TOP 8 WEDDING BUDGET TIPS
01 Don’t let the average wedding cost scare you into overspending
If you’ve looked up the average cost of a wedding and found yourself gasping from shock, remember that it’s still your day, and you call the shots when it comes to expenses. You can cut costs or splurge on what’s important to you as long as you plan for it. In the major parts of New Zealand, the average wedding cost ranges from $40,000-$60,000. If you are getting no financial help from family, then this is a MAJOR cost to take on yourselves.
Social media has definitely led to FOMO when it comes to weddings. Couples get bombarded with luxury wedding reels, photos constantly and these types of weddings look incredible but are just flat-out unrealistic for 99% of people. Sit down as a couple and right down what you want from your wedding, is the location most important? Is the food a key vendor? Do you want videography as well? We can’t have it all and cutting down on vendors is the easiest way to reduce your overall cost of the wedding.
Ignore your parents who tell you weddings have to be a certain way. They will say you HAVE to wear a veil, you HAVE to get ready a two different houses. You only need to do what you want to do. A lot of old wedding traditions end up costing thousands of dollars. So be wise and prioritise!
02 Make your wedding budget realistic and goal-based
Sit down with your partner and have an honest conversation about what you both want out of the wedding. Will your budget require you to sacrifice or delay other life goals? If so, would it be a realistic amount? By checking your current savings along with how much more you could save in the run-up to the big day, you can outline realistic estimated costs of your budget, ensuring you can still live your life and enjoy the journey.
If you’re hoping for contributions from family members, don’t just expect that they’ll foot a huge chunk of the bill - sit down with them and work out what the best option is for everyone involved. It may be an awkward conversation to have, but it needs to happen (refer to our last point for more details on this).
Once you’ve figured out how much you’ll both need to save (and how regularly to do it), always keep that goal in mind. You could even set milestones, i.e. ‘Half our budget saved by summer,’ to make it just that extra bit thrilling when you hit those targets!
When choosing vendors for your wedding, see what their payment details are. Most range between 30-50% depending on the vendor. Just be careful for when all the final payments are due as you will have some large payments to make a couple weeks before the day. You can always ask vendors to pay off the total bill months before the day to spread out the payments.
03 Establish your non-negotiables vs. nice-to-haves
In other words, prioritise! Think of all the potential costs for your wedding, including:
Wedding venues hire
Food and/or alcohol cost per head
Wedding dress, suits and accessories
Wedding invitations and stationery
Photography (and/or videography)
Entertainment (band vs DJ)
Flowers and decorations, including wedding favours
Wedding cake
Wedding ceremony fees
Wedding planner or event coordinator service fees
Group all of these expenses into must-haves and, well, everything else. For lots of us, things like venue hire, food, and photography are worthy of splurging a little on. But if you don’t want to fork out a tonne on flowers, invitations, or entertainment, for example, try to allocate some of those costs back to the things that really matter to you.
And remember, if you can’t decide whether something is a must-have or not, it most likely isn’t.
04 Watch out for hidden costs - and have a contingency plan
If you manage to stick exactly to all of your budgeted wedding costs, congratulations! But for the rest of us, weddings can be rife with hidden costs and not everything will go according to plan!
Look out for any extra fees that could sneak up on you, including:
Wedding dress alterations
Postage fees on invites (unless you’re doing digital invites)
Overtime fees for staff/entertainment
Corkage
Vendor trials (like makeup trials)
Backup venues for bad weather, umbrellas, etc.
Bachelor or hen night costs (if that’s a part of your wedding budget breakdown)
If you’d rather not stress out over surprise wedding costs, be sure to add a contingency to your budget. Even if it’s only 5% extra of your total budget, it’s a small price to pay for extra breathing room and peace of mind to keep stress levels to a minimum during the wedding planning process.
As a photographer ourselves, the most common ‘hidden cost’ is couples having to upgrade their package or adding additional hours. A lot of couples sometimes book 6 or 8 hour packages but they really want the full day captured which often means a last minute upgrade to a 10 hour package. Be realistic early on to save yourself a massive $1000+ fee when you upgrade right before the wedding day.
05 Scrutinise Your Guest Count
Guest count determines many wedding reception costs. What you pay is determined by square footage, table rentals, number of decorations, amount of food and drink, to name a few.
There are two approaches to saving here. (a) Fewer people, or (b) cheaper food.
(a) Invite an intimate group of family and friends. You can spend more per person on food, styling, favors, and ambiance.
(b) Invite everyone you, your partner, and all your parents want at the wedding.
The party will be a more massive event. But it also means you will have to choose less spendy options to stay within budget.
An extra 10 or 15 people might not seem like a lot, but once you had on transport, food, drinks, table hire, table decor, that can add an extra $2500-$3000 for just 15 people.
While it might seem like you have to invite 80 or 100 people, the truth is that across your wedding day you barely speak with everyone. Weddings where you get to talk to everyone is around 40-50 guests, so just be prepared for what you are paying for!
06 Get ready to be honest and also mildly uncomfortable (at times)
Even if you had every expense planned out, wedding budgets aren’t supposed to work out perfectly, so trying to stick to your budget won’t always be a pleasant experience.
You might find yourself butting heads with some vendors or having a tiff with an overly controlling family member who’s made a financial contribution. You and your partner may squabble over not having saved enough by the end of the year too, but you know what? That is all completely normal!
There are times when you’ll have to tap into your inner negotiator, mediator or even family counsellor to make the budget work. But as long as you stay honest and upfront about what it is that you value, you’ll be able to walk away from each conversation without regrets and look forward to your dream wedding.
Remember what your wedding day is all about. Forget the flashy stuff, forget the fancy dress. The wedding day is about celebrating your love with your closest friends & family.
07 DIY Doesn’t Always mean Cheaper
The amount of times we have seen DIY weddings backfire is waaaay too much! While DIY may seem like a good way to save a few bucks on vendors, it will also increase your workload hugely. Not just you, your parents, your family, your friends, shit, even your dog!
DIY weddings require a huge group effort, you are asking family and friends to sacrifice many hours to planning and setting up to save yourself money. They do not get anything out of it, they are not saving money themselves. Be prepared they not everyone will want to help you with a DIY weddings. Most people just want to enjoy weddings rather than stressing if the table set up is what their friend wants.
Yes you save money, but the amount of time you will spend across months of planning, building, studying to do this yourself. Is this time better spent elsewhere? Are you having to take more time off work to plan for your DIY wedding? Make sure you really weigh up the benefits before committing to a stressful DIY wedding!
08 It is all just too much! Should we Elope?
Did we just become best friends?
That line is music to our ears as an Elopement Photographer here in Queenstown! The whole reason we started shooting elopements is because large scale weddings are hugely stressful even as a photographer. Elopements take 99% of the stress out of weddings. No large venues, no catering, little rules, more flexiblity!
While you will sacrifice the ability for any family and friends to attend the special occasion, what is more common is having a elopement ceremony and then months later having a separate casual celebration with family & friends.
Our Elopement packages start from $3,850 so make sure you get in touch below if you are keen to hear more!
QUEENSTOWN ELOPEMENT PHOTOGRAPHER