There’s no doubt about it, times are hard and today’s bride may well be trying to plan a wedding on a tight budget like never before. Weddings are extremely expensive and even the most banal service seems to become over inflated in price if you put the word “wedding” infront of it! Umbrellas, for example, are relatively cheap but “wedding” umberellas – now that’s a different matter altogether! Also if you look at different wedding service providers you will see that their services, whilst frequently being well worth it in terms of product and service are often rather expensive. Most wedding photographers in London for example currently charge upwards of £1500 for their services. This isn’t unreasonable when you understand the amount of work and expertise that goes into their trade, but it is a lot of money! Similarly London wedding venues are often charging premium prices for their wedding services as they need to employ staff and pay London rates for their location and unfortunately have to pass these over heads onto their customers.

The whole situation isn’t helped by the current pressures exerted on couples to have “the perfect day” – couples are bombarded with images in glossy magazines, on wedding blogs and in the media of stylish fully coordinated themed wedding days which look like the couple float along on a magical cloud of happiness! It’s not always like this! Sometimes it rains, sometimes people are late and sometimes things just don’t go to plan! This all exerts a huge expectation and pressure on the planning couple – keeping up with the Jones’s can often become all important.

So what can be done? There are a large number of trends that couples are adopting to overcome the current issues. Often, for example, they are choosing much less ostentatious venues for their weddings. Church halls are being brought back into use and can make very cool individual and slightly retro locations for wedding receptions. Couples are doing away with inviting all and sundry to the reception for the wedding breakfast and restricting the invitation to close friends and family only. Other guests can be invited in the evening and/or to the ceremony to save on cost. This can have the added advantage of making the wedding far more personal and intimate.

In terms of suppliers many couples again are choosing to not necessarily compromise on quality but go for less quantity. A smaller cake or cup cakes for example, less photographic coverage but still with a high quality photographer, possibly having beautiful but fewer flowers. All of these don’t really impact upon the actual style and quality of the day but can have a significant impact upon the couple’s wedding budget. Similarly man couples are choosing to commit their budget only to what they perceive as being the important areas of the wedding; they may opt for a less expensive pair of wedding shoes but a more expensive bouquet, choose to arrive in their own car rather than a hired car and spend the money on a band rather than a DJ for example. All couples will have priorities and it is a good idea to allocate funds accordingly.

Wedding planning should be fun! Hopefully the above tips can help to make it stress free as well! Good luck.