You may not have identified the right partner yet, but the perfect wedding destination is etched in your mind. An idyllic setting can enhance the festivities and make the day even more memorable. 

However, planning a destination wedding doesn’t come cheap. You may go back to your parents and ask them to break that wedding expenses fund, but your modern-day destination wedding with elaborate pre wedding sangeet, cocktails and the choicest wedding favours can add up to a lot more than what your parents put aside.

Let’s be realistic, if you want a destination wedding, you will have to chip in rather large proportions of the wedding expenditure. A prudent option is to

dream planner

How can you plan precisely for an event a few years away?

Unlike investing for your retirement, planning for a specific event like a wedding needs a lot more detailing. Separate the necessary spends from the ‘frills’. Frills are additional arrangements which are desirable but not essential. 

Organising food for all the guests is non-negotiable but flying in a celebrity chef to do live counters, falls in the frills category. Similarly, think about which expenses you are willing to host for your guests and what you prefer them to pay for. The final expense you arrive at will have a bare minimum spend and the frills will depend on affordability. 

Start investing towards the basic non-negotiable wedding spend with the help of stable return securities. At the same time, you want flexibility to redeem as required and also maximise return and tax efficiency. Debt funds like short term income funds can be used for this purpose. Start an SIP or begin by investing any lump sum you have saved.

For the ‘frills’ part of the expenditure, you can think of taking some risk through higher return equity funds. We know that equity investments take time to deliver returns and you may not have 7-10 years to plan your wedding. 

Choose relatively lower risk equity funds like large cap funds or diversified funds with a large cap bias. Give yourself at least three years. In case equity returns do not build up to your expectation in this period, it won’t hurt your planned festivities. You can then leave this money invested for slightly longer and use it for your first anniversary celebration! If short term volatility does not dampen returns then you have that much more to spend on extra luxuries for the wedding celebration. 

Start investing towards the basic non-negotiable wedding spend with the help of stable return securities. At the same time, you want flexibility to redeem as required and also maximise return and tax efficiency.

Two things are a must do

Investments are not magic and in order to achieve the above, your first step is to start saving early. Cut back on some of those extra dining out experiences with office colleagues and invest for your special day. Secondly, you must make these investments regularly if you want to achieve the final corpus. 

Your dream wedding may be an expensive affair but you can make it possible. It just requires a bit of early planning, a bit of regular investment and lots of friends and family gathered around you to have a wonderful celebration.