Well under two weeks to go, so pretty much if you have been organised then this is simply the confirming and paying part of the wedding planning, and lucky due to my slightly OCD personality, that is the stage I am at. We have now fully paid our photographer, our wedding cars, our decorations, the candy bar which was a DIY I have set up and taken a "mock" photo of, our honeymoon has been paid for, for quite some time now. We have a few big chunks to go though, namely paying for the reception, our ceremony venue, our celibrant, DJ, Photobooth and rehearsal dinner. But we very luckily have the money sorted now, phew!
There certainly were times in the past 19 months where I wondered how we were going to manage to pay for the wedding, I thought we were going to have to go into debt to pay for it, and even though it has made things very tight, and we did get approval for a loan, it turns out we haven't had to use it, well not yet anyways. Its been a massive effort and something I think we can both be proud of. Our parents helped a little of course too.
In saying that we did have a "relatively" small wedding budget and we managed to stick to it. Its a bit hard to imagine we have managed to get everything for $15k when I know others have paid upwards of $50k! One girl I know had an $80k wedding, seems a bit OTT for me though. So how did we do it?
- Start early- it makes it a lot easier to shop around, recieve and compare quotes and see what you can get for your money.
- The Dress- if the dress is important allow budget to ensure you can get. I only had a style in mind, not a designer so it made it a lot easier for me to find a cheaper version of what I was already looking at.
- Keep it small- remember the less guests you invite the lower the cost. I also like to think it is more intimate this way. You might actually have the chance to talk to everyone.
- Dont waste money on invites- most people throw them out anyways. Most quotes I got we $10 per invite, I ended up paying $4 which was great!
- Photography, unless you feel you lack all creativity, don't get a wedding album for the extra $1500, spend $150 later once you have your images on disk and jump online to snapfish or something similiar and make your own. At least you will pick the photos you like the most!
- Stick to your budget- if your dress ends up being $500 over budget, find somewhere else to cut $500 from, maybe it means cutting 5 people off the list, buying a cheaper bombiniere....
There are lots and lots of tips, and so many sites that will offer more than what I have stated above, but research is the key, look at as many blogs, as many magazines, as many websites and ask as many people as you can. It will definitely be worth it!!
I think I could have easily spent $50k if I hadnt shopped around!!!
Not long now!!!!
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