Tips To Help You Cut Wedding Costs

There are many ways to cut wedding costs without sacrificing quality. Although it's important that the wedding be beautiful, you don't need to spend outrageous amounts of money to make it so. That's why it's important to take the time to plan your wedding and budget out carefully.

Drawing up a budget and allocating reasonable amounts to each wedding category can go a long way in keeping expenses in-line and saving money in the process. To help you cut some of these bridal costs here are some valuable wedding budget tips.

• Choose to have a morning or early afternoon wedding. It's less expensive since it costs less in food and clothing, plus most weddings held at these times are more informal, so you won't need elaborate decorations.
• Get married during the week as opposed to a weekend. Saturday is the most popular day for a wedding and usually costs the most.
• It's usually less expensive to hold a wedding and reception at the same site, such as in a hotel, club or community hall.
• Opt for a more casual wedding style that reflects a fun theme or hobby. This will often cost less than a formal wedding, especially in terms of reception location, food, clothing and flowers.
• If another wedding is being held within a few hours of yours in the same location, perhaps you may be able to share some of the costs of flowers and decorations.
• Keep an eye out for sales on items that you might need for your wedding, such as decorations and favors.
• Holiday weddings are more expensive because you are competing for catering services, wedding and reception sites, D.J.'s, limousines, photographers and more. During holidays, these type of services tend to raise their prices, especially at Christmas.
• Some churches have their own wedding coordinators who often have a lower fee than an outside wedding consultant.
• The most common sense way to cut wedding costs is to make sure you get estimates from several suppliers for your cake, flowers, music, reception site, etc. Then take the time to sit down and compare what you are getting for the prices quoted. Examine quality, quantity, price, and service. When you are satisfied with your choice, then call and book them. Don't make hasty or spur-of-the-moment decisions which can end up costing a pretty penny, when it didn't need to.
• As you receive and open gifts, immediately mark on the card who the gift is from and exactly what it was. Should the gift be damaged in any way, you can easily find out where the gift giver purchased the gift and have it exchanged with a new one. Also, by keeping the names related to the gift in this way, it will be much easier to write your thank-you notes.
• Order extra envelopes when ordering your invitations. It is inevitable that you will make some addressing mistakes.
• Before signing a contract with a photographer, be sure you will receive all the proofs from them. Some photographers keep the proofs and the only way you can get any pictures is by ordering them through the photographer at inflated prices.
• Order a simple 2 or 3 tiered cake (usually the 2 bottom pieces are made from Styrofoam). Then order a large plain slab cake to cut up and serve to your guests. A tradition is to take the top part of your cake home and freeze it, then eat it on your first anniversary.

Tips To Help You Cut Wedding Costs by Rose Smith
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