Wedding Tips 101: The Entourage

In every wedding, many couples want to budget their expenses and some don’t. Some also don’t care about the attire and how their entourage would look like.

As a wedding photographer and a person with experience on wedding preparation, I’m writing this article for couples who would like to learn on how to budget for their wedding entourage. To budget a wedding entourage, there should be a balance between what you can afford and what can make the entourage happy. Even if you’re on a budget, your entourage can still look classy and avoid huge expenses. Remember, classy doesn’t mean expensive. To learn what’s best for your entourage, check below for my five pieces of advice on how to budget.

Limit the Size

If you’re on a budget, the best number of entourage is 3-4 pairs including maid-of-honor. Or even smaller. Why? So you can comfortably choose the best gowns and suits for them without compromising much on the quality. If you are going beyond 6 going 10, trust me, you will have difficulty managing the cost for their dresses and outfits, especially if your supplier could not provide the best attires at a cheaper price.

Unless, of course, if you will be asking your entourage to shoulder all or half of the cost of their attires. If you are going this route, prepare your talk well because some might not accept this plan. Besides, even if they are spending on their own suits and dresses, you will have to spend for each of their matching accessories, like boutonnieres or ties for men, or fascinators, bouquets, and or shoes for the women.

Attire

If you have decided for 3-4 pairs for your entourage, always choose a classy gown and suit, make your entourage look special in your wedding too. Don’t make them look bad with shiny cheap fabric. Treat your entourage very special and make them wear nice outfits, too. If not, it would be selfish of you to make your entourage look bad so that you will stand out from the rest. Remember, a bride will always be THE bride and she will always stand out from the rest.

Rent

Renting gowns and suits is the best option for budgeting couples. Go visit lots of gown boutiques so you can have lots of option. You will know if you’ve find what’s right for your entourage if you feel excited imagining how amazing they will look like beside you. Never give up searching for the best gown for your bridesmaids. After all, if you followed my first advice of trimming down the size of your entourage, you don’t have to think too much of the prices because you only have a few pairs of them.

Makeup

Never ever hire a very cheap make-up for your flower-girls or brides-maid or they will look like clowns. It is better to hire someone that is really good and affordable. And never ever, ask for a lower rate, or the makeup artist will end up using regular powder, not foundation. To have a very good makeup artist, a budget rate of 11,000 pesos is good for 3 bridesmaids, maid-of-honor, 2 flower girls, Bride and 2 mothers. This is a wedding only service, engagement/prenup session not included.

Plus-size

If you have a plus-size bridesmaid or maid-of-honor, never choose a dress that would make them look bigger; choose an empire waist, sheath or mermaid with dark color. Why dark? Because it will help them look smaller. And also, try searching for fabrics like cotton jersey that skim the body so it would look good on them. Check below for examples.

Image Source: http://bit.ly/2c8ypdL

Color

For the best color, I prefer a strong color and not shiny. Make yourself stand out from the rest by wearing a white gown. If you like pastel color, it would also look good if it’s pastel red or blue, and not too light. Don’t use pastel pink because it’s too light but if it’s your favorite color for the wedding scheme, then that’s up to you. It would still be okay though. I’m sure that your wedding color scheme is not just one, it would be 2-3 colors. For example; Pink, red and white. The solid color would be red, white for the flowers and accessories, and pink for the lining of the dress. This is something that I and my wife have decided when we got married on how to use color in our way. And it works!

Conclusion

If you’re on a budget and doesn’t like to rent and want to give the dress to your entourage as a gift, it’s good to hire a designer and just provide the type of cotton to use. Look for inspiration online, it will help you save some more money. As you can see, you don’t even have to hire a designer if you find something nice online and ask help from a friend that who knows how to draw, that would help you on your budget. That was what my wife and I have done before, we were able to save a lot because we hired an affordable designer and we’ve provided a design inspiration that would make the designer create an easy dress without hassle. He even improvised and helped us about the result that won’t be a hindrance to the bridesmaid. The photo you see below is my wife and our entourage.

Photographer: Paopao Sanchez | MUA: Vanessa Gamus | Designer: Bree Esplanada