Weddings are traditionally the most expensive single day of your life, now costing an average of £21,089, according to wedding insurer Weddingplan.  What’s worse, 44% of couples will now be footing the bill themselves.

In the past many couples probably thought little of forking out for their dream big day and then paying for it for the next five years, but today’s blushing brides and their grooms are a more financially savvy bunch.

Jasmine Davis, who is marrying fiancé Peter this summer at Caverswall Castle in Staffordshire, has managed to keep the fairytale setting while trimming costs to just under £10,000.

The recession has had a definite impact on the couple’s budget. But, aside from switching their honeymoon from a fortnight in the Maldives to a week in Cornwall, little has been left out as a result.

Jasmine said: “Our wedding budget was simply not as extravagant. We knew we would have cut a few corners, like going for a weekday ceremony and reception. We also knew straight away that we would have to have a cash bar as well as limited numbers.  To be honest, we only really wanted the people who really cared for us at our wedding, so any distant relatives or friends we hadn’t seen for years didn’t get an invite, and it saved us a fortune on catering and drinks.”

As for postponing the big day, that was never an option. Jasmine said: “Not at all. We love each other so much, we wouldn’t have wanted to put it off at all.  Our venue were really understanding of our financial limitations, and they agreed to alter our payment plan so that the payments were easier for us to manage.”

It seems that the credit crunch and the recession mean brides- and grooms-to-be have had to adapt the plans for their big day, rather than putting people off marriage altogether.

Register offices, churches and licensed wedding venues have reported a swift rise in marriages and civil partnerships since the onset of the downturn, and experts say the trend could be a result of people seeking greater stability at a time of uncertainty.

This surge in numbers booking weddings is of course being enjoyed by wedding service providers.

Claire Cale from The Designer Card Company, an expert in personalised wedding stationery design, has seen little evidence of the economic downturn impacting the number of people walking down the aisle, but has noticed the emergence of a new breed of cost-savvy brides-to-be.

“The demand for handmade wedding stationery is as strong as ever, but today most brides are looking for more competitive rates without jeopardising the quality of the goods. Like every other sector, the wedding industry has had to adapt by offering clients quality products at a reasonable cost.  What we have done is offer brides DIY wedding invitations, which are available at a lower price than the others,” she said.

This awareness among wedding services is a bonus for today’s couples. Jenny Matthews from Kent, who’s getting married in September, was pleasantly surprised by some of the deals she negotiated.

“I’ve always thought that the minute you say the word ‘wedding’ the price goes up by a few noughts, but I’ve been able to negotiate a discount on all sorts of things,” she said.

“I got £100 knocked off the florists’ bill, the wedding car has come in £150 less than I was first quoted and the best result yet was the wedding breakfast: I managed to get the venue to reduce the price by £10 a head. We’re having 50 guests, so that’s saved us £500 - enough to pay for the photographer.”

Even churches are cutting prices. St Hild and St Helen’s, in Dawdon, County Durham, is offering cash-strapped couples a free wedding: including the ceremony, an organist and even outfits for the bride, bridesmaids, bridegroom and mother of the bride.

If you are trying to kep your wedding budget to a minimum, you may be interested to know that The Designer Card Company are now offering DIY wedding invitations.  So if you don’t mind tying a few ribbons you could save on the cost of your gorgeous designer wedding invitations without sacrificing the quality.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 7:23 am and is filed under Wedding News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.