How to save money when planning a wedding?

AUNTY KEL’S TIPS AND TRICKS:

GUEST-LIST

Ahhhh, this one can cause so many fights, issues, etc, but it should not. Here is what I think: Invite only those who:

• Bring you joy
• You interact with and they with you
• If you know they will sit there looking grumpy all night, complaining that they got the chicken, when they wanted the beef or the music was too loud, or they don’t like chairs they are sitting on… they can stay HOME
• Don’t invite a family member purely because they are family, go back and read the first TWO dot points! 

YOUR WEDDING, YOUR WAY

MUST HAVE VENDORS:

Who ‘MUST’ you have? The celebrant, of course, is a given, and when you’re picking your celebrant, remember that they will start the vibe for your whole wedding! Must sure you gel with them, they get you and you get them! It’s so super important [see my blog about How much should you pay for your wedding entertainment? As everything in that blog works for ALL vendors!] Then you will need your Venue… this is another ‘must’ as you need somewhere for everyone to congregate. Then it’s a matter of working out what is most important to you? I’m open and honest with everyone, some ppl don’t really care about music, so therefore they are not going to pay a lot of money to have a DJ when they are more than happy to curate a Spotify list and have that for the night, and from what I hear, it can work, but they have different expectations to someone who LOVES music! So we come to:….

NON-NEGOTIABLE VENDORS

If it was my wedding, my non-negotiables would be: Music | Photographer | Videographer | Photobooth So knowing this, and knowing the price points for the above, how can I save money? Consider the following:

• Guest-list [as mentioned above] only invite the tribe that brings you joy
• Wedding Favours… do you really need them? You have just paid for your guests meals and drinks, they do not need a little gift that they likely will throw away
• Flowers – Real or Fake? Real is amazing, they look great, but they die. Fake also look great… just a consideration
• Cake – do you need a huge cake? Cake makers are amazing, and the money you pay has more to do with the HOURS of preparation, decorating, skills they’ve obtained than the cake itself… so you might ask your cake maker to make a gorgeous 1 tier cake that is exactly how you imaged, and then ask them to make a slab of the cake to be served… that way, it will be a little less expensive.
• Gifts for vendor – we LOVE them, but we don’t need them. The best gift I could from a couple is an amazing GOOGLE REVIEW!

Just doing some of these things, will allow you to pay the $$ for your non-negotiables. Your wedding will be fabulous, you will marry your lover and that is the whole point of the day… the rest should enhance it, so spend your hard earnt $$ in the right places, that will bring you joy! So I guess, what I’m saying is, how to save money when planning a wedding? Only spend it on what brings you joy, because before you know, I will be announcing that it’s the last song for the night and kicking you all out hehehehe So if you LOVE music, want a night full of live acoustic music and followed up on the DJ decks, playing all your fav bangers, hit me up! Much love, Kel xo