With wedding bells ringing galore, a few new brides and brides-to-be share their saving tips with Avril-Ann Braganza
Plan your budget
Have a budget for broader categories so that you are aware of the feasibility of funds allotted to save and spend accordingly. Brides suggest that you start by planning what's the maximum you can spend. Then make 20% of that your budget. So even if your budget doubles or triples, you will still have some buffer. “We started with the bare minimum we wanted for the wedding and then the costs involved for a venue, food, basic clothes and make-up. Then we verified the affordability. We actually had 3-4 contingency funds, and we started dipping into them only when we had to,” says Aditi Bose, a new bride.
Prioritise and know what you want
Do you want the best photographer at your wedding or is the food of more importance? Decide what your priorities are and ensure that it is taken care off first. Aditi shares her experience, “I had a been freaking out about how costly a wedding can be since my cousins started getting married. So over the years, I developed a clear idea of what I want and what my family wanted. I wanted a candid photographer, my mom wanted to give me a huge trousseau and so on. For our family, there was only one trick to balancing it out—argue like mad, then make up and arrive at a priority”.
Do your research
There is always a way grabbing a good deal of what you want, but you will have to hunt for it. Look around, ask friends who recently got married about the best deals. Simultaneously take note of any pocket-friendly options of getting what you want so that you can put it all to use during the wedding. Secondly, the biggest chunks of expenses tend to be the venue, food, guest accommodation and vendors (decorator, photographers, etc). Look out for hacks (like find a well-maintained venue to minimise decoration costs, etc) A bit of research can help you out there. “Even before the date was set, my mom and I had seen at least 20+ venues across two cities. So when it came to booking a venue (where time is of the essence),we knew a good deal when we saw one,” shares Aditi. More often than now, you will find something better or cheaper somewhere else after you have already bought or committed yourself to something.
Think long term
99% of the time, you will not wear your bridal outfit again, so you might want to think again before you decide to spend a few lakhs on it. “I know weddings happen just once (for most of us) and you want it to be perfect, but spending a fortune to use or wear something for a few hours (literally) and never to use it again will definitely seem like a waste once the wedding is over–like my lehenga! I cannot use it again for another wedding without looking like the bride. Other examples would be wedding cards, huge menu for the dinner, parlour expenses.” You can still find something classy and within your budget that you can wear on another occasion.
Miscellaneous tips
It is easy to get fooled because you are getting married and people try to sell you stuff under that pretext of how perfect things should be, to maximise their profits. So make sure the money people quote is reasonable.
Most of the bridal beauty packs are ridiculous! Follow your regular beauty regimen and then leave it to the make-up artist. It would be wiser to spend on getting a good make-up artist as a bad one can mess things up even if your skin is beautiful.
Plan an off-season wedding.
If you pick any month other than December, you will find everything more economical. “We wanted an outdoor wedding, amidst nature. However it was the monsoons so it was not very easy to find an outdoor venue. Through a common friend we came across an environmental organisation spread across a huge natural landscape near the city and with only a donation to her organisation and money spent on getting the place ready for the wedding we got our venue. With a pandal erected at the venue, the nature was the decoration. Hence we did not spend much on the decoration either. There were plenty of trees, plants, flowers around. We could hear peacocks and birds chirping during the main rituals. And fortunately it did not rain that day. The reception was much grander than the wedding, but as it was an off-season wedding and the wedding lawns were not going to be booked for the whole season, we got it for a third of the price than what it would be in the peak wedding season,” shares Saylee Sholapurkar.
With inputs from Saylee Sholapurkar, Aditi Bose and Ankita Sadre
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