I recently got engaged, and am now planning my wedding. And it's hard! Everything is so expensive. Weddings are, to say the least, not cheap. But there are ways to cut your wedding budget. The average wedding now costs about $27,000. Who has that kind of money? Not me! So I've been doing a lot of research lately on how to find cheap wedding ideas. Some are great. Others, you may want to stay away from. I will help you wade through the mess to find amazing ways to help cut your budget (and take away some of the stress).
Not only is the wedding budget something crazy you have to deal with, but a lot of brides-to-be don’t even know where to start. Sure we all know you have to make your guest list, and hire vendors. But to be completely honest, I had no idea where to start with this whole process. I felt like I was going insane. Below are some cheap wedding ideas:
For example, when finding a photographer, what bargaining power do you have? What is the right photographer to go with? Every city and town has enough photographers to keep you busy for years! And they all cost a fortune. When looking at photographers in my area, the cheapest wedding photographer I could find wanted about $1500! That’s a lot more than I wanted to budget for photography. One of the cheap wedding photography ideas that I got thrown at me were to use family members. I thought about this for a few minutes; I have family that do professional and semi-professional photography. But then I started hearing the horor stories. A very close friend of mine told me that she used this as one of her “cheap wedding ideas”. And she’s regretted it ever since.
So what do you do to negate the possible regret, but still have great, cheap photography? There are a few different things you can do. Try to negotiate a professional photographer down. You have the power in this situation. Every photographer wants to have a sale, and they are freelance. What this means is that though they do have overhead costs, they also don’t have a manufacturer’s minimum price. Talk with your potential photographer and let them know you’d love to work with them, but you’re also looking at another who is willing to go cheaper. Another option is to look to your local college. If it has a photography class, see if a student would be willing to work your wedding. Since they would be doing your wedding for their portfolio, they will make sure to do their best work.
There’s a lot of stress that comes along with planning a wedding. Cheap wedding ideas are out there, but a lot of times, not in a cohesive manner. One book that I found that puts it all together in a easy to read, and helpful manner is Amazing Wedding Planning. This book will go over tons of tips including:
- How to save up to 70% on alchohol costs
- Save up to 80% on headpiece, veil, and tiara
- Common tricks bridal shops (and anyone selling to a bride) will use to make you pay more
Check back with me frequently for other cheap wedding ideas. With links and tips, PureWhiteEternally is your one-stop place for the best cheap wedding ideas!
