Is your wedding coming up? I’m sure you have a long list of things to buy and pay for. One thing’s for sure, your wedding will cost a relatively high amount of money. However, you can help yourself by ensuring that you don’t spend. You can minimize the cost of your Nigerian wedding by removing a lot of things that aren’t a necessity. Below are 10 tips you can follow;
1. Don’t Invite Many People
By inviting a small number of guests, you can save money on wedding catering and venue costs. Limit the quantity of guests you’ll be inviting and stick to your decision. Even a single more guest can result in a significant increase in your wedding costs that exceeds your financial ability to pay. As a result, consider twice before handing out invitation cards to people on your street or at your place of business.
2. Print Less Invitation Cards
Save money on invitation cards by inviting your friends and colleagues using WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, bulk messages, emails, and other digital means. Only older guests, such as your parents’ acquaintances, should get invitation cards. This should reduce the cost of invitation cards by approximately 50% or more.
Ensure to inform individuals in the text messages that they should regard the text messages to be their official invitation to the wedding.
3. Hold both the wedding ceremony and reception at the same location
A popular method to save money on your wedding celebration is to combine your religious joining ceremony and reception into one location. This way, you can avoid having to pay for two separate venues. It’s a very simple tips which is also very effective.
4. Do the white and traditional wedding on the same day
Choose to have both your white and traditional weddings on the same day in order to save money on feeding your guests twice. If the two weddings cannot be held on the same day for whatever reason and you still want to save money, invite only your family and a few of your closest friends to the traditional wedding so that you can host the white wedding for a larger group of people.
5. Try to avoid scheduling your wedding during a busy month or week
Most large and expensive wedding venues, such as hotel ballrooms, are less expensive on weekdays. You should take advantage of the cost savings opportunities. Also, knowing that the majority of your visitors will be at work and that only a few of your most important guests will make the effort to be there.
As you are aware, every single additional guest raises the expense of the wedding, so you must find a way to decrease the number of people in attendance and the number of undesired guests. Avoid popular Nigerian wedding months such as December, April for Easter, popular public holidays, and choose a weekday rather than a Saturday to reduce the likelihood of uninvited too many guests showing up to your reception.
6. Don’t buy new jewelry
For the traditional or white wedding, you can hire or use your old jewelry. This is mainly for the ladies, you should avoid buying new jewelry if you really want to save cost. You can borrow jewelry from your mother or sisters. There’s nothing wrong with it and there’s no way anyone will notice that you are not wearing new jewelry.
7. Don’t buy Diamond rings
If you want to save money on your wedding rings, consider purchasing a ring with cheaper precious stones rather than an expensive diamond wedding ring. The cheaper precious stones are not just less expensive, they are also beautiful. Most of your favorite celebrities are opting for non-diamond engagement and wedding rings.
For example, the royal bride, Kate Middleton, chose a sapphire as the stone for her engagement ring, while Facebook founder, Matt Zuckerberg, chose a ruby ring as the engagement ring for his bride. So look at other beautiful non-diamond wedding rings which are significantly less expensive.
8. Don’t Buy New Shoes
Wearing one of your old, but not damaged, or an inexpensive pair, and then purchasing an extremely long wedding gown style that will conceal your shoes can allow you to save money on wedding shoes. A long wedding gown will make it hard for others to realize that you are wearing shoes, and you will save money by not having to purchase pricey wedding shoes.
The same could apply to the gown. It is feasible to rent a stunning, in-vogue wedding gown that flatters your form for a considerably lesser price than it would be to purchase one out of the blue. There are numerous bridal and rental stores that provide this service throughout Nigeria; you can find them everywhere.
9. Make your hair and makeup at the salon
You’ll spend more to have a makeup and hair stylist come to your home for a home-service, so save money by visiting the salon to do your hair. Go to the hair salon the day before your wedding, or at least four hours before, to do your wedding day hair and make up, rather than having the stylist come to your bridal suite. This will save you money because you will not be charged for home service.
10. Have less groomsmen and bridesmaids
Your wedding won’t be complete without the groomsmen and bridesmaids. However, this doesn’t mean that you should have a train of 20 bridesmaids and groomsmen. Remember that you have to spend money on suits and gowns that they will wear. Therefore, you can save money by having less groomsmen and bridesmaids. You can also ask the groomsmen and bridesmaid to purchase their clothes themselves.
Conclusion
There you go! The above 10 tips will help you minimize the cost of your Nigerian wedding and save money.