Cutting Wedding Costs
How To Cut $9500 from Your Wedding Budget
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As you start your wedding planning and wedding budgeting, you will need to pay close attention to both fixed and
variable costs. Variable costs are contingent on how many wedding guests you have and fixed costs you will have to
pay regardless of the size of the guest list. Managing costs means paying attention to both, but recognizing that you will
get the biggest impact by lowering variable costs, since they are multiplied by the number of guests and can add
up quickly. But, let's start with the fixed costs.
Savings: $500
Do it yourself Savings: $500
Don't buy "wedding" things Wherever possible, try to purchase a "normal" (a.k.a. "non-wedding") equivalent.
Savings: $50
Wedding dress Savings: $2,000
$80 x 50 people
Location, location, location $5 x 150 people
Time is money $5 x 150 people No tschotskes $3 x 150 people
Have a cake in the back room $2 x 150 people
Eliminate response cards $2 x 75 couples + $50 from stamps & additional postage weight Grand Total Savings $9,500
Congratulations, again! Have a wonderful time planning your wedding and celebrating your marriage. Pick and choose among these suggestions -- consider offsetting savings in one area so that you can splurge on something that screams "wedding" for you. Like all plans, wedding plans means prioritizing and pursuing the truly important and wonderful.Fixed Costs
Involve your friends
You are smart and talented. You have smart and talented friends, and maybe you have smart and talented friends who
would love to share their talents as a wedding present. Ask for their help in performing music at the service,
taking photographs, working as a bartender, or videotaping -- all functions that will cost you $500 - $900 to have
someone else do. My friends Kari and Denis had one of the loveliest services I have ever attended, and it featured several
brothers and sisters singing and playing piano -- it truly reinforced that this was a strong, close family.
Have I mentioned how smart and talented you are? Put those talents to good use for your wedding. You won't be able to DJ your wedding reception, since you'll be busy cutting the cake, dancing with your parents, and being in every picture. But, there are plenty of before-the-wedding things you can do yourself. Consider making your own veil (it is really just a headband and tulle); arranging flowers (since the cost is in the labor and not the blooms themselves); baking the cake; or writing out invitations in calligraphy or designing and printing them yourself using your computer. Many craft stores and community colleges have classes for just these things. Stephanie and Josh (my most recently married friends) had a flower girl clad in a beautiful homemade dress and bridesmaids with hand-sewn handbags (I love mine!).
Anything that has the word "wedding" attached to it can instantly fetch a 25% or more premium.
Word Add "wedding" Price Goes...
Dress Wedding dress Up
Shoes Wedding shoes Up
Disposable Camera Wedding disposable camera Up
Bubbles Wedding bubbles Up
I am not suggesting that you don't wear clothes for your wedding -- just strongly encouraging you not to buy a
wedding dress. Wedding dresses are custom made in small lots, using expensive fabrics -- all of which contribute to very
high prices. There is a real danger in that, after a day of trying on $4000 dresses (of which there are many out
there), $2000 will start to seem reasonable. $2000 is a lot of money. I recommend borrowing a dress: Wear your mom's
dress, your mother-in-law's dress, your godmother's, your sister's, your best friend's -- they will all be flattered, you'll
be starting a family tradition, and these are all dresses that have been worn just once. Other sources are consignment shops
or finding a beautiful formal dress that happens to be white or cream. Several people have mentioned to me the possibility of
using a white bridesmaid dress.
Variable Costs
Less is more
You are very popular. Many people like you, and you like many people. But, work very, very hard to reduce the number of
guests. Starting with the average of 200, I recommend trying to cut 50 people. At $80 per person for food, wine, cake, napkins,
and every one of your variable costs, this is the fastest way to save. And, there is an upside: a smaller wedding
means you can spend more time with the people who mean the most to you. You will have time to dance with
your favorite aunt. You will be able to celebrate in an intimate room where people will mingle -- not in a cavernous ballroom.
Consider cutting out co-workers, "and guests," distant cousins, and friends from college you have lost touch with. Every morning
practice the refrain "we are having a very small wedding."
Savings: $4,000
Orange juice in a Manhattan hotel costs $8 a glass -- imagine how much beef en croute with coriander
walnut filling will cost. As you and your fiancée consider locations that are meaningful to you -- the town you
currently live in, your childhood home, your college town -- evaluate comparative costs of living. This is a direct
cost to you, but it may also affect the lodging costs of your guests. Modern Bride
estimates that the same wedding reception in San Diego costing $4,000 would cost $9,000 in Chicago and $15,000 in New York City.
Savings: $750
The easy complement to location is date and time. My wedding on the beach in off-season September was half the price and half the complication of that same wedding in the high-season. Having a Saturday night June wedding means competing with a zillion other June brides and grooms for the attention of caterers, photographers, bands, and even locations -- all of which are going to the highest bidder. Ask your reception site or caterer what the price difference for a brunch or lunch, or another month would be -- it may make you reconsider a Saturday in June. Even if you are having a June wedding (can all those couples be wrong?), you can still take advantage of timing by choosing in-season flowers and in-season food ingredients. Tulips are cheap in June, but very dear in September.
Savings: $750
No one leaves a wedding saying "I had a great time because I got a picture frame" or "They must be in love because I have some chocolates." Wedding favors are an easy line-item to cut out. Yes, I realize that Jordan almonds are very tasty -- but, be strong -- or buy yourself a box at the movies. This same restraint can also be applied to monogrammed cocktail napkins and matchbooks.
Savings: $450
My first job was as a cake decorator, so I am actually speaking from experience. The cost of a wedding cake is not the cake -- it is the labor of decorating the cake. Decorating a big cake takes longer than decorating a small cake, and bakeries charge between $2.50 and $6 per person, per slice of wedding cake (which has a different pricing scheme than other cakes). You can cut that cost to $0.50 per person by having two cakes. Have a small, beautifully decorated cake to photograph, cut into, and to put on show. Serve your guests slices of plain sheet cake -- cut in the kitchen -- they will never know that it didn't come from the pretty cake.
Savings: $300
Confession -- I have this cost savings hint mostly because I hate response cards. Miss Manners feigns not knowing what they are when she finds them in an invitation. Response cards are small cards where guests can check a box indicating that they are attending. Etiquette dictates that a formal written invitation deserves a formal written response. Response cards are for lazy people. Plus, response cards, when they are printed, cost nearly as much as the invitation and will increase the weight of the original invitation. So, a vote for frugality is a vote for etiquette!
Savings: $200
Several areas of The Motley Fool site should be useful -- particularly as you plan a budget and if you're using credit cards. For more wedding hints, check out The Wedding Chapel discussion board (I just saw a great recommendation on centerpieces there!).
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