10 Hidden Wedding Costs
Weddings are wonderful, special occasions that usually result in memories which will last a lifetime. But this splendor unfortunately comes at a price. The obvious costs like hiring a church and buying a dress mount up quickly and easily, before you even have the chance to consider how much all the little details are going to come to. When you start to plan your wedding, don't forget to factor in the following hidden costs when preparing your budget.
1. Wedding Stationary.
The cost of stationary for your wedding can quickly and easily run into hundreds unless you're extremely careful. You don't just have to buy a large quantity of invitations and envelopes; you also have to pay for the postage that goes with them. Fortunately, there are usually a few ways to trim the postage costs if necessary. You can hand deliver a good deal of invitations at work or when you visit your friends. You can also get in touch with your local scouts or youth club and find out if they'd like to deliver your local invitations for a reduced price.
If you're having a formal dinner, you'll also need to factor in the costs of providing place cards for every person attending. They may cost pennies each, but it all adds up.
Remember that you'll need to send thank you cards out to everyone who either helped with your wedding or bought you a gift too. You can save on postage by having little thank you cards to hand out at your reception. Pre-print the thank you message and personalise them quickly and easily by simply writing the person's name on the card and giving it to them before they leave. You don't even have to make time to do it on the day; you can do a thank you card for everyone on your guest list in advance and have them to hand in alphabetical order so you can grab the correct one when you need it. Nobody needs to know you cheated!
2. Wedding Favors
Wedding favours are pretty much expected these days regardless of the scale of your wedding. You can prepare these yourself if you're on a tight budget by purchasing the nets and large bags of sugared almonds along with a reel of ribbon. It will still set you back a noticeable sum to provide these, but just remember that it's only polite to be ready to thank everyone for making the effort to come and share your special day with you. The good news is that sugared almonds keep for a long time so you can get your friends to help out in preparing these well in advance of the big day.
Alternatively, you can create your own little personalised chocolate bars as wedding favours. These cost very little to make and are relatively simple to do too. Simply purchase a quantity of foil wrapped chocolate bars in bulk and remove their outer paper wrapping. Then design your template on the computer by using a rectangle the right size for the front of the chocolate bar and create a design within it that has your names on and the date of your wedding, along with a display of hearts or similar which match your wedding colours. Cut them out leaving space on either side to wrap around your bar, then seal them with a tab of double sided tape or glue. These look a lot more expensive than they actually are and make a pleasant change to the usual sugared almonds.
3. Children's Activities
If you're inviting children to your wedding reception, it's important to provide them with enough activities to keep them occupied. If you don't, you can guarantee that at least one of them will have the bright idea to steal Grandad's pint of beer and tie Grandma's shoelaces together in a fit of giggles. Party bags are ideal if your budget can afford it. Mix them up so they cater for everyone. For example, have different bags available for tots aged 2-5yrs, boys aged 6-12yrs and girls aged 6-12yrs. You should try to include things that they actually play with there and then like little activity books with a packet of crayons, puzzles and mazes, toy cars, mini yo-yos or plastic novelties. Do NOT include any toys that make loud noises, are designed to be thrown (like aeroplanes and bouncy balls) or can be used to inflict injury on other children! If your budget doesn't extend to individual party bags, you can print off a pile of activity pages from the internet for free using cheap paper, and buy a couple of large packets of cheap crayons to put in a tub in the middle of a children's table.
4. Wedding Programs
It's a long standing tradition to provide guests who attend the church ceremony with a program commemorating the occasion. This is a great way to thank everyone who has been involved with your wedding, as well as providing close friends and family with a little keepsake of your special day. Prices vary considerably depending on what you want from your program. You can choose to print off a stack of simple black and white programs at home if you're working to a low budget, or you can have a professional printer design and print off full colour programs complete with a photograph of the happy couple. It's your wedding, your budget and your choice.
5. Thank You Gifts
It isn't just the bride and groom who traditionally get presents on their wedding day. It's also considered good etiquette to thank your wedding party with thank you gifts. It's traditional to give bridesmaids something like a little necklace, and a best man a set of cuff links. They don't have to be solid gold but even factoring in the cost of silver-plated or chrome gifts adds to the over all wedding bill. A box of supermarket chocolates is not usually considered acceptable, but you could try to keep costs down by opting for little boxes of luxury chocolates in place of jewellery perhaps.
6. Corkage and Cake Cutting Costs
A lot of venues will charge you a premium for serving anything on their premises that has not been provided by them. I wanted pink fizz at my wedding to match my dress and the only thing the venue could provide me with was extremely expensive pink champagne. It was considerably cheaper for me to provide my own pink wine, but I had to pay a hefty corkage charge for every single bottle I bought in. Fortunately, it still worked out cheaper for me. Venues will charge you to bring in a cake too, despite it being commonplace to do so. Some venues will charge you a set fee for bringing in your wedding cake, others will charge you per slice served on the night. Make sure you find out in advance what the additional charges will be as they really can be very high and add up quickly depending on your chosen venue.
7. Service Charges
Always ask when you book or order something if there is a service charge that has not been included in the initial quote. You'd be amazed at how many places are willing to mislead you in the hope that you'll already be committed to the purchase by the time they reveal their service charges. The world of catering can sometimes be terrible for doing so, laying on a 15% or 20% service charge to an already high dinner bill. You may find that the same goes for your ceremony; they may have included everything in your bill but negated to mention that certain aspects are subject to a service charge such as church music or flower arranging.
8. Wedding Decorations
It is frankly astonishing just how much the cost of wedding decorations can quickly mount to. If you're having a formal dinner without a party, you can get away with minimal decorations such as a few bags of confetti and a handful of centrepieces. If you're having a buffet or a party on the other hand, the cost of decorations quickly starts to eat into your budget. If the venue you've hired do not supply tablecloths, or you want cloths to suit a chosen colour scheme, you'll have to pay out for those. Then you'll want colour co-ordinating napkins, table decorations, banners, balloons and table confetti on display too to give the venue a party atmosphere ready for your guests. A plain hall with a DJ in the corner and white napkins by the buffet might be all some people want; but if you're hoping for a big, special day then you'll want to make sure you leave room in your budget for all the trimmings.
9. Wedding Rehearsals
People tend not to undertake full wedding rehearsals as much as they used to, so don't feel obliged to undergo a full wedding rehearsal in its entirety. If you want to, you can simply attend the place of ceremony in advance for a quick walk through with the person marrying you. You do not need everyone to be attendance for this, but if you want bridesmaids and the best man to attend then you should be prepared to foot the transport bill for them.
Hosting a rehearsal dinner is a big cost and one to carefully consider if your budget is limited. If a rehearsal dinner is important to you or your family, consider limiting it to just yourself, your partner and both sets of parents. Alternatively, you can save a considerable amount of money by forgoing the rehearsal dinner altogether, and just taking the time to make sure you're happy with your chosen venue one last time shortly before the wedding by visiting briefly with your partner.
10. Alterations
If your outfits are being custom-made, you will have been measured and fitted for them well in advance of your big day. Unfortunately, few of us manage to maintain our weights exactly over long periods of time! We women can be terrible for reacting to stress or excitement by losing or gaining a few pounds and this may result in you needing to get your dress altered shortly before the wedding. The same goes for the bridesmaid's dresses, though luckily it is rare for a man's suit to need altering unless the groom or his best man has experienced a drastic change in weight. If you've already spent a lot of money on your wedding dress, you want it to be perfect. So make sure you leave a little room in your budget to get your dress altered last minute if necessary.
