Everyone loves a bargain

Everyone loves a bargain. I certainly do. I’ve lost count of the number of things I have purchased off of Groupon and other related sites. And whenever I am in a shop, I always head straight for the clearance section first. So it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that one of my mottos is to “never pay full price for anything”. However, now I am left scratching my head as I try to figure out if this axiom can also be applied to weddings.

Weddings are expensive. A friend told me that his ceremony and reception in Canada cost nearly $25K. And an article I read recently said that the average UK wedding costs in the neighborhood of £20K. That’s a lot of money. It’s the price of a nice car, or a good chunk of a downpayment for a house. Kim Kardashian’s short-lived wedding cost a reported $10 million, but supposedly they got a lot of things “donated” to them in return for the publicity and they may have even ended up net positive after selling exclusive photography rights to the media. But not being Kardashians, Chris and I aren’t going to be that lucky.

So this opens up yet another part of the planning that is unpleasant, but which needs to be done: the budget. The budget is of course tied directly to the other practicalities: size, location, time of year of the ceremony, etc. And neither Chris nor I are prepared to go into debt for what, at the end of the day, amounts to being just a big party.

However, weddings are big money-making opportunities and this fact is not lost on anyone who works directly or indirectly with the industry. Even the local council has a large menu of fees and charges in addition to the fee for the marriage license. If you want to walk down the aisle at the local registry office, Islington will charge you an extra £50. If you want the registrars to come to your venue of choice, that’ll be another £500 please. Sigh.

So I was excited to come across this web page that detailed some cost-saving tips for weddings and civil partnerships: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/cheaper-weddings Quite a few of the suggestions were spot on, and affirmed our mutual value systems (and echoed the few cautionary tales from the parents that didn’t fall on deaf ears). If you have to go into debt, it’s probably not worth it. To avoid a trebling of costs, try not to mention the “W” word until after you have received a price from the vendor. See if you have friends who are keen photographers or flower arrangers.

However, a few of the suggestions were really quite ghetto, and offended even my bargain-hunting sensibilities: Book a free makeup session at Boots for the morning of your ceremony. Buy a spongecake from the supermarket and decorate it yourself. Buy fake flowers to use as boutonnieres. I think we can do better than to resort to these options.

So the challenge that we are facing is to do something classy and nice that suits our individual style, but which doesn’t break the bank. We are open to any and all suggestions (and help from any friends who are photographers, bakers, musicians, florists, registrars, stationers, venue landlords, vintners).  🙂