Weddings are more costly than ever: Here are 10 ways to save money on your wedding expenses

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Congratulations on one of the most special days of your life! Now prepare to spend more money than you ever have before.

The average cost of a wedding is expected to hit a new high of over $30,000 in 2024, according to Zola's First Look Report. And that figure doesn't even include an engagement ring. But did you know there are some simple steps you can take to save thousands of dollars on your wedding?

If you play your cards right, you could save enough money and earn extra rewards to go on your honeymoon for almost free. That will help take some of the sting out of the alarming amount of money you'll drop on your wedding.

Here are ten tips and tricks you can follow to recoup value from your wedding-related spending.

• Start saving for your wedding early
• Plan your wedding during "off-season" dates
• Pay with the right credit card whenever possible
• Earn a sign-up bonus
• Earn hotel points (if your venue is a hotel)
• Don't be afraid to negotiate
• Rent as much as you can
• Take advantage of gift registry sign-up bonuses
• Add items to your gift registry (even if you don't think people will buy them)
• Consider taking out a wedding loan

The first step in planning your wedding should be to set a budget and start building your savings. A high-yield savings account or certificate of deposit (CD) account can be a great place to keep your money safe, while also earning interest. These accounts can grow your money faster than a traditional savings account because you'll earn a higher APY.

There are several high-yield savings accounts currently offering interest rates above 5%, such as the UFB Secure Savings account, with an up to 5.25% APY and no cap and or minimum deposit requirement. CDs sometimes offer even greater interest rates, but you'll need to keep your money locked into the account for a specified amount of time.

January, February and March are generally considered the wedding off-season — though it can vary by location.

You can save a great deal on your venue and various other expenses by getting married at unpopular times. Similarly, you can save significantly by having your wedding on a weekday, as opposed to the weekend.

Wedding vendors would rather offer their services for a discount instead of having no customers at all. Just note that spending on catering and flowers is likely not going to be as discounted as other expenses like the venue and music.

Nearly all wedding expenses can be funneled through credit cards. From the venue to the food to the wedding photographer, inquire straight away as to whether a credit card is an acceptable form of payment.

It can be wise to use more than one credit card during your planning. Weddings are expensive, so determining which cards will give you the best return on your purchase can be a difference of hundreds of dollars in value. For example:

• If you’re paying for a catered meal from a local restaurant, use a card that offers bonus rewards on dining. For instance, the American Express® Gold Card earns 4X points at restaurants.
• If you’re spending a lot to decorate your space, the Citi Custom Cash® Card comes with 5% back at home improvement stores on up to $500 in purchases (then 1%) each month that home improvement stores are your biggest expense.
• If your venue is at a hotel, use a card that offers bonus rewards on travel. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers 3X points on all general travel, including small boutique hotels and large resorts.
• If you’re making large transactions that don't fall into a bonus category, the Citi Double Cash® Card earns you 2% cash back for purchases (1% cash back for all eligible purchases, plus an additional 1% cash back after you pay your credit card bill; see rates and fees).

Also, consider making large payments with a credit card that offers flexible financing. Rewards credit cards often have cripplingly high interest rates — the average APR for all credit card accounts is well above 20% at the time of this writing, according to the Federal Reserve. You could save hundreds of dollars by putting that spending on a card that offers a 0% APR intro period to give yourself a year or so to pay it off interest-free.

Many of the best zero-interest credit cards offer a 0% intro APR of 15 months or more. For example, the Wells Fargo Reflect® Card offers a 0% intro APR for 21 months from account opening on purchases and qualifying balance transfers (18.24%, 24.74%, or 29.99% variable APR afterward). Balance transfers must be made in the first 120 days to qualify for the intro APR and there is a balance transfer fee of 5% of the amount you transfer ($5 minimum)

If you know you’ll be making many thousands of dollars in purchases, it’s a great time to earn a welcome offer (or two).

There are tons of credit cards with big sign-up bonuses. With a costly wedding on the horizon, you should have no problem meeting considerable minimum spending requirements. For example, if you’ve got the national average of $30,000 in wedding expenses, you could take advantage of these welcome offers:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card — Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card — Earn 75,000 bonus Capital One miles after you spend $4,000 within three months from account opening. (See rates and fees).
• The Platinum Card® from American Express — Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $8,000 within six months of card membership.
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card — Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Between these welcome bonuses, you can earn at least around $3,000 worth of rewards — and potentially much more if know the best ways to redeem your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, Capital One miles and American Express Membership Rewards® points. You could very easily fund a five-star honeymoon with a stash of points this size.

You don’t have to book hotel stays — or even open hotel credit cards — to earn a stockpile of hotel points. Most major hotel chains allow you to earn rewards for hosting your wedding at one of their event spaces:

• Hilton Honors — 1X point per dollar spent on guest rooms, meeting rooms and more on qualifying events at participating hotels in the Hilton portfolio (on up to $100,000 of your bill).
• IHG One Rewards — 3X points on events, food and beverage and rooms booked for others (up to 60,000 points per event)
• Marriott Bonvoy — 2X points on eligible room, food, beverage and audio/visual charges (up to 60,000 points per event or up to 105,000 points for Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite members)
• per dollar (60,000 points max, though status holders can earn more)
• World of Hyatt — 1X point on events (up to 50,000 points per event)

In some cases, you may have to stipulate that you want to earn points when signing your contract.

Hotel points cannot be liquidated for cash, but they can save you a lot of money on hotel stays later, such as on your honeymoon.

Most things in life are negotiable, including your bills, salary, real estate and even wedding expenses.

Whether it’s your venue or various vendors (flowers, music, cake, etc.), you can challenge prices and make lower offers. Wedding taxes are no joke. If the vendors don’t want your business, they don’t have to oblige. Just be sure you’ve got an acceptable backup plan — or the humility to revoke your lower proposal — if the vendors won’t budge.

You’d probably be surprised at the number of things you can rent for your wedding. Obvious items are things like tables, chairs, flatware, and tents. But you can also rent wedding dresses, tuxedos, bridesmaid dresses and even jewelry. This could be the difference between spending several thousand dollars and several hundred dollars.

Gift registries often come with some manner of bonus for joining. You’ll probably get free knickknacks upfront, but you’ll sometimes be incentivized to add certain items to your registry. 

For instance, Crate & Barrel’s registry throws in all sorts of bonus gifts depending on how much of your registry is purchased. At the time of this writing, you can get an All-Clad Cook and Serve Tool Set ($100 value) after completing $800 or more in All-Clad products on your registry or a toughened Nonstick PRO 11" Crepe Pan with Rateau ($100 value) and Cerise Enameled Cast Iron Signature Wok ($300 value) after completing $1,500 or more in Le Creuset products on your registry.

Speaking of registries, here’s a nice little hack: As a condolence of sorts, certain stores will discount the remaining items in your registry that weren’t bought. This is called a registry completion discount. Depending on the store at which you’ve registered, you could see a discount of up to 25%.

Even if you’re confident the items on your registry won’t be purchased by your friends and family, add them anyway so you can then buy them for significantly less yourself.

If you need additional help financing your wedding, it might make sense to take out a personal loan that you can use to pay for wedding expenses. Personal loans often have lower interest rates than credit cards, and you can use them to finance nearly every kind of expense.

CNBC Select picked LightStream as the top overall wedding loan lender because of its low interest rates, lack of fees and flexible terms. You can also match with lenders that best fit your needs with our personal loan marketplace.

Weddings are already intrinsically stressful. But as you can see, there are plenty of steps you can take to mitigate the financial burden associated with the big day. By doing things like opening credit cards to earn a few welcome bonuses, maximizing bonus categories for expenses, and leveraging gift registry promotions, you could receive many thousands of dollars in value.

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