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How To Plan A Hawaii Wedding During Inflation

Steve Young

 

GETTING MARRIED IN HAWAII IS GETTING EXPENSIVE

Let’s face the facts here.   Everything is getting expensive and there’s really no relief in sight.   I went to McDonald’s the other day, I paid close to $15 dollars for an extra value meal!  In Waikiki, prices for an extra value meal are creeping toward $20!!  Gas on average is about $5 a gallon, milk is $7 a gallon, don’t even get me started on the price of beef.

What does this mean for your future Hawaii wedding?  Honestly, if you’re not careful, you could end up spending a good portion of your life savings on a party, and end up starting life’s next chapter, in debt.  Luckily, I’m here to save the day!  Here are some 10 tips on how to keep your Hawaii affordable.

  1. KEEP YOUR WEDDING GUESTS LIST SMALL – The largest expense for your wedding is your reception.  If you want to save money, only invite the very important people to your wedding.  Am I asking you to rank your friends and relatives?  Yes, I am!  You’ll spend around $100 per person you take to dinner.   If you have a guest list that totals 200 souls, that’s $20,000 you’ll be spending on just food.  And, here’s the kicker, you’ll be spending most of that money so your guest can have fun.  Not you, your guests.  You are entertaining your guests.  By the time you throw in the cost of a venue, decoration, photography, videography, and everything else, you could be looking at a bill that’s greater than $50,000.  If you ask me, I can think of a lot of things you can buy for 50k or more, that will last you longer than one day.
  2. SET A CASH BUDGET – Okay, I understand this is common sense, but did you know that many couples don’t set a budget to their wedding?  Establish a hard ceiling that you don’t want to go over.  And that ceiling should not be set by how much you can borrow.   Don’t listen to bankers that want to encourage you to plan the wedding of your dreams, by taking out a loan.   By the time you pay off that loan, you would have spent three times the amount you borrowed.  Don’t set your budget according to how much your credit limit is, either.   Your wedding budget needs to be measured in cash.
  3. SET YOUR PRIORITIES – What’s important to your when it comes to your wedding?  Do you need your family there?  Do you want great photos?  Are flowers really important to you? Establish your goals, and then establish ingredients to your wedding that you are willing to let go, or compromise on
  4. ELOPE – Want to save $50,000?  Eliminate all your guests and elope.  It doesn’t matter where you elope, whether it’s here in Hawaii, your home state/country, or on mars, you’re going to save a lot of money.  How you elope is really up to you.  You could marry on the beach, or take a chopper to a remote spot.   Even if you spend thousands of dollars, it’ll be all on yourselves, not on a party for others to enjoy.
  5. ELOPE ON THE BEACH –  While we’re on the subject of eloping, the cheapest and best place to do it, is on the beach.  Private venues can get rather expensive!  Make sure you choose a secluded beach, one with very little wind, and one that has a great view of the sunset.
  6. HIRE A COORDINATOR/PLANNER THAT’S ON YOUR SIDE – Yeah, I guess this seems to be a bit of common sense.  But trust me when I say this, a lot of coordinators are not on your side.  They get paid commissions by their vendors, which means they are actually agents for your vendors!  And – that means they are not on your side.
  7. SHOP SMART – Make sure you know who you’ll be spending your money on.  A lot of times when you book a package with a wedding company, you won’t know who your minister, photographer, make-up artist, coordinator, and so on, will be.   It’s great that you cut your budget from 50k to 2k, but if you spend $800 of that 2k on a photographer right out of college, you’re still wasting your money.  Shop smart!  Know who you’ll be paying!
  8. USE COSTCO – Costco is a great resource for travel.  They probably have the best deals on rental cars, that I know of.   Full travel packages are great as well.  You can also get fresh leis from them too!   And if you plan on making your own bouquets, they have a plethora of fresh flowers to choose from.
  9. USE LOUPED.COM FOR INEXPENSIVE AWESOME RINGS – Looking for great wedding rings, or even an engagement ring, check out this site.  This site was formally known as I-do-now-I-dont.  And it’s exactly what you think it is.   Engagements and weddings gone wrong.  And, while it’s bad for them, it’s great for you.
  10. USE HOPPER.COM – to alert you when airfares are the cheapest.  You don’t need to use their app to book your flights.  You can just use it as an alarm.

Need more advice, or want to hire me?  Contact me at info@dreamweddingshawaii.com, (808) 479-0685, or just fill in the form below:

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Steve Young

THE BIG MAN at Dream Weddings Hawaii
I pretty much do everything around here, from photography and video production, to the organization of all of my weddings. As you can see, I'm also the head writer too! If for some reason you can't reach me at my direct line, or my toll free number, feel free to hit me up on my company cell at (808) 479-0685. Call anytime...well, almost anytime. Don't call on Super Bowl Sunday or when the Philadelphia Eagles are playing!

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