In India, a wedding is a big affair. Right from the selection of wedding dress, venue, jewellery, decoration etc, the couple and their family members and friends are engaged in exciting activities. However, a wedding entails a great cost and though you may want to splurge the most on your marriage, there are 11 smart ways you can reduce the wedding expenses, without taking the fun out of the ceremony.
- Plan Ahead to Avoid Impulsive Shopping
Planning for marriage expenses prior to 3 to 6 months of the wedding will help save money. Especially, deciding the marriage venue well-head. Last moment booking of banquet hall can make you compromise with the choice of location and cost a lot more than pre-booking on time. Advantages of seasonal offers can also be taken. As weddings are quite expensive, you need to have financial resources in your hand before the event.
If you want to take a personal loan for your wedding, then apply for it at least a few weeks before you need the funds. It takes 48 hours to a week to get this loan sanctioned and disbursed, depending on the borrower’s profile. List out the things you have to buy. By doing this, you can easily go for a comparison of essential items. Plan to buy only the items you need and try avoiding impulsive shopping.
- What about an off-season wedding?
Wedding season comes with a hike in prices of all the necessary and allied items. And it is genuine too, as the resources are limited but demand is high. This is basic economics. But it is not necessary you need to be a part of the rat race. You can plan a wedding during the off-season. With this, you can get decoration, venue and catering at cheaper rates. You can bargain with the vendors. You can capitalize on market offers too, as generally, vendors offer a huge discount on off-season weddings.
- Get Smart with Venue Selection
It is not necessary that you have to arrange the wedding in a famous banquet hall. You can opt for an off-site venue to cut the cost. You can get a better venue in the outskirts of the city at half of the price instead. A farmhouse can be a perfect venue as it costs less and is out of the town. There are several such ideas that can be given a thought.
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- Taking Jewelry and Clothes on Rent
Mostly, people choose gold or silver jewellery for marriage. These ornaments are very costly and generally do not fit a common man’s pocket. Instead of purchasing the jewellery, you can opt for renting the same. Renting jewellery costs very less. This will save a lot of money which can be utilized in an investment plan for your new married life. Wedding dresses are mostly one-time wear and many do not even get to wear it ever again in their life, or probably just wear the wedding dress once in a blue moon. Thus, you can consider buying an affordable wedding dress than a too lavish one.
- Simple and Elegant Decorations
It is not necessary that you go for very expensive decorations. Wedding decorations are put away after the ceremony is over, so you can rather choose simple yet elegant flower arrangements or likes for decorating the surroundings. There are wonderful yet easy ways to decorate the furniture. If any of your family members or friends help you out in this, you can save the fees you would have to pay to a professional.
- Credit card rewards
In order to save money, you can use credit cards for shopping from leading banks in India. A lot of reward points can be collected in a wedding shopping as the volume of shopping is high. You can use the reward points to later purchase a product or service. Also, you get an interest-free period of at least 20 days for clearing the bill.
- Be Picture Perfect
A wedding is a one-time event and all the memories need to be captured, true; but not at the cost of burdening your pocket. To keep the photography of your wedding pocket-friendly, you can go for a less famous photographer and choose an amateur or fairly fresher. For selection, you can ask for their portfolios. A fresher photographer generally gives a cent per cent in order to please the client.
- Wedding Invite
You can opt for e-invites in order to cut the cost. There are several websites that offer such services to make creative e-invites. If you have any artistic person in the family or friends, then he/ she can be roped in this job. Some couples believe in holding bachelorette parties, and drop separate invites for the same. Even here, e-invites can be a great option. E-invites help to determine the number of guests expected at the wedding. Consequently, this proves to be helpful in chalking out the food budget.
- Eat to Your Heart’s Content
Food is an important part of any Indian function. The size of the buffet is a big constraint in Indian society. But, it does not mean that you should go overboard. You can search for new caterers nearby. They will serve good food at a cheaper price.
- Give a Second Look at the Guests List
Do not rush in purchasing return gifts for the guests. The first list of the guests is not always the final one. The list can run longer than expected or some of the guests may opt out of attending the function. You can wait till the end date of response from all, before counting the total number of guests who will make it to the wedding. This way, you will be able to draw an estimate about the expenses for guests’ lodging, hospitality, gifts etc.
- Hold a Sale after the Wedding
Generally, weddings end up in a bunch of things, you would never use again, such as the new set of cutlery bought to impress guests, leftover return gifts, decorative items that you do not plan to utilize again etc. Rather than stocking such items, you can put those up for sale. Many even rent out their wedding dress in future to others.
Go thrifty this wedding season with the above-mentioned tricks. Do not compromise on leisure and luxuries, but when you do spend on your marriage; make sure you can save wherever possible. This extra cash can be spent on your honeymoon and wedding reception instead!
