Weddings will always be an event that can really drain your finances dry. If you were not able to prepare for it, this can be one great financial challenge that you two will have to go through. It is one special day that truly can create that indecision most especially if you are a thrifty person like me. For one, this will only happen once in your life so why not get the best out there. Why not splurge for it? On the other hand, if you are kuripot, you will always question the decisions and find ways to minimize and cut cost.
My then fiancé and I don’t have a huge income to begin with. Even more, we cling to the saying to better prepare for marriage than the wedding. That is why, a year before our wedding, we decided to create a sinking fund. This fund is for our wedding wherein we need to deposit 10,000 per month each. And over the course of planning our wedding, we always see to it that we get the best without the need to utilize much of our sinking fund. By the end of it all, we were able to trim down close to 100,000 off. Here’s how we do it:
Location
Location, location, location. This will always get a huge chunk of your wedding budget. Good thing in Cagayan de Oro, we only have a few wedding locations to begin with. Even more, we trim down our choices to locations near the church. From there, we pick the cheapest location there is. True enough there are new hotels in the area however the cost is twice as much as the other venues. That is why we opt for the oldest hotel in the vicinity that allows us to spend less in the process. The few thousands we were able to save, we opt to add in more food choices instead.
Connections
We have an uncle who has a printing press and we got our invitations printed there. Instead of spending close to 150-200 for a wedding invite, we only spend 50 per invitation. Moreover, we got wedding supplier friends who were generous enough to give discounts in the process. We also got one talented friend who played music during our wedding ceremony for free. Even our emcees are our great friends who gave their time and their talent without a fee. The cost of hiring an emcee is 6,000 and we got it for free.
Second hand
My then priority was to have my own wedding gown. I would want to keep my gown right after the wedding and well hopefully pass it to my kids. However, the cost of making a gown and owning it right after ranges from 40,000 and up. Plus, the next concern would be your entourage. Your initial 40,000 would definitely balloon because of your entourage outfits. That is why, I let go of my initial plan and instead borrow my wedding gown. There are already a lot of packages in which your entourage would be included. There are even some that even parents and pre-nuptial outfits are part of the package. Hence we only spend 25,000 for all our outfits, my wedding gown and that of my husband, the entourage, the parents and some of our pre-nup outfits. Even our shoes, bags and accessories were also provided.
Sales and discounts
We got 40% less our wedding ring because it is on sale. Even more, if you book your suppliers early, they will be able to give you amazing discounts too. They might even throw in some freebies. Even more, there are also other essentials that might go on sale. Good examples would be your wedding shoes for the bride and the groom.
DIY
Do not be afraid to do some DIY. If your wedding date is still months away, you can opt to do this one most especially if you would like to cut cost and even insert some personal touch. As for our wedding, we did a DIY for our giveaways and candy buffet. Our missalette is also printed in the office. I just made sure to print during days where the printer is free of course.
Over all, we were able to trim down our wedding budget. Small cuts eventually add up to close to 100,000. Although it may not be that grandiose but at least it was still us. We even get to utilize it to more practical expenses in our married life.
P.S To those doing the 52 Week Money Challenge, it is Week 20 already! Did you deposit the next amount yet?
P.P.S Want to know more about investing, savings, stock market and more, check out my reference here. You can download free ebooks and resources too.
P.P.P.S I am also sharing my stock market secrets and information via these resources.
P.P.S Want to know more about investing, savings, stock market and more, check out my reference here. You can download free ebooks and resources too.
P.P.P.S I am also sharing my stock market secrets and information via these resources.