Your Wedding should be the most amazing day of your life
it’s
a celebration of your love with family and friends and the special person in your
life creating special memories for years to come.
On such an occasion you should be able to have everything
you want to make your day just perfect, but you may find your budget can’t
quite stretch to all that you dream.
Moneysupermarket research shows that the average cost of the
wedding day is around £30,000, now think about that number some people might
think that’s a drop in the ocean but for the rest of us it’s a huge amount of
money, more than a year’s salary to some and a deposit on a house to others.
So why is the cost of a Wedding so much compared to what it
used to be?
Well, gone are the days where a Wedding is a one day affair,
at one time there was the raucous Hen and Stag Do sometimes the night before
the big day, the Wedding Ceremony, Wedding Breakfast followed by the Evening
Reception on the Wedding Day and then the couple would leave for their Honeymoon the day after the Wedding.
Nowadays Hen and Stag Celebrations may be adventure days or even
holidays abroad some people even choose to have a joint celebrations called the “Sten” or
“Hag” do's filled with extravagant days out.
Celebrity couples have led the trend for having a Wedding
celebration covering several days rather than one and there are people that choose
to get married on one day and have a big party for friends and family a few
days or months later.
So, with all these new trends how can you keep your costs down
and still ensure a fun packed Wedding for you and your guests?
According to Industry Experts the trends in Weddings is
changing, Vogue Magazine states that the biggest Wedding Trend for 2020 is “Individuality”
and this move shows how couples can have a more bespoke wedding that goes against
the norm and the idea of a individual "simple" wedding should keep costs down without compromising
on the quality of your day.
Here are some ideas and tips on how you can plan a more
simple, inexpensive Wedding
1.
The Wedding Date and Time
The date that you choose for your Wedding can save you
£000s.
Saturday is by far the most popular day for a Wedding and it
has obvious merits as most people will have weekends off from work and so would
be free to attend but you could consider another day in the week for
your special day, wedding venues will offer a discount if you choose a mid-week
booking for example.
You may also want to consider having your Wedding outside
the normal summer season when prices will be lower for Venues and Wedding Suppliers, what could be better than a Beautiful Winter Christmas Wedding when there aren’t
so many people away for their annual holidays?
No-one likes a long full day especially with children around
and changing your Wedding Ceremony to later on in the day has the advantage of
not only keeping your guests happy but possibly reducing the number of Food Servings
as well, if you had a Ceremony later in the afternoon you may be able to skip
the lunch serving and move straight to an Evening Reception instead.
2.
Keep the Guest List To A Minimum
When putting your guest list together don’t be afraid to cut
corners, you will want to invite all the special people in your life but don’t feel
mean if you want to limit your guest list to a set number.
These days it is common for people to ask guests not to
bring along children this will cut down the amount of people to feed and so
have an impact on your costs overall.
3.
Wedding Photography
Shop around for your Wedding Photographer, there may be
someone who is just starting up in Business who will give you a cheaper booking
as they are starting up their new venture or a local college with students looking
to build upon their portfolios.
You may wish to have a simple alternative like asking a
friend to be your photographer for the day or asking your guests to post their mobile
phone photos to a Facebook Group you set up for the occasion.
4. The Wedding
Venue
Now, choosing your Wedding venue could have the single
biggest impact on your Wedding budget, you may be having a Religious ceremony held
in a Church and need a venue for the Reception part of your day or you might
choose a venue that offers both the Ceremony and Reception too, this may save
you money and reduce costs on areas like transport between venues you’d otherwise
have to pay.
With Wedding licenses being given to a wider range of venues
the choice for your Wedding Venue need not be limited there are small Hotels, Tipis,
Barns, Village Halls, Forests and Orchards on offer. These types of venues will
allow a little more freedom of choice on things you can have on site so you won’t
be restricted on choosing the in-house catering that can cost more than other options
for example.
Some Wedding Venues might offer only simple facilities like the
Reception room and tables and chairs these may give you more space both inside
and outside and be a blank canvas for you to decorate as you wish.
There is always the option of holding your Wedding at home
or at the home of someone you know, you might be restricted with space and need
to plan a bit more closely but imagine what you will save on the venue costs!
5.
Wedding Catering Food and Drink
You might choose to do the catering yourself with a bit of
help from your friends, it would be easy to setup Food Stations, Food Carts, Grazing
Tables
or a beautiful Buffet.
You may wish to buy Food Platters from a Supermarket like
M&S or cook bulk foods from a Frozen Supermarket such as Iceland or Farm
Foods. These will save you time and money and you’ll be surprised at the high
quality on offer.
A Drinks Bar could be stocked up after a trip from your
local Wholesaler like Booker or Makro, you may want to ask some of your guests
to help serve or tell everyone to help themselves. Keep an eye out for
Supermarket offers on alcohol in the months leading up to your date you could
easily stockpile quite a lot over a short period of time. You might even want
to use your Supermarket coupons to help with the cost offering money off or
discounts.
If you wanted to allocate a bit more to the Food and Drink
side of things you could look at what a Mobile Caterer could offer, they may be
able to cook at the Venue facilities or bring along a Food or Drinks Van, these
vans could be a regular looking van or you may wish to find something a bit
different like a Vintage Food Van or Converted Horse Trailer.
(don’t forget to check out our Retro Vintage Fish and Chip
Van Hire
!).
6. Wedding
Entertainment
Your Wedding day entertainment doesn’t need to be limited to
the evening disco and DJ, there are other options to explore, you might have a
friend who knows a few card tricks or someone with a great voice who could sing a set of your favourite songs.
Other ideas could be outdoor family games or a bouncy castle,
you might want to setup a children’s play area or a casino for the adults.
What about some team games for the guests if you have some
grassed space, it might be a good ice breaker for the families to get involved
in and inject some fun to the day.
7. Wedding
Decorations
You might wish to employ the services of a stylist to make
your Wedding room in line with your theme, the best places to find them would
be Facebook or Instagram.
If you wanted to save money you could look at decorating yourself,
try scouring the High Street in places like The Range, Wilkos and QD Stores
where you can always find reasonably priced items to display on your Wedding Day. Once
your day is over you could sell everything you bought to get some of your money
back.
You might get some bargains if you check out Ebay or Charity
Shops it would save you money by buying second hand and you might find some
decorations completely unique and bespoke. Think of upcycling if you are looking
at things like Wood Slices, Wooden Vegetable Crates or Barrels that you could
paint or setup as you wish.
A vintage wooden Ladder or Crate could be used to display a
Menu Board and this would save you the money rather than printing a menu for each person.
A photo board could be created by pinning lots of photos to
the side of a Wooden Pallet, you might
want to display photos of you and your partner in the time you have been together or
it could be filled with photos of your loved ones, it would help to create an inexpensive interesting
talking point for your guests.
Get some Balloons to really make a statement, they
can cover large areas and come in all shapes, sizes and colours so can be in line
with any theme that you have. Balloons can be air filled or with helium and you
can buy disposable helium canisters from Argos. There are Balloon Arches, Table
Bouquets or Balloon Walls to create a fabulous backdrop for your photos and if
you check out YouTube you’ll find videos to help you make them yourself. If you
wanted to get someone else to put some Balloon Decorations together you can see
if you can find a local Balloon Artist instead.
Think of cheaper alternatives to Flowers on your day like
foliage, long stemmed flowers or artificial flowers, if you wanted to find a
florist try the local college for Florist students who may offer their services
cheaply or you could ask your local flower arranging group to help.
Dig out those Christmas lights to add some sparkle to your Wedding,
everyone will have at least one set and you can buy them in the sales after Christmas.
8. Wedding
Invitations
Your Wedding Invitations can be designed and printed at
home, there are templates available to download online or you may choose to buy
some from an online retailer.
Check out Etsy online to find ideas of how you can make
some bespoke designs and ask someone you know to help you make them.
If you wanted something more simple you could buy some pre-printed
invites from a shop on the High Street where you just have to fill in the details of your
day.
Should you want to keep the cost of your invites to absolutely
nothing get a full list of email addresses for your guests and just email them,
be creative and put together a video inviting them along and attach some details onto a pdf that they can download on their mobile phone to save them printing anything off.
9.
Wedding Outfits
You don’t need to buy your Wedding Dress or Suit brand new, people
will normally only wear their Wedding outfits once in their life and you could pick up a
bargain if you bought second hand. Vintage dresses are very fashionable so
there’s no harm asking to borrow your Mum’s or Grandmother’s dress for your
special day if you wanted. Dry Cleaning is not overly expensive and there are specialists
that will dry clean special items like Wedding Dresses if you wanted peace of
mind that your bespoke dress will be looked after.
There might be a new designer looking for someone to
showcase their designs, try checking out Instagram to see if anyone is looking
for a Wedding couple to dress you might get a huge discount or this might be free
in return for some photos.
Don’t forget about the possibility of hiring your Wedding
outfit, you might actually be able to afford to wear that Vera Wang dress you’ve
had your eye on!
When considering your Wedding Party you can save £s on dressing
them too, you can always ask them to pay for their own outfits or see if they have
anything already in their wardrobes that they would be happy to wear, mismatched colours are a popular
choice so there is no need for everyone to be matching and if you have small
kids try buying second hand on Ebay.
10.
Wedding Jewellery
You Wedding Rings don’t need to break your bank balance and
you don’t need to buy new, try looking around some antique shops to find something
special and unique it will be on trend to have something different and vintage.
High Street shops offer good ranges of Wedding jewellery so
you will find a decent choice in places like HM Samuels, you may wish to buy costume jewellery
that will provide a cheaper alternative instead.
11. Wedding
Presents
Keep the presents for your Wedding Party to a minimum by not
buying for everyone involved you could just stick to the parents of the couple and you could offer
favours and promises instead of something with a monetary value.
You could ask for donations to charities from your guests or
even for just cash to help you pay towards your Wedding or Honeymoon which will
help ease the pressure of the costs of your day.
12.
The Honeymoon
You’ll need a nice break after all the planning and excitement
of your special day and the Honeymoon will give you the rest you require.
Rather than splashing out on a Honeymoon to some far flung tropical
place you might wish to have a MiniMoon for a few days instead closer to home.
Another idea would be that you could book your honeymoon for a different time of year a few months
after your Wedding day out of season which will give you something special to
look forward to.
Look out for any holiday deals in the year before your wedding
you might snap up that holiday you’ve always dreamed of.
