How To Save On Wedding Costs

According to a survey by Hitched, the average cost of a wedding in the UK last year was just over £17,000. And that cost isn’t generally for anything too extravagant or over the top. A wedding is an expensive milestone in many people’s lives and it’s quite easy to go over this figure. If you’re engaged you may be thinking of ways to save on wedding costs. And with our wedding just a year away we’re thinking the same.

After a lot of delays for weddings over the past few years, people have had more time to think about their plans and work out what they do and don’t want. Here are some tip on how you can save on wedding costs.

Start a wedding fund as soon as you’re engaged

As soon as you’re able to it’s important to start a wedding fund, even before anything is booked. Any money you have saved in advance of planning can help you towards deposits. Plus it will get you in the habit of saving. It’s much less common for a bride’s family to pay for or heavily contribute to the costs of a wedding. So most couples will foot the bill for a wedding via their own savings.

Working out how much you can save per month from your income vs when you want to get married will be a great way to start to think about the budget you’ll have. We started saving as soon as we got engaged in January 2020. At that point we had no idea when we wanted to actually get married. Then the pandemic happened which pushed back our planning, but we carried on saving. Doing this meant when we wanted to start booking our venue and suppliers we had money aside to use for deposits.

Save on wedding costs by setting priorities

Unless money is no object you will need to set priorities on what is important to you both. Sit down and make lists of must have’s for your day and prioritise those aspects. For example, the music might be really important to you so your budget is more for a great band. For others, the party aspect may be the most important so you’ll want to allocate money for behind the bar.

Having priorities will help you focus your time and finances on the parts of the day that are most important to you both. It will also help to highlight areas where you’re willing to make compromises on to save on wedding costs.

Consider the date

Getting married on a Saturday or during the high season will cost you the most money. And dropping to an out-of-season month, or even a weekday can help you save on wedding costs for the venue and potentially other suppliers. But if you are considering a non-weekend wedding consider the impact on guests. For example, anyone who may not be able to attend a weekday wedding/ people with kids, etc.

Also consider the location, Samantha from ParadiseWeddings.com, a popular destination wedding company, suggests, “You can save 70% on a wedding by having it in Mexico.”

Save on wedding costs by enlisting friends and family to help

If you have friends and family who have useful skills don’t be afraid to ask for help. Perhaps you’ve got some crafty friends who can help with homemade table decorations, or a family member who is a graphic designer and can help create the invite designs.

Another fun way to save on wedding costs is to ask guests to take photos throughout the day. You could create a digital photo album and have everyone contribute. Not only may you be able to scale back on professional photography but it will add a first-person perspective to the images.

Consider sending digital invites

Wedding stationary and invites can be expensive, especially if you have a large wedding party. Digital invites can help save a lot of money both in creation and postage. Plus they’re also more environmentally friendly than posted invites.

This also works with other things that have to be posted to guests such as save the dates or thank you cards.

Save on wedding costs by not going on honeymoon straight away

It’s becoming more and more common now for couples to delay their honeymoon until a few months after the wedding, or even a year later.

By doing this you won’t need to factor in honeymoon costs into your wedding budget. It’s something you can save for this afterward. With more couples living together before marriage, it’s more common to ask for money as a wedding gift. If you do this you can use the money you get towards any future honeymoon. Then your wedding guests will have paid for a part of your celebration.

Other things you can do to save on wedding costs:

• Consider what you can hire as opposed to buying. This can be cheaper, plus you won’t have to work out what to do with it afterward. We’re hiring a lot of decor as it’s much easier than buying and creating it ourselves
• Let bridesmaids and best men wear shoes or accessories they already own. This way you don’t have to buy new items they may not wear again
• Use foliage within the flowers. The foliage itself can be much cheaper than flowers so use it in floral displays and bouquets
• Let the bridal party do their own hair and makeup. You may want to hire someone yourself, but find out if the bridal party is happy doing their own as you could save a lot of money

Overall a wedding day is about you and your partner so you want to do what you want, but also what you can afford. Be realistic about what you’re prepared to spend on one day.

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