The following article is about getting your friends to help you, and whether it is a good idea, to try to save money when you are planning your big day. The perfect wedding doesn't have to be over the top or expensive, it just has to be what you want it to be. It may seem like what you want will be over-the-top expensive but why not try use a local wedding company to help plan the day, and it may not be as expensive as you first feared. The Perfect Wedding is a company based in Cape Town that can offer you all of these things at very affordable prices, have a look you may be pleastantly surprised. There are so many things to think about like the venue, the cake, photography, the dress. You don't want to forget anything, which is another reason to bring in experienced professionals.
Article that follows by Georgina Clatworthy
With cost cutting become a come factor in many weddings these days, it will come as no surprise that many couples are turning to their friends to help them out with certain elements of their special day. But is this a wise decision? and can you always rely on your friends not to let you down when it matters the most?
Imagine asking a close friend to take your wedding photographs for you. Perhaps they had taken a photography course or just had a natural talent for it. You feel confident that they will produce some amazing pictures for you and when they gladly accept you are pleased to have saved such a huge chunk of your wedding budget. But on the day itself, they had left their camera at home by mistake or left it back in the hotel which is over an hours drive away there and back. The end result, you are let down and those amazing pictures never happen.
For many couples there will come a point during the wedding planning when reality begins to bite and they realize that their budget just won't stretch as far as they like. Well meaning friends will often try to come to the rescue and will offer their services for free or for a lower price than a professional will charge. What you need to ask themselves is if you can rely on them to deliver and are they completely sure that they are up to the task.
If a friend offers to step into the breach in order to save you money, then here are a few questions you will need to ask yourselves before agreeing.
Are they reliable? How organized are they? Are they always late, do they keep to their word or do they come up with some excuse at the last minute? You need to be completely sure that you can rely on them and that they will not leave you in the lurch at the last minute.
Communication? Will they listen to what you want? Will they follow your instructions and carry them out to the letter? Will they keep you updated on how things are progressing? An important aspect of a wedding is that it is done in accordance with the bride and grooms wishes. It is their day after all and so they should have what they want. Will your friend stay true to your wishes or do things their own way?
Can you trust them to make decisions without you? This may seem contrary to what is above, but there may well be occasions when they will have to make a decision without your input, in which case can you trust them to make the right one?
What if something goes wrong? Now mishaps can happen, they can happen to professionals just as easily as they can happen to you, but it is what happens next that is the key question here. Imagine trusting your friend to make your wedding cake, they have made occasion cakes before so you are confident with their abilities to produce something stunning for you. But it goes horribly wrong, it's burnt to a cinder or they dropped it on the way to the car! What will you do should something go awry? Whilst it is tempting to save money on the most expensive elements of your wedding day I would advise hiring a professional for the most important parts.
Are they worth the saving? Ask yourself if it is worth it? Will you actually save that much against the price of a professional? Asking your friends to do things for you could result in more stress for you, so it really has to be a massive saving to make it worthwhile.
Could your friendship survive if something went wrong? Hiring a close friend who then lets you down could result in a difficult relationship from that point on. Ask yourself if you are willing to risk your friendship for the sake of a few wedding favors or if your think your friendship is strong enough to survive?
It may be inevitable that you will have to cut costs somewhere, but unless your friends are professionals in a certain field that will be of use to you, I would stay away from hiring them for something as important as your wedding. Whilst you will probably increase your stress over whether of not they are doing the job to your requirements, they are probably fretting over doing it well enough to do justice to your friendship. My advice would be to hire professionals for the most important elements of your wedding and keep your friends in the 'loop' with the lesser parts such as wedding favors, table centers and stationery.
