Your reception will probably be the most
expensive chunk of your day, barring your honeymoon.
To cut costs, consider these tweaks.
Have your wedding on
a Friday or Sunday. Hold anything but a dinner party -- brunch, cocktails
and hors d'oeuvres, dessert/champagne and cake, even a lunch garden picnic will
all save you tons of cash over a full dinner. Still want an evening meal? Go
for a buffet with chicken, pasta and in-season produce instead of beef. You'll
save the cost of extra waiters and expensive ingredients.
MUSIC
Have an iPod or iPhone? Then you have your
DJ. Playlist weddings are becoming increasingly popular, because couples can
choose exactly the music they want to hear, no matter how obscure or
alternative it may be.
Load up playlists for each portion of your wedding:
pre-ceremony, ceremony, cocktail hour, special dances, dinner, dancing, etc.
Ask a member of your wedding party to act as MC for special announcements. With
live DJs asking upwards of $500 for four hours, and bands costing in the
thousands, using an iPod can save you a pretty penny, and be completely
personalized.
Really love the idea
of live music? Hire musicians from a local music school to play at your
ceremony. They are just as skilled and far less expensive.
FLOWERS
Wedding flowers can easily run you in the
thousands. To cut costs, make sure you order only blooms that are in-season.
Order loose stems and make the arrangements yourself. This is not nearly as
difficult as it sounds! You can also order your flowers online for a
fraction of the cost of a traditional florist. ProFlowers.com, Wedding Floral Distributors and FiftyFlowers.com are popular and
reputable choices.
You might also try ordering flowers without mentioning they're for a wedding, because sometimes the simple mention of matrimony can bump the price up a couple notches. Just say you're buying flowers for a party.
1 comment:
What a great post. I have been trying to keep to a strict budget but keep finding things I love outside the budget. We have been stuck on which wedding napkins to choose. Thanks so much for this post. It will be very helpful!
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