If you are reading this article, you too have probably decided to take the “big step.”
These will be very intense weeks and months, full of questions, doubts, fears, but at the same time exciting, moving, and something you will remember forever.
However, every peak to climb starts with a first step so almost all engaged couples as a first step put on the plate a rough budget within which to stay.
There is no little or a lot, no right or wrong because the wedding should reflect the tastes and expectations of the bride and groom so you can opt for an opulent, cheap or average wedding.
Regardless of what your style is, the advice we always give to all brides and grooms is to spend the right amount to get the best.
Easy to say, harder to do.
It is yes because you are facing so many decisions for the first time, you have the awareness of how behind every choice there is a great responsibility and you do not have the right experience to be able to make it, confident that you will get the desired result.
In some cases you pay for the brand name or brag about the “top of the line” product that at the level of service or result maybe not much different from another cheaper supplier.
It is quite common to try to get the most by spending the least, and that is fair;
Be careful, however, not to go planning a low-cost wedding by going and cutting back on the very services that can make your wedding a perfect and successful day.
You have certainly realized what an expensive investment it is to plan a wedding! You were probably surprised to find how many items to consider: location, caterer or restaurant, photos, video, flowers, favors, car, invitations, dress, shoes, gadgets, jewelry, ceremony, music, children’s entertainment, adult entertainment, travel, hairstyle, beautician…you name it.
Wanting to save money at all costs with the sole aim of planning a low-cost wedding could hide pitfalls.
In fact, spending little in certain areas can become a mistake that you may pay very dearly, especially when it comes to a wedding.
One is often led to believe that vendors in any industry at the word “wedding” will raise the price of their product/service just because they know that you the bride and groom are willing to spend a little bit more since it is your wedding, but (we are not saying this because we are biased) we can assure you that in most cases it is a mistaken belief.
You may not believe our words, but examples of this kind you experience daily in every purchase you go to make.
Who among you has never bought something on Amazon? you find practically everything with the convenience of receiving it directly to your home without then investing any time around stores.
For the same item you will find several proposals but correct me if I am wrong, you almost never buy the cheapest one out of bias, the first thing you do is to go and see or read the reviews of other customers who bought and tried the same product and eventually, based on the relevance that item has for you, you will be willing to buy even the most expensive one as long as you have guarantees of the result.
So it is not the price that makes the difference it is the result and the satisfaction you expect to get that drives your choice.
It will have happened to you, too, in your life to buy a T-shirt, shoes, a cheap item congratulating yourself on the excellent bargain you made only to have to change your mind in a short time realizing that what you bought was worth exactly the amount you spent, precisely because it lasted a short time or was immediately broken or ruined!
Think about it: Is it possible to buy a pair of pants for 3 euros from the Chinese or at a stall and expect them to last as long as a pair of brand-name pants that cost 20 times as much? I really think it is impossible.
But with the same reasoning you face many of the expenses for your wedding.
There will be no shortage of “bargains,” but with what peace of mind could you choose a music or entertainment service that costs a few hundred?
Do not be surprised if the hired “professional” then fails to meet all your needs or those of your guests.
Do not be surprised if he cannot handle an event as complex as your wedding.
Do not be surprised if his equipment will be minimal or low-key.
Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t give you the exclusive of the day.
Do not be surprised if in the worst case scenario a few days before the wedding he tells you that he can no longer come.
We say this to all our couples “Marriage is a live movie, you can’t go wrong because you can’t buy a memory” so every time you buy a product/service you have to ask yourself whether what you are buying is an EXPENSE or an INVESTMENT for you.
Trying at all costs to plan a wedding while avoiding spending a capital sum may be fine but you need to think carefully about which services to try to save money on.
For example, let’s talk about the car that will accompany the bride to the ceremony and then to the reception.
You will find sedans for rent starting from 400€ to the 1200€ horse-drawn carriage but you can cut this expense and maybe ask a friend or relative who has a nice car if they will lend it to you. In this way you will still have achieved a nice result and contained expenses because all in all, in a couple of years there will be few who will remember the vehicle that accompanied the bride and groom to the church and then to the venue.
Instead, saving on the entertainment and music aspect for example means taking a big risk.
We are not talking about a pair of pants, a T-shirt or a gadget (you can buy those back), but the best day of your life.
Only one, and you can’t have more (there are also those who do more than one, but I like Paganini’s thinking).
Consider that in recent years technology in the music industry has made great strides allowing “enthusiasts” in the field to be able to buy themselves a minimal system with only a few hundred euros.
Social media and the web then have shortened the distances a lot which is why our industry has been invaded by a mass of DJs, musicians, singers and entertainers who have made life easy for those trying to plan a low-cost wedding.
These individuals, posing as “industry professionals,” go after customers by offering themselves at much lower than average costs or by waging war with each other on price.
Some of them then play it down by asking the bride and groom if they already have Quotas in hand so that they can file down their cache by 50/100€ while still snagging an engagement and having an extra date on the agenda.
If you have happened (and you certainly have) to go to some industry portal you will have realized how easy it is to get standardized, so-called killer quotations that do not take into account at all the needs, tastes and mood that the bride and groom want to get from their big day.
The goal is to be contacted to increase the likelihood of turning contact into a contract.
But saving money in our industry most of the time holds bad surprises for you newlyweds so it may happen that:
- During the aperitif, the DJ both at the banquet eating and drinking while going his recycled playlist from wedding to wedding, which in addition to not centering anything with the style of your day and you the bride and groom, creates a boring atmosphere and definitely out of place.
- Little money equals little instrumentation; This is almost always the combination, so the DJ brings only one system for the whole day, then keeps interrupting the music because he has to move from one area to another with cables and speakers, disassemble and reassemble, while the guests present are left a bit puzzled. Definitely inelegant.
- Minimal or absent lighting system, almost always chinoiserie bought online that will not know how to recreate the right atmosphere during the evening party.
- No inspection. It almost always happens with cheap services; All they need is an electrical outlet within 20 meters and that’s it. They do not agree with the caterer on the best location or any needs. When he arrives he asks where to set up based on choices made by those who preceded him, and as the first guests arrive, in the worst cases, instead of being ready, he is still setting up because he had not calculated correctly the time to reach the location or the distance between where to leave the car and the set-up area with all the constraints and prohibitions involved.
- No specialist advice. It is our strength and the secret to achieving a successful wedding as well as giving the bride and groom a way to touch in advance the professionalism of our services. Without proper consultation, the DJ will not know the needs and tastes of the bride and groom, their style, and the mood they want to give to their day.
- No artistic direction with insiders. Another strength of ours.
The economic service did not invest time to contact the other services it has to cooperate with during the reception, caterer, photographer, videomaker, wedding planner etc. By overestimating this aspect, his work may be hindered or may in turn get in the way of the different dynamics of the day.
The thing that makes one smile, so to speak, is that the bride and groom will hardly notice anything (barring serious mistakes that go to jeopardize the wedding) because they will be, quite rightly, in cloud world, tossed from side to side by the photographer and friends.
They base their strength by leveraging this very factor on these new “professionals,” and this is why we, on the other hand, are keen to expose their lack of commitment by explaining to the bride and groom the consequences of choosing low-cost on certain expense items that will surely impact your wedding positively or negatively.
You are not experts unfortunately and the wedding is a very complex event to organize, manage and plan, so it is up to us to tell you where to look to avoid running into “professionals” of uncertain value!
If you have read this far I imagine that you also care about the success of your wedding.
Therefore, engage people who will show an interest in planning and structuring every single moment of the day with you and not make you just one more date on the agenda.
Ensure that: - They will take the time to make every moment of your reception even more magical and exciting.
- Be inclined to carry out a site survey, if not already familiar with the location, to assess its party areas and spaces, take care in detail of the proper placement of equipment, and make sure that everything is perfect that day.
- They do with you an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the location to optimize the service, respecting the rules imposed by it but without making you give up your dreams.
- They will take the appropriate time to understand your style, your tastes, your needs, so that on that day the music will be suitable for you, the bride and groom, but above all that it will allow you to cheer and make your guests have a great day of celebration.
- Have available (if necessary) multiple plants to be placed at the same time in different spaces of the location.
- They build an artistic direction by getting in touch with all the people you have hired that day, from the caterer, to the photographer, to the venue to understand and listen to their needs with the goal of creating a collaborative team whose only goal is to make you experience the fairy tale wedding you have always wanted.
- Don’t put time constraints on it: it will have to entertain all your friends and family until they are exhausted, but happy for dancing the night away.
- Having a right-hand man at your disposal who does not make you worry about anything because it is your wedding day and you only need to think about spending time together with the people you love.
That said.
I hope you have found in this article several points to think about and pay attention to since if you are planning a low-cost wedding you risk ruining the most important day of your life just for trying to save a few hundred euros.
Sure, maybe by spending a little you’ll be able to find a good DJ who will do everything I described in the last part of the article and make your day perfect: but is that a risk you can afford to take just to have a super cheap wedding?
Never more than in this case do I feel compelled to quote a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin who said:
“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the pleasure of a low price has been forgotten.”
I hope I have given you the knowledge of how to go about identifying a professional, but if you have the fear of making the wrong choice visit our website www.weddingsymphony.it and go to the contact page to book a consultation with our Paul and figure out how to make your big dream come true.
Remember that
“Marriage is a live movie. You can’t go wrong because you can’t buy a memory.”
A few simple tips combined with a dash of common sense in choosing a musician not just based on price will make your wedding a memorable event.
I am Paolo Furlan the first Wedding Music Planner in Veneto and founder of the Wedding Symphony music agency specializing in music for civil or religious ceremonies and music and entertainment for wedding receptions.
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