How To Pay For a Wedding – Top 5 Creative and Efficient Ways

September 6, 2018 Carolyn

How to pay for a wedding may sound like an odd question for those who think money is a taboo subject. Nevertheless, since a wedding often cost the price of a car or a cash down on house, it’s worth asking.

Here’s a brief list of things you can do.

How to pay for a wedding in 5 simple steps:

Stop overlooking small expenses
Make those your allies while planning: Time and Frugality
Buy second-hand
Look for freebies and perks
Generate an extra income

Each of these steps will be detailed later in this article

If you haven’t started compiling quotes from different vendors for different services, the following answer will make you freak out. Brace yourself, the total cost of a wedding is way over $20,000.

Unbelievable!? Scary, to say the least!

If you make a quick online search you’ll find some websites detailing the expenses that add up to such crazy numbers.

See, most numbers available on the different wedding industry leading websites are based on statistics. These statistics were obtained after surveying their website users and represent the average results they got.

Keep in mind that it doesn’t represent what you have to pay but most likely what you’ll pay if you’re not a savvy consumer.

You don’t have to jump off the bridge into the dark waters of financial despair because everyone else does, right?

Sure, extravagant and luxurious wedding reception look great on Pinterest but the work behind each of these staged pictures is worth a lot of money.

But don’t let the numbers be a deterrent and ruin your enthusiasm to make your big day a memorable one.

After years of searching online for affordable and appealing products, I realized you don’t need to go bankrupt to have a stunning wedding day.

Let’s start by looking at what some people mistakenly call “insignificant numbers”.

♥ Shabby Chic Wedding Centerpieces Ideas

Don’t Overlook Small Expenses

When planning a wedding we usually end up dealing with 10 to 20 different service and product providers, venue, catering, honeymoon and professionals fees being the most pricey.

Admittedly, negotiating with each of them quickly becomes overwhelming.

That’s when we start making expensive mistakes like putting aside important things as they simply seem to be less costly.

They may look insignificant at first glance, but when you add them up they can easily take a large chunk of your budget.

Flowers, decor, favors are small expenses when taking separately but can represent hundreds if not thousand worth of money.

Here’s another good example, wedding stationery.

Determining wedding paper supplies is a tricky part because you need to determine your needs from save-the-dates to Thank you cards and everything in between.

When you start searching for the best price you will see that there is a huge gap between each merchant because the offering is completely different in terms of what’s included or not.

Also, you can save hundreds of dollars by ordering all the different paper supplies you need at once instead of ordering them separately.

For more information on how you can save on paper supplies, read this article.

♥ Where to Find Free Printable Wedding Invitations

Lower Your Personal Expenses and Plan Ahead

I know you’ve probably heard this one before. Truth is, saving money for any special project only works if you give it enough time.

It’s just like investing money in a bank product or a fund: time is a powerful economic leverage!

Cut back on the gourmet coffee you take every morning before work = $50/monthly;
Go to that Taco twice a week instead of 4 times = $60/monthly;
Get rid of cable TV = $100/monthly;
Have a manicure, pedicure, hairdo every 2 months instead of every month = over $150/every 2 months;
Drink less alcoholic beverage = over $100/monthly;
Unsubscribe to any paid apps you don’t use much = $$

I’m sure you can come up with many, many more unnecessary expenses. I suggest that you put your own numbers and services and goods that you pay for and see how much you can save.

Roughly, you save $300 -$400 monthly using the numbers above. On a 10-month timeline, you will save over $3,000.

Not bad at all!

Don’t Make Your Life A Nightmare

The idea is not to put yourself in a “survival mode” where you cannot do anything you love doing.

Instead, start by cutting your expenses in half, like having 3 coffees instead of 5 each week. Eventually, you’ll get used to it and even find that your home-brewed coffee tastes much better than the one from the coffee shop.

Same goes for your cable TV. If you only watch 20% of the channels you pay for its clearly a waste of money.

You’re most likely a good cord-cutter candidate and may want to change for TV streaming. Just be wise and watch your Internet consumption closely so you don’t end up paying more.

Let’s look at other great ways to save and see how we can make this wedding fund wealthier.

♥ Wedding Cake Decorating Ideas

Buy Second-hand Wedding Stuff

Do you wonder what all those newlywed do with their wedding decor once the wedding is over? They sell it, of course.

Stuff like table centerpieces, chair sashes, table runners, lanterns, candle holders, candy jars, welcome sign, place card holders, etc. clutters up space big time.

That’s why most couples sell their wedding stuff at a friendly price. Moreover, they are usually open to negotiating especially if you want to buy a large part of what they want to get rid of instead of just a few candle votives.

Try finding facebook groups located near you using search words like” Wedding (your city name)” or “Bridal (your city name)“.

People post their wedding stuff in September and October and sometimes even earlier.

So make sure to check these out while it’s still time (end of August through November).

Bridal Dresses, Shoes, and Hair Accessories

Surprisingly, brides also sell wedding dresses that were never worn. Many times, the reason is that they simply bought 2 dresses. One for the ceremony, usually the most expensive one, and another for the party.

Finally, they decided to keep their bridal gown all night. After all, you only get to wear it once!

♥ How to Buy a Wedding Dress Online

Look for Perks and Discounts

As in any business, wedding industry merchants offer incentives to encourage the customer to buy at a specific time. These come in the form of extras, perks, discounts and seasonal sales.

That’s why planning ahead is crucial.

You can take advantage of the best deals during the low season. Make sure to subscribe to your preferred shop newsletter to be notified whenever they have a sales blitz.

Where to Find the Deals

Don’t know what service providers or products to choose yet?

Attending your city’s wedding fairs is a good way to hook up with wedding rental companies and professionals and see what they have to offer. It will then be easier to determine your needs and reorganize your initial plan for the better.

These events are also packed with special offers only available to those attending the fair. So make sure you put them on your schedule at the earliest.

This will provide you with enough time to make a pre-assessment of other competitor’s offering to get the best value for your money.

Online Freebies

There are lots of websites offering free templates for all kinds of wedding stationery like invitations, save-the-dates and more.

They all have their pros and cons and offer different levels of customization.

Generate Incomes

Are you fond of wedding apps, make extensive use of hashtags, and want to make a wedding website for the fun of it?

Then why not monetize it? Keep in mind that once your website is online anyone can visit not only your family and friends. Also, posts that are made through social media can be shared and drive people to your website.

That’s how adding pay per click ads like Google AdSense can generate income for your website. People visit your website sometimes they click on adds and you get paid for it.

This generally works if you have a large number of people following you on your favorite social platforms. Also, they must love to exchange with you on the post you are publishing. If so, chances are they will follow you on your wedding planning journey with the same enthusiasm and share your content.

Simply put you need to create content that drives people to your site to hopefully generate income. Write about what planning your big day is like in a friendly and engaging way.

You can make videos or share pictures on Instagram, Build your content so it’s useful for other people.

For example share tips that can help other future Mr. and Mrs make smart choices too.

Raise Money for Your Honeymoon

Let’s say you’ve always dreamed of a honeymoon in Honolulu but always wonder how to pay for it. A honeymoon fund might be the answer to your prayers.

Nowadays people don’t necessarily need to have a wedding gift registry as they often live together before they are officially married. That being said, a honeymoon takes a big chunk out of your wedding budget. That’s when creating a honeymoon fund can help.

Essentially, it’s a fundraising platform where your family and relatives can contribute to help you pay for your dream honeymoon.

There are many online platforms you can have a look at and see which is best for your needs.