Ingenious Ways to Save on Your Wedding Venue
souy139 October 20, 2017“The most blessed marriage is the one with the least expenses”-Bayhaqi
A wise adage as regards marriage has stated that it halves our grief, doubles our joys and quadruples our expenses. Although it might seem like a quirky way to warn potential couples of the expenditures they will soon incur, it also serves as a precautionary maxim against handling money indiscriminately before they have officially tied the knot. Undoubtedly, planning your wedding—regardless whether it is big or small—would take a reasonable amount of time to map out financially. Depending on the number of elements and factors involved, it can be as exorbitantly or reasonably priced. However, if there is one aspect of your wedding that should take up a huge fraction of your budget, it would be your selected venue. While that may be true, it does not have to set you so far back in your budget. So much so that you would be constrained to change your wedding menu, opt for cheaper gowns for your bridal entourage or forego other aspects you initially wanted for you back. There is no need to make compromises if you do not wish to as there is a myriad of ways you can save on your wedding venue, here are a few tips to do so:
1.) Choose off-season dates
You would not believe how hard it would be to find a wedding venue on premiere dates (dates falling on a holiday or a long weekend) or on weekends. It is even harder to find picturesque wedding locations such as blue gardens venue available on those said dates. However, this does not mean they would be impossible for you to book, you still can, but it would cost you handsomely. For a more economical approach, book a date during the off-peak season or better yet, schedule a brunch or lunch wedding instead.
2.) Opt for a city-owned venue
Depending on your city’s local ordinances and regulations, weddings can alternatively be held in public parks or any other city-owned venue. If your dream wedding venue is exorbitantly priced, consider having the wedding ceremony in a nearby park then your reception at your dream venue. Most venues would charge you by the hour, so by cutting down at least an hour or two, you would be efficiently saving yourself more money.
3.) Consider a city hall or courthouse wedding
Wedding affairs do not have to be extravagant and expensive affairs. If you genuinely wish to save every cent that you can, consider having a courthouse or city hall wedding. Instead of spending a lot on your wedding ceremony, you can choose to invest more of your budget on your wedding reception. Alternatively, you might want to say your “I do’s” in sophisticated city halls and then have a low-key reception at a fancy restaurant. All the same, it still would not cost you an arm and a leg just to hold one celebratory event if you took this route.
4.) Borrow a venue
If you have any friends, relatives, parents or parents’ friends who have beautiful vacation homes, ranches or farms, you might want to ask them if you can borrow it for your wedding. More often than not, they would be happy to accommodate your request and would even be honored you asked. In fact, having their place as your wedding venue could also serve as their wedding gift to them (and you would effectively save a whole lot on venue rental). However, do consider that there are still some things that would make up the expenses. You would still have to provide for the tables, the chairs, the portable toilets and other rentals required.
5.) Book an all-inclusive venue
It might considerably be more expensive than other venues, but choosing an all-inclusive venue may sometimes give you huge savings. Furthermore, opting for an inclusive package would also save you a whole lot of time. However, you have to ensure that you do your research first before you finalize your decision. Take a look at what is offered at the kind of rate the all-inclusive package has and know what they cost separately. More often than not, the all-inclusive one would come out much cheaper. However, if there are a lot of elements you do not necessarily want or need in your wedding included in the package, you might want to book them separately.