You’re engaged – congrats! Wedding planning is an incredibly exciting time in one’s life. However, I bet now you’re thinking: “But how do I pay for this all?” Here’s a few of our suggestions on how to fund the wedding of your dreams.
Pay for it yourselves
Believe it or not, it is possible to pay for your wedding entirely by yourselves. Starting with the Easy Weddings budget calculator, you can gauge how much you plan to spend per wedding category and make estimates on how much you’ll have to save.
Once you’ve got your numbers estimated and your budget created, you can set up a timeline of when certain vendor payments are due according to their contracts, and plan around that. From here you can forgo a few luxuries in your life (such as smashed avocado and fresh fruit juices), and save your pennies to go toward creating your dream wedding!
Budget budget budget
Your wedding budget is crucial if you’re struggling to scrape together funds for your wedding. It’ll help you decide what you are prepared to pay more money for, and what you’d rather forgo, leave out, or choose the cheaper alternative. Remember: weddings are flexible, and you don’t HAVE to include all traditional elements if you don’t want to.
For instance, some brides may pay more for their dream dress, but save money on their catering or wedding entertainment as they perhaps don’t deem it as important. Managing your budget as per category is a great way to stick to your estimated budget, and manage your savings.
Ask for help from relatives
It is not uncommon for couples to ask their relatives to assist in financing their wedding. Don’t feel embarrassed or guilty about this – this financial help is a prominent tradition in some cultures. And, if they’re willing to help, why not allow them?
DIY elements
If you’re taking the route of paying for your wedding yourselves, DIYing elements is a handy way to save money on things you can create, instead of purchase. For instance, if there’s a cake maker in the family, perhaps you can strike a deal with them to save some of your budget for other wedding vendors that you may deem more important.
Court house wedding
A great way to save money overall is to have a court house wedding. These wedding ceremonies are relatively inexpensive compared to other ceremony locations, and having your wedding here will allow more budget for other areas of your wedding (if that’s what you wish).
However, if the legal act of getting married is more important to you than hosting a wedding, you could perhaps have the court house ceremony and completely forgo the reception – which leads me to my final point…
Wait until you financially stable enough to have a wedding
A great way to fund your dream wedding is to wait until you’re actually financially stable enough to host the wedding of your dreams. Unfortunately, some couples in financial strife still go ahead with their wedding plans, and perhaps are left disappointed with the final result as they had to exclude certain things they’d always imagined would be in their perfect wedding.
There’s no rush! You could always get married at a low key court house wedding or even elope, and wait until you can afford to put on your dream wedding – frills and all!
