(BPT) – Weddings can be expensive, and most brides and grooms need to establish a budget before they start planning the wedding so they can afford to get hitched. Many couples are now getting married later in life and paying most or all of the costs themselves, so it’s important to start budgeting sooner than later.
The following tips will help you and your fiance keep your costs down so you can stay within your wedding budget. They cover everything from the moment when you say “Yes” to the second you say “I do.”
1. Set a long engagement – There are two benefits to having an engagement of a year or longer. First, it allows you to spread costs over several paychecks. For example, if you get engaged this spring, you can choose one month to put a down payment on the reception hall, and another month for purchasing the wedding dress and renting the tuxedo. A third month could be used for purchasing honeymoon trip tickets, and a fourth month for the photographer’s down payment. During your engagement you can also start putting money into a savings account so you aren’t strapped for cash immediately following your wedding.
The second reason a long engagement makes financial sense is that many couples will set a seasonal theme for their weddings, wanting to decorate the wedding and reception hall in that theme. The best time to purchase decorations and supplies for seasonal events is immediately following those events, because stores discount them when it’s time to get them off the shelves. If you are planning a fall theme, for example, keep an eye on the shelves for these kinds of discounted decorations right after Thanksgiving or Halloween. Longer engagements allow couples to take advantage of a these seasonal discounts at least once, if not twice.
2. Combine your resources – A couple living in the same household can save hundreds of dollars monthly by combining expenses related to rent/mortgage, utilities, groceries and even transportation. If you recently became engaged and are considering moving in together, calculate how much money you’ll be saving so you can apply those savings toward your wedding budget.
During the moving process, you can save additional money. For example, when you combine your households, will you need two sets of dishes and furniture? Probably not. Perhaps you can even host a garage sale to sell the items you don’t need duplicates of; then you can put that money toward a wedding-related item. As you plan your big move, be sure to check out great moving services like Penske Truck Rental, which offers AAA and other great discounts to help soon-to-be newlyweds save money on moving costs.
3. Find the best deals – If you’ve always dreamed of getting married under a tent at a local park, you might discover that tent rental far exceeds your budget – especially if you live in an urban setting. This is where the Internet can be very helpful. Sometimes it’s cheaper to rent equipment like tents, folding chairs, wedding canopies and other decorations from businesses that are located outside of your community.
To save even more, drive your personal car to the community where you’ll be renting the equipment, rent a Penske truck to transport all the equipment to where your wedding will be, and then return the equipment in the truck once you’re finished with it. Then you can simply pick up your personal car for the drive home. If you have friends around for the wedding, ask them to be responsible for this part of the wedding so you can concentrate on other plans.
When you and your loved one begin planning your wedding, keep your budget-balancing stress to a minimum with these helpful money-saving tips.
