Hello everyone! Welcome back to my humble abode of this wonderful wedding advice blog. Today, I'm here to spill all my tips and tricks into planning a fantabulous wedding on a tight budget. I know how you feel when you have a vision of your wedding in your head, but you just not quite sure your budget will be able to cut it...Well, I'm here to tell you that it is possible, you've just got to think outside the box to make it happen. So, lets get into it.
1 - On your wedding invites, instead of offering guests the chance to give wedding gifts and/or money...Offer them the option to "let your generosity go towards the planning of our wedding" - meaning: Offer them the chance to donate to a 'go fund me page' and let their generosity pay towards the wedding, instead of wedding gifts.
2 - Have your wedding on a WEEK DAY. I know this may sound odd, but who isn't down for taking 1 to 2 days off work!? Especially if you can book it off as holiday! Not to mention that wedding venue's are generally cheaper to hire on week days too. (Just make sure to get your invites out ASAP when you've got your venue booked, so people have plenty of notice).
3 - Find wedding suppliers that are local to you. They won't charge for travel AND you might even get a special offer, seeing as you're local to them (don't bank on it though).
4 - Join a few Facebook wedding selling groups and watch out for people that are trying to sell their wedding decorations...You might find some brides simply giving their wedding decorations away! - PLEASE make sure these Facebook groups are private and that they aren't full of people advertising random businesses.
5 - DIY your own wedding decorations! This may be a time consuming task, but if you've not got the budget to splash on a wedding dresser business, this is the way to do it. Try and make it a weekly 'fun' thing that you do with your fiancé! Nothing brings you more together than teamwork.
6 - Generally speaking...'wedding season' is ALL YEAR ROUND. However, it is a common trend for weddings to take place during the summer season. Meaning suppliers will charge more because they will be more in demand around this time of year. So, simply avoid having your wedding in July, August and September and you MIGHT find you get better rates from your wedding suppliers....(I said might!).
7 - Send out digital 'save the dates' and wedding invites...You'll save on paying for stamps, printing services and decoration bits and bobs. I'd recommend rounding up all your desired guests emails and creating your digital 'save the dates' and wedding invites using 'BeFunky' or 'Canva', its FREE to use and you get creative freedom over what elements you can add...(I use BeFunky for making all my Pinterest pins).
8 - Have your ceremony at a local church or registry office, then hire out a community hall or town hall down the road for the wedding reception... Google says, "getting married in a church is still 45% cheaper than the average cost of a wedding venue in the UK".
9 - Have BUFFET FOOD. Either make it all yourself or hire out a catering company if you can afford to stretch your budget a little (I can guarantee the food will taste AMAZING because they're buffet food experts).
10 - And my final trick...Use a Spotify Playlist and Big Ol'e speakers to use for your reception music/dance party. Just make sure you can find some speakers off anyone you know or check that your wedding reception venue have any. The big the speakers, the better the sound quality which = better vibes!!
I hope this blog post has been useful for some of you brides that are on a tighter budget than you would like to be. I'm sure you'll have your dream wedding day regardless of what kind of budget you have. Just remember to enjoy the process of planning because it only happens once! Until next time...
Yours Kindly, Amy Xx