Wedding trends: how Brits are keeping the costs down
Wedding photographers, stationary and free bars could wane in popularity, as Brits try to cut down on the rising cost of getting married.
A study by Photobox found the majority of Brits are now spending about £30,355 on their weddings – 7% more than planned.
But for 13%, this ever-increasing cost is “financial burden”, leading them to ditch tradition in favour of second-hand dresses and less formality in an effort to save.
READ MORE: Hailey Baldwin and Justin Bieber throw celebrity wedding
One thing that might disappear is the professional wedding photographer – especially as 13% of Brits say that the majority of their pictures remain unprinted.
Only 15% said printing their wedding photos has preserved the memory of their wedding, and 16% say they haven’t even looked at the majority of their wedding photos since receiving them from the wedding photographer.
Just a third (34%) actually have their wedding photo album, with 7% put off by the cost of printing them out.
READ MORE: Avoid money fights during wedding planning
One demographic that appears to be bucking the overspending trend is that those aged 16 to 24 were most likely – at 75% – to cut something out of their budget completely. This is 19% higher than UK average, at 56%.
So how are these savvy young savers managing it? Well, they’re are not cutting spending on favours and gifts, beauty, or transport to the venue. These things topped the list of the non-negotiable spends, with Brits saying they would rather ask for help to cover the costs than go without.
Interestingly cutting the numbers of guests (38%), wedding stationary (35%) and a free bar (33%) were all areas which people are happy to cut completely out of their budgets.
READ MORE: Brides buys £35 charity shop wedding dress
With young people making the most savings on their wedding for the future, the research also looked to understand what weddings will be like in the next 10 years.
It would appear people are in favour of banishing more traditional practices. Could this be a further example of people ditching traditions to keep the costs down, and being a bit more low key?
Indeed, 13% of people predict more and more people will ban people uploading their own photos throughout the wedding.
READ MORE: Bride quits job to plan wedding, asks fiance to get another job
People asking for honeymoon contributions in lieu of wedding presents is becoming increasingly common already other trends that people expect to see as more commonplace included live streaming for people that can’t make it (29%), asking for contributions to the actual wedding rather than gifts (28%), and weddings mid-week to save on cost (30%).
Colours other and white being acceptable also fared
strong, as did the use of virtual reality technology (12%).
