A wedding can be one of the defining moments of someone’s life, and this is true for all involved in the occasion, whether you are getting married or closely associated with an engaged couple, such as a family member, friend or colleague. Because of its singular significance in many cultures, a wedding is usually thought of as a once-in-a-lifetime event. A wedding can be planned for years in advance, require a lot of effort from many people, and for some, it can be an extravagantly expensive event.
However, if the engaged couple wants (or just needs) to be prudent with costs, there are a number of approaches to traditional or more modern wedding activities that might help lower costs for those hosting the event and for invited guests.
A few non-traditional ideas for saving money on a contemporary wedding
- Pick an out-of-season, season. While spring through early fall is often the time of year for many weddings, getting married in the late fall or winter might save money—and potentially offer more availability for venues and services since client demand may be lessened in off months. Without more competition for wedding locations or decorations or food accoutrements, prices may be more reasonable in cooler months than the more popular warmer seasons. Also, some travel costs may be a bit lower when the temperature is lower during the off-peak seasons instead of the height of vacation travel when it’s hotter and kids are out of school.
- While Saturday night is alright, another day may be downright less costly. This is another opportunity to not go with the typical, historical flow of weddings, since ceremonies have often been performed on the weekends, generally on Saturday nights. Saturday is a popular day for weddings, but because that day is so in demand and competitive for renting event spaces and various wedding services, it can be the most expensive day to get married. It may be possible to reserve a wedding and reception venue at a lower price if the nuptials occur on a Sunday or even a weeknight.
- Don’t pick an offshore, faraway location for the wedding. Instead of Hawaii, Europe, the Caribbean or some other location away from the continental United States, have the wedding near to or where the engaged couple lives. Travel and hospitality costs for the betrothed, their families and guests can be prohibitively expensive for what could be even a small group of people. Attendees could taking on airplane, taxi, rental car and hotel costs, along with potential additional expenses such as pet boarding or a house sitter. The couple planning a wedding might just save distant or international locations for the honeymoon or future trips.
- For a different view, get a different venue. A church isn’t the only option for a decorative venue option. An elegant or casual restaurant, a private country or city dining club, a rentable mansion, a beautiful lobby of an office building, a bar, trendy nightclub, an art or history museum, or a swanky hotel are just a few of the non-traditional places where a fun wedding could be held. Not only are these locations interesting and unique, but some might be surprisingly affordable, such as an empty office building on a Saturday or restaurant on a Sunday night. With a restaurant and hotel, some types of decorations and décor (flowers, lighting, dining tables, bar, serving tables and other decor) are already built in. Not all of these types of locations may be open to the idea of hosting an event, but it is worth doing the research to find what could be a reasonably priced, unusual, attractive and unforgettable ceremony space.
- Hey Bud, how about fewer flowers or sourcing a locally grown flower company? For many years, most of the world’s tulips have been supplied by Holland and to be fresh they must be flown in. Similarly, the largest producers of roses have been countries in South America and Africa, which can mean an even longer trip to the U.S. to provide fresh flowers to Americans. If the final floral price includes possible import duties (a tax)—in addition to shipping costs—that international travel is likely going to boost the price compared to hothouse flowers grown somewhere in the U.S., such as in Florida or California. Comparing prices, choosing in-season domestic varieties rather than out-of-season imported flowers, and downsizing the number of arrangements can be a solid money saver. Also, consider that potted trees, flowering shrubs and other plants can look attractive and overall be cheaper than an equivalent bunch of individual flowers
- Don’t kill any trees because paper is old-fashioned; use email invitations and online sites that track responses and provide detailed wedding information to guests. You can send electronic invitations for little or no cost using a digital invitation website to manage the guest list and invitation responses. Email saves money on stationery, printing and postage and provides a much faster response time, with responses tracked and maintained by the online site so wedding planners always know exactly who will be attending. Online sites can also coordinate gift registries, agendas and travel details for guests.
- Don’t just go easy on bridesmaids’ dresses and groomsmen’s tuxes—go without them. This is an idea to save those serving in the wedding money, not the engaged couple, their parents or other financial supporters of the joyful event. Choose not to have traditional all-matching bridesmaids’ dresses but instead pick a color scheme for bridesmaids to follow and a similar style of dresses or slacks. For groomsmen, forgo tuxedos for their personal suits or blazers but perhaps have them wear a unified color scheme, such as blue blazers or dark suits—but maybe have all the groomsmen wear the same tie and pocket handkerchief, to, ah, tie together their appearance.
- Select a wedding dress for less. A wedding dress can be a pretty expensive item, often involving a large amount of detailed, experienced handwork to sew and stitch an elaborate (or simple) gown made from premium materials. That can add up to a lot of effort and high cost for a single piece of clothing that is specifically designed to be only used one time, unlike a man’s tuxedo or suit. If it’s essential to have a traditional wedding dress, consider renting one or getting a gown at a bridal consignment shop. If you want to spend a bit more money for a unique dress, consider if a consignment gown can be modified—custom tailored—to become a little different, not just by appropriately resizing it, but by adding or subtracting some decorative features. Retrofitting the dress allows the wearer to end up with a design that is specifically personal to them and reflects their preferred fashion sensibility.
- Let the guests be the no-cost photographers. Why have one photographer that charges by the hour when you can have several—or maybe dozens—of photographers that won’t charge you anything for their efforts? The quality of cameras in mobile phones has increasingly improved, so instead of paying an hourly rate for a wedding photographer, have all the guests pull out their mobile phones and take photos throughout the wedding. There are online sites where for a not overly large fee (or for free) the volunteer photographers can upload their photos to be saved, organized, displayed, downloaded and cherished.
- A virtual wedding could be financially virtuous because it’s more affordable for more guests. Now it is possible to live stream—videoconference—a beautiful event to dozens or hundreds of people around the world at a cost that could be less than an in-person event with attendees, some of whom would have to pay to travel to be at the wedding. Would you like to be able to invite 100 people to your wedding at a relatively low cost for everyone attending? Want to avoid a vertiginous cost by going entirely virtual? All the participants can get the best view and the ceremony can be recorded while it is streamed. The streaming window could also have a chat function built in on the side of the screen for viewers to write real-time comments during the wedding.
- Keep on trucking with the reception meal. If the wedding is more informal, instead of a catered meal after the nuptials, cover the casual meal costs of several food trucks with different types of cuisine showing up at the reception location. Whether its Thai, barbecue, Japanese, soul food, Mexican, Italian, Korean or other local, regional or international fare, a range of food types should satisfy the guests while being a casual, fun and relatively inexpensive way to feed family and friends.
Regardless of how a couple ultimately decides to celebrate what can be considered the official start of their life together, it’s important that wedding plans and efforts not be rushed; they should be carefully coordinated and thoughtful, with flexible, pragmatic compromises between all the involved parties. Everyone should strive to work together with the end goal of a hopeful, enthusiastic, joyful and memorable event for participants and guests.
Looking for more engaging and committed ideas about managing money responsibly for you and your family?
For more information that may help you manage your costs and finances, look into the free Delta Community Financial Education Center webinars on a range of practical, “how to” topics that could potentially help save you money and enable you to better manage your income, financial assets and life. Please visit the Financial Education Center's Events & Seminars page to review and register for its monthly on-demand webinars.
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