We get it. The cost of living crisis (CoLC!) is affecting everyone. Times are tough right now, for sure. The problem of course being that the CoLC is affecting businesses too and that means your venue, suppliers and wedding staff are most likely passing those costs on to you. It’s a vicious circle, but The Wedding Arrangers are riding to the rescue with our top 8 money saving ideas to help slash your budget…

1) Street Food Weddings - save big on catering

If your wedding is at a dry hire venue or even in a marquee, you can’t help but have noticed the eye watering quotes for wedding catering. Sure, the food price itself looks reasonable at first, but by the time you add staff, hire (crockery, cutlery, napkins…), chef costs and kitchen appliances the costs have sky rocketed.

What if there was a way of slashing these costs almost entirely and yet still serving utterly delicious, crowd pleasing food? The answer you’re looking for? Street Food.

Our street food partners Chew That! have seen a huge growth in street food weddings (and other celebrations) over the last few years, and it’s easy to see why:-

• Food trucks are mobile kitchens ready to plug in - so let’s remove the kitchen hire costs

• Street food is served casually on disposables - so let’s remove all of that expensive china and silverware

• Street food vendors generally include their chef prices in their quotes - so no nasty surprises there

• Street food is served from the gazebo or truck, so we can reduce our staffing costs significantly

We asked the team at Chew That! to dispell some common street food wedding myths…

2) Shorter weddings cost less

It’s amazing how many clients start out their planning by considering a ceremony at around 12pm or 1pm with a reception venue that closes at 1am! That’s a 12 or 13 hour day! Ask yourself, honestly, how many meals do you eat in a 13 hour day? And it’s not just cutting back on the sustenance; bars, staffing and security are all charged at an hourly rate too.

If you need to trim your wedding budget, then reconsidering the timings is a great place to start. And not only will you save money, but it’ll keep your celebration snappy and lively too - avoiding those awkward lulls. Consider an 8 or 9 hour wedding day and watch those figures tumble.

3) Separate the ceremony and celebration

OK, this one is not for everyone, we understand that. But for a growing number of couples who see the ceremony itself as “just paper work”, it doesn’t make sense to invest in having registrars attend your venue (if a ceremony and party space in one) or even in the extra cost of a weekend ceremony venue and transport for all the guests. If the ceremony isn’t your biggest priority, why not save money by getting married mid week with an intimate, close family only ceremony at your local registry office. Hackney’s Lanchester Suite for instance is perfect for such an idea and costs less than £300 for a midweek ceremony. You could even then host a symbolic ceremony at your main celebration with a family member or friend as celebrant - with vows written to suit your style.

4) Ditch the open bar

Stop! Don’t slam closed your lap top, we know this might be controversial, but we guarantee that the drinks part of your budget is substantial. And whilst dry hire venues “don’t charge corkage”, you definitely are paying corkage because there’s glassware hire, bar tenders, bar kit, ice, garnishes etc to pay for on top of the drinks you’re buying and transporting to and from the venue. What if there was a way of providing a generous drinks package (as complimentary drinks for the reception & meal) and then running a heavily discounted cash bar in the evening? Your guests wouldn’t feel hard done to and you could save a decent chunk of change. Step up London Wedding Bars and their subsidised cash bar.

In a nutshell, this bar offer covers you for a generous welcome and meal drinks package from as little as £14.40 inc VAT per head and provides and evening cash bar with no minimum spend and standard drinks from only £4 each. All they ask is that you cover their ops costs, starting at £1000 + VAT. This covers all glassware, service, transport, ice, bar kit and drinks - so all of those figures magically disappear from your budget.

5) Out of season - winter weddings are hot!

You may have already read our previous blog post on why winter weddings are back in vogue, but it’s worth reiterating that many venues offer ‘out of season’ prices and that actually, in London, winter weddings can be pretty amazing. Many central London venues don’t have much in the way of outside space anyway! And if you book your venue out of season, you’re in a better position to negotiate prices with bands, photographers, DJs etc too. Many of these businesses price model to earn most of their money in the peak months, so your winter wedding may well just be a bonus job.

6) Hit the (sample) sales

We focus most of our activities in London. A city we have a love / hate relationship with…. We love, love, love the diversity, the culture, the restaurants, the amazing architecture, the history…. but, boy, we hate the prices! However, you can take advantage of one of the best shopping scenes in the world and make sure you’re hitting the sample sales for your dresses, suits and general outfits. Google is your friend here - as well as Chic Mi, a fantastic sale listing website.

7) Trim the photo budget

As you can see from the lovely shots in this post, we adore wedding photography. We’re immensely proud to work with some of the very best in the game, but if you’re planning a wedding on a tight budget, sometimes the fees can feel a little disproportionate. Why not consider your favoured photographers lower priced packages? Do you really need those ‘getting ready’ shots? Do you really need your photographer to shoot more than say an hour of dancing? If you can trim to an 8 hour package for instance, you can save whilst still receiving the photographs you really want.

8) Must have -vs- nice to have, or, don’t sweat the small stuff!

Sit down with your partner and draw up your must have and nice to have list. And be brutally honest about it. We guarantee that you’ll find savings are staring you in the face. Some of our previous items may well be in there (open bar? full service photography? traditional catering?) but you’re sure to find others. Can you live without the expensive neon sign? Will you really miss a photobooth? Whilst these kind of things are lots of fun, they’re not 100% essential. Trim down on fussiness (monogrammed napkins? Really?) and concentrate on the essentials. All the best parties are built out of three key elements - fantastic food, great music and a knock out bar. Put those first and you can’t go wrong!

9) Extra help

Want to discuss your wedding budget with an expert? Need a helping hand with finding the right venue for your budget? Have a venue but struggling to really make things work? We may well have the solution for you. Don’t be shy - get in touch today