Planning a wedding is a difficult task for most people, especially if they have a shoestring budget. Because most couples want to have a stylish, extravagant wedding, they begin a new life overwhelmed by debt. Making intelligent decisions and planning ahead can prevent the unpaid bills from piling up. The most important thing is to know how to manage the wedding budget and plan with limited resources. Just remember that you truly need three things to have a successful wedding: a groom, a bride and an officiant. As for the other things, which go from flower arrangements and invitations to having your hair done at a beauty salon and buying a princess wedding gown, it’s all about priorities and what you really want to your wedding to have. Set a budget, make a list of priorities with your significant other and decide on the things that can and cannot be compromised.
The first thing you need to do is set up a maximum sum per guest without draining the wedding budget. About $100 will be enough to pay for the catering and everything else. This means that slashing your guest list becomes the easiest way to slash your wedding budget. Small, intimate weddings can be as memorable as large events. Furthermore, you will be able to enjoy this meaningful day with the people you love most.
Choosing to send an email instead of save-the-date cards can actually save-your-time and money. After all, you are only asking the attendants to put a date in their calendar. You can even tell the guest to contribute by creating a donation wedding list for your honeymoon and even for the cost of an extension to your home. There is no better wedding gift.
The dress is usually an item that leaves a huge gap in the wedding budget. Most of them are handmade and quite expensive. A cheap way around it is to ask your bridesmaids to select and pay for a dress that they will want to wear again at their own wedding. You can even check out some second hand or sample wedding dresses. Many brides first try on a dress at an expensive boutique to get an idea of what they want and then buy a budget dress and modify it at a local dressmaker.
Another way to save money is to check out some online beauty tutorials about wedding hairstyle ideas and makeups tips. As complicated as they might seem at first, bridal hairstyles are quite easy to do. With the proper instructions and some quality hair products, any woman can create a beautiful hairstyle with minimum effort. The art of makeup is slightly more complicated yet it too can be mastered with the right determination. If these don’t succeed, go to a salon, because there’s nothing worse than showing up at your own wedding with a messy updo and a failed attempt at bridal make-up.
The reception is probably one of the most expensive parts of a wedding. By having the wedding on a Friday and Sunday, you can avoid the dinner party and serve brunch, hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, cake, desserts and champagne. Another costly aspect is the music. Instead of a band or DJ, choose a wedding DJ Playlist and load it on your iPod. You can add a different one for each part of the day: ceremony, special dances, cocktail hour and dinner. If you really want live music, hire young musicians from a local music school, because they are less expensive and very talented.
Another way to manage your wedding budget so you reduce costs is to make the flower arrangements yourself. Order the flowers online, especially blooms that are in-season, and look at some picture from wedding magazines for inspiration. Keep the venue decorations simple and place a vase containing a single white rose on the tables. Moreover, you can make your own bunting by cutting triangles out of bright colored paper and attaching it to a string. With a little creativity and imagination, you can have a beautiful wedding and even spare some extra cash to use on your honeymoon. Getting a wedding hairstyle at a salon and hiring staff to take care of all your wedding chores might seem like the only way to plan a wedding. However, you can successfully plan a wedding on a budget with minimum effort.
