Cost Cutting During Wedding- by Ashu Garg

Weddings are awesome, exciting, romantic, fun and expensive. Yes. Just as the saying goes, the best things in life are either free or really expensive

Venues and Functions- From roka till wedding, people go searching for venues to start the functions. Thus could be cut donw by doing all the functions in one day. Any which ways, wedding a hectic affair, why not just do it all in a single day. Like once the roka is done, families can book the wedding venue and do ring and haldi in the morning and wedding in the evening. This would bring down your budget in immensely. Booking a venue  is no less than 7-10 lakhs, so multiply this with each function.

If allowed by the family, one can get married at the religious place and share the cost for the reception later on.

Know where to put your money – as rightly said earlier guests remember a wedding if the food is good. Save costing on Décor. Expensive floral décor could be replaced with eco friendly products like using broken bangles in décor and inexpensive cloth material could be used. Invest on food. But make sure the pax is at minimal as lot of planners would make a fool out of you while booking. For instance if you are expecting 500 guests then keep your pax for food only 250-300. As most of the times people prefer wedding snacks and desert more than the typical meal.

Negotiate as much as you can – Wedding fraternity is also searching for clients to survive so make the best out of it. Take your time do not rush and never go blind trusting them. Do your homework, meet people discuss, compare and then take the call. Never forget to check their work done before infact you may ask for client’s testimonials too for authenticity.

Recall and call your old friends-  We tend to forget the nearby options while arranging things for the wedding. Recall your old friends who could of help may be in catering / photography / designing etc. So recall them and invite them that could also give your great discounts

Limit the alcohol- Yes this is one of the most important factors we tend to ignore. Do not over feed the guests out of excitement.  Stick to your budget. Cocktails are a great idea, enabling you to offer something fun within a set price bracket. As a rule, long is good, strong is not!

Be a smart buyer – wedding attire is to be worn just once! And the lehenga and sherwaani are not less than 50 k. So opt for renting one.  Never over buy stuff out of happiness. Your measurement keeps varying so just shop for things which are actually needed. You know what you would really require.  Wait for sales!!

Invitation-  World is technologically upgraded. So instead of wasting money over paper invites, make best use of emails and sms. Follow ups can give a personal touch! Remind them but avoid making those one time readable expensive wedding cards.

Go for off season – Oct to dec and May to june are heavy wedding dates available. So opt for one which falls in off season. This gives a huge cost cutting as the bookings are easily available in lesser amount.

DIY – many expenses involving small and handy décor could be done by you and your relatives. Like decorating the thali for ring ceremony.  Or decorating the entrance area for the groom. Rangoli could be made of the flowers that are used in the wedding. Lots of things you can find in your wedding that could have multiple use. Like colorful dupattas at wall could be draped around the ceiling making it fall on the floor  at mehendi function.  Flowers used at Sagan could be used to design floral jewelry for other day. 

Food food food – Stick to one menu. This shall cut the cost intelligently. One does not need to raise the quantity of the cuisines. Instead focus on the quality. Starters are a great options to explore in weddings. Guests usually end up filling their tummy by starters so focus on the starts and keep the dinner menu not so lavish.

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The author Mr Ashu Garg is the founder of Good Times Concepts Events. Good Times Concepts Events is a wedding architect and an event solution company.