Tips for a Cheaper Wedding

Having just gotten married last fall, I found that in the planning of my wedding and the reception, there was a lot of money to be saved in the execution of the event. Is it really necessary to spend $50,000 or more on a wedding? Or even $25,000? Absolutely not! Yet, according to CNN Money and the Association for Wedding Professionals International, the average wedding in 2007 costs nearly $29,000; that's a down payment on a house! Or a new car! A couple must decide what is most important to them: the day of the wedding or the life that they will be living together after the wedding. With dedication and determination, a bride (and groom) has the ability to lower the costs of a wedding and keep everyone involved a little saner (and with fuller wallets).

Tip 1: Keep it local! If you are a bride whom is truly looking to lower the costs of your wedding, then you must seriously consider keeping your wedding local, as it will automatically cost you less. Destination weddings have the ability to rob one's bank account faster than a bear in a honey pot and will deprive most of your guests from being able to attend. Weddings taking place in such areas as Hawaii or Mexico are truly not practical for many people; your best bet is to get married locally and go to your dream location for your honeymoon. Even if the wedding is supposed to take place in a location that is "only two hours away" and most of your guests are in your general area, then you should once again smack some sense into yourself and get rid of any dream of getting married on a beach or in a fabulous castle, etc. and check out your local churches and facilities. If you choose to have a wedding that is in an area that is ritzier than where you live, you have to expect to pay the prices that that area is used to charging.

Tip 2: Be your own wedding coordinator! If you are a budgeting bride, it really is not necessary or financially prudent to hire someone who is primarily going to do all of the legwork for you during the planning process. Paying someone to make phone calls and arrangements for you is not exactly budget-friendly, so ditch the coordinator and entrust your mother, your sister, your best friend and even your fiancé' (yes, he is useful for something!) to help you with some of the legwork. Besides, who knows you better than the people who are closest to you?

Tip 3: Don't be afraid of the big, bad chain store! Stores such as Alfred Angelo and David's Bridal have hundreds of wedding dresses to choose from (I got mine from Alfred Angelo) that are reasonably priced. David's Bridal may not be a designer boutique in Beverly Hills, but you can still snag a great gown at prices as low as $99 during their famous $99 sale that they have several times a year. You must ask yourself: is that $5000 Monique Lhuillier gown really worth it? Granted, most every woman getting married wants to have a "fairy-tale" wedding gown, but at a price such as that? According to the AWPI, the average wedding gown costs about $900, which, in hindsight, isn't that bad. But, if you are looking to cut that cost down, you can always consult a dressmaker or seamstresses who will often custom-make your gown at a lower price.

Tip 4: Assemble a team of helpers and creators! Anything that you can buy pre-made, such as flower arrangements, centerpieces and favors can be made by you or someone else who is willing to help you. My team of helpers and myself assembled my wedding invitations, my favors, the centerpieces and all of the flower arrangements. Assembling your own flower arrangements amounts to a HUGE savings, as you can buy the flowers wholesale and recruit an army of helpers to arrange them for your big day. You also have the chance to style them the exact way that you want them; I've heard from numerous brides that they ended up being disappointed with the flower arrangements that they paid so much for, as the arranger didn't really listen to what they had wanted. Another option is to shop for ready-made arrangements at places such as Costco, where a 20 piece collection of white rose arrangements will cost you about $430, or you can go to Sam's Club, where 125 stemmed roses in various colors will cost you about $87.

Tip 5: Shop around! One place that cannot be ignored for wedding supplies and odds and ends is the almighty EBay. As of August 18^th, 2008, the average cost of 100 organza favor bags was about $15, and that included shipping, while printed invitations had opening bids at only 1 cent! Anything that can be found on those wedding sites where they are peddling over-priced goods can probably be found on EBay for a much lower price. Another website that often has very reasonable goods for weddings is called Save-on-crafts.com, where one can get a box of six, five-inch clear vases for $6! The more you buy in bulk from the site, the lower the costs get for whatever you're buying. Furthermore, a site that I also found to be extremely reasonable was the site called Papermart.com, where a case of 200 white favor boxes will cost you less than $20 and a 25 foot roll of tulle netting will cost you a whopping $1.60 a roll.

Tip 6: Have an open bar, but keep it limited! If you are able to have an open bar, then you should consider only offering soft drinks, beer and wine. Knocking out the pricey mixed drinks will cut the bar bill down a lot. If this is something that you balk at, consider this statement that was said to me when I myself balked at cutting out mixed drinks at my wedding: if they are used to drinking (insert drink name here) then they are used to paying for it! People will be happy to not have to pay for beer and wine alone and those two options seem to be the most popular with wedding guests, anyway.

Tip 7: Avoid the package deals! Having all of your wedding details coming from one specific place gives that particular place the opportunity to jack up prices for just about everything. They are giving you a "set" price which pretty much ensures that they are going to mark up prices in order to maximize their profits. Such an instance can be compared to my parent's house remodeling project: instead of hiring a general contractor and paying him to do all of the hiring for them, they acted as their own contractors and hired people to do everything separately. In doing so, they spent about half of the national average (and the average of their friends) for a housing remodel. A concept such as that can also be used for weddings. If you allow one place to do it all for you, you give them the opportunity to charge you for whatever they deem is fair for simple things such as stemware or colored napkins. Package deals also seem to stifle the individuality and creativity that a bride can have if she goes and purchases all of the odds and ends separately. Doing this will take more time, but as a dedicated budgeting bride, that time will be considered well spent!

Tip 8: Have an off-season wedding! That's right, people, avoid the Godly month of June! The months of June through September are the most popular months to get hitched and also can be the most expensive, as there are thousands of other people competing to get the best rental locations, etc. and the people who are in the wedding business know this. Another aspect that a bride has to contend with if planning a wedding during the busiest months is the fact that a lot more can go wrong; with so many other weddings to cater to, there are bound to be some mistakes and cut-backs, so you should really try to avoid complications such as those. Consider having a wedding any other time of the year, such as the fall or winter, where you would be more able to negotiate lower prices for facilities and such that otherwise would not have such a high usage rate. Besides, who wants to be melting in the heat on their wedding day?

In times such as these, where the economy is slowing down and even stopping in some areas, having an extravagant wedding seems to be financially irresponsible. As stated earlier, the money that is dolled out for the average American wedding could be used by the wedding recipients in ways that would benefit their long-term lives together. Buying that first home or paying off school loans or even purchasing a reliable car are all things that that kind of money could be better spent on. After all, it is only one day out of your life and who is going to remember the cute and expensive favors you placed at each setting or the hand-engraved invitations that you sent out? Having the mind-set that a beautiful wedding is very feasible on a reasonable budget would make the beginning of a couple's life together easier in a very important way: a debt-free way. Budget tips such as the ones laid out in this article are ones that are easy to follow and often fun to participate in, as several involve including one's family and friends in a much more personal way and bargain-hunting and who doesn't love a great deal? Make your money stretch farther when planning your wedding and be as prudent and as realistic as you can about the expenses, as it is your day: just don't make it a day that will put you or your family members in a financial hole.