Cost-conscious couples save money with crazy wedding hacks

2024-07-30
Posted by PSEDEN

For Nova and Reemo Styles, getting married is a numbers game.

The couple dreamed of a lavish 12-hour affair for 350 guests, and they scoured New York City for wedding venues and vendors with a price tag of at least $150,000.

But rather than let the numbers faze them, the budget-conscious couple figured out how to keep costs down.

“We sold tickets to the wedding,” Nova, 30, a lifestyle influencer from the Bronx, told The Washington Post.

With invitations to the June 2023 wedding priced at $333 per person, the Styles’ paid guest list was whittled down to 60 people.

As the marriage between the post-pandemic wedding boom and the inflation crisis continues to wreak havoc on big-day budgets, American couples like the Styles are coming up with clever schemes to pull off a beautiful yet affordable “I do”.

The invitation fee earns attendees a seat at the St. Patrick’s Cathedral wedding ceremony, as well as a spot on the post-wedding party bus — a decorated double-decker bus that will escort attendees to New York City landmarks, including The Edge at Hudson Yards, for photo opportunities. The invitation fee also entitles guests to a deluxe lobster and steak dinner at the newlyweds’ reception at One World Trade Center.

This saved the newlyweds a whopping $70,000 — money they plan to put toward starting a family and possibly even setting up a foundation for future couples who undergo IVF treatment.

The Styles’ approach emphasizes that saving money is a top priority for today’s cost-conscious brides and grooms.

To keep expenses below the national average of $26,665, with venue rental and food being the most expensive necessities, couples are choosing to get married in unconventional locations like New York’s L line and outsourcing their post-wedding dinners to big-box stores like Costco instead of traditional caterers.

But budget-conscious bride Courtney Raine Quist may have broken that mold with her sunrise ceremony.

“My husband and I had a brunch wedding on a Monday morning,” the 27-year-old content creator told The Washington Post of her $10,000 May 2023 wedding.

She and husband Alex hosted a daytime bash at 10 a.m., where Nashville native Quest served mimosas and Pizza Hut pizza to guests, then invited them to hit the dance floor until the early afternoon.

The reception room was filled with artificial flowers from Hobby Lobby, which were discounted bulbs that brides resell for a profit after their wedding.

The Quest brothers received huge discounts on the costs of DJs, photographers and bartenders – they charged next to nothing for the off-peak parties.

“We paid for our wedding ourselves,” explained the bride, who is now pregnant with their first child. “We couldn’t bear to spend thousands of dollars in one day when we could have put that down payment on a house.”

Jai Toppin, 28, and her groom felt the same way this spring when they were planning a brunch dance.

“Financially, it makes more sense,” Topping, of Atlanta, said of her early-morning April 13 wedding.

After the 10 a.m. service, Toppins served chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, fresh fruit, homemade biscuits and other lunch menu staples to 180 guests.

The festive affair, along with flowers, a photographer and the dress she rented, cost the couple $20,000.

“The venues we looked at were charging between $40,000 and $80,000 for a traditional evening wedding,” Topping said, adding that she and Wayne plan to use the money they save on a lavish honeymoon in Europe next April.

“We didn’t want to have a big lavish wedding,” the brunch fanatic explained. “We wanted to do something that symbolized our love.”

And when it comes to weekday weddings, Manhattan bride-to-be Caroline Spain went above and beyond the city limits to pull off her dream wedding at an affordable price.

“We’re planning a destination wedding in Ireland on a Thursday this October,” the 27-year-old East Village resident said of her cross-border wedding to her fiancé Stephen. Spain, who is Spanish, met Stephen Rompante, an Irishman who now lives in New York, in 2018 while studying abroad in France.

Rather than hosting the event in New York, where a venue would have cost $100,000 to host a Saturday party, the couple chose to celebrate their global romance with a $30,000 midweek gala.

“Spending hundreds of thousands on an extravagant wedding feels like it’s for someone else,” said Spahn, who will marry his wife at a castle near Dublin.

“Save money,” she added, “and do something low-key that reflects our relationship.”