A guide to help prevent you from becoming a certified Bridezilla when planning your elegant wedding
Being newly engaged can be exciting until you start looking at how much your dream wedding could cost. Here are some tips on how to have a beautiful, affordable elegant wedding.
First comes a wonderful, romantic proposal from the man that you love. Then panic rushes in as you begin to wonder how you’re going to pay for Aunt Jill to fly in from Sweden to attend your wedding. The most important thing to do when you begin to plan your elegant wedding is to take a deep breath, get out a sheet of paper and sit down with your fiancé.
Planning an elegant wedding on a budget
Choosing A Reasonable Wedding Budget
The first thing you should do is to come up with a range of money you both can comfortably spend for your wedding. You might look into both of your savings accounts, ask your parents for a little extra money and even consider taking a part-time job to come up with some additional funds. One of the worst things you can do is borrow money because you don’t want to enter into marriage with a hefty debt to pay off so consider all other options before whipping out the plastic.
The Components of An Elegant Wedding
Once you’ve settled on a reasonable budget for your elegant wedding, you need to make a list of each component of your wedding that is going to cost money. This list usually includes, but is not limited to:
Wedding Invitations – Look online for discounted wedding invitations. You may also consider making your own invitations by purchasing software which is usually a fraction of the cost.
Music/Entertainment for the Reception – Enlist friends and family members with a music background to play music for you.
Wedding Reception Venue – Flip through the phone book or ask friends and neighbours about nice places they’d recommend. Make a list of several different venues you’d like to have your wedding at and call each one to get an idea of the cost.
Money to pay your Priest, Deacon or Officiant who is marrying you
Wedding Food and Beverages – Bring your own alcohol if your wedding venue allows this. If not meet with your caterer and tell them the most that you can spend upfront so they can work up a menu within your price range.
Photographer or Videographer – have a friend or family member take your photos or video footage of your wedding. Or better yet put one-time-use cameras on each table and ask your guests to take photos of your wedding for you.
Wedding Dress and Tuxedos – Save money by purchasing your wedding dress at an outlet store. You can also advise your bridesmaids and flower girls to shop at the same outlet store and ask if they offer discounts for the rest of the bridal party to shop there. Also, most tux stores offer the groom’s tux rental for free.
Wedding Decorations – Save money on decorations and wedding favours by doing them yourself. Choose a theme and go to a craft store to buy centrepieces and other decorations for a fraction of the cost.
Wedding Flowers – You can save a lot of money on flowers by shopping online for them. Look for package deals.
Honeymoon – There are dozens of ways to save money on your honeymoon if you do your homework. Look online for discounted cruises and resort deals.
Wedding Rings – Consider shopping at a department store for your wedding bands as these are usually less expensive than jewellery stores.
Wedding Cake – The cost of wedding cakes comes down to the finish and design, as the actual cake itself can be made from whatever cake recipe you prefer. Designing and finishing a cake yourself can be very tricky, but you can buy decoration kits online or try your own from scratch. Take a look at Anges De Sucre for some wedding cake design tips
After you’ve divided up how much of your budget you want to spend for each part of your elegant wedding try looking in your area for a wedding exposition or show where many of the area’s wedding vendors offer discounts, prizes, and samples of what they have to offer.
Don’t forget to leave some room in your budget for “miscellaneous” things you may want to purchase for your wedding. It is important to know ahead of time how much you will need to spend so you know what to expect.
