Congratulations! You’re now engaged to the love of your life and you can’t wait to walk down that aisle. But you don’t know where to start when it comes to planning your very own wedding with a limited budget. Well, gurlllll… I gotchu. But this is going to be a looong post so go grab some tea and biscuits.
Time
When it comes to planning your own wedding, Time is your best friend. I suggest to take at least a year to do all the planning. It’s never too early to start. Don’t procrastinate so you can still book your favorite wedding suppliers for your big day. You need to set up a to-do list even for mundane tasks such as getting a facial or choosing textiles so you won’t leave anything out.
Tip: Be Resourceful
Read lots of wedding planning books or download free apps such as WeddingHappy to help you out. You can also preview a draft of my customized wedding planning spreadsheet here. Lemme know if you want a copy so I can email it to you.
Extra Hands
Planning your own wedding can be overwhelming and, as someone who did it, I swear that you can’t do it alone. Consider asking family and friends to assist you with certain tasks. Most likely, they will be thrilled to help for FREE!
Budget
Weddings are now a multi-million peso industry and it is said that an average wedding nowadays would cost around 200000~500000 PHP (that’s almost a quarter to half a million pesos). Bombarded with visuals of extravagant weddings online on a daily basis (who can forget that ostentatious DongYan wedding?) plus the cultural pressure of inviting every relative and friend, planning your own wedding can be financially straining. Be firm and stay realistic with your budget. If you have people who can contribute, then great! See where you can stretch but stop when the figures get uncomfortable. Remember, your wedding is only one day. Your marriage, however, is a lifetime. You still wanna have savings and money to pay for your bills the day after.
But worry not, having a “luxury” wedding on a modest budget is absolutely possible. In fact, we made it happened! It’s all about allocating money on what’s most important first and the rest will follow.
Inspiration
Having a mood board is a must so you can better visualize the overall look and feel of the wedding. Not only does this help you determine what you need and don’t need, but it also gives you an idea if your vision is within your budget’s reach. Make Pinterest your personal hero and check out lifestyle blogs, websites, and magazines for more inspiration.
Vendors
When choosing vendors, you almost always get what you pay for. But the best way to get more for your money is when you go for reputable young professionals who already have a good head start in their career.
Our wedding photographer is a prime example. You can check out Jasper Cuizon’s portfolio on his website.
Tip: Research
Visit wedding sites, get familiar with local wedding suppliers and do several background checks before booking a vendor. You don’t want to get scammed like us. Know our story.
Tip: Do It Yourself
However, you can also opt to do some things yourself. Aside from planning our own wedding, I did my own makeup and I designed the invitations as well.
Invitations and Stationery
Believe it or not, invitations and wedding stationery can be costly. With the advent of the Internet, save-the-date cards, invitations, maps, thank you notes, programs and others can be sent electronically. But make sure to still produce enough physical copies for posterity purposes.
Bouquet, Boutonnière and Other Floral Arrangements
Creating your own floral arrangements with handpicked wildflowers and foliage is a good way to cut costs. But arranging flowers is actually much harder than it looks and it’s definitely not for everyone. Should you decide to hire someone, help your florist choose flowers that are locally available and are in season.
Tip: Embellish
Adding accessories to the base of your bouquet will give it a personal touch. For my bouquet, I pinned a locket with a vintage photo of my husband’s parents as a way of honoring them.
Rings
Rings are the symbolic representation of your love and fidelity to your spouse. While it would be wise to shell out a little more for something you’d wear for the rest of your life, you can always buy affordable ones for show and upgrade when you’re ready.
Tip: Recycle
In our case, our wedding bands were made from my husband’s vintage gold necklace that was given to him by his sister. We only spent on the labor cost which is only a fraction of the price compared to getting brand new wedding bands.
Attire
Who says you need to go to a bridal atelier for your wedding dress? If renting is not an option for you, try scouring for white dresses in boutiques, online stores, and even thrift shops. Another good place to look at would be second-hand bridal dress sites like Stillwhite.
I got my dress on sale from Robinsons and it only cost me a shocking 900 PHP!
Tip: Borrow
My husband borrowed his childhood best friend’s belt and his brother-in-law’s watch.
Venue
When it comes to choosing a venue, think outside the box. You don’t have to go traditional. There are lots of interesting places which can be a great venue to hold a wedding celebration for so much less (or possibly free of charge) such as a campus, public library, house, museum, park, barn, forest… your imagination is the limit!
Once you’ve done your research and decided on the location and setting of your wedding, choose a date where people are less likely to get married. By going off-season, you can cut back on a lot of costs.
Another way of saving is by having the reception and ceremony in one venue.
My husband and I got married in a small, beautiful cafe that doesn’t need much sprucing up. Since the ceremony and reception are in the same place, we saved a lot on decor and other miscellaneous expenses.
Catering & Guests
Keep in mind that one of the major chunks of wedding expenses go to the cost of feeding your guests. One way to forcibly save is by choosing a venue with small seating capacity. The fewer the guests, the more you can save.
Tip: Keep it a private affair
By not announcing your engagement and/or wedding on social media, you won’t feel obligated to invite that annoying co-worker, gossiping aunt or creepy uncle of yours.
On our special day, we only invited our family and closest friends.
Don’t forget that some of your wedding suppliers such as photographer and videographer will count as guests! So make sure to include them during the headcount.
Also, by opting for a buffet than a sit-down menu can save you hundreds to thousands of pesos. For the same amount of food, you can be charged up to 10 times less when you go for a buffet catering.
Cake
Fondant and tiered cakes are ridiculously expensive! I suggest you skip the wedding cake. For the price of one, you can have a dessert bar with cakes and other goodies. That’s what we did for our wedding. Look for an artisan cake shop that can supply.
Bridal Car
This is another thing you can skip. No one will miss it. You can always drive your own car, carpool orrrr… book a GrabCar Premium driver and politely ask if you can place a flower arrangement or whatever decor you have just for the duration of the ride. You’re welcome!
Music
Instead of hiring a band, ask your musically-inclined friends to play for your wedding.
Arranging your own wedding playlist will also come in handy. Try these suggestions from A Practical Wedding.
Lighting
If you and your partner are early birds, having a brunch wedding will help you save on extra costs such as lights rental.
The venue that we chose for our wedding already had good lighting so we didn’t need to rent lights anymore. Instead, we had some candles lit up to create precious lighting that can set a romantic mood without breaking the bank.
Throw an After-party
An optional choice: think of throwing a “second reception” (read: low key informal party) for guests that you can’t accommodate on the wedding day. That way they still get to feel included while you can save on a lot of money. It’s a win-win scenario!
Negotiate
While I am a strong advocate against haggling, never hesitate to ask your suppliers on where you can cut back on certain costs. Sometimes they have items in their wedding packages that you may not need after all.
Miscellaneous Expenses
All the little expenses can add up if not planned for. So make sure to list them down to keep track of your budget.
Miscellaneous expenses include but are not limited to: corkage fees, overtime charges, service fees, damage/loss fees of rented goods, cancellation dues, and transportation costs.
You’ve finally reached the bottom of this post. Hooray!
Planning your own wedding can get overwhelming and hectic. When stressed, take a break and enjoy the process.
Remember: having too many opinions can create more doubt and confusion. Just know what you want, stick to it and, if needed, make compromises along the way. God bless you on your personal journey to a blissful married life and have fun!
Ahh this is so useful! Bookmarking this blog entry for the future. Thank you.
You’re welcome! I’d appreciate if you’d share this post to your family and friends too 🙂