Written by Maria Hyde

Monday, February 19th, 2018

There are plenty of wedding articles that give you tips and advice on how to budget for the big day. My husband and I used many of these resources to create our wedding budget for typical purchases like venue, flowers, and décor. However, the majority of these articles don't prepare you for unexpected post-wedding expenses. Here are some of the post-wedding costs we encountered, with money-saving tips on how to handle them.

1) Thank-you cards: We spent close to $200 for 100 thank-you cards with custom envelopes.

Tip: Opt to purchase thank-you cards in bulk on non-wedding stationery websites, where you may be able to save money. For example, Amazon.ca has a great variety of thank-you cards that cost around $20 for a box of 50. To make it more personal, you can print out photos with your guests from the wedding to include in the cards. If you're on the craftier side, you might even consider making your own thank-you cards.

2) Thank-you gifts for your vendors: Purchasing gifts for your vendors is not a requirement, but if you had a few vendors that really went above and beyond, it's a nice gesture to show your appreciation. Typical thank-you gifts for vendors include expensive bouquets and/or champagne. We spent close to $100 to have a large bouquet of flowers delivered to our wedding coordinator because she did an exceptional job helping us on our wedding day.

Tip: For vendors, a good review can go a long way for their business. Instead of purchasing them a gift, consider spreading the word about their business by having their contact information on display at your wedding and writing a really positive review of them online. If you really want to purchase them a gift, consider lower-priced items that your vendors can use, like stationery, agendas or journals.

3) Honeymoon expenses: We included our flights and accommodations in our overall wedding budget, but we overlooked the money we would spend on our honeymoon for food and excursions. This added up to several hundred dollars in extra expenses for our two-week honeymoon.

Tip: Make sure to check online coupon sites like Groupon.ca^R to find deals on excursions. We were able purchase a dolphin-watching excursion for our honeymoon in Hawaii for half the price.

If you don't choose an all-inclusive resort for your honeymoon, your food costs could really add up, so plan ahead and research online for places to eat that fit within your budget. Restaurants on resorts and in tourist areas tend to be on the pricier side, so consider dining at local hot spots instead, where you'll get authentic experiences without hurting your wallet. If you happen to be near a grocery store, buy snacks you can bring along to keep you full while you're out and about.

4) Wedding dress dry cleaning services: The cost of getting a wedding dress dry cleaned typically starts at $100. However, if you're looking to get the dress professionally preserved, you're looking at a cost of $250 or more.

Tip: When it comes to handling your wedding dress after the big day, think about what you plan to do with it long term. If you plan on selling it or aren't concerned about holding on to it for years afterwards, you may want to consider only getting it cleaned, which will save you some money. However, if it's important to you to keep your dress pristine, or if you're thinking about passing it along to future generations, you may want to consider paying the price to get it professionally preserved.

5) A wedding album: To save some money, we opted for a basic package with our photographer, which didn't include a wedding album. After our wedding, our photographer quoted us $900 to get one made, which is industry standard.

Tip: There are a number of online sites for photo books, which you could use to create a quality wedding album. Check out Mixbook.com and Shutterfly.com, which let you create a basic wedding album for under $50. Best of all, these sites often have 50% off sales, so make sure to keep an eye out to get an even better deal.

Groupon is a registered trademark of Groupon, Inc.

Shutterfly is a trademark of Shutterfly, Inc.