It's no secret that a wedding is not only a beautiful and magical event, but also quite an expensive pleasure. And every year the prices of everything only increase. Regardless of whether 's wedding budget is €50,000 or €15,000, every couple wants to use the available funds rationally. However, when the wedding budget is very limited, then every item of the estimate has to be considered even more seriously.

The biggest mistake when planning a wedding budget

Unfortunately, due to lack of experience and knowledge of wedding planning, most couples start skimping on those budget points that should not be skimped on, thereby reducing the quality of their wedding. Couples hire a cheaper photographer, choose cheaper caterers, decide that they will decorate their wedding themselves, do not hire a DJ, because they think that they can get by with a ready-made Spotify playlist and can change it themselves. Couples choose this approach - to attract cheaper specialists or to refuse the services of specialists altogether. And at this moment, they forget the main nuance - a wedding happens once in a lifetime, so if something goes wrong at the wedding and they are dissatisfied with this day, it will not be possible to fix or redo it.

The right way to use the wedding budget

There is a much better and more correct way to save money by choosing the best specialists and organizing your dream wedding. It is necessary to save on volume, not on quality. This means that you take professional specialists and quality services, but reduce their quantitative indicators. Quality is the very first thing to think about when planning a wedding, because as I mentioned, this event happens once in a lifetime, and how it goes will determine the memories you have of the day that will stay with you for a lifetime.

Ways to reduce your wedding budget to size

• Number of guests

The most obvious way is to invite fewer guests, because the cost of a wedding is very dependent on the number of guests. You don't have to invite all your cousins, aunts, colleagues, neighbors, and in-laws you haven't seen in 10 years to your wedding. Invite only those relatives and friends with whom you have the closest relationship and with whom you communicate more often.

• Event duration

How long the event will last depends on the number of working hours of the wedding specialists, the cost of food and alcohol, as well as the cost of renting the venue premises. It's much better to have a beautiful 5 hour dinner than to party until dawn, skimp on quality food, or book a venue that costs less, but isn't the prettiest and probably doesn't fit the wedding concept at all.

• Distance in kilometers from the city

When choosing a place for a celebration within the city limits or near the city, it is not necessary to organize overnight accommodation for guests, and if taxis drive to the place of celebration, then there is no need to provide transportation for guests to the city.

• Decor quantity

Choose a good, proven decorator to be sure that your wedding will be beautiful and the design will be the way you wanted. Remember - if you choose a good photographer, but he doesn't have anything beautiful to photograph, decorations he won't Photoshop for you. It is better to reduce the amount of decor itself. First of all, it is closely related to the number of guests, for example, if the number of guests is 30 instead of 80, then 3-4 tables should be decorated instead of 8-9. Secondly, choose to hold both the ceremony and the celebration in the same location, then the ceremony location will also perform the function of a photo zone during the evening and there will be no need to set up a separate photo zone.

Remember: artificial flowers at weddings are horrible. Artificial flowers are intended for other places and for another event. It is better to make mini compositions from live flowers and complement them with candles and other decor, rather than using artificial flowers. Yes, there are cases when artificial flowers are used in large-scale events, because assembly can take 3-5 days and live flowers will not last that long, but in such a case, high-quality artificial flowers are used, which are very difficult to distinguish from live flowers, and such artificial flowers cost much more than live flowers.

• Amount of food and alcohol

The amount of food and alcohol is directly related to the number of guests and the duration of the event. Because a 10-hour event requires much more than a 5-hour event. I also recommend hiring a bartender at the wedding who offers to provide alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks and pay only for what you drink. It works out much better than buying drinks yourself and then having quite a lot of money frozen in the leftover drinks. this frozen money covers the costs of the bartender's service, as well as the presence of a bartender at the wedding raises the level of the event in the eyes of the guests and makes life much easier for the couple. In addition, if there is a bartender at the wedding, the amount of alcohol consumed is controlled.

• Number of working hours of wedding specialists

I believe that this point is the most important. Better to hire a cool, high-quality photographer and a videographer for 4 hours (ceremony and photo session) than a cheap professional with terrible photo/video equipment for 12 hours. It is better to reduce the duration of the event and choose a cool, modern evening presenter for 5 hours, instead of inviting a presenter for 8 hours with funny contests and mocking guests in the program.

The mood of you and your guests on the wedding day depends on the host of the evening, the DJ, the caterers and the bartender. How you will feel on your wedding day depends on the stylist. It depends on the decorator, photographer and videographer how you will remember this wedding day, what memories you will have and how this day will be seen by future generations who will look at the pictures and videos. The professionalism of these specialists should never be skimped on!

• Abandoning unimportant attributes

Very often, brides want to fill their wedding with some additional decor that they have seen on Pinterest - fans, the same sunglasses for all guests, magic candles, bubbles, personalized wedding souvenirs for guests, but if the task before you is to rationally spend the existing funds, then you can safely refuse all of this. Most often, all these attributes are needed only for 1-2 pictures. It is better to direct these funds to really important budget items, for example, professional wedding specialists.

Author of the article: Oksana Shpakova / Wedding Fairy

Photo: Santa Apšeniece