Your wedding day is probably your second most expensive investment after your home. It can take years to save up for, months to plan and can suck money out of your bank account like nothing else.
Therefore, it’s useful to have a few tricks up your sleeve that will allow you to save significant amounts of money without compromising quality. Which brings us nicely onto our criteria.
For a wedding, quality is everything. Saving money is all very well if those savings are invisible. If things look cheap they don’t work. If people can see that you’re trying to save money, it spoils the effect. So the trick is, to save money without anyone being the wiser.
Keep the theme simple
The bolder or more seasonal your wedding theme, the harder it is to get bargains to match. If cost is really an issue, keep the colours to white, pink or lilac. Just about every product imaginable is available in those colours or available to complement those colours.
Try these treats for exactly that.
Candles and tea lights on the table
Not only do they look the part, they are also cheap. Buy tea lights by the hundred at your local supermarket or everyone’s favourite Swedish furniture store. Partner them with old jam jars, or glassware to add a neat candle holder.
Not only are they very effective, they create a great mood when the lights go down.
Personal favours
If you have lots of old photographs of your friends and family, why not tailor them as wedding favours or table decorations? Reprint old photographs for place settings, include them as a favour or use them to spark conversation as a table decoration.
It’s a cheap and innovative way to personalise your tables and bring your guests a little closer.
Memories
If you don’t have photographs, why not type out a personal memory of each guest with a thank you note and put it on the table? For a style tip, use a typewriter and type out a memory or something personal on some old fashioned quality paper. Roll it up with a ribbon and leave it on each table.
This is another cheap decoration or favour that will impress your guests while stirring emotion.
Personal paparazzi
Disposable cameras. Love them or hate them, they do make excellent wedding accessories. Let your guests take pictures of your day, collect the cameras at the end, have them all developed and make copies of your favourites. You can give the photos back to the guests when you can and everyone wins.
Your guests will be everywhere, catching moments your official photographer will be too busy to get.
Cupcake table decorations
While flowers are lovely, they aren’t the only way to decorate your tables. Artistically arranging cupcakes in the middle of each table can add a touch of colour and flavour to your theme. It also has the secondary benefit of giving people something to snack on before or after the meal.
Keeping it real
Hand-picked flowers or other foraged items can complement your wedding theme beautifully. If you have the time or willing volunteers to pick wild flowers, collect nice pebbles from the beach or other things you can forage, you can easily make them into decorations for the room, tables or bridesmaids.
Ribbon
Ribbon is one of the most versatile decorating materials there is. It’s also cheap. Stocked in pound shops, haberdasheries and even supermarkets, ribbon is a great cost-saving tool that looks the part.
Decorate chairs, tables, doors, lampposts and pretty much anything with complementing colours for great effect.
Vintage theming
While not specifically available under a tenner, vintage theming allows for mix and match flexibility with huge amounts of style. You can scour charity shops and car boot sales for items as table settings, decorations and accessories.
Your friendly venue can supply the majority of what you need, but you can always add a layer of your personal touch.
Shabby Chic
Shabby chic is another wedding theme that’s still hot right now and lends itself well to mix and matching items as well as make do and mend. You can incorporate bunting, handmade cards, cakes and decorations without it seeming cheap or budget. Some of the best summer weddings of last year were shabby chic and were simply amazing!
There are lots of ways to save money on your wedding without making it look like you’re trying to save money. Try some of these yourself and let us know how you get on!
