further ado, here’s a lesson in wedding planning on a budget.
Set Your Budget First
While it may be tempting to go whole-hog by ordering wedding programs, flowers, and everything else to do with the wedding, you need to sit down together and set your budget first. Remember, the most important part of sticking to a wedding budget is creating one to begin with. If you go ahead and start planning and spending money, 9 times out of 10, you’re not going to get around to setting a budget at all.
Be sure any parental units that will be helping out financially are in on the budget discussions as well. This helps to ensure everyone is on the same page and there aren’t any miscommunications later as to who is going to pay for what.
Use an Online Budget Tracker
There are many, many online budget trackers that can help you stay on track while planning your wedding. These tools will help you divvy up your money, keep track of your expenses, and let you know when you’re getting really close to going over the budget you’ve set for yourself.
Get Married in the Off-Season
In most parts of the country, January and February are off-season when it comes to planning weddings. May through October are prime times so this time period usually ends up costing you more.
Getting married in the off-season might not save you a ton of money but you will be more apt to get discounts from vendors that are otherwise not making a whole lot of money at the moment.
The same can be said for marrying on a Sunday or during the week, as Saturday is the most popular, and most expensive day to hold a wedding.
Trim Down the Guest List
While you don’t really want to do it, sometimes trimming the guest list is the best way to stay within the budget you’ve set for your wedding.
Just trimming five guests from your list can end up saving you hundreds of dollars. After all, the aunt you haven’t seen in 15 years probably doesn’t care if she comes to the wedding or not.
Read all Contracts with Vendors Carefully
It’s easy to be in such a hurry that you breeze through vendor contracts without properly reading them. Make sure that you’re aware of all charges, conditions, and changes that could be made to make it less expensive for you.
The last thing you want is an extra charge that you can’t afford to come up right before the wedding because you didn’t read the contract well enough or failed to read the fine print.
Postpone the Honeymoon
The average honeymoon costs somewhere in the vicinity of $5,000, which is money you could easily use somewhere else. This is not to say that you shouldn’t go on a honeymoon, in some cases, it’s just better to postpone it until you have more money.
If you feel that a honeymoon is essential, perhaps go for a weekend or somewhere local, such as an out of the way bed and breakfast. There are inexpensive options out there for honeymoons, you just have to know where to find them. Once you’re more established as a married couple, then you can take the huge, elegant honeymoon you’re dreaming of now.
These are just a few tips for planning a wedding on a budget you should know about. Remember, a wedding doesn’t have to be super expensive, it just has to be a memory you’ll share for years to come.