10 Money Saving Wedding Ideas Your Guests Won’t Even Notice

Keeping to your budget for your big day isn’t always easy – so today I’ve put together some money saving wedding ideas for you, to help those pennies stretch that bit further.

Of course, you don’t want to seem mean and you want your guests to have a good time, without skimping on the food, drink and general ambience of the day. But the beauty of these ideas and tips is that your friends won’t even notice where you’ve cut your costs – although you’ll certainly appreciate the difference!

Subtle But Effective Ways To Cut Your Wedding Costs

• Get married on a Wednesday or a Thursday. Venues tend to bump up their prices on a Friday or Saturday as weekends are the most popular times to get married. But if you can get married midweek you’ll reap the financial benefits – you’ll also find that more venues are available with less notice, so if you’re planning a last minute wedding you could get just the place you want.
  
• Choose large blooms for your bouquets and flower arrangements – think peonies, hydrangeas, even sunflowers. Your florist will use fewer stems. Also if you choose fewer types of flower, and just stick to three or four favourites there’ll be less wastage. Pad out your blooms with greenery, which is less expensive.
• Get married in winter. The summer months attract a premium price, but if you hold your wedding in January or February you’ll be looking at lower costs for caterers and locations.
• Use fruits and candles on your wedding tables instead of flowers. Arrange limes, oranges and lemons in large glass bowls and dot coloured or white tea lights around for a pretty DIY effect.
• The Duchess of Cambridge did it and so can you. Have a make-up lesson and do your own make-up on your wedding day. You’ll be in charge of the way you look (and won’t risk turning up looking like a stranger to your groom) and you’ll be able to use your new skills in the future too.

             

• Forget about having a formal sit-down lunch. Think about having a buffet, or if you’re marrying in summer have a hog roast, a fish and chip van and an ice cream van.
• Get married early in the afternoon and instead of having a wedding breakfast, serve a delicious afternoon tea with scones, cakes, delicate sandwiches on pretty china. An easy DIY idea (and remember you can hire beautiful vintage tea services for the day and ask your baking friends to get busy!)
• Buy your wedding dress in a sample sale. There are some amazing deals on offer and the designer will clean the dress and alter it to fit you like a glove.
• If you’re having decorated chairs, then just decorate alternate chairs with ribbon – not every single one. This creates a sophisticated look and cuts your hire cost by half.
• If you’d like a film of your wedding but can’t really afford a professional videographer, then investigate this app which lets your close friends film your big day on their smart phones, then edits the results to give you some slick footage to remember your big day.

If you’ve any money-saving tips you’d like to pass on to us, please leave a comment and share!
Photo credits: Top photograph by Stephen Mark wedding photography, Ice cream van via Vintage Scoops.