Wedding season on a budget: couples cut guest lists first, keep the photographer

When Lina and Mateo started planning their wedding last winter, the first quote from a hotel venue near Riverton came to more than 20,000 euros. In the end, they married in her parents’ garden in Westmoor this September, with 42 guests, a hired long table, string lights borrowed from friends and a local food truck.

“We realized we were about to spend a year’s savings on one evening for people we barely see,” Lina said. “The garden was the best decision we made.”

They are far from alone. A survey of 1,400 couples who married this year, carried out by the national association of wedding planners, found that average spending fell by 12 percent compared with last year, while the average guest list shrank from 110 to 75 people.

What goes first

The guest list is the biggest single saving, couples say, because almost every other cost, from food to chairs, depends on it. After that, couples cut the extras: printed invitations replaced by digital ones, fewer flowers, no favors for guests and simpler cakes.

The traditional checklist has been rewritten. Couples now ask what they’ll actually remember in ten years, and spend on that.

Rosa Albrecht, wedding planner in Elmbridge

Venues are changing too. Gardens, community halls and family farms are now booked months ahead, and more couples choose Friday or Sunday weddings, when many venues charge up to 40 percent less. Autumn and early spring dates are also more popular than they were a few years ago.

What couples keep

Most couples are not cutting everything. In the survey, the photographer was the item couples were least willing to drop, followed by good food and music for dancing.

“People skip the chair covers and the champagne tower, but they won’t skip the photos,” said Albrecht. “That’s what they show their children.”

Planners also see more couples splitting the celebration: a small ceremony and dinner for close family, followed by a relaxed party with friends a few weeks later, often with guests bringing food.

For Lina and Mateo, the money they saved is now part of a deposit on their first apartment. “Nobody at our wedding missed the expensive extras,” Mateo said. “They remember the speeches and the dancing on the grass.”