Budget friendly bride tips! Are you on a budget for your wedding? After contacting countless vendors, you might have gotten “sticker shock” and realized weddings are very pricey. You hear about it all the time, but until you start planning a wedding you realize the actual cost. In this week’s video I breakdown my top tips to help any budget friendly bride save money for the wedding. 

1. Go Seasonal

Did you know there is a term called wedding season? It’s true! These are the popular months weddings usually occur and depend on which state or country you are in. In most cases if you rent out a venue off-season, you might be able to save money by a few hundred or thousand. Another tip is if you had it on a weekday. For more tips on seasonal weddings check out this past blog I did!

2. Flash Sale Dresses

Research on Pinterest your favorite gown designers or better yet local boutiques! Around holidays or closer to the end of the year some boutiques have flash sales where dresses are marked down. In most cases you’ll be able to get off the rack dresses, but you could always hire a seamstress to alter the dress however you’d like. This is a great tip for a budget friendly bride because dresses can be so expensive. But when you knock off a few hundred dollars, it can really help and put the money somewhere else in the wedding. 

3. DIY

There are certain things that you may DIY, and some I don’t advise. If you are an expert on a specific skill, and you know that you can do it without failing, then go ahead. But if there are things that you are not confident with, then you should hire someone to do it for you. There are so many videos and tutorials on the internet, I have no doubt you’ll find a great hack from a fellow budget friendly bride! 

4. Venue Choice

When choosing wedding venues, you normally choose between an all inclusive venue or a blank canvas venue. Sometimes if you go for a blank canvas, you could hire the right vendors and DIY the rest. This is where you might save a good bang for your buck! The most expensive items on your list are normally the venue, food, and drinks. If you don’t care that much about the venue, and you opt to rent out a place like Airbnb or Peerspace.

5. Eliminate the Fluff

There are things I will admit that are not really necessary in your wedding. Here are some of the most common items guests will ignore or throw away:

1. Programs and Menus – Normally only the wedding party is in need of the programs since they play a role in the wedding. You can easily create a canvas and have it placed on an easel where guests can visibly see what major events are happening throughout the night if you feel they need to know. Now for menus, it is one of my favorite details to a wedding! But in all honesty, guests will look at it and then once the food comes they will discard it and not look at it ever again. 

2. Favors – People spend so much money on favors. You either have something unique, something they can use for the future, a keepsake, or something edible. A lot of people also hire photo booths and a good way to cut down costs is to hire a photobooth company that offers prints and guests can take that home as a cute keepsake! Plus, you’ll get so many copies you can add to your wedding album!  

3. Cake – Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people love seeing you cut the cake! But do people actually eat it? Not really. In most cases, I see people having way too much fun on the dancefloor. By the time they get back to their seats to rest the cake is already soggy or the catering team took them away. I would instead opt in for a focake (with a simple design) and have a dessert table instead.  

Oh man! I don’t know about you, but these tips are such great ways to save money. Any budget friendly bride would agree after their wedding, saving money in these areas is the way to go!