Brides on a tight budget will sometimes have a hard time parting with “essential” things they normally associate with a wedding. But, honestly, if you end up married by the end of the day, you have achieved a successful wedding; everything else is just a bonus. If you’re worried about going over budget, consider skipping a few wedding “must-haves” that your day will survive without. You don’t absolutely “need”:
More than One Venue Unless you’re invested in the idea of a church, far too many brides think that they need a space for their ceremony and a separate space for their reception. Bundling will save you a lot of green. I recommend finding a restaurant to host your nuptials – many spaces will cover décor and food, which will save you the hassle of finding a caterer and a rental company. If you’re pretty laid back, you may not even need to bring anything in as far as décor is concerned. Let them worry about it.
Bushels of Fresh Flowers Finding a venue that is naturally beautiful and full of shrubberies and wildflowers will save you a bundle on decorative, professional flowers. Flowers can eat up a huge amount of wedding cash, and they die – quickly. If I’m going to drop more than a thousand dollars on a detail of my wedding, I want it around for a while. If you love flowers and simply can’t live without them, ignore me. If you’re a bride who didn’t even know you could have a wedding without them, great alternatives are fabric or paper flowers. They’re fun crafts that you can make yourself and keep forever.
An Evening Itinerary
Breakfast, Lunch, and Brunch are undervalued wedding meals, and it’s about time we embrace them more in the wedding world. The advantages of a morning or early afternoon wedding far outnumber those events that take place in the evening: People tend to consume less alcohol earlier in the day, venues will have more availability (even on high-demand days), and I have it on the best authority that you have less time to have a bridal meltdown if your nuptials are before lunch.
An Expensive Officiant
While you can’t have a wedding without someone to perform the ceremony, there’s no reason to pay someone an arm and a leg for their services, unless you’re having a religious service. Find a friend or family member who’s willing, and $5 and ten minutes on the internet later you have an ordained clergy person. The advantage of having a close friend or family member officiate is their familiarity with your relationship; it’s always nice to have someone who knows you bonding you together for life.
Short Programs
Programs are helpful for long weddings that deal in services that some guests might not be familiar with, but if you’re having a simple summer wedding with a short, quick ceremony, programs can be kind of a waste. It’s a lot of paper that guests will simply throw away if you don’t think it’s entirely necessary. As for the names of the wedding party, just have them announced at your reception. No one will become belligerent because they didn’t catch the name of your maid of honor.
If you're looking for a good engagement gift for the potentially frantic bride, a wedding organizer couldn't hurt. While others might be gathering wedding magazines and website recommendations for the overburdened bride, you can help her keep everything in check with a solid wedding organizer!
A good wedding organizer will have tabs, budgeting tools, and a large, infallible calendar. You can play with your iPhone all you want - nothing is a substitute for writing dates and deadlines down. The act of writing things and taking notes in your wedding organizer will commit them to memory better than simply jotting them down in your digital universe. Plus, your wedding organizer will never run out of batteries.
For Entertaining
