Summer Wedding Costs, How to be a Gracious Guest without Going Broke

How to avoid high summer wedding costs that kill your budget.

Summer is the number one season for weddings and money comes into play when making important decisions for couples as well as guests. Many attendees have trouble making plans to because of tight budgets and limited resources. When you consider travel expenses, accommodations, and the gift, the tab for attending a wedding can start to get too high for people who have had their income cut back or who have had additional expenses pop up.

If you are planning to attend a summer wedding, but you are worried about how to make the plans work with limited funds use the following tips to help reduce your expenses:

• Buy the wedding gift early. Most couples have a range of items priced on their registry. Buying your gifts early will help ensure you are not stuck buying the most expensive items on the list. Decide what your budget is before you get to the store or website. The later you shop, the fewer options you have for what kind of gift you can get.
• Share gift costs. If the registry doesn’t include any items within your budget, consider going in with another guest on a more expensive item. You can even buy different pieces of an item or items that complement each other. For example, if you want to go in on a stand mixer, one guest can buy the base unit while another buys all of the attachments and accessories.
• Airfare, make reservations as soon as possible. The earlier you make your reservations, the cheaper the tickets usually are for your flight. If possible, try to avoid flying at peak times, such as weekends, as these tickets are usually more expensive. Traveling at non-peak times and checking for alternate flight routes with layovers can help reduce costs.
• Check on group accommodations. To help with attendance costs, many brides and grooms make arrangements for group discounts. Many times you can get a discounted room if you stay where everyone else is staying. In addition, you can often avoid getting a rental car and use the wedding transportation, as many couples offer arrange for shuttle service from the group accommodations.
• Budget ahead of time. One big problem people have when they are on a tight budget is they fail to plan ahead for special one-time expenses. If you know you are attending a wedding, start adjusting your budget and save up for expenses. That way, even if you do prefer to use credit on your trip to avoid carrying cash, you can pay down any increases in your credit card bills immediately.