Planning weddings on a budget is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of. Spending too much money on a single day’s event is nothing to be proud of. It’s always good to be frugal if you can. Weddings are elaborate affairs, and there are so many arrangements to be made. In such cases, how can one cut down the costs? Summer weddings are always fun to plan and attend. However, how does one plan a decent and elegant summer wedding on a budget? Let’s find out!
Summer Wedding Ideas on a Budget
One major factor that will drastically reduce one’s wedding expenses is the guest list. Curtail the number of guests to a small number and you can easily reduce the cost involved in the wedding. Some other ways in which you can reduce the cost of the wedding is by tightening the costs involved in the venue, flowers, food, favors and other arrangements. Let’s have a look as to how:
Summer Wedding Venue
Beaches, scenic landmarks, parks, historic estates, etc. may be some outdoor wedding ideas, however, for outdoor weddings on a budget, one’s very own backyard will be perfect. This way you wouldn’t have to pay for venue site. Moreover, if you have a friend who owns an extensive yard or resort, you can ask him or her to allow you to conduct the wedding there. Summer weddings conducted in parks or backyards have trees, flowering plants and other decorative plants growing, which already look very pretty. This reduces the amount of decoration you have to do. You could even use casual themes for your summer wedding such as the backyard barbecue theme.
Summer Wedding Dresses
Summer wedding dresses for the bride, bridesmaids and flower girls should be bought when the best deals are in the market. Specialty stores and bridal boutiques are places where one can avail the best bargains on bridal gowns. Depending on the outdoor summer wedding colors you have chosen for the wedding, the outdoor summer wedding dresses have to be chosen. Stick to common colors for your wedding, as this will make the wedding dress shopping easy. Choosing unusual, unique colors will result in higher cost, because the bridesmaids dresses and flower girls dresses will not be available easily and may cost more. Moreover, do not have too many bridesmaids. Stick to one or two bridesmaids. This will reduce the number of dresses you buy, lowering your overall costs.
Summer Wedding Food
Keep the food simple. Avoid keeping foods that need to be served warm. This way you can eliminate the need to have heating lamps or ovens. Consider the sandwich style buffet . If you have limited number of guests and have great aunts and friends who can cook, ask them prepare the wedding food. Moreover, save money on the wedding cake by making it yourself. Again, it will be great if you have a friend or relative who can bake you one. This will definitely reduce your overall wedding expenses. You could also replace the traditional cake with wedding cupcakes.
Summer Wedding Flowers
Buying seasonal summer wedding flowers will reduce your expenses quite a bit. Moreover, avoid choosing exotic flowers. Stick to the common flowers like gladiolas, roses or zinnias. These flowers will be available at a lower cost. Moreover, try sticking to one or two types of flowers only. The more the types of flowers you incorporate, the higher your costs will go. Buying just one or two types of flowers in bulk from the flower vendor will help you get the flowers at discounted rates, thereby reducing your overall wedding expense.
Summer Wedding Decorations
Since you have opted for an outdoor wedding, you have mother nature giving you most of the ambiance. The flowers, the trees, shrubs and ornamental plants make the place look great. All you have to do is a bit of touch up. What you have to do is make sure the grass is mowed. You could have additional potted flowering plants brought to the venue and arranged in a pleasing manner. For the decorations you can have candles, ribbons, laces and other such less expensive wedding decorations. Same goes for the summer wedding centerpieces as well.
Summer Wedding Favors
The best way to save money on favors is by making them yourself. This does not literally mean you have to make 250 favors. Gather your close friends and have them all help you make the favors. The material for the favors you can pick up in bulk, which will further reduce the cost. Moreover, since you are hosting a summer wedding, you can give tanning lotions or sunscreens to your guests along with the wedding favors. You can get them in wholesale, thereby availing them at cheaper rates.
Outdoor wedding ideas give you enough scope to plan a lovely wedding within a particular budget. An outdoor ambiance in itself in charming, you only have to do little to enhance the feel. If you want to stick to your budget of certain amount, start with the wedding budget amount and then work backwards. Allot certain amount of money from the final budget to food, dresses, decorations, flowers, favors, etc. and make sure you work within the limits. Summer wedding ideas are great options for weddings! All the best!