Wedding Cents

Timing is everything.

The most expensive season to have a wedding is the summer.

The most expensive time to have a wedding is Saturday night.

Consider a wedding in the fall or spring. Find out when summer season rates begin at your choice reception locations and see if the weekend before or after works for you.

Consider a Friday night or a Saturday afternoon wedding.   A Saturday brunch wedding can be a lot of fun and offers great potential savings.

At our wedding we couldn’t use candles as centerpieces because of the fire code.  However, we could use hurricane lamps.

Another bride wrote about having her bridesmaids carry lanterns rather than bouquets at her outdoor wedding.

Both ideas are fairly inexpensive and beautiful.

Consider one or both in place of more expensive cut flowers.

Consider the possibility of having the reception and ceremony in the same location.  Sometimes for a nominal fee sites will rearrange chairs for you to use the same large room for both the ceremony and reception.

Alternatively, if the room is large enough, have the guests sit at their reception tables while you get married.

So, to save money you are thinking of holding your reception in the Church’s Fellowship Hall, that happens to be the basement.   Or you’ve decided to have it in the very plain all purpose Event Hall in your local town.

It’s in your budget but you think it’s ugly.  Balloons can be expensive. Flowers even more so.  So what’s a frugal bride to do?

Consider purchasing some fabric and hanging it from the walls.   This can add a touch of splendor to the walls.  If you sew or know someone who does you can purchase some inexpensive plainer fabrics and dress them up with ribbons and laces.  A brightly decorated wall can warm up and create a cozy feeling in even the most cave-like of spaces

I was reading a bridal forum and the bride was thinking of a having a costume wedding in order to save money on the dresses and tuxedos.   While costumes are still expensive renting or purchasing a costume will generally be less expensive than purchasing a high end wedding gown.

If you are someone who is into the costumes or wants an October wedding this idea might be something to think about.

While many brides think February is a romantic month, if you are on a budget it may not be the best idea.  Flowers prices are high with volume sales for the month of February.

Often the more specific you are the more you can save.  This article about having an excellent garden wedding discusses some of the big reasons to be more specific.   She is talking about how this can create a fantastic wedding instead of only a great one.

I believe that knowing exactly what you want within your theme will also help you to choose those things that are most important.  Further, by having more specific searches for those things you want to use to decorate, you’ll find more bargains.

Outdoor weddings are often less expensive than an indoor wedding for many reasons:

• You dress more casually
• Your location is generally already at last partially decorated (and usually with flowers)
• The location itself is often less expensive.

However, you do want to factor in the “what if” scenarios. What if the weather isn’t perfect? You can choose a month when the weather is more likely to be good, but don’t ever count on it. Have a back up plan, which can be as simple a tent to keep rain off. Fact this into the overall cost of your wedding!

When you are looking around for decorations, consider those things you’ll be having lots of at the wedding. Will you have extra champagne glasses? Get extras and arrange them in a pyramid. This can be a lovely side table decoration that adds festiveness.

Renting the extra glasses adds a minimal cost. Some ribbons or perhaps displaying the champagne near by can add a quick festive touch.

If you don’t have your heart set on a traditional wedding dress, fall is when most New Year’s Eve dresses are out. You’ll have a great selection of most cocktail dresses.    Even the nicest of these is cheaper than the average wedding dress.