Ways to save pennies in your wedding budget

Ever wonder how you could cut back all those little things that seem to eat away at your carefully budgeted plans? Here are 20 ways you could save those pennies.

1. Get a NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) graduate to design your wedding outfit for you. You'll get an original designer outfit for a fraction of the cost. 2. Design your wedding cards to be a one pager with simple gold printing. Cheap and elegant option Use onion paper or gateway paper cut into long strips. Get the typography done at any DTP shop and give it to be printed at a neighbourhood screen-printing unit. 3. Shop for your trousseau during sales and discount season. Most saree stores and shoe stores have their annual sales where you can get stuff at upto 50 per cent off. 4. Buy your jewellery when special offers are on you'll get a freebie thrown in. 5. For saris as wedding giveaways to relatives, buy from wholesale markets. You can get great suit pieces, shirt pieces and trouser lengths from mill stores at prices that are almost 40 per cent less than they are in the shops. 6. Make your entire trousseau from a single designer. You'll get a discount. Plus you'll get great personalised attention. 7. Don't buy on impulse. Plan all you spending needs and make lists. Against the items you plan to buy also write down where you can get them from at wholesale rates, if you can find that out. 8.If you need to buy crockery, durables or household goods, buy them whenspecial offers are on. These days you almost always get something free on buying a consumer durable, that way you can get a toaster free with a microwave or a small television free with a washing machine 9. Alternately, buy from the company showroom or warehouse. You can get goods that are in perfect working condition, but with a major price cut because they are slightly older models. 10. Ask your caterer to have a huge salad bar. People generally stuff themselves silly at an attractively laid salad bar and then nibble at their food. 11. Keep your menu simple and basic. Offering too much choice leads to gluttony and a huge catering bill 12. Check if there are any special offers available if you book a certain hall or venue. Some venues offer props and decoration free of cost. Some offer waiters and hostesses. 13. Buy all your cosmetics from a direct marketing representative for brands like Avon, Aviance or Oriflame but make sure that this DMA is a good friend who'll give you what you want at her cost price. 14. Do ask the beautician for a discount. 15. Get an art designer friend to design your mandap for you. You'll get a great looking mandap and you won't have to pay an overhyped set designer. 16. For your honeymoon, book well in advance. If you plan your honeymoon even a day after the season ends, you get fabulous discounts on roomrates and travel. Alternatively, tie up with an airline-hotel package deal. It's good VFM. 17. Avoid buying the samagri items you need for the ceremony. Hire them. 18. When buying household linen, buy from handicraft fairs and expos. They're cheaper, better and more attractive than mass market produced stuff. 19. Get a friend to be host and compere. It's more personal and friendly, and you don't have to pay him. 20. Avoid the pomp and glitz. Like in advertising, keep it simple.