How to Cut Costs on Your Wedding by Setting Mutual Priorities

Often the best way to cut costs on your wedding is to set priorities on what items to spend your wedding money on. As a couple, discuss your idea of your perfect wedding: does it have a fancy cake? Beautiful flowers? Great music? Have you always wanted your picture taken while you step out of a fancy limousine but never had the chance? Then these items may get top splurging priority.

Now think about weddings you have attended, what items stand out as missing or cheap from those weddings? Was there not enough food? Was it a cash bar or no alcohol when you really would have wanted a drink? If you knew the decorations were cost conscious, what looked elegant and simple and what looked cheap and tacky?

Now what are the items you don't really care about? What are the items you frequently don't pay much attention to when you go to a wedding? The invitations? The favors? Do you actually take a look at the wedding cake before it is cut? Are there items that seem sappy and stupid at other peoples' weddings but are presented as vital now that you are marrying? During a cocktail hour, do you care if hors doerves are fancy and ornately detailed and garnished, or are you just hungry and want some food that does not make you wish you went to McDonald's instead of the wedding reception? If you don't notice any of these things at other weddings, ask yourself if your guests are likely to notice these more expensive items at your wedding.

While you are busy planning your own wedding, you notice all the details that take months of planning, but for the typical guest, it is a blur of 5 - 6 hours, they cannot possible notice every detail. So some details, no matter how much money you have to spend, are a waste since so many people will not enjoy it. Your goal then, is to decide what are these items that go under most peoples "wedding radar" and spend money on the items important to you and those that contribute to the overall big picture.

Bridal magazines and the advertisers that support them make their profit showing brides endless everyday items that are personalized and customized for bridal use, and at quite a mark-up. For some items, that is understandable, it is harder to sew a wedding dress and it is more fabric, so it is more costly than a regular dress. But other items are the same as your everyday item, but something has been added to make it bridal-ish. Isolating what these items are is a key way to try to save money. An example is cocktail napkins. This item is typical available for a few dollars per 250 colored napkins or are even at a dollar store or on sale after holidays, they sell online at KegWorks.com for $6.95 for 500 plain white napkins. But for weddings, people imprint their names and wedding date and the price goes up to around $34 for 100 of them, and up for $50 with logos embossing, metallic foils and pearlized designs. You will need at least 3 - 4 cocktail napkins per person, so if you are thinking of getting imprinted napkins, look at the total cost and what else you could buy with that money, and decide if imprinted napkins is how you would want to allocate your wedding budget. The imprinting of these types of napkins is so common, it is often overlooked by guests and does not add to the usefulness of the napkin or the enjoyment of the event, so is this an area you can conserve and spend the savings on something more useful? Would you prefer to spend that money on a larger floral arrangement instead? Or that money could go towards getting your hair and makeup done professionally on your wedding day, which has far more impact than imprinted napkins. Take the checklist from a Bridal magazine of these everyday sort of items, like matchbooks, napkins and disposable cameras, that are "must have" items that once used in a wedding day context and they are now more expensive. Try to remember the details about that item at the last wedding you attended. Just like the imprinted napkins, if it is just not memorable at that last wedding you attended then your guests very likely won't find it memorable at yours, so consider if you want to skip it.

Realistically assess the caliber, quantity and quality of food and entertainment your guests are accustomed to. I attended a wedding and overheard one of the wealthier guests say to her husband about an hors doerve, "Ugh, mine has mold on it" and then pushed her whole plate away in disgust, when actually, her hors doerve had three beads of caviar on it as a decorative garnish. Knowing the bride and groom were likely spending beyond their budget to provide labor intensive cocktail hour choices with expensive ingredients, it seemed a shame they skimped on other areas that I knew were important to them in an attempt to impress their wealthy guests. Unless your guests are known for enjoying unusual or distinctive foods, something expensive and exotic most likely will go unappreciated and not enjoyed by your guests. If your friends are buffalo wing type folks, consider when a tasty version of a simpler item might do, such as Chicken Satay, which is appealing to almost everyone. Many simple foods can be elegant and inexpensive and impress your more formal guests and not seem pretentious to your less formal buddies. The same applies for alcohol.

When planning your wedding, there are some items that will be important to you, so important that it will not feel like the wedding you always wanted without it. However, many items are not necessary. By striking a balance of what you wish to splurge on and what you don't, you can cut costs on your wedding and still have what matters to you.