Wedding season is almost here, and that means wedding planning is well underway for lots of happy couples. As exciting as it is, the average cost of a wedding (according to The Knot’s 2014 Real Weddings Survey*) is $31,213, so figuring out who pays for the wedding and how to do it can cause an awful lot of pre-wedding stress.
But with careful planning, a wedding budget doesn’t have to get out of hand even if it includes wedding loans. My daughter’s wedding was incredibly beautiful and she did it on a $10,000 budget. She’s no longer married, but I use her as an example because she was the queen of reducing wedding costs.
So with her savvy assistance and that of Discover, we’re sharing some tips on how to plan a wedding on a budget, even if that budget includes wedding loans.
Prepare a wedding budget.
In order to realistically come up with ballpark figures, you have to do a lot of research and comparison. I mean a lot. Talk to wedding planners and experts, visit venues, caterers, florists, photographers, bridal shops, etc. Get vendor price lists and take lots of notes about everything you’re considering in your wedding planning. Then take a look at the projected wedding expenses relative to your available funds. According to The Knot, more than 45% of couples go over their wedding budget, so it’s important to have one in place from the start so you can work with vendors to create your special day, but do so while staying inside your wedding budget.
Decide whether you need wedding loans or not.
If you do find it necessary to get a wedding loan, one great option is through Discover Personal Loans. You can borrow up to $30,000 with a flexible repayment timeline, no closing fee or prepayment penalty and a fixed interest rate. Knowing you have your wedding budget funds covered from the get-go alleviates worries about how much weddings cost and can reduce pre-wedding stress and offer peace of mind.
Decide which wedding costs are most important.
Decide which things are most important to you and worth spending the most money on. Make a list of your desired wedding elements and put them in order of priority. Allocate the greatest portion of your budget to the items at the top of your list, and spend less on or eliminate those things you don’t care as much about.
Since flowers can quickly eat up a huge chunk of a wedding budget, my daughter decided to forgo fresh flowers completely. She ordered some custom bouquets and corsages from an Etsy shop, and they were not only beautiful but completely unique.
Include some DIY wedding ideas in your wedding planning.
DIY what you can but value your own time. If it will take forever and stress you out, just hire someone or buy it prepared.
My daughter made DIY save the dates, invites, programs and place cards, and saved herself a bundle. She also made a rasterized image on plastic transparencies of their engagement photo and they hung it up on the wall of their wedding reception venue. She’s so creative!
Do you have any other tips for how to plan a wedding on a budget while keeping pre-wedding stress to a minimum?
