When it comes to a wedding, there is no hiding from the cost it entails. And sometimes it can feel like you’ll never be a bride that only spent a small fortune. As quotes roll in, it’s easy to get anxious over the real cost of one day, and wonder how you’re going to even offer wedding favours, evening food and decorate your wonderful venue.

Whilst we did spend a small fortune on our wedding, we did manage to save big money on scrimping back and making small changes to our purchases to have everything we wanted, in a price tag that worked for us.

So how did we do it? What changes can you make that will get the same outcome for you? Here’s some pretty simple swaps or changes to make that will save you heavily on your budget.

Read : How to pick your Wedding Venue

Save the Date / Invitations : Design your own and Print or choose FREE alternatives

I managed to design and print all my Save the Dates, Wedding Invitations, Will you be my bridesmaid requests and all printables from the day. You don’t have to be a InDesign wiz, or a graphic designer to create your own invitations. Using services like Canva make it super easy to personalise and create something unique and perfect for your wedding.

Here’s some FREE printable wedding stationery pieces to consider.

RSVP : Do it online

RSVP’s are soooo stressful. Especially when many forget or believe they don’t need to RSVP. Switching your RSVP to a online basis it will save on stamps and you’ll instantly get a response – if they respond on time of course!

Decorations : Do It Yourself – Literally

Decor for a wedding can become hugely expensive. Especially when you have multiple vendors in to provide accessories and general dressing up. We had quotes come in at just over £2000.00 for the decorations in our marquee. Thankfully, we managed to do much of it ourselves and outsourced for the bits we couldn’t. We saved a huge amount and gave us some fun bits to do in the lead up.

Make-up : Let the Bridesmaids do their own

Hair and make-up for a wedding is a major aspect, but can be an expensive one too. Whilst I would hate to selfish, Hair and Make-up is more important for a bride moreover bridesmaids. If you’re looking to save some cash consider letting your maids do their own.

Tip : If you can, get your hair and make-up done by someone else. Whilst doing it yourself will save you money, it can be added stress that you don’t need or want on the morning of your big day.

Confetti : Swap or be different

Confetti can be bloody expensive. And some venues ( mine included ) would only allow real petals for environmental reasons. Annoyingly this is the more expensive option – ours cost over £150 for ours. Whilst they are prettier and smell lovely, for some its not viable or you really don’t want to be spending that kind of money on something that will be thrown ( I don’t blame you ).

Good news, there’s lots of alternatives to be had when it comes to confetti shots, and many do look much better in photograpshs.

Bubbles
Balloons
Paper Planes
Sparklers
Twirling Ribbons
Bird Seed
Leaves

If you are set on having real confetti, there are some simple DIY’s that could make it a little cheaper and will be a bit of fun just before the special day.

Cake : Get a relative to make it or go shop bought

I was so lucky to have a talented grandmother who made our 4 tier wedding cake. Scout the family, double check whether any can help create one fr you. Better still, go shop bought. Places like M&S Offer a great range, including connie and colin caterpillar ones!

Favours : Do your own

Wedding favours can get pretty pricey when you consider how many you’re catering for. Cut down the cost by creating your own and bulk buying. Our favours were bulk bought candles, in little glass holders – which we got from eating small puddings every week. We decorated with hessian and lace. All in all it cost roughly £60 and we created 120!

Flowers : Buy from the Supermarket

I’d seen so many brides take to a supermarket a day or so before the wedding and create their bouqets, as well as decoration arrangements and I give them huge credit. Lots of supermarkets have a great range of flowers, all perfect for the big day. Be sure to watch lots of youtube tutorials beforehand so you can perfect it in time!

Music : Hire some speakers and play a personal playlist

Personally we didn’t have a DJ, much rather we had a band, but if you’re in the market for just some banging tunes, why not play them yourself. Hiring the kit, inclduing lights and smoke machine, will be much cheaper than the hire of a DJ. Whats better, you can create your own playlist to go through the evening.

Tip : Why not ask guests for a request with a little option on the RSVP. That way guests will be on the look out for their pick and you’ll get a great variety.

Video : Invite guests to take pictures and videos to post on social media using a hashtag

Whilst may discourage guests to use their phones through the wedding, inviting your guests to be their own videographer and photographer throughout the day may work in your favour. You’ll get a more fly on the wall type video, and will be able to truly see it from the view of your guests.

Hopefully, this has given you a little insight into some of the small changes you can make to save some pretty serious cash for your wedding. There are still plentyyyy of other ideas bouncing around on the web to save some extra cash.

If you want to chat wedding planning, or have any questions, my emails and DMs are always open!

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