Ways to save at your wedding, without compromising the dream…

The excitement of planning a wedding is second to none, it should be the time of your life – working out how the happiest day of your life is going to look like but sometimes the thought of budgeting or even affording this day can put a dampener on your plans. We hate the thought that anyone would be worrying around this special time, so here we give you some top tips on ways to save for your big day:

• Think about choosing an alternative time of year to get married: Wednesday’s tend to be a lot cheaper than say a Saturday, March tends to be easier on the purse strings than the middle of Summer. I know the weather plays a big aspect in choosing but if you plan for the weather and time of year, it doesn’t have to be an added worry.

• Get serious when it comes to who you add to your guest list. Just one additional guest can make a dramatic difference to the overall costing’s – you can always add those people to the evening reception. That way you still get to share your day with them without having to payout.

• Shop around! Never go with the first quote and learn how to negotiate! Sometimes if you shop around or even manage to sweet talk some suppliers, especially around their quiet period you could get yourself a really good bargain deal! It may be hard at first but you’ll soon get the hang of it!

• Maybe think of opting for a long engagement – perhaps not something you want to do, but let's face it, more time you have, the more you can save.

• Use an online invitation template to come up with your design and then only really pay for the printing costs. You still get the opportunity to air your creativity but saving a lot of money doing it yourself.

• Ask the guest to RSVP to a designated email address instead of paying for peoples return postage.

• Welcome guests with a champagne themed cocktail instead of just champagne – they look more stylish and they stretch the fiz even further!

• Offer an arrival drink and wine on the tables. Your guests won’t be surprised if they have to pay for additional drinks.

• Add artificial tiers to your cake: it looks just as impressive as costly real cakes and no-one has to know any different!

• Use real or faux blooms to decorate your cake instead of really costly sugar flowers and at Sarah’s flowers, we can make cake flowers to match your wedding bouquet.

• To avoid expensive shoes, you brides can go for a longer length dress, no-one will see your footwear choice.

• Weave flowers through the hair of the bride and bridesmaids. It’s a lot cheaper than going shopping for a much more expensive head-dress, again single flowers can be purchased to match your chosen wedding flowers.

• Go for faux blooms for your wedding: bouquets, buttonholes and table decorations. This way you can re-use them or if you need, you can re-sell! The options are endless.

• Add drama to a small floral centrepiece by placing them on a mirrored surface with tealights etc – quick, easy and looks amazing.

• Pick up some second-hand vases/jugs/candelabra to use – helps to give off a nice vintage-esque theme, and authentic too!

• Write guest names on the favours – that way you don’t have to buy name cards as well as favours!

• Make your favours! Homemade cookies, sweets or even alcoholic gifts make for fab, memorable and cheap wedding favours for your guest!

• If you’re friends or family have certain talents like cake decoration or hair styling then get busy calling in some favours!

• Listen out for bands at your local college or university if you want live music.

• Alternate live bands and a disco – it might be cheaper to have a live band do a number of live sets and then a disco for later in the evening.

• Rather than flying straight out on honeymoon the day after, how about leaving the week after on a mid-week flight which can sometimes be a lot cheaper.

• Save valuable time by registering on an online wedding gift list – you won’t need to spend hours trawling high street department stores and your list can be created almost instantly.

Phew! As you can see, there are plenty of things that you can do to help keep the costs down!