If you’re in the process of getting married and you want to save some money, then we have some great information for you that can save you a lot of money. As a wedding expert with more than 20 years experience, I’ve studied the wedding industry in great detail and I’ve discovered some knowledge I want to pass along.

3 Money Saving Wedding Tips You Should Be Doing.png

Today, Carole and I are going to share with you 3 money saving wedding tips that you should be doing if you’re not already.

1st Money Saving Tip

Our first and perhaps best money saving tip for you is to have the wedding on an off-peak day or during the off-season if your region happens to have one. An off-peak day is a Monday-Thursday and while those days are not typical to get married, you can save the MOST amount of money by having your wedding on these days.

Venues tend to operate Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and those are peak days. Peak means you’re going to pay a higher rate than normal. Off-Peak or Off-Season simply means its not a popular time, but you’ll be able to save more than you would if you had it during the peak times.

Many venues will offer weekday weddings at a discount so they can acquire additional income for their business, even if that business is at a reduced rate.

Couples Get Married on These Days

Now, not all venues have an off-season rate because areas of the country remain fair all year round, think Florida, parts of Texas and the like. But for areas that do have an off-peak season, you can save anywhere from 5%-50% on the venue, and many times you will have to ask if they don’t show those rates.

Take this example that we found on Google.

This wedding venue has peak season rates, off-peak season rates. Here you can see that the venue all day can cost $3,750 during the week while during peak season, on a Friday or Saturday that same venue costs $5,000, a difference of $1,250 or 25% savings.

But what if the venue cost more, a LOT more?

Here in my neck of the woods in Virginia, we have wedding venues that cost upwards of $30,000+ and here in the United States, we have wedding venues that cost in excess of more than $100,000.

*Pleasantdale Chateau. Average wedding venue cost is $102,000.*

25% of that is $25,000. If you look at the question again, it becomes much more appealing.

We can tell you that while this is the most popular money saving tip, this isn’t the most amount of savings that most couples will see and that leads us to point number two.

2nd Money Saving Tip

Our next largest money-saving tip is with the catering, the alcohol and the wedding cake although this category is usually more expensive than the venue.

Many couples have a hard time figuring out what catering costs and all the little things that go along with that like hired help, plates, forks and knifes, napkins and the like.

Wedding Catering Costs

It’s common to spend nearly $70 per person according to the Knot, although that’s an average, meaning many parts of the United States are far less in cost.

If you’re going to have the very best in steaks, lobsters and higher-end foods, then yes, it can very easily cost that.

Where we live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia that cost is much less overall, about $30 per head on average. That’s things like Southern style BBQ buffet’s with all the extras, plated meals like chicken for example too.

I’ve also seen wedding catering as low as about $12 per person through national chains like Olive Garden. That cost quickly goes up, but if you like generic pasta, salad and bread-sticks, then it something to look at.

I will tell you that in addition to the food, you need to be aware of the following to help determine your catering cost:

Hiring any help to manage the food and replace empty or low parts of the buffet
Staff to clean meals from the tables, replace and replenish buffet trays and general cleanup and help
Plates, silverware, napkins and small items like salt and pepper on each table.

Those are things couples tend not to think about when including in the overall price and that’s also why the cost may seem expensive at first.

Now, how can you save money with the wedding catering?

Well, there are a couple of money saving tips here and it’s common sense.

First, if you want to trim some of the cost, try a cheaper protein, steak and seafood are usually the most expensive while chicken and turkey tends to be much cheaper.

Salad’s are always cheaper than other sides and the more basic you can get with sides, like mashed potatoes or grilled veggies, the more affordable it will be.

Another myth is that the buffet is going to be cheaper than a plated dinner. Actually, plated dinners are typically cheaper because the catering company will know exactly how much to purchase instead of over buying.

Think of it this way.

If you have 100 guests, then you should have the catering vendor make 110 plates for extras, like the wedding photographer, DJ and videographer, maybe a guest that brought a plus one and didn’t tell anyone.

“Always use the 10% rule with catering. If you have 100 guests for example, have catering and the baker make 110 dinners and cake for 110 guests. The 10% extra is for vendors working that need to eat, those guests that bring a plus one and didn’t tell you too. TRUST me, it happens more than you think”. - Joshua Gabrielson

With a plated dinner, they’ll know to buy 110 chickens, plus sides and whatnot.

With a buffet, they’ll still have that 110 number, but buffet style dinner opens things up to extra large portions, seconds and sometime thirds for meals.

If just 10% of the 110 guests had seconds, that means your paying for 121 meals instead of 110.

At $30 a head, that’s an extra $330.

Doesn’t seem like a lot, but it adds up very quickly!

Wedding cakes, you can save money by having a small cake to cut and having the baker do sheet cakes which are much cheaper than a traditional tiered cake.

Even better, if you’re doing cupcakes, you can save a bit more usually too. We’ve found that cupcakes save you about 15% on the overall bill with most that get them and that’s something worth exploring and we highly recommend that you do.

Alcohol can come in various pricing ranges depending on what you get, beer, wine or spirits and how much you get too. Whiles that’s hard to figure out more times than none, Carole and I have developed a calculator to help with that.

Simply input your guest count, how long you plan on having the wedding reception and adjust the three categories to your liking. The calculator is already setup for the most popular percentages among weddings, 50% wine, 40% beer and 10% liquor.

This will help you determine how much you need to purchase and it will help to give you an idea of the overall cost. One trick that we’ve learned over the years is to stick with just one category if you can and purchase in bulk form a local winery, brewery or spirit manufacturer if you can.

While these tend to be smaller mom n pop businesses than global brands, you can usually get a cheaper rate buying local and in bulk, so it’s worth exploring.

3rd Money Saving Tip

Save on the wedding photography and videography by finding those that offer both under one roof, like we do for example. As a husband and wife team, we offer both services under the same business and by combining wedding photos and wedding films together, we save you big bucks when you get both.

Normally, our single service pricing is about $1,700 each. But, when you book together we knock the price down to about $2,500 rather than $3,400. While other companies may not offer such a deep discount as we do, you can normally find that companies that offer both do offer some sort of discount.

That’s roughly a 27% savings to you for the same workload.

Buying Combos Save Money

Why is it cheaper than going with two separate vendors?

Well, good question. First, Carole and I believe in bringing value to the table with our clients and offering both services for a lower cost helps us greatly.

First, we know each others styles and how we work so there is no need to meet the other business, try to get an understanding of what the other will be doing and we’re not going to get in each others way.

Second, we can actually help each other out. For example, if I’m with the groomsmen and I have an opportunity to get an image for Carole while filming video, I’ll gladly do it. Carole does the same for me.

So in many ways it’s like getting the best of both worlds and more coverage for less cost.

Beyond us, many others that offer both services professionally should be able to do the same and also have a more enticing cost too.

Bonus Money Saving Tip

Finding companies that offer monthly payments instead of large chunks of deposits when you signup and right before the wedding itself. This does a couple of things.

This allows you to spread the same amount of money over a period of time, the duration of your remaining engagement.
This allow allows you to stay connected with the vendor without having to actually stay in contact.

Okay, so what’s the benefit of that?

Well, here’s the thing, the truth is weddings are expensive, I’m sure that you’ve already figured that out. Being able to come up with a small monthly payment is much easier to fork out than a large deposit of 50%.

Take a $4,000 wedding photographer for example. 50% of that means you have to come up with $2,000 off the bat.

You could make a smaller deposit and spread out payments each month and still achieve the same goal.

With us, you can pick the down payment, choose 10% up to 50%. We have clients that pay less than $100 a month and some that pay $250 a month. The nice thing is that you are in control.

Let’s look at this example with a $2,000 wedding vendor, say a wedding photographer.

Traditional vs. Flexible payments

the traditional 50%/50% payment vs. smaller deposit and monthly payments

Finally, making a monthly payment means that you’re staying connected to the vendor.

In case you haven’t noticed, but COVID-19 has changed the landscape of the wedding industry and some have gone out of business because of having to refund many clients deposits, some have shut their doors because a lack of booking for the year too.