It can feel good playing the big spender at your wedding and letting everyone know that you can afford lavish arrangements. The feeling can be quickly replaced by despair, once you pick up the pieces and see how little you have left. If you need to bring a little sanity to your wedding plans, you need to stay away from these huge wedding money wasters.
Remeber ''Wedding is only a ceremony while marriage is a life-long relationship and commitment to your spouse''.

The biggest money wasters are:
1. An expensive wedding venue
Wedding venue costs can be exorbitant enough to easily take over your wedding budget all by themselves. Sometimes, you can get in over your head even when you aren’t looking for an expensive place. Many venues try to reel people in by advertising low prices but building them up with expensive add-ons — china, furnishings, lighting options etc. It’s important to make sure that your venue doesn’t use up more than 20% of your budget.

Choosing an outdoor venue is the right way to save on decorations, thus you should consider some low-cost locations like your backyard, parks or forests. Another way to save you money is by choosing an all-inclusive package, which usually include reception, wedding and honeymoon. Bear in mind that having your wedding during an off-season will cut the expenses almost twice. On Saturdays wedding venues are more expensive as well.

2. Indulgent entertainment
DJs, a string quartet and even a five-piece wedding band can liven up your wedding beautifully without costing much. It’s important to keep your wedding entertainment expectations under control.

Wedding band, however, is not the only way to entertain your guests without huge expenses. A local band is also a good option to consider. Young musicians and upcoming artistes will eagerly jump at a chance to get experience and such bands usually cost less than professionals. However, DJ’s performance is usually less expensive than a band’s one.

Front row seat... Check
Jotter and Pen... Check
Pop Corn... Check
A drink... Check

@ OP: Please continue.

3. Inviting everyone
It can seem like the right thing to do to invite every relative and everyone that you’ve ever been friends with. But each additional guest can cost an extra Naira at the average venue. You can quickly inflate your final bill when you don’t have the heart to keep your guest list to a reasonable length. If you cannot decide on the number of guest use the rule of thumb: if you can spend more than two minutes with that person, invite them.

What’s the reason to invite 150 guests if you physically won’t be able to speak to everybody? Make a rough copy of the guest list and divide all the names into several major categories such as family members, relatives, best friends and coworkers. When you know the approximate number of people you can invite, it may be much easier to cut down on the last category. Don’t mark the invitation with “plus guest.” This way you will avoid extra people you don’t want to see at all.

4. Acquiring a sizable set of groomsmen and bridesmaids
At some weddings, the bride and groom show up with a small army of attendants. While it may feel good to have of large posse watching your back, they can cost money. Even if you don’t shell out for the dress, you have to think of paying for invitations, gifts, bouquets and places at tables. You can end up paying hundreds more.

While formal wedding require up to 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen, you can easily reduce the number of them to just one groomsman and one bridesmaid. Weddings on a budget usually have no ring bearer or flower girl either. If you are afraid to offend your friends, vest them with certain roles. Some may help you with preparation, while others can perform some important roles during the wedding ceremony.

Making Sense @op.....

5. The wedding attire
According to a recently published survey, half of all brides are uncomfortable spending more than N80,000 on their wedding dress. It’s very easy to buy into the glamour-filled messages that the wedding industry sends out and to spend far more than you are comfortable with. But I think that wedding attire is an expense item you have plenty of opportunities to save some money on! Nothing will happen if you will buy your out-off-rack wedding dress in a budget-friendly department store or an outlet. If you feel good about once-worn or vintage dresses you can ask your mom for her gown. This way you will get free attire and you honor your mom as well. Other cost-conscious variants include a rented gown or a dress bought at the online auction.

6. Personalized wedding outfits
Personalized wedding outfits are big business these days. Wedding retailers offer custom-printed clothing for all involved, with formal wedding titles printed on. Everyone from the best men to the bridesmaids get monogrammed outfits to wear around while they help. Since these touches are a luxury, they come at a heavy premium. Moreover, you are not going to wear such clothes permanently, even though it’s fun to have something personalized at first. Thus, it’s not good spending money on such short-life pieces of clothing. Instead, you can order a pair of pajamas with “bride” and “groom” across your buttocks. You are going to wear this type of clothes at home and only two of you will admire the titles!

7. Making mementos of everything:Customized gifts and sourvenirs
Wedding service providers hardsell the idea that weddings need to be treasured.They try to sell you monogrammed pens, picture frames, toasting glasses, preserved wedding flowers and vases to distribute to your guests. While mementos are certainly important and necessary, you don’t need to spend anything on them.You can get your friends and relations to help with these.Spend money on something really worthwhile.

8. An extra large wedding cake
With their special decorations, wedding cakes can start out as expensive as N60,000. It’s easy to make a wedding cake very expensive by ordering a larger size than you need. Too many couples order wedding cakes to serve 200 when they only have 100 guests. A large cake is impressive, but it’s much cheaper to order a small wedding cake and to serve the guests a separate, simply decorated sheet cake. You will significantly save your budget if you decide on a sheet cake. The ingredients are usually the same, but sheet cakes are plain and unpretentious in terms of decorations.

9. Elaborate wedding invitations
Wedding invitations are so expensive that you can easily end up spending much on an invitation with the works. It’s much more reasonable go with mass-produced invitations. Ask you guests to respond via telephone or e-mail instead of adding a reply card or using usual postcards. However, with the abundance of arts and crafts supplies available out there, you can easily make your own wedding invitations. Surf the Internet to find interesting designs and invite your friends to assist you. Wedding invitations are commonly sent in more than one envelope, but this tradition is no longer rigid and you can use only one envelope, which helps to save some extra Nairas

10.Abeg add your own.
My oga don dey call me.
Thanks for coming.Remember don't try to please everyone.Try to be as reasonable as possible and dont borrow money to do elaborate wedding.Do the one wey your money reach. Wishing you all a happy married life.
Eliminating the top wedding money wasters can be a valuable way to get more money where it counts — the life that you need to build after the guests go home. With hundreds of ideas out there you still can have a cheap yet marvelous wedding of your dream. Most brides regret having so many odd and useless items they had spent money on. It’s up to you what expense items to include or to remove from this list, but you just should be aware of these major wedding money wasters. What are the biggest wedding money wasters? Share your thoughts, please.

Modified for Nairaland consumption by me.
Original source is www.amerikanki.com