2016 Aug 11
By Ridmi Upeksha
Your wedding day is one of the most special days that you could be waiting for your entire life. So planning your actual wedding to match your dream wedding day is a real time problem most couples go through. Since it is one of the most special days of your life, most of us tend to go off budgets and make irrational decisions when it comes to spending money on things. Because the whole idea is to make your dream wedding come true, we tend to give whatever it takes to make it happen. But keeping unrealistic hopes to achieve your dream wedding with a tight budget, or spending money last minute because you feel like you are not getting what you dream’t of are two mistakes that all couples should look out for, and not to make it when planning your wedding. Keeping a marginal budget is an essential item on planning your wedding, and to bring down your imagination of achieving your dream wedding to match that magic number you gave is also another important item on planning your wedding list. Having a budget to spend on your décor doesn’t limit you of creating the beautiful wedding that you dream’t of. Having a small intimate ceremony and a reception with only your truly loved ones, smart choices in which flowers you want to use, choices in selecting meal options of the dinner are few items on the list which will allow you to keep to your budget to a minimum and to let you create a magical wedding day for yourself. Following are 5 hacks you could do to keep your wedding budget to a minimum and have the memorable wedding you always wanted.
- Select a memorable location instead of a banquet hall
The main reason why most couple’s select a banquet hall is because they have guest lists that go above triple digits. Or sometimes it’s the convenience of meal options, travel, and reliability that the hotel offers. But sometimes it is because your parents think it’s best to have it in renowned hotel in the country. Keeping all these reasons aside, if you are the dreamer and the spender of your wedding, make sure you do it the way you want it. Let yourself understand that you only need your close family and friends on your wedding day besides you and to offer them the best things you can. Selecting a place of your dreams for the ceremony and reception is your responsibility so do your research and find the best spot in the country to do it. With the location selected, and keeping your guest list open only to your closest friends and family, you are given with an opportunity to design your wedding with the extra money that you have in hand. Now you are free of the closed banquet walls, given a chance to create your wedding possibly out of Colombo the way you want.
- Have local flowers used in the ceremony and the reception
Secondly, the most crucial and expensive aspect of your wedding, is the wedding décor. Brides go out of their way sometimes when it comes to selecting flowers for their wedding. For example, they ask for tulips, peonies internationally grown flowers to be in their wedding décor. One thing you should understand is that, even though florists are willing to bring down whichever the flower you want, the amount of money that you have to spend on that, and also sometimes the risk of flowers being damaged are two things that every bride should look out for. Not to completely eliminate non-local flowers from your wedding, only to have an equal proportion of local and non-local flowers for your wedding to make it look breathtaking. You could design your ceremony completely with local wild flowers giving it a minimal look, and design your reception décor with flowers you wanted to surprise your guests.
- Hire local photo and videographers
Photo and videography coverage of the wedding is another important part of planning your wedding, as it will be the memory of your wedding that’s on film that you could keep forever. Couples sometimes tend to hire foreign photo and videographers because of their repertoire, or popularity. But Sri Lanka now has a variety of photo and videographers that fits your requirements and ideas. Starting from a very reasonable wedding photo and video coverage rate, there are absolutely talented and friendly photo and videographers now in Sri Lanka. So think twice and do bit of a research when you select your wedding photo/videographer.
- Have a three or two piece acoustic band for the wedding reception
Not only at the wedding ceremony, you can also have a three piece acoustic band for the wedding reception as well. To create a smooth dinner time with good enjoyable music is a must on your special day. Selecting an acoustic band will create a calm, enjoyable, and hassle free atmosphere at the actual dinner time. An intimate wedding reception with calm music is barely seen these days, and it sure is something that every couple should rethink about when hiring a band for your wedding day. If you still want your hyped up music to dance to later in the night you could have your own playlist created to enjoy rest of the night.
- Get involved in your wedding décor, find out DIY items that you could do by yourself and supply them
Not to be a bride who pokes into the florist or the wedding planner’s job, but if you coordinate with your wedding planner or florist about décor detail and tell them your ideas you can supply your own soft touches to add on to the actual wedding. Browse through cute wedding DIY stuff that you could make online, and if there are any that you like or wanted, hand-made them before your wedding and supply them to your wedding planner to add them into the actual wedding day. The feeling you get whilst making them and to know that you helped out on making your wedding day even better by supplying your own soft touch items is a feeling that you don’t want to miss out on.
