by Eleanor O'Donnell

Created on: April 25, 2009   Last Updated: August 14, 2010

Weddings are wonderful, special occasions that usually result in memories which will last a lifetime.  But this splendor unfortunately comes at a price.  The obvious costs like hiring a church and buying a dress mount up quickly and easily, before you even have the chance to consider how much all the little details are going to come to. When you start to plan your wedding, don't forget to factor in the following hidden costs when preparing your budget.

1. Wedding Stationary.

The cost of stationary for your wedding can quickly and easily run into hundreds unless you're extremely careful. You don't just have to buy a large quantity of invitations and envelopes; you also have to pay for the postage that goes with them. Fortunately, there are usually a few ways to trim the postage costs if necessary. You can hand deliver a good deal of invitations at work or when you visit your friends. You can also get in touch with your local scouts or youth club and find out if they'd like to deliver your local invitations for a reduced price.

If you're having a formal dinner, you'll also need to factor in the costs of providing place cards for every person attending. They may cost pennies each, but it all adds up.

Remember that you'll need to send thank you cards out to everyone who either helped with your wedding or bought you a gift too. You can save on postage by having little thank you cards to hand out at your reception. Pre-print the thank you message and personalise them quickly and easily by simply writing the person's name on the card and giving it to them before they leave. You don't even have to make time to do it on the day; you can do a thank you card for everyone on your guest list in advance and have them to hand in alphabetical order so you can grab the correct one when you need it. Nobody needs to know you cheated!

2. Wedding Favors

Wedding favours are pretty much expected these days regardless of the scale of your wedding. You can prepare these yourself if you're on a tight budget by purchasing the nets and large bags of sugared almonds along with a reel of ribbon. It will still set you back a noticeable sum to provide these, but just remember that it's only polite to be ready to thank everyone for making the effort to come and share your special day with you. The good news is that sugared almonds keep for a long time so you can get your friends to help out in preparing these well in advance of the big day.

Alternatively, you can create

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