Thrifty Tuesday | Post #9
Good afternoon, all! Love & pollen are in the air once again. It’s the season when flowers are beginning to bloom and couples are getting engaged left and right. Appropriately, I’m excited to share my first wedding-themed post with you today & to announce that I’ll be digging into wedding stuff on a more regular basis in the coming months! I’m really looking forward to this because there’s a lot I had to figure out on my own while planning my wedding back in 2014, and I’d love to know that my experiences could help make things easier for other newly/recently engaged couples out there.
If you’re not a bride-to-be, have no fear, because I will still be sharing my budget living tips & home projects as well!
So, planning a wedding on a budget can be tough, especially when you take into account all the small expenses that add up. Some little things are so engrained into our minds as necessities for “the big day”, that it can be hard to step back and figure out what really matters. The good news here is that it’s possible to eliminate a few of these from your budget without making your wedding feel cheap.
Below, I’ve listed five things I don’t regret not having at my wedding.
Please note that these are just my opinions, and that if any of these things are important to you, then go ahead & include them in your big day! It’s all about what’s right for you 🙂
1. MAILED-IN RSVP CARDS
An easy way to cut down costs on your wedding invitations is to forego traditional mailed-in RSVP cards & envelopes. Instead, give your guests the option to RSVP online or over the phone, and include your wedding website and phone number at the bottom of the invitation itself.
2. CEREMONY PROGRAMS
Go without ceremony programs & opt for placing an Order of Ceremony sign in a spot where your guests will see it as they walk to their seats. Trust me, most folks won’t even notice there aren’t programs!
3. FRESH FLOWERS AT RECEPTION TABLES
Make paper flowers instead! I’m going to share a great tutorial with you this Friday, so stay tuned. But for my wedding reception, I made 150 flowers to go on 25 various tables & it cost me less than $20.
4. SEATING ESCORT CARDS
Save yourself time & money by creating a simple seating chart for your guests to see where they’ll be sitting at your reception.
5. INDIVIDUAL MENUS
You definitely don’t need to have a menu for every place setting- one menu per table will do just fine! For weddings with buffets, you can even make it easier on yourself by creating a single menu sign which you can set at the beginning of your buffet line.
Hope this helps- & happy planning!
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Bryan
April 5, 2016 at 5:11 pmI’d take it a bit further and say don’t feel obliged to do *anything* for your wedding. Many people get married near the beginning of their careers. They frequently have student loan debt, low incomes, and little to no savings. In addition, the most common point of friction in most marriages is money. Why throw your relationship under the bus from day one by straining your finances to the breaking point?
Determine what is important to *you* and do those things. It’s really okay to not serve your guests a meal at all. It’s really okay to have a ceremony in a public park (I did; it cost only a $300 refundable deposit, and it was gorgeous.)
It’s also okay to throw the bash of the century *if* that’s what you want, and *if* you can afford it. But if you could afford that, you probably wouldn’t be reading a blog about budget living!
Create Pray Love
April 16, 2016 at 3:48 pmlove. this. and thank you! i’m so with you. 🙂
no one should be judged or feel judged because of how they decide to celebrate themselves on their own wedding day. thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, bryan!
The Absolute Best Ways to Cut Wedding Costs | Create Pray Love
April 22, 2016 at 2:19 pm[…] afternoon, folks! This post is almost a continuation of the one I did two weeks ago entitled “5 Things I Don’t Regret Not Having at My Wedding.” I wrote that post to start breaking down expectations frequently pushed onto future brides […]