My Favourite Top Money Saving Tips - Part 1.

This e-zine will keep you up to date with all my latest tips and money saving ideas for your perfect cheap wedding day.

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Contents:

- Latest articles on my-cheap-wedding.

- Tip of the month.

- Final thought.

Chosing The Time of Year to Get Married.

If however you were to consider, when do most couples want to get married? Spring and summer, so if everyone wants to get married during these popular time you can imagine what your venue will do to the prices.

Now at this point I'm sure you are saying "I already knew that" and I'm not trying to teach my Granny how to suck eggs. But it is easy to get caught up in the moment when you are talking with your venue and get a little swept away with what they are trying to sell you.

The thing you need to remember is that the people you talk to at the venues are well trained sales people and while they come across all lovely and sweet (and I'm sure some of them are) it's mostly sales patter as many of them work on commission. Don't forget the wedding industry is big business in the UK; it's worth an estimated £5.5 billion.

So, what should you consider?

• Get married out of season - after September and before April to save A LOT OF MONEY.
• Get married on Monday - Thursday - the venues are quiet on these days so they can offer better deals to fill their venues. (I know of one venue where it's around £1,500 cheaper to get married on a Thursday than a Friday)
• Choose alternative venues - If the venue doesn't normally cater for weddings they will be basing their prices on other functions which are a LOT less than a wedding.
• Ask the venue what they can provide in the way of decorations, table planners etc. - If they cater for weddings on a regular basis they may have decorations and candelabras etc. which they could let you use. You can even use them as a negotiation tool i.e. if you decorate the room or include the flowers etc. I'll book the wedding with you. They may even do package deals.

  Even if the venue does not have these things they will have contacts with wedding suppliers who can provide the flowers or photographs etc. and they will have better negotiating power than you.

Latest articles on my-cheap-wedding.co.uk

Simple Wedding Invitations.

My main reason for this stand-point is that while yes it is nice to have beautiful invites, as soon as people open them they say "Ah, isn't that nice Joe and Mary are getting married" then they put it in a drawer until they get a reminder phone call from you saying "are you able to attend our wedding?".

My point is your guests will look at the invite for about two minutes before putting it away somewhere "safe". So why would you blow your budget when you can create equally beautiful and very personal simple wedding invitations without breaking the bank.

Here are a few of my favourites:

• Postcard style invitations - Possibly the simplest and cheapest form of DIY wedding invites.
• Online wedding invitations - they cost a little more than DIY wedding invites but they do save you a lot of hassle.
• Picture wedding invitations - Easy to make and very personal.
• Free printable wedding invitations - Yes I did say free, but there is a catch (only a little one though).

Tip of the month.

Don't worry I've been there myself, I swore I wouldn't get stressed or invite anyone I didn't know to my wedding. But I, like every other bride out there found out the hard way that that wasn't going to happen.

No matter how straight forward you think the guest list is going to be it never turns out that way. Family politics always manage to get in the way.

If you are prepared for it then you shouldn't get as stressed. Your Mum and Dad will have people they feel should be invited who you don't really know. Please don't fly off the handle and throw a strop. There is usually a very valid reason for your parents wanting these people to attend.

Perhaps they invited your parents to their daughter’s wedding. Social etiquette can be a bit of a nightmare, especially when preparing the guest list for your big day.

If you are paying for your own wedding then have a talk with your parents and explain that you are trying to keep within a budget. But if your parents are contributing then you may have to bite your tongue and accept that they should have some input into the guest list.

Top tip - Keep calm and talk, talking tends to sort most things, and if that doesn't work...throw plates (only joking, don't throw plates!)

Final Thought

Have you got your FREE planner yet for whatever reason, just click this Free wedding planner link to it. Then simply open the zip file and you're ready to go.

See you next month,

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