Have you been dreaming of your wedding day since you were a child? Or perhaps you’ve been saving inspiration photos on Pinterest for the past few years, dreaming of what your day could be?
But once you start looking into costs, you instantly feel a set back and think “how am I going to make this all happen?”. In this blog post, we’re going to share with your our 5 best tips to reduce your financial stress and plan your dream wedding. So you won’t have to make any scarifies and you also won’t be going into debt!
We specialise in elopements and intimate weddings, so we will be speaking in terms of smaller weddings, but these tips can be used for any type of wedding experience you may dream! So buckle up, and dive in, because we’re going to up level your wedding planning experience! Let’s to show you how to budget for your dream elopement experience, without breaking the bank!
1. Plan in advance
The first and most important advice we could give for budgeting for your dream elopement experience. Is to plan far enough in advance so that you can budget and save for your dream experience. This includes calculating how much you’ll need for your vendors, experiences, travel, lodging, food, or anything else you may need to budget for on your wedding day.
First you’ll want to get clear on the style of your wedding and what you two value most when going into this experience. For example, if you are planning an intimate wedding, you may value intimacy, staying true to your authentic selves, creating a safe space to be yourselves. Plus you’d like to have a strong emphasis on incorporating nature into your day.
Now that you’ve set your values, the style of your wedding, and whats most important to you. Then, you’ll want to research and choose your vendors who specialise in your specific style of wedding and match the vibe of your day. This will most likely be a vendor who specialises in intimate weddings, loves working in the outdoors, and is all about laid back, authentic wedding experiences.
Once you’ve found your dream team, or have a better scene of how much these vendors, experiences, etc. will cost. From here you will budget how much money you’ll need to book in these services for your wedding day. Once you know the prices, you’ll look at how much money you already have set aside for your wedding. Then calculate how long it will take you to save the remaining balance.
Whether this will take you 6 months, or 2 years. This will give you the timeline you need to account for when planning your wedding.
Now that you know how long it will take for you to budget for your wedding. You can now reach out to your dream team and services, check their availability for that timeframe. Choose your date based on your dream teams availability. This will ensure you can lock in their services for your day and have the exact experience you’ve been longing for.
Once you’ve chosen your date, you can lock in their services with a small retainer fee. And pay the rest at the time when you chose to get married. Whilst knowing you’ll be right on track to save up until your date, and pay off your wedding with ease and zero stress.
And the best part of all, once you’ve locked in your dream team of vendors and suppliers, they will effortlessly assist you in bringing your vision to life! So you can sit back and enjoy the planning journey knowing you are in great hands and can afford your day stress free.
Our best advice: choose your dream team, and then choose your date — not the other way around
2. Get married at a non peak time
Another great way to choose a date that works for your dream team, but also helps you save some money is to opt for a weekday or off season date. Often times accommodations, venues and even vendors reduce their prices during off times. This is because they often times have less bookings during these non peak wedding times. Which results in creating more opportunities to bring in more clients.
This might not always be the case. So don’t just assume your photographer is going to do the same service for less money because it’s a Tuesday. But in some cases, your accommodation might have a weekday special weekday price. Or your celebrant might have a special winter package on offer.
For example, if you’re eloping in winter 2024 for instance we currently have a special offer with our favourite Melbourne celebrant, Ceremonies with Haylie. Where you can book your elopement celebrant and photographer together in July 2024, and save $800 on your joint booking! Get in touch to find out more about this special offer.
3. Downsize your guest list
Another great way to budget for your dream wedding experience, is to downsize your guest list. When you choose to have small wedding with less guests, you put your budget towards the things you truly value. Opposed to using your budget to cater for the numbers. Narrow down your guest list to the people you couldn’t imagine doing this without. Or elope with just the two of you! And use your budget for the vendors and experiences you value most.
4. Wear something non-traditional
In todays day and age, you can purchase the most beautiful, yet affordable “wedding attire” for a fraction of the cost of traditional wedding attire. It’s easier than ever to get amazing gowns and suits without them specifically being “wedding” attire. Plus they happen to be a fraction of the cost, and they look just as great!
Some of our favourite non-traditional wedding attire shops are:
- Diish
- Bec & Bridge
- Shona Joy
- Ginger and Smart
- Rebecca Vallance
- Significant Other
- Or you could rent a gown or buy second hand! 🙌🏼
5. Get your DIY on
When budgeting for your dream wedding or elopement experience, you’ll want to look at which areas of your day you feel like you are good at and if it would be fun to do it yourself! If you love putting together flower arrangements for your home, than maybe you could do your table styling yourself! Or if you love watching hair and makeup tutorials and are super passionate about trying out new looks, you might just have the confidence to do it yourself!
Look at the areas of your day, where you think it would be fun and exciting to do it yourself. Choosing to save your money on these areas of your day, will further allow you to use your budget for the vendors who specialise in the areas you highly value and want expertise in.
And here you have it! Our 5 best tips on how to budget for your dream elopement experience! Without making any scarifies and effortlessly bringing your vision to life!
Are planning an elopement or intimate wedding in 2024 or 2025? Somewhere in Australia or anywhere else in the world? We’ll travel to you! We would love to photograph you and guide you through the full planning experience! We don’t just document your greatest adventure, we guide you and support you every step of the way. Come say hey, get in touch today!
