Weddings in India are a costly affair. There is a reason why they are called big fat Indian weddings! An average Indian family spends a minimum of Rs. 20 lakh on a wedding. This amount max out to crores of rupees. A wedding calls for many known and sudden expenses. Even if you have saved money for your wedding, the budget can accelerate as the wedding day approaches. Thus we have come up with 10 creative ways for you to save on your wedding. You can implement these tips as you start planning for the D day.
Don’t get married in the wedding season
This may sound weird but if you follow this rule, you will be able to save a lot of money. We often travel to tourist destinations to avoid extra expenditure we may have to pay during ‘on season’. As per religion and local customs these seasons changes around the country. Know the primary wedding season in your religion & locality, and avoid it. Decorators, caterers, venues and other vendors charge high prices during the wedding season. If you get married off-season, you will end up paying 25%* less than anticipated.
Avoid weekends
Weekends usually cost more if you want to do any activity. Be it a weekend gate away or just a Sunday brunch, it always costs more than weekdays. If you avoid weekends you can save on vendor payments and your guest list will shorten automatically. So try avoiding the weekend to save those extra bucks.
Shopping in off-season
The Festival period in India is considered as ‘on season’ for all types of shopping. Though many stores offer sales on their products, it will always cost you more if you shop in such a high period. So do your wedding shopping than an offseason as the vendors will be easily available, you go through as many choices as you want, you can shop quietly without any hustle-bustle around you and can bargain or negotiate with ease.
Choose the correct venue
Destination weddings are good but they are quite expensive too. You can get a bungalow farmhouse of any friend or family for your wedding ceremony but travel arrangements for everyone to reach the destination can be an additional burden on you. So choose a low-key nearby location to your house which will save you the cost of additional travelling. , Also organize all your wedding events at one destination only. As you book the venue for multiple days, you stand a chance at an earned discount on longer bookings.
Save on music
Music is an integral part of any Indian wedding. People invite special bands, orchestra company nowadays-a-days DJs to play through various wedding ceremonies. They can be quite expensive as their pay scale starts from a minimum of Rs. 50,000 for few hours. To save all this money, you can create your personalized song list, get only music equipment like a player and speakers & play the music of your choice. You can give this responsibility to one of your friends or relatives. We are sure that they won’t mind playing music on your special day!
Save on photography
Along with music, taking photographs are equally important in any wedding. Along with photographs for regular wedding ceremonies, people also pose for pre-wedding photoshoots. The packages for such photography contracts start from a minimum of Rs. 50,000 per event. You can reduce this cost too much low by hiring a new photographer or a college student with eccentric photography skills. You will help them to polish their skills by giving them a chance and also save a lot in the process as they will charge you much less than any professional.
Save on food
The biggest problem with Indian weddings the is wastage of food. Many times tons of food is wasted due to various reasons. You can save all this food by having a Compaq guest list and a short menu. The more options of food you have, the more confused your guests get. They end up eating less as they want to try every dish and fill their appetite by just testing the multiple dishes. So you can have a short menu which will cost you less and fill the appetite and hearts of your guests. Also, opt for an Indian menu if you are on a budget wedding, bea cause a wedding continental menu or snacks can drill a hole in your wallet.
Cut down the guest list
In India, the guestlist for weddings is an unending affair. There will be immediate family, distant relatives, colleagues, school friends, college friends, social media friends, neighbours and many more attending your wedding. But you can easily cut the size down. Invite only close family and those who matter to you. Those people who come to bless you on your special day do not just feed their appetite to later criticize the food.
Save money on your wedding dress
Not every bride wears the wedding dress or lehenga later in the future after her wedding day. The wedding dress is so heavy and rich that there is no ceremony to match its extravagant. The same goes for heavy jewellery. So here you can rent or borrow the wedding dress to bring down the bill amount on your lehenga. You can also opt to stitch it instead of buying a readymade piece to save a few bucks.
Save on return gifts
There is always a burden on the couple and the guests when it comes to wedding gifts. Guests can’t decide their gifts and couples can’t decide on their return gifts. The easy way to tackle this problem is to declare a ‘no gift policy’ on both sides. This way if guests do not give you gifts you don’t need to give them anything in return. This will also sav save your collecting, managing and disposing of repetitive gifts.
All these and more such wedding expenses can be trimmed and tweaked to match your budget. Moreover, a personal loan is always ready to be your help to back you you’re your expenses. For your wedding expenses, you can get a personal loan for a wedding!
