With the credit crunch looming over our heads, it’s no wonder more people are opting for a beach wedding.  The bride and groom can incorporate their honeymoon and wedding together. Beach weddings also cost less, even with the hotel and flights; there are usually package deals where everything including food and entertainment is all inclusive.
There are some things to think about if you think this type of do is for you!

• Choose your location wisely.  A beach wedding will obviously require a beach!  Does your location have a stunning location where weddings can be conducted?  Is it somewhere that your guests can easily enter with a British passport?  Is it ridiculously expensive or affordable – can you get a discount for a certain amount of people go?

• Beach weddings tend to be more casual – are you happy with this?

• It will likely be hot – sounds obvious but some people don’t cope well with warm weather.  Will you end up sweating into your dress or will you be you able to cope (and your guests?)

• Check the legalities of that country; who can marry you?  More importantly, is the marriage official when you get home!

• Tailor your menu and dress accordingly – Remember in a warm place people want light food and lots of refreshing drinks.  Your dress should be lightweight and comfortable, and one you don’t mind getting sand or seawater on!

• Mother Nature normally has her own way – which means even in the peak of summer in the middle of Barbados, it can rain.  It can be windy, and the tides can rise – you can never predict what will happen, ever when it comes to nature.  However, who is to say that it won’t rain if you have a wedding outside your front door!

• In hot locations there will also be bugs.  Plenty of people get bitten on holiday but it’s not ideal for children, the elderly or for the bride and groom!  Bring insect repellent and you can even use plug in repellents for the rooms.

• Make sure you have a good area for the reception – if you put chairs in the sand for example they will sink.  It is well worth using an all inclusive wedding package or hiring a planner from the location as they will know the best way to run the event.

Wherever you decide to get married, it is always worth trying to negotiate cost-saving options into each and every contract you sign. Here are some great places to get started:

Provide your own alcohol: Clubs and hotels that require you to purchase their alcohol do it for a reason - selling booze is their bread and butter. If you were to buy in bulk at your local supermarket or wine warehouse, not only would you get substantially better prices, but you should also be able to return unopened bottles after the event. Supplying your own booze for the reception and the toasts is definitely something to explore. In practice, most places that will agree to this will charge you a “corkage” fee (usually between £5 - £10 per bottle). Even with a corkage fee, it’s worth running the numbers, as the potential savings could still be quite large.

Choose an all-inclusive caterer: If you can get your caterer to includes china, tablecloths, and silverware in their price quotes, this can also be a real cost saver in the long run. Unless you’re obsessed with tabletop designs, it’s best to stick with what they have to offer instead of dealing with hiring outside rental vendors and coordinating the whole thing yourself. When all is said and done, do you really care about the difference between moss- or seafoam-colored tablecloths?

Be aggressive with your negotiations: It’s tempting, especially when you are going through a quote with a different vendor for the 5^th time, but don’t just say OK when a vendor quotes a price. There are two types of negotiation techniques. Position based and value based. Most people only consider position based negotiation. That is to say, the vendor wants £100 but you are only prepared to pay £50. There is a lot of research that shows position-based bargaining will usually end up in the middle if a deal is struck is at all, so if you take this route, go in much lower than what you actually want to pay. Be advised though, position-based negotiation is really hard work and wears you down quite quickly. Value-based negotiations are always to be preferred as they are about creating win-win situations and creating value for both parties in the process. For example, the vendor may want £100 but only because it will cost them £25 to get someone to deliver and pick up the items. If you can get someone you know to take care of this, the vendor may well be a lot more willing to give you the discount. In practice, value-based negotiations involve coming up with creative solutions. In order to be successful you need to trade off what is valuable to you with what is valuable to the vendor. Where the value is not equal, there is room for negotiation.

Always read the fine print: You’re in the moment, everyone is dancing and you’re feeling the love. And the clock is ticking. When you signed the contract, you figured four hours would be plenty of time, but now the party isn’t nearly over. Don’t get stuck in that situation. Read the fine print well ahead of time and find out how much extra hours will cost you (if you’re allowed them at all). Some venues charge as much as £500 per hour if you go over your allotted time, not to mention service charges to keep people around. If you have your wedding at an off-time, perhaps negotiate an extra buffer hour as a “value added,” an option or service which is included for free in lieu of discounts on the services you’ve already requested.

Taken individually, the fact that you’ll usually end up paying extra for tablecloths, silverware, table rentals and glassware does not seem like such a big deal. But every single one of these items (multiplied by a hundred or two hundred, depending on how large your guest list is) can send shockwaves through your system. Just how much will all this cost? here is an illustrative breakdown:

ITEM PRICE TOTAL (PER 100 GUESTS)

Wow. Those prices can add up fast! If you choose a venue that doesn’t include full place settings, tables, chairs, and glassware, you can figure on adding an additional £700 to your total venue budget. Remember, these numbers are for the low-end of the rental scale. It’s very easy to get carried away with more expensive options! These added charges provide some real incentive to opt for “all inclusive” venues such as a restaurant or a private club, which include all dinnerware in the price. Your final total will be far less than it would be if you rent out that blank space that would require you to furnish it from top to bottom.

If you are not getting married in a church, bundling the location of the ceremony and reception can be a beautiful thing in more ways than one. For a start, your floral budget will benefit, because you will be able to move arrangements from one end of the room to another when you move from the ceremony to the reception.

Timing Is Everything

Once you’ve settled on the where, it’s equally important to figure out the second most fiscally important factor: the when. Sure, you may envision a lush spring wedding to savor the full bloom of that time of year, but so do thousands of others, so be prepared to pay top whack to see your fantasy come to fruition.

Best seasons: Summer and spring are the most popular seasons for weddings. Opting for the Autumn or Winter can save you serious cash.

Top Tip: Find out when the FA Cup Final Saturday is. This can be a money saver if you and your intended (and your closest friends and family) aren’t that into football!

Best months: In general, the most budget-friendly months for weddings are those between November and March, as they fall into the wedding off-season. Select any other month to get lower prices on rental items and from vendors. Off-season discounts can come in various forms, whether it’s a percentage off the total rental cost, or “value add extras” – i.e. extras included in the prices, like free sound system hire or free cleanup.

Best weeks: Most people don’t think of the week between Christmas and New Year’s as a wedding week, but that’s precisely why it’s a good time! People generally have time off work to travel, and prices are lower since it’s a slow time for weddings. Avoid the week around the super-popular wedding date of Valentine’s Day, when Cupid’s arrow strikes directly at your bank account.

Best time of day: An evening wedding is considered the classic, with dinner, dancing, and cocktails. However, if your budget will be super-stretched, shift the time of the event, and your prices will drop significantly. A late-afternoon wedding won’t call for the same quantity of food. You can have substantial amounts of appetizers passed around or a buffet, rather than a sit-down, four-course meal. Also, your booze budget will be far less, as people tend to drink less in the afternoon than they do in the evening. Similarly, a lunchtime affair will be less expensive than dinner. Avoid, however, pushing an event up to the morning just to save a buck. It will lose a certain degree of elegance if people have just rolled out of bed and are bleary-eyed as you’re walking down the aisle. Here comes the who?!

Whatever part of the country you choose to have your wedding in, it will pay to be an intrepid consumer. In the city, country, or suburbs, you can employ numerous cost-saving strategies to shave back your venue budget. In the UK, you have to get married in a church, at the registry office or at certain registry-office approved locations. But the reception you can have anywhere – after all, it’s just a big party!

Hotels: Though the initial rental price may be less than elsewhere, extra charges at hotels can add up fast, making your total bill much higher than at almost every other type of venue. It’s important to ask from the outset about every single charge they could potentially bundle in… and then ask them what you’ve missed and make it a part of the contract that they have listed out every single type of charge that is likely to occur (in their experience). Don’t underestimate the creativity a venue can use in order to add chargeable services.

Join the club: If you are a member of a local club, you can investigate using their facilities. For example, there have been several wedding receptions at my local cricket club. But you may belong to other professional or social organizations, where being a member could mean a substantial discount on the usual venue hire rates.

Help from the government: Presumably, you pay taxes. Here’s your chance to reap the rewards. Call your local council and speak to the person in charge of the council Parks to find out if it has venues that can be rented out for big events. Every region has its own historic properties on well-maintained grounds. Best of all, public places run by city organizations have wallet-friendly prices.

Check the estate agent listings: That’s right. If there’s a local mansion that’s been on the market for months, call up the estate agent and find out if the seller might be willing to rent it out for a night and squeeze a little cash out of their 10,000-square-foot wallet-drainer. It’s not as unlikely as it might sound.

Outdoor weddings, from your backyard to the beach. It might seem romantic and low-key, but outdoor weddings have sizable surcharges associated with them – especially due to the unpredictability of the UK weather – a marquee rental is a must. Also factor in rental charges for absolutely everything else, from tables and chairs to silverware, linens and glasses.

You should use every available resource and contact you have. If you went to university, perhaps see if you can have your reception in the college grounds. Now is the time to call in all favours, because it can make a significant difference in the quality and the cost of your wedding.