How to Budget to Save Money on a Wedding

Your wedding will be one of the biggest events of your life. It will also be one of the most expensive. The good news is there are ways to create an affordable and beautiful day to share with your significant other. All it takes is some creativity and effort. Here are some tips to budget to save money on your wedding.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Put together a general plan of everything you and your fiancé want in a wedding. This includes the amount of guests, food served, location choice, wedding party gifts, decorations, photography and clothing.

2. Create a money plan by adding together how much money you and your fiancé bring in each month against how much you spend. Be realistic about your end goal. You don’t want to mortgage your future together in life for one day.

3. Establish a monetary amount you feel each of you can put in a month. Again, you want to actively and aggressively save money, but make sure you give yourself some breathing room, and save a little bit for emergencies as well.

4. Analyze the people you and your fiancé know to see if you can score a discount somewhere, or they may be able to help you out at a great financial saving. Perhaps you have a friend who has bartending experience, or has DJed before, or has a band. Talk to those people and see if they would be willing to help you out.

5. Apply the connections you and your fiancé have to the general plan of everything you want in your wedding. Actively seek other options to see if you are finding the best price for what you want.

6. Consult your budget and fiancé, and purchase each item or service. Make a point to be aware of how much money you have already invested, and whether or not your budget is being followed.

Tips & Warnings

• Set the money you save each money in a joint account with both your names on it. This will establish the idea that the money is to be used for your wedding, and nothing else, short of an emergency.
• Look into choosing a venue where you can hire friends or family to serve drinks, play music or cook. You will want to give them something for helping, but odds are very good it will be considerably cheaper than hiring a DJ, band, catering service or bartender from outside your friends or family
• Asking a friend who owns a business or does a professional service to help you with your wedding for free is insulting. Ask them in a professional manner if they would be interested in helping, but don’t give the impression they are under any obligation.
• Straying greatly from your budget may be a necessity, but if you’ve done your homework on everything, you should still be ok. Just don’t add money to one aspect of the wedding without subtracting it somewhere else, and don’t underestimate the value of each of those items.