A wedding can become a very expensive venture. The average cost for a wedding is around $20,000. But do you really need to spend this much money to have a nice wedding? This article is going to show you how to plan a cheap wedding that doesn't look cheap.
This first thing that you need to think about is the wedding gown. You have a few options here. You could consider buying a second hand wedding dress. Look in your local newspaper for women that may be selling their wedding dresses. You could end up with a very expensive gown at half the price. Another option is to look in the outlet stores. A lot of the big name wedding gown suppliers will have an outlet store filled with returned gowns, outdated gowns or excess inventory. These gowns can go for as little as a third of the retail price. If you know someone who is handy with a needle, you could always buy a plain gown and then have all the dazzling extras added. You may also want to look into renting a wedding gown.
The reception is a major expense. Think carefully about your guest list. Do you really want to invite people you haven't seen or heard from in the past ten years? Make it a more intimate wedding ceremony with a few close friends, co-workers and family. Have the reception at someone's house or rent the banquet room of a restaurant. Instead of serving an expensive three course meal, serve a hot and cold buffet instead. Keep the bar to a minimum of beer, wine and soft drinks.
Instead of hiring a professional photographer, have a friend or family member take pictures at your wedding. Another idea would be to find a student that is studying photography and hire him. If you don't want to risk getting awful wedding pictures, have a professional photograph just a few pictures of the wedding itself and have a friend take pictures at the reception.
Buy your flower wholesale and design the arrangements yourself or have a friend or relative do it. Make the centerpieces yourself. There are plenty of places online that will show you great ideas on how to make professionally looking centerpieces.
Have a friend or relative that you know is good at cake decorating to make the wedding cake. Ask around and you may be able to find someone that is taking cake decorating classes and would jump at the chance to try out what they have learned.
Do an online search for invitation printers. You can find invitations really reasonably priced if you search long enough. Another option would be to print them yourself from your home computer. There are a few very nice computer programs that you can buy to help you design and print quality invitations.
A wedding doesn't have to break the bank to be perfect. There are plenty of places where you can cut costs. The money that you save on your wedding could be better spent on that perfect honeymoon! That is one of the biggest reasons to plan a cheap wedding.
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