HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON YOUR WEDDING

With the average price of weddings being around £20.000 how do you save money.

BE YOUR OWN WEDDING PLANNER: start early nothing worse then leaving it to the last minute, I highly recommend taking out wedding insurance cover.

USE YOUR FRIENDS: make huge savings by getting a friend or a small local business to make your wedding cake you could save up to £250.00

THE DRESS: yes that beautiful dress costing almost £1000 or more that you will wear for a few hours, and then hang in the wardrobe or may be list on Ebay,
I suggest shopping around for your dress, If you have a computer do look on Ebay new dress,s handmade from Thailand are available for around £50.00 including postage
Try Debenhams, M&S these all sell wedding dress,s . Even if you pay £150.00 you have saved £850.00

HAIR AND MAKE UP: If your planning your own wedding you can search places such as model mayhem for make up artist and hairdressers, If not then do try local shops rather then branded hairdressers, You will find a local shop will take much more time and your almost half your price and look just as good if not better.

FLOWERS: When I got married I bought a bouquet of silk flowers and 15 years on they still have pride of place in my lounge not one person guessed they were not real and I saved a fortune, for table decorations I roped in some friends and we used candles ribbon, and small silk flowers for the table decorations, again saving a fortune on fresh flowers. I gave each of my friends a table decoration to take home and its still a pleasure to see my wedding table decorations in my friends homes

THE VENUE: another huge expense the nearest venue to me charges £4,700 just to be there, That is a lot of money, I suggest really shopping around for venues, look midweek or even winter time. Find a couple of venues you like then haggle get them to bid for your business and play one off against the other, by saying oh so and so said they would include X,Y Z for that price. Venues want your business

FOOD AND DRINK: You choice of venue may tie you to a set price but again review the menu, will guest in July and August want to sit down to a hot meal at around £35.00 per head? why not opt for a barbecue or cold buffet at around £12.00 a head instead

Why not opt for a bar where guest pay for their own drinks, Instead of providing champagne go for a prosecco or cava most people wont notice the difference

PHOTOGRAPHY: I can tell you ways to save on a professional photographer, You could get a friend with a camera to take your pictures, you could ask guests that have digital cameras to allow you to see the pictures and then purchase a stick in album from WHSmith,s . This could save you around £800.00. I,m not going to tell you not to do that but remember your priorities. A guest is there to share your day and have a good time they are not going to take time to get THAT SPECIAL picture they are not fully insured wedding photographer with professional equipment with access to quality albums and master printers. A professional photographer is employed by you to just concentrate on taking your pictures, A few weeks after your wedding when everyone has forgotten about it you will have beautifully crafted images to last a lifetime.

To many times I read and get people come to me whom have had a friend photograph their wedding and the brides head is missing, or they missed the cake cutting as the angle was wrong,There are no images of the ceremony as they do not have a camera capable of taking images in low light,or the bride and groom have red eyes and highlighted skin from a tiny flash gun, Most images from small digital cameras can not be enlarged without compromising the image , and most people will have their images printed by a photo lab or high street store and these will not last more then 10 years.

As a photographer I often wonder why do people spend out on the most expensive dress they will wear for a few hours, the most expensive taxi of your lifetime, The most expensive flowers,all these will be gone, Yet they will skimp on a photographer the one person that can give them memories to last generation after generation.