Weddings are expensive for everyone involved, not just the couple. Guests buy gifts for the many celebrations and sometimes also have to cover their travel costs. Your wedding party has these costs, plus the many expenses that come with looking perfect for your big day. Make things easier for your wedding party by noting ways to cut costs to help keep everyone on their budget! Some great ways to do this include:
- Rethinking wedding attire
- Reducing travel expenses
- Letting them skip gifts
In the below guide, we’ve further detailed how you can go about each option to help your wedding party save a bit of cash on your big day.
Saving Money on Wedding Attire
Wedding attire is one of the most expensive components of your romantic day for everyone standing up. Your bridal party has both the regular costs of a guest plus the cost of the required outfits. But this doesn’t mean they have to spend several hundred dollars, nor should it.
Tips for Bridesmaids
The wedding attire can get especially expensive for your bridesmaids because they have to:
- Purchase the dress and shoes
- Buy accessories
- Pay for professional hair and makeup
The dress alone often costs several hundred dollars without alterations. Likewise, professional hair and makeup are expensive, and all of this can snowball into a bill of nearly a thousand dollars.
By investigating the price of being a bridesmaid, you can better understand how much you are asking of your inner circle. Most bridesmaid dresses cost around 150 dollars, and the price of alterations can vary, but the minimum tends to be approximately 45 dollars. Next comes professional makeup, which tends to be about 200 dollars after the tip. This already gets you to nearly 400 dollars, and we’ve only calculated the bare minimum; this doesn’t count shoes, accessories, or gifts.
Get Flexible With the Dress and Shoes
Begin cutting costs by getting flexible with the dress you have your lovely ladies wear. Rather than requiring everyone to look uniform and wear the same dress, set a specific color or pattern that everyone will wear. You can also put restrictions on dress style.
For example, ask your bridesmaids to wear a red or knee-length red dress rather than pick out one dress for everyone. This way, you can bring your vision to life, and your team of loyal bridesmaids can decide whether they want to buy a new dress or wear something they own.
This same rule applies to the shoes. If your bridesmaids wear a floor-length gown, the shoes don’t matter much since no one will see them. Instead, ask the bride squad to wear a specific heel color to keep things a bit uniform yet flexible. Many brides have their team wear nude, silver, or black heels since these are wardrobe staples that most ladies already own.
Don’t Require Professional Hair and Makeup
Although you may want everyone to look perfect, that doesn’t mean they need to get professional hair and makeup. This is expensive and not on budget for everyone. Friends and relatives standing up at your wedding shouldn’t feel pressured to pay such high prices. Instead, make this an option and establish restrictions for anyone doing things themselves. For example, ask everyone to use nude eyeshadows and strive for a natural look.
If most of your bridal party chooses to do their own hair and makeup, ask them to show you how it will look before the wedding. Consider doing a trial run at the bridal shower or girl’s night with your squad! This way, you won’t have to stress about things going awry on the day of the wedding.
Gift Them an Accessory
Most type-A people like everything to appear uniform, which is perfectly fine. But requiring your team to purchase a specific accessory on top of the dress, potential alterations, shoes, and more gets expensive. Rather than ask them to buy this accessory, give it to them as their bridesmaid gift at the wedding.
Tips for Groomsmen
The groomsmen usually have it easy since their main expense is the tux. Many experts recommend you allow them to rent their tux, offer various options, and don’t require accessories like cufflinks. If you want them to wear a specific accessory, gift it to them so they have it for the wedding and other formal events where it may be necessary.
Evaluate Various Suit Options
While many name-brand suits seem tempting, they’re also expensive, even for rent. Evaluate various brands and compare the quality to the price. A tux should look great but shouldn’t cost each groomsman a couple of hundred dollars.
Rent Dress Shoes
The groomsmen can rent both their dress shoes and tux. This is a lot cheaper than buying new shoes and an easy way to keep everyone looking uniform.
Cut Travel Expenses
Depending on where everyone lives, some members of the wedding party may need to travel, which is another cost some couples may overlook. Some great ways to help cover these costs include:
- Reserving hotel space: typically, this gets all wedding guests a discount
- Searching out an Airbnb: Help the wedding party rent a house to share
- Accommodating transportation: Verify if hotels offer free shuttle services to guests
Helping your wedding party with these travel accommodations can make a difference as they budget the costs of standing up for your wedding.
Skip Destination Weddings
If you want a destination wedding, take a step back to weigh the pros and cons. Often, this becomes even more expensive for your entourage. If everyone lives in the same areas, requesting they fly somewhere, pay for a hotel, and cover the many other expenses is a big ask.
Gifts Aren’t Necessary
There are a lot of celebrations before a wedding, as many couples have the following parties before the wedding:
- Engagement party
- Wedding shower
- Bachelor and bachelorette party
Asking your wedding party to bring gifts to these events plus the wedding becomes expensive. Consult your partner on things first, but it’s safe to say you can probably let them off the hook for all these gift-giving events. Remind your squad that they don’t need to give you anything because their presence and support at such an exciting milestone mean more than any material object.
A Closing Note
Now that you’ve noted how to cut costs for the wedding party, decide which options will work for your vision. You may have a bridesmaid dress already in mind, and as long as it’s affordable, this is perfectly fine. But you may want to reduce costs in other areas, like not requiring special accessories and reminding them that they don’t need to bring a gift to every occasion. Consider including specific accessories in your groomsman and bridesmaid gift proposal idea to help your wedding party save money.
Your wedding should be a fun, celebratory time for everyone. When you cut costs for your loyal squad, you show them how much you appreciate their presence beside you. Keep your wedding on budget for everyone so you can party without regrets.
