Budgeting for a romantic but inexpensive wedding 2
WHO IS PAYING?
Traditionally, the bride’s parents foot the bill. In the not too distant past a young woman would stay in her parents’ home until she got married and left to start her own household. For this reason it has always been tradition that the bride’s parents pay for the cost of the wedding.
Times have changed, though, and even if a woman lives with her parents until the day of her wedding not all parents are prepared, or willing, to be solely responsible for all the expenses associated with the wedding.
If your parents have never approached the subject with you then you might want to approach them. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that they have quietly been stashing money away monthly for a wedding fund.
You might conversely find that they respond to your question with a big, bellowing laugh because the thought had never occurred to them to start a wedding fund for you. This can serve as a pretty good indicator that you are on your own when it comes to paying for the wedding.
Some parents will still want to kick in some money for the wedding even if they can’t pay for the entire shindig, and if that’s the case consider yourself fortunate to have the help. Your parents spent quite a bit of money raising you from infancy, and if they can’t afford to help pay for your wedding you should give them a break. Making them feel guilty about not paying for the whole wedding is counterproductive and will merely result in bad feelings.
Many couples pay for their own weddings nowadays.
There are a good amount of men and women who leave their parents’ homes long before ever getting married. Because of this, many parents no longer feel obligated to pay for their daughters’ weddings as they once would have.
The upside to this lack of financial support is that in theory you and your fiancé should be able to call all the shots when it comes to planning the wedding. Since you aren’t relying on someone else to foot the bill you don’t necessarily have to take other people’s opinions into consideration.
This is true in theory, of course, but in reality many couples still feel as though they should listen to their parents and other close relatives when it comes to the planning process.
Just remember that if you are footing the bill then you have the final say in absolutely everything. If your mom insists upon lilies instead of roses for your bouquet but you couldn’t care less then tell her she can make the final decision…if she pays for them.
Some people ask guests to pay for their own meals.
Some wedding receptions are incredibly expensive and rival some of the swankiest soirees on the social scene. When couples desire an elegant wedding reception in the most extravagant setting then they are setting themselves up for an expensive affair indeed.
A new trend is emerging where couples actually have reception guests pay for their own meals.
How does a couple go about this? In the invitation there is a menu selection and then the responding guests are asked to return the RSVP card with a check included to cover the cost of the meal. Some couples go so far as to ask for one blanket fee, almost like an admissions fee, regardless of what the guest selects for their dinner at the reception.
Let’s look at this logically. If you and your fiancé simply cannot afford to pay for your guests meals then you may want to look at having a less expensive reception. If that still does not free up enough money to pay for everyone’s meals or if instead you simply do not have the desire to pay for your guests to eat then you might want to consider skipping the reception and instead having some sort of party at a restaurant or other setting where the guests will understand that they are obligated to pay for their own meals.
It is simply bad form to ask guests to pay an entrance fee to your wedding, and some may claim it is downright rude. After all, your guests are taking the time to come to your wedding and spent the money to bring a gift. You should return the favor and thank them for attending with some sort of food to eat. Really, most people would probably prefer a reception with free cocktail weenies and crackers rather than have a delicious poached salmon that they need to pay for.
Our next article in this series of four on budgeting for romantic weddings looks at reducing unnecessary spending.
No Comments
Planning a Romantic Wedding
 |