Get married in the off season. Avoid the May-October wedding season. Not only will prices be lower, but most services will be available at a shorter notice. You take a bigger chance with the weather, but most of the venues are indoors anyway. Plus, it is easier to manage the number of guests since the acceptance rate should be higher (less chance people will have prior commitments).
Last year I attended a wedding and the bride and groom decided to go cheap on the food... it was fantastic food but it was buffet style not a sit down/served. In lue of more cost effective food they allocated most of the budget to a solid DJ. This guy was amazing, from 7pm until 11 he was on fire! He had music and games throughout the program and had people on their feet, in masks, rock and roll wigs and there was never that typical lull once the dancing was going on for a bit. He brought a tickle trunk full of masks so there was tons of entertainment just in the whole dance floor looking like a set off of Starwars. I think his name was DJ haymaker - Kelowna.
Dustin - Financial Advisor, Kelowna BC
www.serviss.ca
If you thought this was great, see their Divorce dance here:Originally Posted by heyjude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbr2ao86ww0&NR=1
Worth a good chuckle or two - but you have to see the original wedding dance to "get" it.
I have saved a lot of money on flowers by going to a florist school and pick a talented student. She was fully motivated to work for me and it cost 50% less than with a real florist... In the end, nobody saw the difference ;-)
We also found a place where they provide the room and the meal. Since we bought 125 meal courses, we got the room for free ;-)
very great ideas on how to save money on a wedding. a friend of mine got married two weeks ago, it wasn't extravagant but everything was charming and lovely. they designed and printed the invitations themselves, a bride and her friends did the souvenir give-aways as well as the center-pieces for the reception tables, and the groom's brother and his bandmates took care of the music.
The most fun wedding I ever went to involved a serious wedding, which people were invited too, and then the couple rented out a bar/club and had a 70's theme reception. Everyone came in costume, they had 70's cover bands and it was super fun.
It wasn't open bar, but it was discounted, and there were lots of snack type food around.
I don't know the cost of it, but out of all the sit down weddings I have been too, this is the most memorable by far.
Basically, when it comes to saving money on your wedding it becomes a question of how much time you have to spare or how much you are willing to dedicate to doing yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you.
We were married last February and obtained a 15-20% discount on the hall costs (food and drink) because it was an off-season party.
Because we were getting married in the dead of winter, all of the vendors who were the most reasonably priced for their quality services (photog, DJ etc) were totally available.
We bought our flowers through Costco and made our own boutonnieres, corsages and bouquets. Bear in mind this takes a lot of time, and some basic knowledge about handling flowers and preparing arrangements. What would have cost us 400+ dollars ended up costing us about 200.
We made our own centrepieces and take-home gifts. This took hours and hours to do as it required a lot of assembly and hand-decoration. You could opt for something simpler and less time consuming.
We made our own wedding invitations. Again...HOURS. Actually several days. We made ours from scratch, but you could easily pick up one of those all-included box kits from a craft store like Michaels.
We skipped the limos. We felt they were not necessary.
I bought my dress from a store that was selling their floor models. My dress was originally 1800 dollars and I paid 600 for it (no tax). I also did not require alterations which is important as this can be costly. I bought my veil from a woman who was selling hers from her marriage 5 years ago. What would have cost me 150 dollars cost me only 40.
We didn't cheap out on the food, as it was important to us to spoil our guests and so the hall and catering services were the most expensive. We did, however, save money by having our wedding in the off-season as stated. The winter backdrop provided for some incredibly original and stunning wedding photos!
My wife and I had a nice, simple, but affordable wedding. Chiefly, we saved some money by keeping it fairly small, but splurged in other parts that we felt were more important. We went ...
- cheap on the car (we had no limo) and photographer
- expensive on the food, location, and entertainment
- cheap overall by keeping the guest list < 70, opting for an afternoon reception with no dancing, and getting married in January
What we saved by foregoing a dance we more than enjoyed over the next two weeks as we toured three islands in Hawaii
Here is the best idea: don't do it. It's a total waste of time and money. With the money saved go into a long and interesting honeymoon.
that's exactly what my brother and his wife did: they got married in a city office building by a justice of the peace, with myself and one other person as witnesses. Then we went back to their house for a party with about 20-30 friends, and took off the following week for a round-the-world trip as their honeymoon. I always admired them for that.
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