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Top 5 Ways to Control Cost and stick to your budget.

August 16, 2014

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When it comes to wedding planning 85% of couples are doing it for the first time.  Some couples are lucky and happen to have close friends who are able to help with their planning, and some couples don’t have that advantage.  Planning can be a daunting task, and leaves most brides confused as to what’s important and what isn’t.

St. Louis Bride & Groom found the following for when it came to brides and their wedding planning:

  • Almost 100% say they would have spent more of their budget on the entertainment.
  • During wedding planning, Brides say their highest priority is their attire, followed by the reception site and caterer – at this point reception entertainment is among the least of their priorities.  Within one week after the reception, 78% of Brides say they would have made the entertainment their highest priority!
  • When asked 81% of guests say the thing they remember most about a wedding is the entertainment.
So in the spirit of these statistics here are the top 5 ways to control cost and stick to your budget while still giving yourself and your guests an amazing reception:

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5.  Real flowers for you and your wedding party’s bouquets/boutonnieres, fake flowers for the tables & decor.

This one doesn’t take much explaining.  Real flowers are expensive, they can fall apart easily, and unless you preserve them they will dry out, turn brown, and decompose.  If you watch your local crafts store for a good sale you can pick up beautiful silk flowers for a fraction of the cost of real flowers to adorn your table centerpieces, and other areas you may want flowers.  I guarantee you no one is going to say anything about your flowers being fake.  Most people won’t even remember in a month.

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4.  Make your own table centerpieces.

Table centerpieces are great, and it’s nice to have something pretty to look at in the middle of the table.  Two things to consider though:  1. Make sure your centerpieces don’t take up so much room that there isn’t space for food & drink (especially important if you have a “family style” meal service).  2.  Keep it simple for the staff at your venue hall to break down your centerpieces, and remove them from the table.   Especially helpful if tables need to be removed from the dance floor after dinner.

Again, your local crafts store is a great resource for finding great decorations that will help you save money and create something unique and elegant.  Here are a few ideas we found on another website.

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3.  Skip the chair covers.

This is one of those things that’s really not needed 90% of the time.  Most venues have nice looking chairs, especially if they focus on weddings.  It’s also one of those things that your guests are not going to remember in a month or two.  Unless the venue has really ugly chairs, or if you can get them for an extremely low price (like 75 cents a chair) they are not worth it.  Think about this for a second.  Let’s say you have 200 guests at your wedding, and chair covers cost $2 per chair.  That’s $400 that could have gone toward spending money on the honeymoon, extra pampering, a better photographer, or ideally a better DJ. 

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2.  Open Bar – don’t do it.

We’ve been to countless weddings, and here’s what we see.  When there’s an open bar people order drinks like prohibition is coming back tomorrow, and then they don’t even finish them.  You literally see half-consumed cocktails sitting everywhere, and when someone can’t figure out which drink is theirs’ they just go order another one.  At most consider providing soft drinks and one or two kinds of beer.  For the beer most venues will just have you pay for the keg(s) which aren’t that expensive.  Sometimes you can even do just a half keg if you have a smaller guest list.  Again, open bars are a huge waste of your budget, and it also has a tendency to bring out the demons in certain people.  Your wedding isn’t the place for this.

1.  Control your guest list!
This is the number one way to control cost at your wedding.  In another article on our site we showed you an exploded pie chart of what your budget break down should look like.  Your guests are the most expensive part of your budget (the 35% part), and that’s why this is also the best area to help control your budget. 

On average the cost of each wedding guest ranges fr
om $131 to $160 in Brown County (source:  www.costofwedding.com).  If you take 10 guests off of your list that saves you $1300-$1600!  Again, this is money that can go toward your honeymoon, pampering, or better vendors to have a better quality reception. 

If you’re looking for a quality DJ to make your night fun and exciting call SoundFire DJ for a no obligation audition.  We’ll put together a package tailored to your needs and budget.  Call us today: (920) 403-0827 or Contact Us through our website.

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