Planning a Wedding on a Budget, You CAN Do It

If you are newly engaged, you probably have lots of ideas about what you want your wedding to look like as well as a million questions about what everything will cost.

It may be surprising to learn that a small wedding with 100 invited guests and a reception buffet where the bride and groom each have three attendants can cost anywhere from $6000 up to $10,000? The reality is that most weddings are somewhat larger than that. The average wedding has around 200 invited guests. A formal wedding of this size can easily increase the cost to anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000.

If you are planning a wedding and want to have fond memories and not a dreadful reminder each month when your credit card bill arrives you need to carefully plan your wedding budget and make smart choices with that budget in mind.

Now you may be wondering why the range of costs in the examples above. The main reason is there are so many different choices that can be made and each of them will have an effect on the cost of your wedding.

Smart planning will allow you to save money and at the same time still manage to have a wonderful wedding. There are several areas that are especially important to look at because it will be very easy to overspend in these areas without careful planning.

Four Areas Where Smart Choices Can Save You Money
1. The first is the wedding venue. It should go without saying but the fancy hotel in town will definitely cost you more than say holding your wedding at a local park. You need to decide the type of wedding you want to have, formal, semi-formal or casual and then choose a venue that fits with the formality of your wedding. Of course a formal wedding will require a more formal venue, but even if that is what you choose, you can shop around to find a good location for the least amount of money.

2. Wedding flowers are another area that can quickly add up to an enormous expense. Be aware that flowers within season will be less expensive than off season flowers, and that exotic flowers will be the most expensive of all. More commonly used flowers are generally kept in stock at most florists and are lower in cost.

Ask to see different varieties of the same types of flowers, for example roses. There are rose varieties that will be less expensive that may suit you just as well as the more expensive varieties. Also remember that while a flower like a calla lily may be expensive, they are large and you may have your attendants only carry a single stem so the costs would not be as much.

3. The reception usually takes the largest chunk of the wedding budget. 

Generally evening weddings have receptions that feature a meal. This meal can be buffet, a full sit down meal or heavy hors d’oeuvres. Morning or afternoon weddings receptions can be lighter fare, perhaps finger food or a brunch for a morning wedding.

When deciding whether to serve a meal or hors d’oevres be sure to do a price comparision as sometimes a full meal can be less expensive than heavy hors d’eoevres. The reason for this is with hors d’eovres you pay by the piece and you will likely have several different types of hors d’eovres.

4. Speaking of food, your wedding cake is another of the items with lots of different choices that will determine the final cost. The size of the cake is an obvious one. A cake that serves 50 people will cost less than a cake that will serve 150. Also your choice of whether you want fondant or to have your cake frosted with butter cream will affect cost as will the decision to use fancy flavored fillings.

Even though every bride wants her wedding to be wonderful, you don’t have to spend money like a Hollywood celebrity in order to have a fantastic wedding. Remember that a wedding on a tight budget can be done. Keep these things in mind when you are planning your wedding and you should be able to keep your costs in line.