A budget or frugal wedding may sound like an oxymoron to many of you. But it’s a reality. The word frugal may mean, economical or sparing and can turn your wedding plans upside down. With a little restructuring of your wedding planning, a frugal wedding can seem right out of your dream. Getting on with the wedding preparations well in advance is the first step to making a successful frugal wedding ceremony. Before you begin, you need to chalk out the wedding budget and resolve not to shell out a penny more than the decided funds.

Here are some frugal wedding ideas that you modify to make them yours. No royalty charged!

Frugal Wedding Planning

At Home

As the saying goes, charity begins at home, and I say a frugal wedding happens at home. It saves the cost of putting up the guests at hotels, it saves the cost of booking a wedding hall, and pretty much eliminates the wily cost of logistics involved. Hosting your daughter’s wedding at home is a great way of making the affair homely. Rent a gazebo and decorate it with seasonal flowers (cost lesser than the exotic counterparts). Set up chairs as per the headcount, and hire caterers to look after the rest. Easy?! As for wedding music, make a Spotify or Pandora playlist of the best wedding songs ever and let the party begin!!

Time of the Day

Having a wedding in the daytime is less expensive than having a wedding done at dusk. The timing plays a crucial role in deciding the event’s formality, clearly reflecting the cost of your food, attire, and invitations. Daytime weddings, such as beach weddings, are casual and demand less formal etiquette. After the day wedding, a cocktail party at around 5 – 6 pm is way cheaper than a reception at night. This way you also save the cost of booking a reception hall and elaborate dinner.

Wedding Decorations

Pretentiously expensive wedding decorations are useless after the wedding day and are a massive sunk cost. Wedding centerpieces are a sure way of saving a few bucks. Look out for inexpensive wedding centerpieces, or try making some simple ones at home. Throwing away frugal wedding centerpieces won’t hurt too much either. Decorate the chairs with tulle, which looks elegant and is a cheaper alternative to satin. Instead of spending a bombshell on the flowers, order the seasonal blossoms.

Genuine Invitations

If you really want an economical wedding, send out invitations to only those people you want to make a part of your wedding ceremony. Often, familial pressures and social pressures make us invite those who we don’t care for and vice versa. It would be smart not to invite such people and save the trouble of paying for their food costs.

A frugal wedding is not cheap. I say it’s the best way out. After all, what is the point of spending your life’s savings on a party that will not even be remembered by those who came, ate, and left! Save the penny saved and use it for a better cause.