Hi friends, Joshua here, you know thats a typical question that lots of newly engaged couple will ask themselves. Sure, there is plenty of information online talking about taking out loans and asking for help with family, but the truth of the matter is that weddings are expensive, I should know, I’m a wedding expert with 21 years of experience under my belt in the business.

But I want to share with you a couple of things that doesn’t rely on taking out loans, maxing out credit cards and the like, you just need some time and some thought behind the process.

So, in today’s blog I’m going to show you how to save the wedding, pay for it in cash and how to best use the power of negotiation to help save you some money in the long run too.

A Little Wedding Knowledge

With weddings being near the average price of a new car, $34,000 in 2019, that according to places like theKnot and Wedding Wire, various regions in the United States tend to do weddings differently and as such, there are different price ranges, styles and themes among the couples that do get married.

BUT don’t let that number scare you by any means, it’s just an average.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic for example, that $34,000 wedding is closer to just $25,000 (according to The Wedding Report) and in New York City, that same wedding is much higher at $47,000, some pretty large spreads here.

Well, it all starts with the top number, your OVERALL budget.

I want to share with you some realistic budget numbers based off the national average and what you should be paying for in each vendor related are of weddings, but in a percentage.

Now, no matter what the overall number is for your wedding, you can use these ranges to help shape up the wedding. While there may be other vendor types, you can pretty much lump them into one of these categories.

Take Your Time, Plan for the Long Haul

Let’s be real for a minute, most of us don’t have an extra lump sum of money just laying around the house or bank account, in fact, most people today have very little in savings or an emergency fund.

One of the very first things you need to do in order to have a wedding paid for out of pocket is plan for the long haul, meaning, have a long engagement. I recently did an online survey where I asked brides how long their engagement was, and the number one answer was a 9-12-month period.

That may seem like a long time but, it’s quick. I would recommend extending that time frame closer to 24 months if possible, for the purposes of paying for the wedding.

The LAST THING you want to do, get married and be thousands in debt just for a wedding day.

By extending your engagement, you can extend the amount of time to save and pay for the wedding day.

If you could save (or pay for) the wedding over a 24-month period, you’d only have to save or pay $1,000 a month.

Think about it like this.

Let’s say your going to have a $24,000 budget. With 24 months, you can take or save $1,000 each month and put that towards the wedding day.

You could even break things down further if both of you worked and could save $500 each.

Cut Some Fat from the Budgets

One of the things I hear from with regards to couples getting married is how little money they have when it comes to being able to afford various pieces for the wedding day.

Well, again, truth be told, you could cut corners of your day-to-day life for a bit in order to pay for the wedding day.

Take online streaming for example.  Most likely you’re already paying for internet in some fashion, ranging from $40-200 a month depending on the service or carrier you might have. Then you have the services, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and the list goes onward. While they might be low cost, they add up in value.

Think about trimming some (not all) of the fat that you spend and ask yourselves, how often to you really watch these services?

And beyond that, look at your outgoing expenses and see if there are cheaper alternatives, perhaps a special that a company has in order to help shave off some money expensive. It could be your cell phone plan, maybe buy a less expensive car, buying food from a cheaper grocery store or moving into a less expensive apartment for the time being while you save.

Most couples can trim fat from the budgets and save an easy $300-$400+ from what they spend. That might mean eating out a bit less or cutting back on some things, but as adults we sometimes must make those sacrifices for the good of the marriage.

I know of couples (clients of mine) that were able to save about $740 a month and paid for the wedding in full in less than two years.

Find Vendors that Offer Monthly Payment Plans

One of the best tools that I started offering here was monthly payment plans. Instead of having to fork out a 50% deposit, couples put down 20% then make payments up until the wedding month. I’ve seen some vendors starting to offer monthly payment plans in order to help ease that burden of coming up with large sums just to lock a vendor in for the day.

And it’s not with just me, many venues, wedding photographers, florist and DJ’s are starting to offer these services at little to no financing charges in the process.

Let me give you an example here. Take our videography only package, it runs about $1,700. Instead of putting $800 down, you’d put down $320 to lock in my services. We allow up to 10 months to pay, which in this case, would be $128 a month at 0% interest. In 10 months, my services are paid in full and you’re ready to have me at your wedding day.  

By paying overtime, it helps allow yourself a better way to help the pocketbook and still get the level of wedding services that you desire in the process.

Cut the Guests, Cut the Vendors services

By far, one of the MOST expensive pieces to the wedding is the guest list. Simply put, the MORE guests you have, the MORE expensive it will cost you to have.

Having 75 vs having 150 people could easily cost you 30%+ more in having a venue that’s capable in hosting 150+ guests and of course the catering and cake costs too.

If you’re having booze, double or triple that bill if everyone has 2-3 drinks, but you see my point. It’s also important to note that if you send out 100 invites, about 80% (give or take) of them will attend.

The other cost cutting thing you can do, cut down on the expense of the vendor but don’t eliminate them. For example, if $1,600 is too much for the budget and all you have is $1,000, then choose my $1,000 services instead. If hiring a wedding photographer for $3,500 is out of budget, find one equally as capable for half the cost, or better yet, hire them for the ceremony and just an hour of the reception instead.

The great thing about most wedding vendors is that most times, you can negotiate with them, even if they don’t want you to do so. (that’s sort of a taboo topic within the wedding industry, cost savings)

Truth be told, you can still have the wedding day if you’re willing to fit things into the budget and if vendors are willing to work with you. I know many venues for example that have huge rates on the weekend compared to the weekday, some even have different rates for Friday and Sunday compared to Saturday, something to think about.

Just Don’t Do Loans or Credit Cards

Credit cards for example are going to charge you anywhere from 12-30% depending on how good your credit worthiness is.

For a moment, let’s say you put everything on the credit cards you have and ran up the bill to $20,000. At 15% monthly interest and $100 monthly payments, it’s going to take you 22 years, yes, 22 YEARS to pay it off.  $7,986 is the amount in interest that you’ll be paying the credit card company. You could do LOTS for $8,000.

Loans, while usually cheaper than a credit card, could still take a number of years to pay off, not to mention all the interest you’re paying!

Whatever you do, DO NOT get loans or pay via credit card unless you can pay them off each month.

Trust me when I say I know weddings cost a lot of money, I’ve worked with so many couples over the years, from DIY brides to ones that put-on weddings that were $140,000+ right here in Virginia.

No matter the wedding budget, plan your wedding out accordingly and take your time.

If your new love is meant to be the “one” they will help be on the similar plan, not to mention they’ll be willing to take on a second job or cut corners to help pay for the big day once it arrives.