Ever heard of the term money-pit? The 1986 comedy featuring Tom Hanks may come to mind. If it’s a movie you don’t recognize, the term basically refers to “an ongoing drain on financial resources”. Generally used to describe a house renovation that never ends, it can easily and quickly be used to describe wedding planning. In the second part of our mini-series we are going over wedding expenses that you can skip to keep your budgets in tact. In our first post we talked about things you should splurge on.
Unless, you have an endless supply of cash, which most of us don’t take a look at our list.
Here are 5 things to skip on your big day!
1. Save the Dates
While they may seem handy, designing, printing and even mailing skip the dates can add an expense that you don’t really need. One of the arguments for save the dates is that is allows people to make travel plans accordingly and to literally keep the date open. You can easily manage both of these by sending your invitations a little bit earlier, solving both problems. The other pro of not sending out the invitations immediately; you don’t have to have your entire guest list set in stone early in your engagement!
2. Champagne Toast for all the guests
Skip the champagne toasts! The entire celebration is really one big toast to your marriage and your big day. Plus, mixing too many alcohols, and starting with champagne can be a recipe for disaster later on in the evening. Instead, ask your guests to grab a drink, whether the alcohol of their choice, juice or water, there’s no rule that a cheers has to the expensive champagne. If you’re a fan of a bubbly, have a bottle for the Bride and Groom for a cost-effective cheers!
3. An enormous wedding cake
Can you remember the last wedding you went to? Did you have a piece of cake and more importantly did you enjoy that wedding cake? The reality is that an enormous wedding cake is not always delicious. But it is always expensive. Those same bakers that can do extraordinary wedding cakes can also provide different options that are a lot more cost effective.
4. Fancy Transportation
It doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there right? Hear us out. Transportation can be costly and the best way we think of this is that swapping out transportation for something that you really want at your big day. Now if you’re a lover of of beautiful cars, you can try reaching out to potential guests to determine if any have a car that can be borrowed for the big day. Saving potentially thousands of dollars on transportation is totally worth it.
5. Skip the Programs
Paper is cheap, but at the same time paper is expensive. Programs for both the ceremony and the reception can easily be swapped out for a single board with the program. If you’re hosting a religious ceremony, you can ask your officiant to direct your guests’ actions. Little changes will make for a big impact when you can skip printing programs for all the guests!
If you missed the first part of our mini-series, be sure to read about the 5 things you should splurge on for your big day. No one wants to have a money-pit wedding. We hope that this post will help you determine the things to skip to keep that budget under control. And if you haven’t yet checked off wedding photographers, we invite you to take a look at our portfolio and to contact us today! You can also follow us on Pinterest, where we pin our favourite wedding trends!
