How to Cut Budget On your Wedding

A wedding is like a giant black hole, into which money and time pour. The return product? Stress! But it's so worth it! Any way you can manage to save money in your wedding is a worthwhile endeavor. Trust me, you'll need that money eventually for other things. I like to treat it as a game, figuring out ways to shave the budget in various areas. Low cost wedding invitations are one way that we managed, to great success! The cost of wedding stationery is very high, especially from certain print shops or businesses that cater directly to weddings.

Low cost wedding invitations are available in a number of different options, and I want to look at a few of those here. A low budget wedding doesn't have to look cheap or thrown together, and your low cost wedding invitations can actually add a quaint and rustic aesthetic to your celebration.

To save money in planning a low budget wedding, I've realized that you need to avoid mentioning certain things. For example, if you're purchasing a particular item of decor for example, avoid telling the clerk or retailer that it's for a wedding. Adding the word 'wedding' to any product you're seeking will increase the price by twofold! Seriously!

If you were to hire a photographer, it would be X dollars for the session. Hire a wedding photographer, and it becomes X time 3! It's one of those occasions that people know you're going to blow a bunch of money on, and they take advantage.

When printing or designing your low cost wedding invitations, don't mention what they're for! The printer may find out due to the copy. I would also avoid going to a wedding specific commercial printer for your low cost wedding invitations, because they will likely be more expensive!

A great idea for low budget wedding stationery is to print them out yourself! Design it in Photoshop or some other graphic program, or perhaps get a graphic designer friend to do it for you as a wedding gift! Low budget weddings are all about being creative with your planning!

You may need to go to a print shop to have them done, or you can attempt to print your low cost wedding invitations from home. Just make sure your printer can handle stiffer cardstock.

You can avoid the printing altogether with your low cost wedding stationery and just make them by hand. It's sort of like scrapbooking. Take the various elements and glue them together, or hand-draw whatever you need on there. My future sister-in-law drew all of her invitations by hand... a major task to be sure, but it saved them approximately $500! This is a great way for the cost of wedding cards to be avoided.

If you do something for a living that other people value, you might want to consider doing a work exchange with a graphic designer to create your low cost wedding cards. I'm a web designer, so I would offer to exchange web work for wedding invite design. I actually did get my low cost wedding invitations printed for free due to a graphic designer connection I have.

Low cost wedding invitations aren't difficult to come up with, you just need to put some thought into your resources. And remember to prioritize your expenses. In a low budget wedding, any money saved in one arena can be put into something else... like the honeymoon!

Good luck!