Weddings are fun affairs but in most cases they also rip your wallet to its seams all thanks to the money spent on the stellar display of festivity. In fact, Indian weddings have gained the moniker of ‘The Big Fat Indian Wedding’, where you read fat as outrageously extravagant. But as society gets more aligned with the realities of modern economics, more families and to-be-wed couples are keen on capping their wedding expenditure. There is always a lookout for means to trim the cost in a way that it does not ruin the wedding fun. If that thought process brought you here, then we have the right kind of tips for you. Presenting nine tips to help you decrease the cost of your wedding without compromising on the quality of your fun and festivity. Hold your purses, and let’s begin!

Tip 1: Opt For Budget Invitations

Let’s start with the harbinger of wedding – the wedding invite. There are a plethora of options you can choose from over here. But just think of it, a wedding invite is going to stay with your invitees as long as the wedding. Once you are hitched, your wedding card has little significance since its purpose is served. Also, your invitees are not going to notice that real silver paint, which costed a fortune extra per card. Therefore, go for a wedding card design which is chic yet wallet-friendly, and gets the invitation across with grace.

Tip 2: Have A Priority List Of Invitees

It is your wedding after all, and you will be tempted to invite even that obscure cousin whom you have not seen since ages. Instead of inviting everyone, have a list of people whom you really want to have with you on your big day. Best way to do this is to discuss it along with your fiancé/fiancée, and arrive at a conclusive list. Limiting the number of invitees is one single trick to save money on various fronts, right from the venue to food.

Tip 3: Choose A Date Where You Can Strike A Good Deal

In India, you literally have wedding seasons where you see an array of weddings packed into a string of days. This is the time when most wedding venue owners make the most money thanks to the demand and supply logic. If you are planning to tie the knot, then try choosing a date which is in the off-season so that you can clinch the best deal from venue owners and vendors. You may also have the venue for some extra duration due to lack of any bookings thus helping you extend the festivities.

Tip 4: Analyse The Type Of Guests You Expect

Sit down and brainstorm as to what kind of guests do you expect at your wedding. Is it going to be mostly young people or elderly people or a mix of both? An analysis of the demographics of your guests can help you decide the wedding menu and venue, which can be tailored to the expectations of the guests. For example, if your guests are mostly young crowd you can have a pool-side wedding at an economical resort with the food focusing on snacks and beverages, which can help you trim your wedding costs.

Tip 5: Plan The Platter Well

This works as an extension of the third tip but focusses more on the wedding menu aspect. Make it a point that your menu is relevant for the time of the day, and that there is no extravagance there. For example, if you are having a winter night wedding then focus on having a main course along with warm beverages with a cut down on snacks that are served dry or cold. You will end up not just saving some money but also prevent tons of food wastage.

Tip 6: Delegate Tasks To A Local Vendor

Yes, it may come as a surprise, but trust us, no better person can bring justice and value for money to your wedding tasks than a professional wedding vendor. Agreed, everyone has that hip DSLR-sporting cousin, but until or unless he is a professional, you are just going to get images that are best described as disappointing. Look for a local vendor who suits your budget, discuss the conditions of work, and appoint a respective vendor for the various tasks viz. catering, photography, etc. A local vendor is most likely to turn up to the venue on time and deliver faster results at a competitive price than some suave vendor who lives miles away.

Tip 7: Prefer ‘Pay Per Head’ Than ‘Pay Per Plate’

Most weddings see guests going for an extra helping every now and then even after they had their fill. If you have opted for the ‘pay per plate’ payment model with your vendor, then a crowd of indulgent guests is surely going to rip your bank account. Instead, ask for a flat rate per guest for the entire duration of the wedding. For that price, guests can have as many helpings they want since the cost is per head rather than per serving. Discuss the point with your caterer and you should definitely reach a convenient per head price.

Tip 8: Go For Budget Decorations

This means give a pass to all those fancy props that serve no significant purpose and stay out of frame for most part of the wedding. Instead, focus on those wedding decorations that would help accentuate the centre stage of your wedding, which would be the altar or mandap. That will help you cut costs, and also add a dash of elegance to the entire look of the venue.

Tip 9: Go For Standardised Gifts For The Guests

We know you would love to throw in some custom gifts for every guest, perhaps even with some cool engraving on each of them. But your quest to have avant-garde gifts is going to come at a cost, which in many weddings surpasses even the food bill. Therefore, resist the temptation of having lavish gifts and instead opt for a standardised gift for all your guests at the venue. You can perhaps make a distinction in terms of gender but otherwise stick to a normalised approach for gifting for all the guests.

So those were the nine tips to help you decrease the cost of your wedding. These cover the major areas of expenditure in a wedding, therefore there could be umpteen number of ways to save costs. Do share your ideas with us too about decreasing wedding costs and we will add it to our list.

Images Source: Istock

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