₦airaland Forum

5 WAYS TO SAVE MONEY WHEN PLANNING YOUR WEDDING

Most of us dream of a beautiful wedding. What we don't dream of is paying off said wedding until retirement. Seriously, though, the wedding industry and its associated costs have gotten out of hand, and an extravagant affair is totally expected nowadays. It puts undue pressure on couples and their families but is spending a lot to get married really necessary?

In fact NO It's totally possible to have a memorable wedding without going broke. Here's some background on wedding costs and tips for how to cut yours.

The Average Wedding Budget in Nigeria
As the saying goes, it’s never wise to compare yourself with others but when it comes to how much you can expect to spend on a beautiful wedding, it helps to know what you’re getting into. The latest numbers from CNN pegged the average Nigerian Wedding Budget in 2017 at N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira)

But as you are picking your jaw up off the floor, remember this: An average is an average. There are probably a few fancy couples out there who have had extravagant weddings (that we could only hope to be invited to), bringing up the average for the rest of the engaged ladies trying to keep things modest.Yes, the Nigerian average for a wedding looks a little pricey at face value, most couples are going to spend less than N3 Million not including honeymoon expenses. That’s more like it. Getting married is a beautiful and exciting milestone in many women’s lives, but there’s no shame in your game if you want to keep costs to a minimum. If you need to trim the fat in your wedding budget, rethink these items that most wedding planners consider to be a total waste.



1. THE FLOWERS
Flowers in a wedding may be nonnegotiable, but there are several workarounds to ensure that your fresh flowers don’t break your wedding bank. “Wanting peonies, gardenias and garden roses might sound like a great idea until you realize that you can't afford them and instead your florist is suggesting Paper Flowers it's the theory of champagne taste on a beer budget. Know your budget and do some price shopping before you determine exactly what you want in the way of flowers,”
As a compromise, I advise repurposing any and all flowers used in a wedding to help a bride save money. Think of it, Can you take the flowers off your arbor and turn them into a centerpiece for your head table? Can you put your bridesmaid bouquets in vases on a cocktail table after the ceremony (what are they really going to do with them, anyway)? Can your aisle flowers be reused as centerpieces? Moving flowers from the ceremony into the reception is a great way to maximize their use and get your money's worth. Just make sure that if you're paying your florist or coordinator to make the transition for you, it makes sense financially rather than paying for more flowers-sometimes, it's better to enlist an organized friend/guest to help out with a few details.”







2. THE EXTRAS

One of the biggest money wasters Kimberly Morrill, owner of Your Perfect Bridesmaid has
seen in her six years helping couples plan their weddings is sweating the small stuff.
“Couples tend to waste a lot of money (and time and stress) on tiny details that no one else
notices,” Morrill says. “Couples see these details on the internet and they spend a ton of
money trying to recreate. Details like custom cocktail napkins, signs for everything, favors no one wants, additional pieces of stationary, etc. Guests notice the food, the bar, the
energy, the love between the couple. They truly don't notice, and don't care about, the
excesses wedding souvenirs.
Speaking of details, Anastasia Stevenson of How to DIY Wedding agrees that cutting down big budgets on Wedding favours otherwise known as souvenirs is a good deal. “More often
than not, we see at least two thirds of the favors left at reception tables after the wedding.
Guests are having a good time mingling and dancing and look at most favors as an unnecessary expenditure
The wise thing is to make sure they have a practical use or are something fun and theme
driven that everyone would want and are easily portable!”

Also, more often than not, friends and family members may support the wedding with their own souvenirs, so consider cutting down costs on souvenirs.

3. THE WEDDING GOWN

While you may have your heart set on the picture-perfect gown Katherine Oyer of Aisle Planner
recommends making a detour before you head straight to the neighborhood bridal
shop and hitting up a sample sale instead. “At the end of each season, bridal salons and
designers will typically sell their gowns ‘off the rack’ at a deeply discounted price. Brides
will need to give each gown some extra time and attention while shopping to ensure there
aren’t any unfixable tears or major stains, but typically, most loose beading or threading
issues can be taken care of during the alterations process. The money saved will be huge, and the best part you can take your dress home that day!”

You should also consider hiring your wedding gown after all, you may never use the gown again
except if you are going to alter the style for a future purpose.



4. WEDDING CAKE

A lot of couples don’t mind spending #700,000 on a 6 tiers wedding cake, I see it as a waste of money in an average wedding. Cakes are meant to be eaten for at most 2weeks while a lot of money will be needed to sustain the family after the wedding.

The idea of spending more on cake is to have a good picture memory of how tall your cake is, this can be cut down by reducing the number of tiers and get a friendly cake designer that will still do you a great job at a reduced rate.





5. THE WEDDING VENUE

Location, reviews, facilities determine the price of a venue. If you’ve already tried pricing your wedding venue, then you’ve probably had at least one mini heart attack leading up to your wedding day. “The biggest thing brides waste their money on is the venue. Venues can be extremely expensive, as high as N5,000,000.00
and up. To get a better deal on the venue, you should try to book it during off season or on a
weekday.



HOW TO SAVE MORE MONEY

If your wedding budget still isn’t budging after considering these helpful tips, there’s a workaround for that, too. You can try to combine services whenever possible to take advantage of wedding friendly discounts. “There are many companies out there that offer discounts if you hire more than one of their services. For example, if you book an event decorator and she also does wedding cakes. The company will offer you a discount if you book them both. There are a lot of businesses like that nowadays. And if you can’t find the two offer combo, this may be the perfect time to brush up on your negotiating skills. Most brides aren’t aware of how wedding planning actually works, leading them to agree to pay full price for services they could have haggled on. Negotiations with vendors can and should be done in circumstances where a package of services or items is presented. Let the vendor know that you do not need certain items and have them remove the cost from the package. Some venues will allow you to use your own vendors. If necessary, You can lower your guest count, which will allow you more room in your budget for expensive flowers and décor. The best way to achieve this is to hire the services of a wedding planner (PERFECT BUDGET EVENTS) as they already know all the tricks in wedding planning and most of them already have a list of vendors they work with and will favour you most times.


CONCLUSION
Perfect Budget Events planning can save you money, but it helps to remember that most weddings are expensive. “My biggest tip for clients is to have a clear budget and to stick with it. Yes, your wedding day is once in a lifetime (for 50 percent of the population, anyway) but it is still only six hours of one day. Don't put yourself into years of debt just to have a great six
hours. ”You want to speak with a wedding planner, you can reach us via:

Email: olumidehospitality@yahoo.com
Call: 07057571212
Watsapp: 08083373302
Adele Olumide
Creative Director/CEO
Perfect Budget Events

Funny dude

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