Save It or Spend It: A Wedding Planner's Take On What You Should DIY or Hire For Your Wedding
When you sit down to plan your wedding, you begin to quickly realize how fast things add up.
Aside from the big items in your budget, such as your venue, wedding dress, food, photographer and entertainment, there's also all the little things like your decor, flowers, stationary, favors, etc.
As a bride, it’s tempting to go overboard on every single item because you have a vision for what you want your big day to look like, but if you aren’t careful, you’ll be over budget in the matter of minutes.
After working with tons of brides and their families to plan their dreamy wedding day, I’ve narrowed down a few things that should go into the “spend” category and a few that should go into the “save” category so that you can confidently plan your wedding without blowing all of your money in the wrong places.
Spend It: 5 Places To Splurge In Your Wedding Budget
1. Venue
This one really goes without saying, but your venue will likely make up a large portion of your budget and it’s not going to be an item that you want to skimp on.
When looking for a venue to book, it’s important to look for a place that checks all of your boxes, such as a bridal suite, grooms area, multiple ceremony locations and a reception space.
If you try to cut corners and choose a venue that doesn’t offer these amenities, you’ll likely end up spending the money elsewhere to make up for it and most of the time all of these separate costs will end up being more than a venue that has all in one.
Aside from the different amenities, keep in mind that your venue will essentially be the backdrop in all of your photos, so make sure to choose the place that captures your personality and wedding theme!
2. Wedding Planner / Day Of Coordinator
When speaking with brides, this item tends to be one of the things that they really aren’t sure if they should splurge on and I really do understand why.
It’s easy to think that if you just follow the advice you find on Google, Pinterest or even TikTok to plan your big day, then everything will turn out just fine.
And while it is possible to pull off an amazing wedding by planning it yourself, it’s no secret that planning anything on your own - whether that be a birthday party, Christmas celebration or even a dinner out with friends - is hard, much less a life event that usually only happens once.
Even if you love the idea of planning, it will be very hard to execute all of it on the day of, which is why I believe that a wedding planner, or at the very least a day of coordinator, is a non-negotiable and I explain why in THIS blog post!
3. Food & Booze
Okay, let’s be honest with ourselves for a minute… people love weddings for the food and the booze. Parents view it as a date night, your friends view it as a free meal and your family views it as a rare time that everyone can come together for a nice dinner.
That’s not to say that people aren’t there to celebrate you - of course they are! But they expect for the food and the booze to be readily available.
One of the surefire ways to disappoint your wedding guests is to not provide enough food that truly acts as a meal. For example, if your ceremony is at 4pm and your reception isn’t equipped for dinner, you’re going to have some hungry guests!
As a wedding planner, I’ve learned what truly works when it comes to food and from experience, I always encourage light appetizers during cocktail hour (this keeps your guests satisfied while the wedding party takes photos), a buffet or plated meal for all guests and of course cake for dessert.
As for the booze, splurging doesn't mean you have to offer top shelf liquor or unlimited everything, but I truly believe that cash bars are a thing of the past. People want to be able to grab a beer or glass of wine while they’re mingling with friends and enjoy a cocktail with dinner.
So at the very least, I recommend providing 3-4 beer options, 3-4 wine options and a signature cocktail for people to choose from.
4. Entertainment
Have you ever been to a wedding or event where people are just awkwardly sitting in their chairs and no real entertainment is happening? That’s the exact opposite of what you want your wedding reception to be like!
People love to get dressed up, eat a good meal and let loose for a night and your wedding reception is the perfect place to make that happen.
While it’s tempting to create your own playlist and plug up your old iPod to a speaker, trust me, your guests will be able to tell and it can really determine the tone of your reception.
DJ’s and bands are typically trained to play music in a certain way that gets people onto the dance floor and interacting with each other.
And if you’re worried that your guests aren’t going to be big fans of the dance floor, consider adding in a few other unique entertainment options to get them out of their seats and enjoying their night.
For example, you can opt for cornhole and other yard games, a unique photo booth, an ax throwing trailer, bounce houses and silent disco. There are tons of ways to provide entertainment, sometimes you just have to think outside the box!
5. Photographer / Videographer
The last major item that I consider to be in the “spend it” category for your wedding is your photographer and videographer. Similar to your venue, this one is pretty obvious because after you spend so much of your time and money planning such a huge event, you want pictures and videos to remember it by.
Nowadays, many photographers offer a package that also includes videography, so that you aren’t having to hire two vendors.
Instead, you can find the photographer that best matches your style and know that you’ll not only receive gorgeous images, you can also receive a video to remember your big day by.
Save It: 5 Places To Save In Your Wedding Budget
1. Trends
Thanks to the TikTokification of the world, as a bride you’re likely going to find lots of cute trends while you’re wedding planning. Whether they be from Pinterest or TikTok itself, it will inevitably happen and this is one of the easiest ways to go over budget!
I know you probably want an “Instagram-worthy” wedding, but I promise you’ll be much happier when you stick to timeless decor that truly matches your style and personality.
This isn’t to say you can’t make your wedding unique and fun - you definitely can! I simply believe there’s a better way to do it than giving into every single trend you see.
A few of the common trends we’re seeing lately in the wedding industry include neon signs, champagne or donut walls, balloon arches / backdrops, specialty seating charts, disco ball decor, painted bride jackets and more.
If you find yourself wanting these things, I would encourage you to consider DIY’ing or finding a similar alternative so you can enjoy the current trend without letting it eat up a ton of your budget.
2. Favors
As a wedding planner, one of the things that I see happen over and over again is that guests forget to pick up a favor on their way out and they become a huge waste. It’s sad to see because this is often one of the items that brides spend so much time on.
If you aren’t willing to forego favors altogether, I would encourage providing something that seamlessly fits into your wedding versus having an entire favor table.
This could be something like providing koozies at the bar, special items in welcome bags (works well for a destination wedding), a photo booth with actual prints that people can take home or a specialty food item that they can take home.
3. Cake
You’ve probably seen all kinds of multilayer wedding cakes that are decorated so magnificently and you may think that because of this, your cake is something that you really need to splurge on.
Well, I’m here to say that you can very easily cut costs by opting for a cake that is a bit more simple! When it comes down to it, the bride and groom are really the only two people that are super present for the cake cutting, which means many of the guests don't even see the cake.
A grocery store cake easily gets the job done by letting you get the pictures you desire and allows the guests to get their dessert, all for a fraction of the cost.
And if you want in on my super pro tip, get a FAKE CAKE. Yes, you heard me correctly! I advise my brides all the time who really want a large, pretty cake to have a fake cake for pictures and then have a generic sheet cake for serving. No one ever knows and it saves you a ton of money!
4. Floral
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I truly believe that you can add all floral arrangements to your “save it” category. Do I think that flowers are important at your wedding? Absolutely! But do I also think that you don’t have to allocate half of your budget for flowers? Also yes.
A few ways you can save on flower arrangements at your wedding include:
ordering fewer, larger arrangements versus multiple, smaller arrangements that will serve as your main decor pieces
forego flowers for your centerpieces
DIY your bridesmaid bouquets and groomsmen boutonnières
repurpose your ceremony flowers into your reception
5. Stationary
Lastly, I believe that stationary is one of the best ways to cut costs in your wedding budget! Again, this might be an unpopular opinion, but at the end of the day your stationary either gets thrown away or stashed in a junk drawer and the only person that really cares about the way it looks is you.
This isn’t to say that you can’t have the stationary that you desire, but I would simply encourage you to consider where you get your stationary printed and how many pieces of stationary you include.
A great way to save in this category is to design your stationary on Canva and use their printing services OR ask your wedding planner if they have access to any special discounts!
For me personally as a wedding planner, I have a Minted Partnership that allows for 25% off all stationary and I offer this up to all of my clients.
Overall, there is definitely a way to create the wedding of your dreams WITHOUT going over budget and it all starts with deciding on your non-negotiables and work everything else around those items.
If creating your budget feels overwhelming and you’re looking for someone to help guide you through the process, that’s what I’m here for!
- Chalonda