Budgeting for your wedding can be hard work – but it doesn’t have to be! Whether you’ve got a £5k wedding budget or a £25k wedding budget, by following our wedding budget tips you’ll be able to get even more for your money.
23 Wedding Budget Tips to Help You Save
1. Be Upfront About Your Budget
People don’t like to talk money, we get it. But when you’re planning a wedding, you need to be upfront about how much you have to spend. This will mean some wedding suppliers can’t help you, but others may be willing to offer a deal that will suit your budget.
2. Sign Up to wedify
wedify is the savvy wedding planner’s best friend and one of our very best wedding budget tips! It’s the UK’s only membership club for engaged couples and includes exclusive discounts and savings of hundreds of pounds at a number of wedding venues and suppliers, as well as free tickets to The National Wedding, all for a one-off fee of £49.
3. Update That Spreadsheet
Even for tiny little ‘treat yourself’ purchases – make sure you add them to your budget spreadsheet so you know what you’re spending money on and it’s easy to keep track.
4. Carry Cash
If you’re trying to save money, get into the habit of withdrawing your cash for the week and only spending that. It’s so easy to let spending spiral when you’re paying with Apple Pay or by contactless card.
5. Pay in Full
Lots of suppliers will allow you to pay a deposit first and settle the final bill later on. Try and pay in full where you can so you’re not hit with a lot of bills to pay all at once a few months later. Pay by credit card where you can too so your payments are protected.
6. DIY Everything
Now is the perfect time to get creative! DIY wedding centrepieces are a great place to start, and familiarise yourself with YouTube tutorials. Get your friends over and make an evening of it!
7. Visit The National Wedding Shows
The UK’s largest wedding event, The National Wedding Show, takes place across the country twice a year. Lots of suppliers at the shows tend to have deals available to those who book on the day and if you are a wedify member you’ll get free tickets!
8. Plan Out of Season
If you want to get married on a summer Saturday, prepare to hike up your budget. However, if you’re okay with a Thursday in February, you will find it much more affordable to plan.
9. Consider Getting Married Abroad
Lots of wedding abroad options consist of a package deal with everything included – this works out cheaper than sourcing everything yourself sometimes. If you’re considering a beach wedding, this could be the push you need…
10. Think About Corkage and Catering
One of the key questions to ask your wedding venue is whether catering is included, and whether they charge a corkage fee. If there is no corkage, it might work out cheaper to provide your own alcohol. If you have to bring in your own wedding caterers, you’ll need to factor this into your wedding budget.
11. Get Creative with Your Catering
If you have lots of choice when it comes to your wedding catering, one of our key wedding budget tips is to think outside the box. Talk to your catering providers about serving sharing food, such as charcuterie platters or pizzas (like The Wedding Pizza Company provide) – this will be more affordable than a three-course plated meal.
Unusual wedding catering is a really easy way to save money and impress your guests.
12. Wedding Cake Alternatives
Even if you have a relatively comfortable £15,000 wedding budget, it’s a good idea to save money on certain details. It’s up to you what you cut back on, but opting for an alternative wedding cake, such as a cheese wedding cake or a tower of doughnuts is a great wedding budget tip for saving money.
Cheese wedding cakes can be served up with crackers and chutney as your evening food, saving you even more money.
13. Opt for Affordable Wedding Favours
You can save money by cutting out wedding favours all together, but we think it’s important to treat your guests and show them you appreciate their attendance if you can. Our edit of cheap wedding favours for £1 or less will help you out. We love the Gourmet Chocolate Pizza Co‘s offerings!
14. Talking of Favours…
Whilst we’re on the topic of favours and wedding budget tips, make sure you’re using them in the other sense too – you can call in favours from friends and family to help keep costs down. If you are asking for favours though, make sure you make it clear no one is obliged to help you and that they can say no to avoid any awkwardness!
15. Try Haggling
If you really love someone’s work, but they’re out of your price range, ask them if there’s anyway they could do something for you to suit your budget. Be prepared that people might say no, but some suppliers might be willing to put together a proposal for you that is more affordable – it doesn’t hurt to ask (politely!).
16. Choose a Lovely Venue
You might be considering a blank canvas wedding venue, as something no-frills like a barn wedding venue might appear more budget friendly, but it’s actually one of our top wedding budget tips to consider a wedding venue that’s already well decorated.
By choosing a restaurant or boutique hotel that isn’t primarily an event space, you’re pretty much guaranteed a space that is already beautifully decorated – saving you the cost of buying décor!
17. Be Savage with Your Guest List
This is a tough one! Boost your wedding budget by being super strict with your wedding guest list. It’s easy to get carried away with inviting guests and feeling obliged to invite people, but steel yourself and axe anyone who you’ve not seen in a year – you’ll see the costs reduce dramatically.
18. Buy Reusable Décor
If you do decide to decorate your wedding venue, think carefully about the décor you buy. If you can reuse it at home, or easily re-sell it after your wedding, this will be less hard on your wedding budget.
19. DIY Beauty
Buy yourself some decent beauty products and start watching tutorials – by learning to do your own wedding makeup, you’ll save a lot of money. Read our guide to doing your own wedding makeup for all the advice you could need.
20. Go for Seasonal Flowers
We know everyone loves a peony wedding bouquet, but if you’re not getting married around May time, the price of them will shoot up. Look out for seasonal wedding flowers as they’re easier for your wedding florist to get hold of, keeping costs down.
21. Something Borrowed
Something borrowed is a classic wedding tradition and for good reason. It’s a solid wedding budget tip to borrow as much stuff as you can to keep costs down. Ask your married friends if they can lend you anything to save you some money.
22. Go on a Mini-Moon
Mini-moons are every bit as romantic as honeymoons, but much more budget-friendly. We’ve rounded up some beautiful mini-moons in the UK to inspire you.
23. Ask for Cash
Asking for cash as a wedding gift is another one of our favourite wedding budget tips to give your wedding budget a bit of a boost. You might feel a little awkward asking but most guests will be relieved to give you something useful – and you can put it towards an amazing honeymoon.
Feeling fired up to start saving? Make sure you read our guide to what you need to give up in order to save even more money for your wedding.
