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Spend Less And Still Have A Great Wedding

Weddings are all about balancing dreams with realities and matching them with a targeted budget. A dream wedding need not be insanely over-priced. It’s all about getting back to the basics: realize what truly makes a wedding significantly memorable.

Here are some facts for you to ponder:

Pay In Cash – Whenever possible, pay for your wedding expenses in cash. Do not worry about paying for the food: most hotels and restaurants accept the balance payments in cash after the event. Eg. Angpau money given by guests. If you have to use credit, have every wedding expenses recorded on a spreadsheet and monitor its total closely to ensure that you don’t blow your budget.

Consider Alternative Venues – A luxurious background setting in a hotel ballroom looks really nice but a simple garden wedding surrounded by loving family members and friends is even nicer. Couples who focus on love instead of money tend to fare better in their marriages later in life.

Build Domestic Team Work – Encourage family members and friends to take part in your wedding preparations. Let them volunteer their talents to help you make this a truly memorable event. This helps to bring you closer to them besides enabling you to cut cost and save some money for your future.

Wedding Invitations – Design and make your own wedding invitations. Personalize your invites by incorporating your wedding theme and writing your own messages. For guests with emails, send them an e-invitation instead.

Wedding Planning – Be your own wedding planner or get a relative or friend to volunteer while you supervise its progress. Incorporate your own wedding theme in every aspect of the planning. Have your team of volunteer source for materials used for the event and ensemble a team to decorate the event venue, manufacture your own wedding favors, make your own of everything that you may need for the wedding.

Dressing up the wedding entourage – Have them rented at a fairly reasonable price. If you prefer to buy, shop during sales to get a good bargain. If you know someone who can make them, be a minimalist and keep your dress theme simple and elegant.

Food & Mingling – Most weddings receptions have 8 course dinner meals: you sit and eat. That’s about it. Your guests don’t mingle around. There is less fun and laughter which shouldn’t be the case. Opt for buffets: you can get great food plus the fun-filled opportunity for your guests to mingle around.

Entertainment – Select your favourite list of songs and have them burnt onto a CD. Play them during the event as soft background music. Get a friend to be the MC for the event and have him in charge of playing the songs and slides.

Wedding Attire for The Bridal Team – Explore options to rent them from bridal shops or have them tailor made by a free lance designer instead of grabbing designer stuffs. Remember the rule of thumb: keep it elegantly simple. If your mum or an aunt can sew, secure their help and you’ll save thousands of Ringgit.

Set Up An Army – Instead of paying big bucks to hire a wedding planner, caterers and helpers, assign a close family friend or relative with superb planning skills to recruit and manage an army to help out in your wedding plans.

Food – Let’s face it: shark fin soup and abalone are not elements that make up a great wedding. So, get environmentally friendly and leave out the sharks from your menu. Declare your love for nature and the environment and win additional praises from guests!

Flowers – Ask around for someone in your circle of friends who may have a relative or friend who is well versed in flower arrangements and can make bouquets for the bride & her entourage. Always buy in bulk: this way, you pay less without compromising on its freshness.

Wedding Invitations – If you don’t know how to do it, get an artistic friend to help. Have an economical design in mind when designing. Combine few types of paper to create a striking effect. Avoid thick paper materials as they cost more. Then print in bulk.

Entertainment – In case if you have a group of multi-talented pals, engage them to volunteer as DJs for the event or throw a few performances for your wedding reception. You can reward them with small meaningful gifts like shopping vouchers and a thank you note instead of paying thousands to engage a professional band. If you don’t have any talented pals, don’t fret: select some great songs and have them played as background music during the reception. Guests usually favor opportunities to catch up with friends and relatives so they are likely to appreciate it.

Event Decoration – If possible, get your team of friends to dress up the event venue for you. Use more candles, ribbons and balloons instead of flower arrangements to save money.

Photography & Videography – Source around for a friend or relative who knows how snap creatively illustrative photographs on your wedding day. Do the same for video shootings. This way, you save up on expensive professional fees.

Wedding favors – You can actually make these yourself few months before the wedding instead of having to buy them off the shelves. This way you pay only for the material cost and save up on expensive manpower charges.