Beautiful Weddings on a Budget
You can have an elegant, beautiful wedding on a budget. Just because you don’t want to spend your life savings on your wedding day, it doesn’t mean that you can’t have a wedding with style or flair. In fact, many low budget weddings become more memorable and personal with the extra involvement from family and friends.
If you are planning a budget wedding, you will want to read on to find some great ideas on saving money while still adding flair and style to your wedding. By using your imagination, and your resources, you will find that your budget wedding will be the event of the season. You can use the money you save on a down payment on your first home, your honeymoon or buy a new car.
Find a reception location that is free or low cost. A low cost reception hall may be located in a church, a club hall rental, or a local banquet hall. Choose one that provides a kitchen. A free reception location may include your backyard, a beach, a park, or a good friend’s or relative’s home or vacation home. You may even find a local restaurant that will not charge you for a reception room and may even specialize in lower budget weddings.
Do your homework and network with friends and family. You may uncover an alternative that you had not known about. The more people you talk to, the more ideas you will get. You may be surprised to find out that the local tourist attraction (plantation, apple orchid, country club) offer lower budget wedding packages.
You should make a list of each place you investigate and keep track of any services, amenities, and packages available. Once you have completed your list, you can then make a decision based on the price, location, and services the reception place offers.
Keep in mind that some locations may have a higher rental cost, but when you add in the lower catering costs, it may turn out to be less money than a free reception location with a higher cost for the caterer.
The one truly low cost food plan is the potluck reception. This is making a comeback as more brides and grooms are faced with the financial responsibility of paying for their own weddings. If you choose the potluck option, you may ask your guests to bring a dish instead of having to bring a wedding gift. Many people are happy to bring both of course, even if the offer is made. This option gives you the greatest savings on reception food costs. Don’t cross this option off your list without thought. Many guests truly enjoy a potluck dinner. It gives them the greatest choice of menu and brings everyone together in a special way.
You may consider offering this wording to your wedding invitation:
"We are bringing together our family and friends in celebration of our marriage with a traditional potluck dinner. Please check here ____ if you would like to bring a dish in place of a wedding gift to our reception. Call with your dish suggestions please."
Don't feel pressure to have a professional florist do your wedding flowers. This is an area where you can enlist the help of a good friend. Have your friend pick wild flowers from your garden, a friend’s garden or a local wildflower garden. Add some ribbon and purchase vases at a local dollar or discount store and you can make beautiful centerpieces that are personal and appropriate to the season. If you choose to get married in the winter, add some pine branches and holly (which can be snipped from most yards) and add a few red carnations for a seasonal and beautiful centerpiece that won’t cost a lot.
The wedding cake can be more expensive than most people think. Most bakery wedding cakes can run anywhere from $3 to $15 a slice. This is an area where you can save big money by enlisting the help of friends or by rolling up your sleeves and getting creative.
The wedding cake usually stands alone on a table at the reception. Traditionally there is a small ceremony when the bride and groom cut the cake and feed it to one another.
You can bake your own cake and adorn it with fresh (sometimes edible) flowers, ribbons or simple frosting. Here are three simple alternatives to purchasing a very expensive bakery wedding cake.
Bake your own cake or enlist the help of a friend or family. You can do the cake in a traditional two tiered layer to keep it simple, or be creative with a heart shaped, square or other shape cake. Express your individuality and be creative.
Make a small showpiece cake. By keeping it small, you can purchase it from a local bakery and make it extra special with very little expense. You can then purchase a large sheet cake from a warehouse store or bake your own and serve that for dessert. Just make sure you match the cake flavor and the frosting to the smaller cake.
Just keep in mind that if you make your own cake, it is best to keep the frosting simple and decorate the cake with pretty flowers, ribbons or other edible decorations. If you choose to use fresh flowers, you can make a small bouquet and use it as a cake topper. You can also place fresh flowers around the base of the cake or cascade them down the tiers. Once you get started, you will find you are more creative than you thought.
One piece of advice: if you are going to make your own wedding cake, do a dry run first. Practice making and decorating your wedding cake. Don’t wait to start experimenting on cakes the week before the wedding. Take notes and pictures of the finished product. You will need them to refer back to once the wedding is drawing near.
Saving money on wedding photography can be fun and add some great candid shots of your special day. Very popular now are wedding themed disposable cameras that guests can use to take snapshots of guests at the reception.
If you know a friend who is interested in photography, you can enlist them to take pictures of the ceremony, reception and the bridal party and families. Be sure to discuss some ideas of what you would like taken. If they are not using a digital camera, it is good practice to offer to pay for the film, batteries and processing fees.
You can also ask a friend to take video of your wedding. Most people today have video cameras and would be pleased to be asked to do such an important and memorable job.
Let your friends know that you would appreciate any pictures they can take with their digital cameras. They can email them to you. This way you can print only the shots you choose and you are sure to have many to choose from. This is a great way to add to the memories of your special day.
Cheap wedding favor ideas are plentiful when you begin getting creative. There are endless possibilities to thank your wedding guests with a small inexpensive favor that says, “I appreciate your being here to celebrate our wedding.”
One idea is to buy small vases at the local thrift store or dollar store and place a few wildflowers in the vases. The vases don’t have to match. This could double as your table decorations.
You can place your seating cards in small pretty frames from the local thrift or dollar store. The frames can be used by the guest and they will remember the wonderful time they had at your wedding. The frames don’t have to match. It creates a whimsical feel to the wedding.
Small candies or fudge wrapped in tulle and tied with a pretty ribbon or flower is a nice inexpensive wedding favor. Personalize it with a small message from the bride and groom. Cut the message with scissors that give it a scalloped or designer edge and use a hole punch to tie the ribbon onto the tulle.
You can order M&M's with a personalized message and wrap them in tulle or put them in a pretty small pot, box, or wrap them in tulle with a ribbon.
Go to your local craft store and you can find wire markers for wine glasses and pretty beads in your wedding colors. You can make a pretty wine marker. Place them in a small box and tie it with a pretty ribbon.
Once you begin planning your wedding on a budget, you will find you become more creative and excited about the possibilities. There are a number of ways to reduce your wedding budget and still have the wedding of your dreams.