How an 'unashamedly cheap' finance expert shaved over $29k off his wedding

When Ed McKnight married Angela McKnight (née Chu) recently, the couple wanted to create a day that was magical, of course. But with Ed being an economist and co-host of the Property Academy podcast, and Angela a financial adviser too, neither was keen to celebrate their union by taking a total bath. And so, they cut a few costs while keeping the romance. Ed explains how they did it.

I just got married. So believe me when I say that Kiwi weddings are becoming eye-wateringly expensive.

A wedding planner was recently reported as saying an outlay of $87,000 wasn't unusual now for a Kiwi wedding. That's not an exaggeration but, as an economist and host of a property and personal finance podcast – I am unashamedly cheap.

So here are the seven ways I managed to save about $29,600 on my big day. Along with some things I spent money on, and didn’t regret one bit.

I didn’t mean it to happen, and I'm not advocating others do this. But my wedding invitations were free. I had a design and I approached two different print shops asking for samples.

I had every intention of buying them. But, the printers both gave me so many samples I didn’t need to order more.

Each guest received a slightly different version. Some were glossy. Some were matte. But nobody knew. It was a small saving, but this left about an extra $100 in our pocket.

We hosted the ceremony and the reception at the same place. That meant I only had to hire one venue.

I looked at one church (in Central Auckland). It was beautiful. But deciding not to get married in it cut $2500 from the bill. Though, of course, your local church might be cheaper.

If you have a catered dinner at your reception it costs more if the guests get to choose what they eat for their mains. It was about an extra $20 per person.

So, instead of offering guests a choice of meals, we opted for an ‘alternate drop’. That just means half the people got lamb. The other half got chicken. Don’t like your choice? Swap with someone.

That shaved $900 off the catering bill. And we got 0 complaints.

One of my friends spent over $10,000 on flowers for their wedding (yes, really). Thankfully my wife (I can say that now) is allergic to flowers.

So we spent $600 on bouquets for the bridesmaids. The rest of the décor was simple foliage. It was way more affordable.

I’m calling that a $9,600 saving.

One of the biggest costs of a wedding is the size of the guest list. It would cost me an extra $220 per guest at my wedding.

So trimming the list from 100 to 50 people saved us $11,000. And that’s before you count the alcohol and drinks. Be ruthless with the guest list. It’ll save a ton. And if you're worried about hurt feelings, throw a cheap, cheerful engagement party and explain that the wedding will be small.

These days jewellers often encourage grooms to buy surprise jewellery, such as diamond tennis bracelets or pearl earrings, to give their bride as a "special gift" on the day.

But, we declined the upsell. If you’ve already paid for rings, the dress, the day itself, you don’t need to add pressure with more presents.

Most people get married in summer. Estimates vary, but by opting for a mid-winter rather than peak summer date, we reckon we saved between 5 and 10% on things like the venue, the catering and other services that boost their prices when demand is higher.

We didn’t do that on purpose. It’s just that the date aligned with all our anniversaries. But we’ll chalk it up as extra savings.

And finally, we saved about $700 on a celebrant by asking a friend to register as a celebrant. He did his online course, and was able to officially marry us.

Cutting back in some areas, gave us room to spend on what mattered most. It sounds crazy, but we spent $1700 on a magician. He came in to do close-up magic to bring the energy up between the ceremony and reception.

We could have spent more on flowers. But, no one would remember that. They’ll remember the big final trick the magician did thought.

We also spent over $5000 on the photographer. That’s pretty standard these days. But memories are priceless.

If I could go back in time, I would have saved $600 and not bought the wedding cake. Nobody eats in anyway. And my other mistake was letting the bartender keep serving champagne longer than we should have. After grandma’s had a few drinks she won’t know if you’ve switched to the cheap stuff.

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Now I don’t want to come across as mean-spirited. It's just that, you don’t want the best day of your life to become the bill you pay for the rest of your life.

This information is general in nature and should not be taken as personalised financial advice.