Wedding 101 : Budgeting
1. Preparation is the key
In order to get a cheaper price from a wedding vendor, I booked literally a year before the D day. For instance, during my visit to the decor vendor, I overheard him talking with other clients and charge them a 140% of my price, which took me by surprise, and later he explained that I am lucky at the beginning because I already paid the Down Payment for 'locking' the price valid in a year before..
2. No fancy car rent needed.
I tried my best to not to hold this wedding based on other people's concept of the wedding reception itself. But if I did it purely based on what's in my mind, I would ended up held it as a garden party with super limited guests. The thought of being the king and the queen in a day is nice, but still I don't get why people spend money to rent a fancy car decorated with flowers and ribbons just to carry them around the street in no longer than an hour? (I know that the car would be around the venue (for the guests to look at?) during the reception but for Godsake it's only for 3-4 freakin' hours to be exact). And what's the point of it when your wedding photographer skipped to take a photo of the car? #edisicurhat
Therefore I asked permission to A to use his for the wedding car instead. Not only is the car in a very good condition, but also it has many memories for us <3 It deserves in every way to be involved in both our wedding reception.
3. Only wear one wedding dress
Although it is common in Indonesia for the bride and the groom to change the dress after akad, however I find it somehow unnecessary. I insisted to only wear one dress because I want to wear a designer dress that I adore so much which is a little bit over budget so yeah, I made another breakthrough to cut the budget :p A lot of people questioned my decision to only wear one wedding dress as if I went nuts but hey, in this very second I never regret this decision.
4. Use different calculation for the catering
Let say, when you send 600 invitations, how much portions for the buffet would you like to prepare? assuming that the guest will bring one partner each, that way you have to multiple it twice, don't you? However, I don't buy that. I only ordered 2/3 of the total invitations for the buffet, and prepare for extra plates for joglo menu. I mean, if I attend a wedding party, I rarely take the buffet and prefer to have what joglo has to offer instead. This way I could minimize food waste and cut the budget significantly.
5. Make your own souvenir!
Lucky me, I have mum who finds sewing is somehow therapeutic for her. Long before the D-day, mum and sister chose the materials at a store in Malioboro street while I got to meet my wedding photographer
—no wonder that there's a lot of different designs and most of it were flowers. Even though my souvenirs are just like any others, they came with signature style and each of it is hand-made with love! And more importantly, it is cheaper indeed :D
6. Not following any javanese traditional protocol
The second thing that makes people doubted my sanity, after point no. 3 is, that our wedding did not follow certain traditional ceremony such as siraman, cucuk lampah, sungkeman, and so on. This way I didn't splurge extra cash to take Javanese wedding procession package.
However, I don't encourage anyone to try this tips especially for those whose wedding is obliged to follow certain traditional protocol. It is the perks of having family who is not following any Javanese tradition; as long as I put the hijab on, everything was fine for them lol.
In the end, there were still some points whether I like it or not, that cost me more than I expected. Yet I could not thank A, my fams, and everyone involved enough because without their help, I could not go through all of this smoothly.
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