How Much Will Your Wedding Cost?
Did you know that the average cost of a wedding is over $35,000? This is a lot of money for anyone and does not even include the cost of a honeymoon. If you are planning on taking an all inclusive honeymoon vacation after your wedding day, you are going to need to factor the price of your getaway into your wedding budget. Below is some helpful information that will help you plan an affordable wedding reception so that you can have some money left over for a romantic honeymoon.
Figure Out What Your Priorities Are
This means open communication with your partner. It is very possible that you are going to learn that what is not important to you may be for your spouse-to-be and vice versa or to neither of you. Once you start determining priorities, you are going to be able to estimate spending amounts and budgeting for the various features of your wedding.
Who Are You Inviting?
How many guests you have is probably going to be the greatest influence on total cost. More invitees means more invitations, food and drinks and the potential need for a bigger party space.
Typically, all reception halls will charge a per-person fee. So the difference between 75 – 100 people will be substantial. Only invite those that are part of your life on a personal level. A good idea would be to ask yourself, ‘would they invite me to their wedding?’ or ‘would I even go to their wedding?’. If you answered ‘no’ to either of those questions, remove them from your guest list.
Invitations and Decorations
There are so many easy-to-use computer programs that are specifically designed for creating wedding invitations. And the end product will look great! If you have any sort of computer skills, consider going this route since the cost of invitations can be very expensive.
If you are artistic you should also think about decorating your wedding reception hall yourself. Visit a craft/hobby store. They have so much cool stuff for do-it-yourself decorating. You’ll be saving a great deal of money and will also have 100% control over what is being produced.
Finally, when it comes to flowers for your wedding, consider using silk flowers for accent decorating and use real flowers only for the centerpieces. If you really want to use fresh flowers throughout, try and purchase wedding flowers in bulk and create the arrangements yourself.
Drinks and Food
Your selections of food and drinks is one of the most costly aspects of a wedding. Will you be having sushi for hour devours or will you have vegetables and cheese? Also, for dessert will you be having a whole buffet of pastries and cookies with a cake.or just a cake?
The cost of alcohol can also be significantly different depending if you serve ‘premium’ or ‘house’. Premium alcohol is top shelf and is much more expensive. Also, are you planning on serving alcohol all night or just until dinner?
Photography and Music
Music is the entertainment for your wedding. The cost of a band is going to be significantly more than a DJ. With a DJ, you can tell them exactly what music to play knowing it will sound good. Even with the best wedding bands, nights of poor performance happen.
Finally, you will need to select a photographer. The cost of a photographer can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. But, you may also want to consider having guests take pictures. A popular trend has been to leave disposable cameras on all the guests’ tables. This will equate to less formal pictures but instead highly candid, funny pictures
In Conclusion…
When planning your wedding, it is going to be very easy for spending to get out of control. Never lose sight of what the established priorities are and you should be fine; having enough money for all your wedding expenses with some left over for a memorable honeymoon. In the event that you find yourself with not enough funds for your honeymoon, consider applying for loan. Companies like Choice Personal Loans offer a wide variety of personal loans including vacations loans. Apply for their vacation loans and get the cash you need to take that once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon!
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