Getting married means feeling emotionally overwhelmed for a long time. Strong emotions usually affect our common sense. That’s why we often bring some irrational decisions when we’re influenced by intensive feelings.
This is also why bridal couples don’t always make reasonable choices. As a result, some of them experience financial difficulties after their wedding reception.
In this article, we’d like to share a few practical financial hacks that will save you from getting into debt during the wedding organization.
Form a wedding budget in advance
You can organize your wedding reception in dozens of ways. The course you’re going to take will depend on your salary and your savings. People usually try to follow some common customs practiced in their region or their social group.
All these features will affect your wedding planning steps.
The best financial hack for the beginning of the entire process is so set the monetary limit. Depending on your financial status and social class, you and your partner need to bring this decision together. It will largely depend on the number of people you’re going to invite and the venue you’re going to book.
When you finish the brainstorming session related to these features, write down the entire wedding budget. That’s the moment when you should start saving money for your wedding day.
Plan service payments separately
Every wedding reception includes a certain number of service providers. From catering and photography to wedding outfits and music, make sure to write down all the items on a piece of paper.
When you’ve put all of them in writing, jot down the sum you can spend on each of these categories. If necessary, add subcategories for each of them and set the budget limit for every single element.
Bridal couples who don’t plan everything separately might fall into the trap of unexpected expenses. This is where people need to take loans from their friends or banks. The point of this guide is to dodge such things.
Therefore, we suggest putting the following main categories and most important subcategories on your list:
- Negotiate the price of renting your wedding venue and write down the price.
- Music. Decide whether you’ll have a band, a string orchestra or only a DJ. In the case of various combos, highlight the prices for each of the performers.
- Food. If you’re planning to hire several caterers, don’t miss a single provider.
- Drinks. Some venues include drinks in their wedding offer, but not all sorts of drinks. If some of your close guests have some special preferences, drinks-wise, write them down, together with their prices.
- Outfits. Put your wedding outfits on the list of the necessary services and items for your wedding reception.
- Decorations. You can try to be your own wedding decorator or hire a professional agency. Either way, note down the entire sum for the planned decorations.
Avoid paying in installments
Optimizing the financial aspect of your wedding means saving cash wherever possible. Still, it’s important to save money without sacrificing style. This is possible given that bridal couples meticulously plan every bit of their wedding budget.
Just like in any other industry, you can keep a few cents more on your account if you pay for services at once.
Bridal couples sometimes negotiate to make several payments in advance before the wedding day. For instance, you can make such an agreement with the venue manager or the food caterer.
Such a deal is a reasonable option if you haven’t collected all the money necessary for your wedding.
On the other hand, you would be able to get more discounts if you pay the entire sums at once. Providers of wedding services are usually open to lowering the prices a bit in that case.
So, we come again to base one: form a wedding budget in advance to give yourself more room for manoeuvre. In turn, you’ll be able to try different options to optimize your wedding financially.
Shop around for best deals
Just like in any other business, prices of services vary a lot in the wedding industry. Only a few years ago, bridal couples mostly had to use local wedding services in most parts of the world.
Today, however, people communicate much easier so you can learn about various options from various sources.
Therefore, organizing a financially reasonable wedding means shopping around for the best deals. You might find more affordable decorations on the Internet. Apart from flowers and fragile items, it’s usually less expensive to order decorations in bulk on the Internet. Who knows, maybe you can even start renting them out after your wedding.
Also, it would be wise to use the Web to check out various wedding venues. If you’re not restricted to your hometown or your neighbourhood, there’s a lot of room for affordable alternatives. In line with that, couples from Canberra can get married in Sidney if they want something different from their local offer. Similarly, people from San Antonio can find a cosy wedding venue in Houston if they want a place close to the sea.
Shopping around on the Internet will help you land the right band for your wedding, as well. Nowadays, you can hear both the studio and live performances of various bands on YouTube. What’s more, you can find out about them from different forums and comments.
Give yourself enough time
Staying a financially rational person throughout your wedding preparation is easier if you’re not in a hurry. As we’ve already pointed out, being emotionally overwhelmed prevents you from thinking clearly. The same goes for schedule-related panic.
Unless it’s urgent for you to get married as soon as possible, take your time. Talk to your partner to define your common goals for your wedding day and ceremony. Both parties should express their desires and preferences, as well as the budget for the entire reception. From that point, you can start collecting or allotting money for your wedding.
In an ideal case, you’ll have enough cash to pay for numerous services in advance and get discounts. But even if you’re not able to do that, don’t rush and don’t panic. Organize your wedding slowly enough to timely cover all the bases.
Conclusion
The wedding day is a special moment for every bridal couple. It marks a new beginning for people who are in love. What’s important is not to get carried away by the importance of that day and splurge more money than necessary. A rule of thumb is just to spend as much money as you have. Start planning the wedding day in advance to give yourself enough time for all its aspects. Where possible, negotiate the terms and try to get discounts for your money.
If you stay reasonable with your expenditure, you’ll start your marital life as two organized spouses without any unnecessary debts.
