Frugal wedding: personal experience

Today, August 18, 2018, on the day of “three eights day,” 1,205 couples will officially register their marriage in Moscow registry offices. The city will be filled with handsome grooms and brides glowing with happiness in snow-white dresses. The Moscow 24 portal tells you how much it costs to organize a wedding in the capital, and what holiday services you can afford within different budgets.

Photo: depositphotos/halfpoint

Many newlyweds are very careful about choosing a wedding date. According to the Moscow Civil Registry Office, such holidays as Red Hill and Family Day, Love and Fidelity are especially popular among residents of the capital for marriage. Against their background, Moscow City Day stands out especially clearly. “This year, on City Day, September 8-9, 1,865 couples plan to get married,” the press service notes.

Unfortunately, celebrating a wedding on “happy days” is not the key to a long and happy family union. The number of divorces for couples who got married on special calendar dates is no different from standard statistics. About two percent of families break up within the first year of marriage.

But while you are still planning your bright future and selecting the best ways to organize a wedding, we suggest you consider three options for holding a celebration in different budgets: 50, 300 and 800 thousand rubles.

Let's take the classic version of a small wedding for 50 people.

50 thousand rubles: food from the supermarket and a hotel room for the wedding night

Photo: depositphotos/pvstory

Suppose you are a postal operator with a salary of 25 thousand rubles, your future husband is a cashier in a chain store, he brings home 33 thousand rubles every month. And so he brings a ring, puts it on your ring finger, everyone cries and decides to get married. The total income allows us to allocate 50 thousand rubles for the event. What can you afford within this budget?

So, you will have to celebrate at home, since your budget will not support any venue. A large chain supermarket will be an excellent solution; food with inexpensive alcohol will cost you about 25 thousand rubles. You will have to prepare the salads yourself, having called all the bridesmaids in advance. Also, for the effect of a table “full” of food, we recommend using grandma’s pickles and jars of jam. By the way, you can entrust your granny to bake the wedding cake, which she will be incredibly happy about.

Whatever your financial capabilities, you cannot do without a photographer at such an important event. Within five thousand, you can find a beginner photographer without a portfolio or ask one of your friends to work part-time while others are having fun. Also, in your circle there will always be a person who can cope with the role of a DJ, and some funny relative will gladly take on the tasks of a toastmaster, and for free.

To prevent the newlyweds from spending their wedding night in the same apartment where guests who had a good time are lying with their faces in the salad, we advise you to take a room in a beautiful hotel. The bride will be delighted with the snow-white sheets strewn with rose petals. By the way, about the most important thing: a wedding dress can be bought on the Internet with delivery from China for seven to ten thousand rubles, and a suit for the groom can be bought in the mass market for six thousand.

Portal Moscow 24

Frugal wedding: personal experience

Wedding saving post or how we made a beautiful and economical wedding for 100 thousand rubles.

I will say right away that for those who believe that a wedding is such an important day in life that it is absolutely impossible to save money on a wedding, it is better not to read this post. But rational newlyweds with an average income, who do not fall for the tricks of the wedding industry, which I wrote about here, and who do not want to take out loans, are welcome.

It’s worth starting with the fact that the minimum asking price is 350 rubles. This is exactly how much the state duty for marriage will cost today. Everything else from the cover for the certificate to limousines, fireworks, buffet banquets is at the discretion of the young people.

Thanks to my impressive experience in PR, I have held a single event in my time and already knew what needed to be done immediately after submitting an application - create a table in Excel with all possible expense items. Then go to Google and find out what's what. Understand the average temperature in the hospital and enter it into the table. Having received the final amount, I began to figure out where I could trim the fat so that the wedding would be economical. In fact, this is a normal part of creating an estimate for any event. Which expense items can be safely waived, and which ones - under no circumstances.

For example, I could easily survive without video filming by delegating it to my younger sister. However, professional photos in places that are significant for our couple, a registry office in the city center, a honeymoon immediately after the painting, an exquisite image of the bride from the dress to the last hairpin are my priority. Therefore, the remarks “Why do you need a makeup artist? “My friend works at Oriflame,” she dismissed it right away.

Then, over the course of 7 months (about how long it took us to submit an application to the registry office) and until the last pre-wedding day, I supplemented the table with specific figures for various expense items. In the process I realized a lot of interesting things. For example, it is more economical to get married on a weekday from Monday to Thursday. If only because prices for rental vehicles are lower compared to weekends. Or have a wedding in winter. This option is not for everyone, but in this case, a winter wedding, unlike the popular summer season, will cost 25% less.

Frugal wedding: accessories

Pads and plates for rings are not needed. At least in St. Petersburg, in Wedding Palace No. 1. It's a small thing, but nice. The money saved can be put aside for a manicure.

You can buy glasses for newlyweds with patterns in Auchan for 150 rubles and decorate them yourself with braid and lace. I did just that, and also received sincere pleasure from this process. Where the price tag of 2,500 rubles per pair comes from is still a mystery to me.

Economical wedding: image of the bride and rings

A trial wedding hairstyle and makeup is 100% necessary. This is something I don’t advise anyone to skimp on. Even though I am an advanced user of Make-up Atelier makeup artists, and I know a lot about my color type, I still needed two trial hairstyles and two trial makeups to decide for myself and convey to the artist what I needed. In this case, samples can be done on the same day as a love story or a personal photo shoot. I rented a studio for this purpose, where my sister photographed me. We managed to combine business with pleasure and take fresh photos for social media. networks and website.

It's cheaper to get a manicure on a weekday morning if you look for special offers in salons.

Free trial hair and makeup can be done at one of the wedding exhibitions, for example, SPB WED EXPO, which takes place several times in the first half of the year. In the group on social media networks, you can make an appointment with your favorite makeup artist in advance, attaching a photo of the wedding invitation. I actively used these opportunities, but none of the images suited me. As a result, I still made the complete set again from my master Katya Nikolaeva. Bridal look (hair + makeup) – 5,000 rubles . Trial image – 3000 rub .

I refused the bride’s second dress (some people do this), and a double bouquet - I didn’t mind throwing my own at the people, but in the end I didn’t throw it at all. I also didn't have an engagement ring. There are cases where this is justified, but often following such “traditions” means feeding those who promote these ideas to the masses for their own enrichment.

The rings were made to order from a familiar jeweler - a family friend, after having old chains, earrings and unnecessary jewelry melted down.

Wedding dress for rent. For those who are not squeamish and do not believe in the superstition “renting a dress is happiness”, renting a wedding dress can save money and consider renting for the first time, paying 50% of the cost for a dress that no one has worn before. You can buy your own veil and keep it as a keepsake. Some people use it to lull children to sleep; they say it makes it easier for them to fall asleep. However, I had my own dress and veil, which I don’t regret one bit. I only rented a crinoline. A wedding dress in a salon with the happy name “Happiness” cost 22,300 rubles .

Also, my savings on the veil did not materialize. There was an idea to buy tulle at a fabric store and give it to a seamstress for hemming, but I never found the right fabric. I had to buy a ready-made veil for 3,500 rubles.

I didn't buy special shoes. And on the wedding day I wore the ones that exist – Marsala colors. Fortunately, they suited the bouquet well. And they were broken in, which allowed me to wear them all day long. The groom wore a classic black suit, for which we additionally bought only new trousers.

Prices for the same bridal bouquet vary up to 40-50% depending on the salon and florist brand. Yes, peonies are still very popular now, on which wedding salons are very eager to make a fortune, and which I eventually refused. We ended up ordering a bouquet with a boutonniere from Duty Free Flowers. The issue price is about 5000 rubles .

Other budget wedding options

At wedding exhibitions “Kingdom of Weddings”, “Black & White”, “At the Center of Wedding Discounts”, “My Wedding” and so on. You can stock up on discount flyers and when contacting companies, don’t forget about the code word “I’m from the exhibition.”

You can use promo codes from magazines like Bride Style, although I personally have never used them. And I didn’t buy magazines. I got all the ideas for inspiration from the websites The Wedding, Inspire Wedding, etc.

Cozy evening in the garden

The wedding of Zhenya and Katya is a real embodiment of comfort: a ceremony in the light of light bulbs, dinner at one long table, guests of all ages and a warm family atmosphere.
For the wedding, the newlyweds were looking for a quiet, cozy place somewhere on the outskirts of the forest. And then they suddenly realized that the ideal place was their home! They held the ceremony near a hundred-year-old willow tree, and accommodated all the guests at their place, so they eliminated the costs of the venue and hotel. We did a lot of things with our own hands: we planted a lawn, hung 200 meters of garland in the pouring rain, ordered flowers. And they completely refused the bride’s bouquet, because there was no one to throw it to.

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Advice from the bride: I would like to say that everything was easy, but in fact, the preparation was not so smooth. But this not only brought us together, but also showed once again that any problems can be solved together, that we have amazing friends who will always come to the rescue, and that everything that is done is for the better. The most important thing is not to forget that this day is for the two of you! Yes, the comfort of guests is very important, but it is not more important than your nerves. You shouldn't try to please everyone, and you definitely shouldn't be upset if something goes wrong! Enjoy this moment, and try to remember everything so that you can tell it to your grandchildren later.

Dmitry Tarasov and Anastasia Kostenko

Footballer Dmitry Tarasov, known to a wide audience as the ex-husband of Olga Buzova, got married to model Anastasia Kostenko . The athlete got married for the third time, but because of this the celebration did not become less magnificent. First, the newlyweds got married in the Church of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. And in the evening we had fun in the center of Moscow in the banquet hall of the Ritz-Carlton hotel with 150 guests.

The celebration was hosted by Victoria Lopyreva and Nikolai Baskov . The musical accompaniment of the evening was from Svetlana Loboda , Mota , Bianca and the cover band “Zhuliki”. The cake alone cost almost half a million rubles. According to estimates, the football player spent at least 15 million rubles on the wedding.

Pr Scr instagram.com / @kostenko.94

Alina Monosova and Pavel Kalturin

Businessman Pavel Kalturin married the daughter of the vice president of the Sistema financial corporation in Zavidovo, Tver region. At the Radisson Blu Resort, the towering banquet hall was designed to resemble the universe and was reminiscent of a set from the movie Avatar. The newlyweds themselves, together with the invited acrobats, soared in the air among fake planets and a scattering of stars.

The wedding itself, according to media reports, cost its organizers 60 million rubles, and this does not take into account the fees paid to famous pop singers who performed at the wedding. The Leningrad group, Dominic Joker and Polina Gagarina .

Earlier, the Federal News Agency reported that psychologist Marianna Abravitova compared the weddings of Olga Buzova and Anastasia Volochkova . According to her, on the territory of another state, marriages are not recognized as official, so the relationship cannot be called family.

Andrey Melnichenko and Alexandra Nikolic

The Russian entrepreneur, who is a regular participant in the Forbes list, married model Alexandra Nikolic in 2005. During the wedding ceremony, a copy of an ancient Russian chapel was installed in the courtyard of the villa. Guests at the wedding were entertained by Christina Aguilera , Whitney Houston and the ubiquitous Enrique Iglesias, who were brought to the lavish event. The artists received $3.5 million for their performance, and the entire wedding, according to experts, cost its organizers almost three million pounds.

Wedding agency St. Petersburg Skazka project /

Main nuances

To roughly determine how much a wedding will cost in 2022, you should answer several questions:

Time (winter will cost a little cheaper).
Source of finance (loan, parental help, own savings, etc.)
Number of invitees.
Wedding theme: a classic one will require less cost than a themed one.
Place of marriage registration: Civil registry office, away ceremony.
Banquet location: home, restaurant, cottage, etc.
Composition of wedding contractors: photographer, host, show ballet and others.
Availability of friends in the wedding industry, promotions for events.
When these questions are answered, an approximate plan for the cost of the wedding will be formed.