Your wedding is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life, and most couples look forward to finally being able to plan it. But it can also be quite stressful, and expensive; a survey by Hitched showed that in 2023, the average cost of a wedding was £20,700, and a whopping 59% of couples went over budget.
However, planning a wedding doesn’t have to push you over the edge, financially or emotionally. Due to social restrictions over the last few years, the idea of the traditional wedding has evolved and become more relaxed, and it’s now easier to plan a wedding that doesn’t empty your bank account, but still lets you have a magical day.
Here at The Insurance Emporium, we’ve come up with 12 smart ways to have a beautiful wedding on a budget.
1. It’s All in the Timing
One of the biggest wedding expenses can be the cost of the venue – the average cost of a wedding venue in the UK is around £8,000 – £10,000 – but you can cut that cost by choosing a less popular date. Weekdays, for example, will cost less and people avoid certain dates, such as Friday 13th. The venue and suppliers may even offer a discount for an unpopular date.
Having an off-peak wedding can also help keep the costs down; for example, a winter wedding can often be cheaper, and a bit different. You’re also not worrying about whether you’re going to get that perfect warm, sunny day.
Before you start looking at venues, find out the 8 questions you need to ask your wedding venue.
2. Do It Yourself
Making your own decorations can save you money as well as adding a personal touch to your big day. Wildflowers in jam jars and tin cans, and mismatched candles, all tie in with a boho theme. It’s also worth looking on the high street for decorations where some shops may have low-cost decorations to which you can add your own personal touch.
(Remember to use common sense when picking wildflowers as there are rules for picking flowers)
Check out your local charity shops/businesses/shops and social media, and keep an eye out for things like wooden pallets and crates, these are often given away for free and can be recycled to make signs, display tables etc.
Supermarket flowers can make a great bridal bouquet, as can a bunch of colourful wildflowers; you don’t have to spend a fortune, often simple is more effective.
3. RSVP
You can save money by making your own invites – you can get cheap card from shops like Hobbycraft. Online sites such as Amazon, Etsy and the Card Factory also do pre-made invites. The invites are a tiny part of your big day and when people think back to your wedding, they’re really not going to remember that they weren’t printed on thick, gold-trimmed card that were delivered by unicorns bearing velvet cushions. They’ll already be planning their outfit and working out the date before they’ve even put it on the fridge.
You could also help save the environment, as well as some cash, by sending E-invites. There are sites that do personalised invites for as little as 20p per invite.
4. Garden Party
Since 2021, when outdoor civil ceremonies became legalised, civil weddings can take place outside, and what could be more personal than a garden wedding? Your backdrop is already there and you can use trees and plants to hang decorations on, using wooden chalkboards to complete the rustic theme.
Fairy lights make everything look great, and throw in some tealights in jam jars, a fire pit, a few rugs, some games and a picnic and you’ve got the perfect atmosphere in a familiar, relaxed setting. It’s a little bit different and cuts out a lot of the stress. It also makes it easier to have your four-legged friends be a part of your big day without causing them too much stress.
5. Dress To Impress
There’s always a lot of emphasis on the dress, with the average wedding dress costing £1,300, but you don’t have to clear out your bank account to get one you love. eBay, Vinted and Preloved are just a few of the sites where you can get one second-hand, they often haven’t even been worn. Some charity shops have specialist bridal departments, for example Oxfam has one, and if you’re open to buying one in the wrong size and having it altered, it will increase your chances of finding the right one for you.
Lots of high street retailers sell wedding dresses too, ASOS, for example, or you could just go for a ‘normal’ white dress, depending on the style you’re after. This would improve the cost-per-wear as you could wear it again.
You could also rent a wedding dress and a recycled dress is environmentally friendly too. There’s also no rule saying you have to have matching bridesmaids dresses either; you could still choose a colour scheme and let the bridal party choose dresses/suits to match the theme.
6. Let Them Eat Cake
We all love cake, but let’s face it, it’s not the reason people are at your wedding. Things have moved on from the traditional tiered cake covered in royal icing with a model of the happy couple on top, and there’s a recent trend for ‘naked’ cakes. This basically means a cake with no icing; picture three Victoria sponges of top of each other, filled with cream and jam, with a dusting of icing sugar on top and some fresh flowers for decoration.
Or you could try the high street; supermarkets all sell celebration cakes that you can customise and M&S even do a giant Colin the Caterpillar cake that you can personalise, that serves 40 people. Your guests are much more likely to remember something like this than a dry 5 tier fruit cake that everyone will be too full to eat anyway. Wedding receptions are traditionally littered with plates of wedding cake with just one bite taken.
7. You Dancing?
There’s no need to spend hundreds on a DJ or live band at a time when we have access to a Spotify playlist. You can download one or make one yourself with songs that have special meaning to you and your partner, and then hire some speakers for the day. You could also include a request to your guests in their invite to send you their favourite floor fillers for when it’s time to hit the dance floor. How about asking a friend to put one together for you; everyone knows someone who fancies themselves as a bit of a music expert/budding DJ and most people are thrilled to be included in some way and be a part of your special day.
8. Do Me A Favour
Wedding favours are a good opportunity to think outside the box, as anything goes. Lottery tickets or scratch cards are a great, fun and cheap idea, and here at The Insurance Emporium we are very much in favour (see what we did there…) of edible wedding favours. Something already wrapped like a Tunnocks Tea Cake would be fun, or you could make a load of cookies in advance and freeze them until the big day, then wrap them individually in tissue paper and ribbon. This is something you could get someone else to do for you (see our next tip) or you could even just ditch the whole wedding favours thing altogether. Will anyone really notice that they’re not leaving with a little gauze bag full of sugared almonds? We don’t think so.
9. Something Borrowed
Keeping with the favours theme of our last tip, a wedding is a good time to call some in. Think about the people you know, or who are in your family; is anyone a budding Bake-Off contestant who might fancy making a cake? Or do you know someone who’s quite arty who is itching to get their hands, and their creativity, on some invites or decorations?
How about transport; do you know someone with a fancy car you could use? Transport can be pricey – the average cost of a wedding car etc. can be as much as £700 – but people hardly ever take any notice of it.
Do you know anyone in a band? Or do you know someone who busks who dreams of being the next Ed Sheeran?
Instead of putting together a wedding present list, how about sending out a ‘wish-list’ of things guests can help with; things like planning/organising the day, making things etc.
People like to feel included, especially if it means they can show off their skills or hobby, as well as letting them off the hook when it comes to trying to find a suitable present for a couple who quite likely already have everything they need.
10. Your Name’s Not Down…
It might seem like we’re stating the obvious here, but a smaller guest list means a smaller bill. Fewer people means you can get away with a smaller venue, fewer meals and drinks, fewer invites and favours. An intimate wedding with close friends and family can feel special, and you can always have a big party another time.
If you follow our first tip and have your wedding mid-week, then chances are not everyone can come anyway. And if you’re worried that people will feel offended, you could start explaining as soon as you get engaged and tell people straight away that you’re just having a small, intimate wedding.
Another tip is to be selective with ‘plus-ones’ although we’re not sure you should go as far as implementing the ‘no ring – no bring’ approach! This is your day, so don’t feel pressured to include children, colleagues and those friends of your parents’ who you’ve only met once.
And because we love a bit of romance here at The Insurance Emporium, another way to keep guest numbers down is to elope!
11. Say Cheese!
Often, the best photographs from a wedding, the ones you go back to again and again, are the candid ones that you didn’t know were being taken, where everyone is relaxed and natural and not trying to hold a fixed smile in place.
You could get a bundle of disposable cameras for your guests to pass around, or you could ask your guests to use their phones; phone cameras are great quality these days, and they can then send you the photos. You’ll also have them quicker then.
Are there any family members you could ask to be photographer for the day? Or a teenage niece or nephew who might otherwise be a bit bored and who fancies showing off their selfie skills?
If you do opt for a professional, there are a few questions to ask a wedding photographer to ensure you get exactly what you need.
12. Made Up
There are no rules to say you must have your hair and make-up done professionally, and by skipping this you could save yourself money. If the thought of doing it yourself feels too much on an already stressful day (although there are plenty of bridal hair and make-up tutorials on YouTube), then you could ask one of your bridal party, or a friend – everyone knows that one person who is a dab hand at a cat eye flick and a bit of highlighting. It’s also more relaxed if a friend is doing it, often people don’t feel comfortable speaking up about what does and doesn’t work for them and can often end up feeling like they don’t look like themselves.
You could always pop into your local department store, or Boots, on the morning of the wedding and get a free makeup session, although it would be polite to buy one of the products, even just lipstick. If you have one locally, MAC counters do bridal makeup sessions – £30 for 30 mins, £90 for 90 minutes.
It might also be worth checking the hair and beauty department at the local college as they might do hair and make-up either for free, or at a reduced price.
Often, when couples are working out their wedding budget, wedding insurance is quite far down their list. But ask yourself what you would do if the unexpected happened? What would you do if one of the suppliers got into financial difficulties and there was the risk that you might not get your deposit back? What if you pay for professional cake and flowers and they get damaged? Or the bestman loses the rings? A huge amount of time, money and emotion is invested in a wedding, so wouldn’t it be nice to know that you could be covered if things didn’t go to plan?
The Insurance Emporium has 7 different policy types to choose from, all of which can be tweaked with some additional optional benefits, so take a look and get a free, no-strings quote before you tie the knot.
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