Wedding Cost Calculator

Planning for your wedding

Is there a way to stop the cost of your wedding spiraling beyond your budget? It is worth finding ways to reduce the financial burden of your day if you can. Here are some ideas on how to do this.
You don't have to ruin your dream wedding by saving on the big day, and any extra cash could be put towards the honeymoon.

Saving before the wedding

If you're saving to get married, make sure you maximise the potential of this pot. If your nuptials are less than a year away, it's probably best to stick to an instant-access account - this way you can get hold of the money when you need it. You could also opt for a cash individual savings account (ISA) to benefit from tax-free interest, although it's important to remember that once you've withdrawn funds from an ISA you can't re-invest tax-free if you've already used all of your tax-free allowance for the year.

However, if you have several years to plan, you might think about a savings bond paying a fixed-rate of interest for a year or two.  For example, there is a range of fixed-rate bonds on the market to pick from, provided you are comfortable locking your cash away for a period. This way, you're likely to benefit from a higher interest savings account compared to a lower rate on an instant-access account. You might also like to consider a flexible bond, which will give you a guaranteed fixed rate of interest - and which will allow you to make up to three withdrawals, each one up to 10% of your initial deposit, with no withdrawal charges.

Prioritise your spending

Once you know how much you've got to spend, take time listing everything you need to budget for in order of priority and how much each is likely to cost. Go into detail and do your research, so that you are aware of how much everything is, from official fees to that special garland of flowers.

Decide which is more important to you, and see how far down the list your budgeted cash will go. If you find it doesn't stretch as far as you want, think about making changes to your list - not your budget.

Buying the dress

There is little doubt that the dress is of particular importance to most brides. But there are several ways to cut the cost of this without compromising your ideal design.

While it may sound unglamorous, you could pick a dress from eBay that is either second hand or made overseas. However, quality and reliability varies massively, so research is vital. But if you strike it right you could find yourself with your perfect fit with made-to-measure options.

Calculating the carbon cost of a wedding | Offbeat Bride

There are a great many carbon offset calculators out there… but there's more to a wedding than just energy consumption, flights, cars, and hotels. There's also all the STUFF, and food, and waste, and, and, and…

By DIYing almost everything, I'm able to significantly keep the costs down on waste, and source sustainable and local materials as much as possible. I've been working with our hall to have our meals be locally sourced whenever possible, and am trying to organize a donation of our leftover food to a local shelter. I'm paying a little extra to have the equivalent of our energy usage at the hall added to our local power grid from 100% renewable sources (wind/hydro mix vs. the nuclear/coal/whateverwhatever mix that the regular energy companies use). My invites and all paper products so far have been through a local printer that I can walk to for pick-up on post consumer waste and Forest Stewardship Council certified paper stock.

I've narrowed down the offset providers I will purchase from to either Less or Planetair .Both are based in Canada selling certified Gold Standard offsets to invest in renewable energy projects in underdeveloped countries. I am leaning toward less because they publicly display their checks, and follow all the frames of the UN developed, including the shift register. Planetair also projects that are of the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism Certified, but not all.

The tricky part, however, is to find a tool to calculate carbon. Really, how do you calculate that?

I found three so far, but only one seems appropriate.

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