How to save money on your wedding day

The average wedding can cost in excess of £20,000 these days so it’s no surprise that more and more people are looking for ways to cut costs. Below are our top tips for cutting the cost of your wedding.

Don’t pay for dancing lessons

Your husband-to-be probably can’t dance and 3 hours of lessons at £20 an hour isn’t going to stop him looking like a prat when he goes off script to show off his David Brent dance in front of his friends and confused family members.

Be picky with your guest list

Per head, each guest will cost about £50 to feed and supply with drink. For this reason invite only those people who you really want at your wedding. Grandma’s neighbour doesn’t really merit an invite if you’ve only met her once and she won’t be able to hear the speeches anyway. Be ruthless and you might be able to trim your guest list by a third. Be careful not to cull generous gifters though ;)

Avoid the cake cutting fee

…and other surprise fees that you first think are a joke when you first hear them mentioned. A cheese based cake can be cut by guests during the evening and probably won’t need to be stored in the venue’s fridge.

Print your own table plans for the wedding breakfast

Probably the best tip in this list…Use this site to knock up elegant table plans that you can print at home. The array of free designs and custom fonts will allow you to be very creative and can cater for many wedding themes. You can have stunning table plans for just pennies!

Cheap wedding flowers

You can save a lot of money just by going straight to the trade. Give your wedding guests succulents as favours from as little as £1 per succulent. Simply get into a flower market, such as the ones in Covent Garden, at 4am and buy infant succulents that you grow yourself in the weeks before the wedding

Don’t get (too) drunk on your wedding day

Getting tipsy is fine. You’ll want a drink to settle your nerves. But if throw up on your wedding dress you’ll struggle to sell it afterwards. Used wedding dresses can fetch up to 100% of their original sales value. Just be careful you don’t get scammed by fake buyers.

Don’t have a wedding gift list

If you need a toaster after you’re married, buy a cheap one from Argos. Don’t waste your guests generosity by asking for the £89 chrome finished toaster from John Lewis

Don’t send Save The Dates

Controversial maybe, but printing then sending Save the Dates can cause more trouble than it prevents. Send an STD to your neighbours and they’ll surprise you by confirming that the whole family can’t wait and have booked the hotels already.