Sep 16 2008
During Poor Economic Times, Brides Find Ways to Cut Wedding Costs
During difficult times, couples are looking for ways to reduce the cost of their wedding. Learn 5 great ways to trim your wedding budget without sacrificing style.
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It comes as no surprise to many that the United
States is not in very good financial shape. The nation is currently in a major housing crisis
with more homes entering foreclosure every day coupled with rising unemployment
rates. With that in mind, it should come
as no surprise that some engaged couples are starting to delay their nuptials
by a year or even more. For those
couples who are getting married, there has been a huge trend toward downsizing
and cutting the wedding budget. In
general, couples still want to have beautiful, stylish weddings but now they are
looking for creative ways to make it happen.
For that to occur, creativity starts in the planning stages
of a wedding. The wedding industry has
started to see more brides scouring the internet for information and relying
less on formal planners to help them. There are some wedding planers who have
created a “do-it-yourself bridal planning package.? For a much smaller fee, brides will meet with
a wedding planer and have a conversation about budgeting and expectations. The consultant will then create a package for
the bride that will serve as her road map as she plans the wedding
herself.
In an effort to cut costs, many are looking for things they
can do themselves from creating their own wedding invitations and table centerpieces
to full on decorations for both the ceremony and reception sites. Also brides are looking at wedding venues
that have natural beauty within and do not require any additional decorations
to make the wedding beautiful.
Another way brides have been scaling down is by choosing
wedding flowers that are both local and in season versus importing them. The size
of both the bridal bouquet and the bridesmaids’ bouquets has also shrunk. In years past, many brides carried gorgeous,
flowing cascading bouquets while today, many brides are opting for smaller
bouquets. The size of the bridesmaids’
bouquets has also shrunk and in many cases they carry just a few flowers
wrapped in ribbon.
Wedding Photography is an area where couples are cutting
costs. Videography is now often seen as
a luxury rather than a necessity. Also,
instead of hiring a photographer to the tune of a $3,000-$5000, brides are
scouring places like Craigslist for photographers that may not have a lot of
experience and charge quite a bit less. Also
with today’s technology, couples are opting for their wedding pictures to be
placed on a CD where they can print pictures off themselves versus having the
photographer do it.
Finally, one of the biggest trends tends to be with the time
of the event. Traditionally, the
preferred wedding date is Saturday afternoon or evening. Now more brides are opting for Sunday or Friday
evening weddings because they can typically catch a financial break on catering
costs. Additionally, more brides are
looking to host earlier receptions due to the same reasons.
Like many other areas in our current economy , the wedding
industry is not immune. Couples may be
faced with less available money for their event but that doesn’t mean the
wedding can’t go on; it just means everyone has to compromise a little and get
a lot more creative.
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Tags: brides, couples, creativity, difficult times, financial shape, foreclosure, mso, nuptials, orphan, planners, planning stages, road map, style definitions, style name, times new roman, unemployment rates, wedding budget, wedding industry, wedding planer, wedding planers
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