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Favors don’t have to be large or expensive. Some are elegant, some are practical and some are just plain fun. Choose a favor that reflects your wedding theme in some way. Many favor ideas can easily be interchanged with various themes just by substituting a decoration or color on the favor.

Budget For The Cost of Wedding Favors

When planning out your wedding budget, be sure to allot about 3% of your money toward favors. Make sure you know the approximate number of guests that will be attending your reception, then you will be better able to estimate the maximum amount of how much each favor can cost. The fewer guests that you have, the more expensive your favors can be, if you so choose.

When making or buying any favors, keep in mind the color scheme of your wedding and use ribbons, tulle, flowers, etc. decorations that reflect your wedding colors.

Once the favors are completed, attach personalized favor tags that have your names and wedding date printed on them. You can use paper tags or monogrammed ribbons that you either create yourself or purchase from a vendor. Some couples also add a small saying to their tags as well.

Delight Your Guests With Unique and Creative Favors

Wedding party favors are only limited by your imagination, so mix and match, and have fun creating your own unique bridal favors.

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One thing is now certain in today’s modern day weddings, when it comes to table favors anything goes. Your choices can now range from soap favors, box favors, tulle favors, candle and glass favors. You could choose from personalized boxes containing mints, truffles, potpourri and different fruit. Let’s not forget the famed bridal coffee packs and tea bags, or the fortune cookies with special messages enclosed.

But the latest hot trend in wedding table favors is - printed chocolates. They have gained such popularity because of their versatility as decorative, tasteful and unforgettable personalized gifts.

The products can be imprinted with the couples’ names, initials, special messages or unique custom designs. A wide choice of colors and wrappings are available to match the custom colour scheme and image you desire. A delight to the palate and the eyes these high-quality chocolates become a delicious personalized reminder of a beautiful evening.

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Unlike photographs, a video camera records sounds, action and more of the overall atmosphere of the event. Rather than focusing on just a few people like photographs, video can easily record a little bit of all of your guests.

The typical wedding video package costs anywhere between $500 and $1500, depending on the quality of the equipment, the number of hours of coverage, the number of cameras, the amount of editing, and other factors. As always, remember what’s most important to you, determine what you can afford, and go from there.

Recording Your Wedding on a Tight Budget
If you don’t have money in the budget for a professional videographer, you have other options. You could ask a close friend or family member with a video camera to record your wedding. Of course don’t expect the same quality and coverage that you would get from a professional videographer. Remember, is an awful lot to ask friend or family member to tape the bulk of the wedding day. So, the best way to ensure that your most precious moments get recorded is to make a list. Pick out only a handful of moments that you definitely want on tape, such as the bride walking down the aisle, exchanging vows and rings during the ceremony, the best man’s toast, the bride and groom’s first dance, etc. Then anything extra that gets on film is a bonus, but you have the important stuff covered.

Special Touches for the Video
A nice touch for your wedding video is to have your videographer or a friend wielding a video camera pull your guests aside throughout the night to record a personal message to the bride and groom. This is something that a friend did for us at our wedding, and it was absolutely wonderful to watch. This is a lovely way to record all of your friends and family who attended your wedding and adds a personal touch to the video.

Another nice idea for the wedding video is to record a short message from the bride and groom to each other. Arrange for the videographer to meet with the bride and groom separately right before the wedding ceremony. Each can talk to the camera as if they were talking to their soon-to-be other half. These messages truly capture all of the love and emotion of the couple on their wedding day. And they are so much fun to watch after the wedding and many years down the road!

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Your reception budget should consist of approximately 30% of your wedding budget or more. Most wedding receptions are so expensive due to the fact of providing meals, decorations, hall rentals etc.

For the purposes of this guide, I will give two different examples of common receptions and an idea for cutting costs on the food and drinks as well as give you the best tips for throwing your reception on a budget.

Renting a Hall

If you prefer to rent a hall or space for your reception, you must consider many things before making this decision. You will have to think of the prices for the hall rental, the cost of using their servers (most halls include servers in price and they are not negotiable), decorations, flowers, meals, drinks etc.

When you wish to rent a hall for your reception there are some things that the hall will include in your rental that you can’t avoid paying for such as: servers, decorations, and wine. However, some halls will give you the option to pick and choose the extras that you want.

Depending on the type of hall that you choose to rent, the costs can vary greatly. For example, if you rent a large hall, you could pay more than if you rented a legion hall.

You might also want to consider that if you are starting with a small budget, that renting a hall might not be worth the effort and money, or it may leave you with less options.

There are a few tips when renting a hall that could keep a great deal of your costs down. Let’s take a look at them.

1. You should only consider renting a hall if you have invited 50 or more people to your reception.

2. When renting a hall, you have to decide if you are opting for a cash bar or an open bar. A good compromise is to purchase a few cases of beer on your own and host a cash bar for those who want mixed drinks if you are trying to keep costs down.

3. Rent a hall that you can decorate yourself

4. If you must have servers, rent a hall that includes servers in the price of the rental or go with a hall that lets you bring your own.

5. Choose a hall that will cater to whatever your needs or budget is.

6. When it comes to the food, you should go with a hall that will allow you to bring your own food if you would prefer to not pay extra for catering.

7. Serving vegetable and fruit trays, as well as finger foods like finger sandwiches will be of great value in accommodating vegetarians

8. Opting for a casual reception will allow you to serve your food buffet style which will be predominantly cheaper.

9. Opting to tell people to forego giving you a wedding gift and serve a completely cash bar is a great way to accommodate guests and recover some of the money for the hall.

10. Opt for non-weekend dates because these are not peak hours for the hall and the prices may be cheaper

11. You should choose to host your event during the winter for the best rates

12. Negotiate a special discount by paying cash instead of credit card. Most reception halls will do this

13. Choose to go with a non-dinner reception offering instead snack foods and munchables

Hosting a wedding reception at a hall does not have to cost through the nose if you know how to get around the basics which I have just mentioned.

Most people would like to host their reception at a reception hall because they feel that it is more elegant than hosting it outdoors, however, this is not always the case. Sometimes, hosting your event outdoors is more fun and it is also much cheaper.

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