Speed Dating Events

Ways to cut wedding costs include:

• Holding a late afternoon ceremony. Not only does this give you both plenty of time to get ready, it also means you save money by only having to feed your guests once during the day.
• Persuading a friend or relative with a nice car to let you use it as the wedding transport.
• Hiring rather than buying outfits for the males in the wedding party. There are some good menswear designers who offer wedding hire so you might want to consider hiring your own outfit as well.
• Choosing flowers that are in season and using plenty of foliage to fill them out. Also, don’t leave your ceremony flowers for only the vicar to enjoy; transporting the flowers from your ceremony to your reception venue would save lots of money.

• Having a weekday wedding, which can be a lot cheaper than a Saturday wedding.
  Also consider getting married outside of the peak May to September period.

• Not inviting children to the reception — but only if that won’t cause family ructions.
• Making your own invitations (don’t even think of using email for your invitations), or asking a friend with good handwriting to write the menus and placecards.
• Making a CD of your favourite songs to play during the meal; live music is great but not essential and your own compilation can be a nice personal touch. Serving your wedding cake instead of a separate dessert.
• Serving bucks fizz to make your champagne go further, or in winter mulled wine is a cheaper drinks option.
• Inviting only close friends and family to the ceremony and wedding breakfast but having a larger party in the evening, which the majority of guests are invited to.

Sticking to your budget

Once your budget has been decided, keep a proper note of what’s been spent and if, for example, the dress ends up costing more than predicted you’ll have to cut back on what you spend on, say, the flowers. Any number of people from your parents to your florist will try to persuade you to spend more: your aunty may tell you that having no cake is just not the done thing; the caterers may try to insist that the medium-priced menu option is far superior to the basic and you’d be letting everyone down if you didn’t go for it.

Ignore them. You know what your budget is and you know what you want, so don’t let yourself be bullied into anything else. Better still, avoid any suppliers who try to force you to spend more than you want to; they’re meant to be working for you — remember?

You are bound to overspend in some areas but try to keep a tight rein on it, even if you have allowed a small contingency fund. And if you suddenly find yourself or the wife-to-be planning to order an extra-large chocolate fountain, ask yourself if you really need it. Just close your eyes and picture yourselves on a tropical beach on your honeymoon being able to afford that extra glass of rum punch. It will remind you that the money might be better spent elsewhere.

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