Congratulations! You’re getting married soon. As you probably already know, planning a wedding is very stressful and expensive. In fact, various sources online estimate the average wedding to cost between ₦600,000 and ₦3,000,000, and this was before the price of everything started skyrocketing. So you can probably estimate the cost has gone up.
But don’t worry, we have some helpful tips to get you started on planning for your special day. We also have some tools that’ll help you in the money department.
Our first tip is to start planning early. Whether you’re hiring a wedding planner or your mum is handling the planning, or you’re doing it alone, you need to start planning early. Like booking a flight, the earlier you book, the better the deal you can get. Ideally, you should aim to start planning for your wedding at least 6 months before the date.
The next money hack would be to prepare for the down payment to book the things you need for the wedding. A few examples where this applies are:
The wedding venue: This sometimes includes venue hire, venue decoration, rental of canopies, chairs, table rentals, security, and maybe ushers. If you start planning your wedding early, you’ll have the flexibility to look at many venues to find the one that fits your budget. It also gives you more negotiating power when working out the price. The average cost of a wedding venue nationwide is estimated to be between ₦110,000 and ₦800,000. You don’t have to worry about having to pay that money at once. Many venues offer flexible payment options where you can make a down payment to book the venue and complete the payment as the wedding date draws near and sometimes even after your wedding day. The down payment is usually between 20-60% of the total cost. So this can be between ₦22,000 and ₦480,000.
Couple’s outfits, beauty, fashion, wedding rings: Wedding outfits for the couple can go as high as ₦240,000. With wedding outfits, you want to pick out your style and send the material to the tailor on time to avoid stories of “what I ordered vs. what I got”. If you’re getting “ready-made” outfits, it’s also vital to go earlier so you can have more options to choose from. In both cases, you need to make a down payment to secure your spot in line in both cases.
Catering: This includes food for the guests and the wedding cake. This can cost up to ₦1 million, depending on the number of guests you expect and the experience you want to create. If you’re thinking of having your wedding during a peak period, e.g., during Christmas or Easter, it will save you some cost to buy some durable food items, like rice, groundnut oil, long before then and store.
How can you start saving for these costs?
You can create a wedding plan on Rise, and set a target. You can set up a direct deposit on Rise such that as soon as your salary comes in, a portion of it is deposited into your wedding plan. You can also break it down.
If you have a dream wedding location where you’d like to tie the knot or dream outfit you want to wear on your special day, you can find out the price and create a goal-based plan for it. Since all Rise plans are in dollars and offer decent returns for investing, you don’t have to worry about how falls in naira will affect your wedding budget. Rise has got you covered.