How to Save Money When Planning a Wedding

Hey party people!
Planning a wedding? Here are ten specific ways you can save money when planning a wedding.
This week, I’m in total wedding mode. Not for myself but for my sister Meg. She’s getting married this Saturday! Ah. Can’t believe it’s already here.
Last Friday, I asked what questions YOU had when planning a wedding. One of the main questions was how to save money. Weddings can get expensive but there are ways to save. I spent less than $5,000 on our backyard reception for 125 people.

1. Prioritize your wedding categories: Before you even create a wedding budget, write down all the wedding categories (flowers, venue, invitations, dress, etc). Rewrite them in the order most important to YOU, beginning with your top to the bottom. This helps you not to get caught up when you’re sitting with the florist & they offer you centerpieces that are 2x your budget. If the flowers are lower on your priority list, it will make it easier to say, “No, thanks.”  This also helps you visualize what percentage of your budget to allocate to which category.

2. Scout out Groupon & Living Social Deals: Elizabethy Murphy, a friend & PartiesforPennies reader just got married. She said she was able to save on invitations, a photo booth & a spa package all from these sites. Keep a lookout & it could help you save!

3. Long planning time = Less expense: The more time you have to plan, the more you can save. When it’s a shorter time to plan, getting things done takes precedence over saving money. There are fewer venue options, you may have to pay rush fees and you don’t have as much time to wait for sales (or scout Groupon/Living Social).

4. Save on a Wedding Planner by Hiring a Day Of Wedding Coordinator: If you can forgo the wedding planner, the more important hire (and less $) would be a day of coordinator. This can even be a family friend. Do all the detailed planning in advance & then relax and let the day of coordinator take over.

5. Open up a separate bank account for your wedding expenses: This allows you to specifically see how much money you have available and it creates less temptation to pull money from your own account for “extras.”

6. Think outside the box for your venue: Check out large vacation rental homes and have the wedding in the backyard. You can do this for much less and your wedding party can have a place to stay. Think about national/local parks. When Mike & I were looking into venues, we found a beautiful park location on a lake for $75 for 3 hours! Look into unique spaces like your local space/science museum (get married “under the stars”), history museum, zoo, or gardens. Know a local warehouse for lease? Call and see if they’d rent it to you for a weekend. If it’s empty, the company may love to have a little extra income.

7. Wedding Music- Hire a local band from a nearby college: Are you near a college? Find out if there’s a band in the music department that would love to make some extra money. Most of the times they’re just as good as a more costly band.

8. Reception Food: Instead of a costly sit-down dinner, offer a family-style meal. You can save up to 20% that way. If it’s an evening affair, offer desserts-only. This creates a gorgeous spread for half the price. Sometimes if you offer a fun theme, it distracts from the fact that it’s not a sit-down dinner. Think a pasta bar, southern food with a flare (served in cocktail glasses), hire a couple food trucks for a fun outdoor wedding, breakfast foods at night, or even take a bland “carving station” to a new level by asking the servers to carve the meat at the individual tables (this will create a brazilian steakhouse feel without the price).

9. Shop at local farmers markets or wholesale clubs for flowers: For some parties I’ve thrown, I’ve ordered flowers ahead of time through my local wholesale club. For $100, I was able to get enough flowers to create centerpieces for 20 tables with some leftover. We also have a farmers market that has a beautiful & extensive selection of flowers. If you visit them ahead of time, they most likely can tell you what would be in season/in stock at the time of your wedding. A week to two weeks before your wedding, call ahead and order all the flowers you need. This can save you up to 75% of the price of flowers/centerpieces.

10. Print addresses on your invitations by downloading a free font: Instead of paying over $1/invitation for addresses, print them off yourself and save hundreds. Download free fonts – Fonts2U, FontSquirrel, and DaFont.

Do you have any additional advice on how to save money when planning a wedding? Did you do anything unique for your wedding?

Thanks to everyone that shared some great advice on facebook! I’m going to post your advice next Monday!

Hope you have a great week! Stop by this Wednesday for a beautiful flower ball tutorial.

p.s. This is YOUR official invite to the party… join in on the Parties for Pennies Facebook page, Twitter, and Pinterest!