Guest Post: How to Plan a Frugal Yet Spectacular Wedding

I’m currently away getting hitched and honeymooning on a secluded beach somewhere.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these guests posts that I have lined up for you!  I’ll be back online and back to reality on Wednesday, June 22, 2011.  — Amber

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This is a guest post from Ally, who is part of the team that manages Personal Loan Finder, a free personal loan comparison service in Australia.

The words “frugal” and “spectacular” don’t seem to belong in the same sentence, especially when it comes to celebrations like a wedding. However, everyone seems to want to find ways to save money but still be able to throw a bash.

A small-budget and mostly self-organized wedding doesn’t mean that everything has to be cheap, tacky or un-elegant. Being frugal with your wedding doesn’t necessarily mean you have to hold back. Your dream wedding is possible with the right amount of planning, preparation and execution.

Identify What You Want

Every one has their dream wedding. Be it a simple celebration by the beach with your close family and friends, or in a centuries-old castle with everyone in the village invited for a weekend celebration. Many brides have certainly decided what they want, and perhaps made some plans on how to get it long before the actual day. List down the things you want to happen. Create a visual pegboard or a detailed description of all these and use it as a starting point for planning your wedding. One of the trends nowadays to have some sort of theme for a wedding, with vintage being the top choice. Brides and grooms take inspiration from the years before 1950. It’s simple and quite easy to pull off, with materials and dresses easily available. Having a theme will do more than just give your wedding an atmosphere. It will also help you decide on the things that you want do have and make sure they fall within the budget.

Establish a budget

The budget is one of the biggest factors if you’re going to be frugal for your wedding. How much can you afford, or how much do you want to spend on your wedding? Include everything here: expenses for the ceremony, the reception, your clothes, giveaways (if any), the invitations, photographers… even hotel accommodations if you need to. List down everything you know you’ll be spending money on. Start trimming down. Not your weight (though you’re free to do that if you wish), but on the things that you’ll be spending your budget on. Take a look at your list and see what you are the absolutely necessary things you must keep. Ask yourself questions like “Do we really need to have pearl earrings as a bridesmaid’s gift?” or “Do we really need to have a horse-drawn carriage for the ceremony?” If the answer is no, cross it off the list. If the answer is yes, well, see the next tip.

Look for alternatives

We all have ideas of what we want for our wedding day. Even if you’ve already done the “do I need it or not” game, sometimes you really want to go with something. Be flexible with your choices. If something isn’t possible with your budget, find something that is equally good, but doesn’t cost as much. This is not the time to be bridezilla. Rather, be creative in finding ways that will give you what you want at a lesser cost. Shop thrift. Don’t scoff at shopping at thrift stores. Sometimes, you can find gems underneath all the other stocks of clothes. You can also try shopping online for used wedding dresses. One such bride, Eve, found not one but two couture wedding dresses through eBay. The total price of the two dresses was less than what one dress would cost if she bought it new (had she been able to afford it in the first place). You can make the minor alterations yourself, and no one would know the difference. Consider DIY. Do-it-yourself weddings are fast becoming the popular kind of weddings these days. The main reason why most brides and grooms opt for a simple and low-key wedding is to avoid the high costs and extra expenses that may be tacked on to the services that they will hire. Many brides and grooms choose to take it upon themselves to plan the wedding from start to finish, instead of hiring a wedding planner and organizer. Thanks also to the lowered cost and wide availability of materials, brides and grooms can go creative with their plans.

Make It Personal

One of the best ways to make a your wedding spectacular despite practicing frugality is to involve the people who care for. Tap your family and friends. They are your most valuable resources. Don’t be afraid to ask them for help for things that you need done. Asking them to help you makes your wedding more personal and special. Here are some things your friends can help you with:

• Invitations and save the dates. Email, Facebook and other social media makes it easier for people to send out digital invitations. Still, nothing beats the good old-fashioned sort that can be sent through the mail or be delivered by hand. Save-the-date cards are simple and contain basic info such as the event and its date. Invitations, on the other hand, contain details like where it’s going to be held, what time, and the theme if there’s any, or even a map to the place. You can ask your artistic friends to design and make them for you. Negotiate on a fee that will be reasonable for the work that you want them to do. Chances are, they’d do it for free or consider it as their wedding gift to you.
• Decorations and giveaways. Much like invitations, decorations and giveaways can eat a chunk of your budget. Having a theme can help, as you can brainstorm with your friends what’s the best décor you can have for the celebration. Tag them along to hunt for materials and even make a party out of making the designs. You’ll not only finish faster, but you’ll have extra bonding time with your friends.
• Photography. While not everyone is a professional when it comes to taking pictures, there will bound to be one or two people you know who have it as a hobby. Approach them and let them know that you’re interested in having them be your official photographer for the wedding. Look at their sample photographs and tell them about the kind of pictures you want to have. Be upfront about your budget, and reach a compromise that will work with you both. Most hobby photographers welcome the chance to hone their craft. You just might be surprised about the quality of pictures you’ll get.

Some things you want to keep in mind when practicing frugality for your wedding preparations:

• Pay for everything in cash. While paying in credit sounds good, couples tend to forget that you’ll have to deal with it after the wedding itself. It doesn’t seem ideal to start your life together tackling bills. If your wedding date is still a little into the future, consider setting aside some money until you have your budget.
• Keep wedding guests to a minimum. This is probably one of the toughest things you can do. You may have a lot of family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances whom you’d like to be present, but the more you add to the guest list, the more you’ll strain your budget.
• Go local. Deal with local merchants, buy locally made products, tap local talents. Local also means cheaper, as the transportation and tax costs added to these are often reduced.
• Keep an open mind and be ready to adjust. As mentioned earlier, things won’t always work out the way you want them. So when the going gets tough, don’t spend too much time agonizing. Instead, find a way to make it work in your favor.
• A frugal wedding doesn’t mean you have to deny yourself. A frugal wedding means you’re making the best choices without breaking the bank. With the less worry of bills after your special day, you’re bound to enjoy the journey to that day more.

Ally is part of the team that manages Personal Loan Finder, a free personal loan comparison service in Australia. Before joining PLF, she was a Media Planner with McCann Worldgroup Philippines, Inc., with award-winning executions, including the Levi’s 501 "Live Unbuttoned" global campaign.