According to a recent survey by The Knot, the average American wedding costs a little over $31,000….even more if you are getting married in a big city. If you are newly engaged you’ll likely get a lot of advice from your family and friends on ‘how they saved money on their wedding’ by using music downloads instead of a DJ and /or hiring a college friend to take your wedding photo’s……while those are cost saving ideas there are many other ways to save without chancing the possibility of not have wedding pictures to remember your day by. Here are a few ways to ‘tie the knot on a budget’…
1. When searching for locations, choose a venue for both your ceremony and reception.
2. Send electronic invitations instead of paper ones as well as set up a blog or facebook page to generate important information for your guest.
3. Find ways to cut costs on your wedding cake. For instance, have a pretty yet small cake for the cutting ceremony and then serve your guests from a tasty yet inexpensive sheet cake. This could save you hundreds of dollars.
4. Rent your décor instead of buying. The average rental cost for the pinterest recreates averages saving over 50% of the retail cost in a store. AND, you don’t have to worry about how and where to store until you can sell and recoup 1/4 of the cost.
5. On the rental theme, Rent the Runway (www.rentherunway.com) has great bridesmaids gowns and even bridal gowns for a fraction of the cost.
6. Time of day, time of week and time of year all affect how much your wedding will cost. Peak months for weddings are March, April, May & June for spring and mid September, October and November for fall. Conversely, getting married in an ‘off-season’ month could save you big bucks as venues and vendors are willing to negotiate prices for non-peak times.
Here are the top 10 wedding costs according to The Knot Real Wedding Study:
Reception venue (including food) $14,000
Reception band $3,587
Photographer $2,556
Florist $2,141
Wedding planner $1,973
Ceremony site $1,901
Videographer $1,794
Wedding dress $1,357
Rehearsal dinner $1,206
Reception DJ $1,124
Wow, how it all adds up. Here at the Fritz Farm we can show you ways to save and still host one of the most fabulous events ever. Give us a call today to talk about how we can save you money….