Plan a Budget-Friendly Wedding | Pristine Chapel Lakeside

Planning a Budget-Friendly Wedding? 7 Tips to Help

Weddings are often known for being notoriously expensive. You can keep your wedding affordable by following these simple tips. By limiting the guest list, doing some of the work yourself, and getting help from friends and neighbors, you can have a beautiful, budget-friendly wedding. Here’s what you need to know.

1. Keep the Guest List Short
The more people you invite to your wedding, the more people you’ll be responsible for feeding and entertaining. Guests can quickly add to the wedding bill, requiring you to find a larger venue and buy more food. To make things more affordable, keep your guest list small. An intimate group can have just as much fun as a large group, and it will cost you a lot less.

2. Enlist Help
Your friends and family want to see you happy, especially on your wedding day. This is their chance to make that happen. Get help from the friends and relatives who you’ll be inviting to the wedding. Go through your list to decide which items can be done on a DIY basis, and then divide those tasks up among your friends and relatives.

Be careful to avoid assigning tasks to friends better left for the professionals. Top-priority items may be better off left to someone with extensive experience and expertise. For example, if good photography is important to you, hire a professional photographer. Nothing is a substitute for photographs taken by a professional with a camera.

3. Shop Around for the Venue
Venues can range in price by thousands of dollars, depending on the services and space they offer. Take time to visit several different venues before selecting the right place for you. Keep a chart of different services each venue offers to make costs easy to compare when the time comes to pick a spot.

4. Give Yourself Lots of Planning Time
Planning time is important when you want to save money. The more time you allow yourself to plan your wedding, the easier you will find sales and have time to make things for yourself. Nearly half of couples take about 13 to 18 months to plan their wedding. Give yourself this time and more to ensure that you’ve got the time you need to have a successful budget-friendly wedding.

5. DIY Hair and Make Up
Beauticians can cost a lot of money, especially if you ask the beautician to come to the venue where you plan to marry. Plan to do your hair and makeup yourself. If you do, spend some time practicing the application in the weeks before your wedding. This way, you’ll be ready when the day comes.

6. Make Affordable Wedding Favors
Buying personalized wedding favors can get expensive. Instead of purchasing your favors, assemble them yourself. For example, make a little bag of candy or homemade cookies. You don’t have to go over the top to make your guests feel appreciated.

7. Be Flexible on the Date
Different times of year, and even different times of the week, are more expensive than others. Leave your wedding date wide open as you visit different possible venues. As you meet with people from each venue, ask them to list the least expensive rental dates on their calendar. Very likely, these dates will correspond to a time of year and day of the week when fewer people are getting married. Choosing your date this way will also enable you to take advantage of cheaper prices from other professionals as well. If the venue is less expensive, likely the photographer and florist will also be less tied up with other weddings and may have lower prices.

If you plan to have a wedding in the next year and you’re on a budget, contact Pristine Chapel Lakeside. We can help you plan an affordable but beautiful wedding.