Budgeting for the Wedding: 30 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding

What I am doing is this and honestly it seems to be working: 1-invitations: Not going to be a problem cause we are 'surprising everyone' at a family function in Vegas. We are writing a note and emailing it with a family newsletter asking everyone to dress very nice for an evening dinner party at a casino. 2-Gown-I have it paid for and only cost 300 dollars. Didn't go frilly or fancy, just a nice chiffon gown with a few pearls. Alterations are only 85 cause they have to tighten the bust line for me. 3-Flowers are silk and NOT real and made the way i want them for my and my Matron of Honor who is making our bouquets and boutineers. 4-We are having a party so food isn't an issue. 5-A relative is arranging photos and video will be taken at various areas in Las Vegas. AND most of all-since we don't drink, and some of our family is under 21, we are having juices,tea,coffee and NO alcohol!! This is making it easier on all of of and family is wonderful to have.

Im doing BYOB for the cocktail hour and reception. Saving thousands and only have to pay for the bartender and those who really want or like to drink dont mind bringing a bottle :-)

Don't be afraid to put your friends and family to work for you. Most will be more than pleased to help you on your special day and it will be cost effective as well. Ie...we have a friend who is in a band and has the equipment and he offered to DJ our reception free of charge. Also, Moms and Grandmothers love to cook and decorate, so if you're on a budget and can't afford to be picky...put them to work! Your wedding day is supposed to be an enjoying time, not a stressful one. And we all know coughing up a load of money is stressful for those who don't have a lot of it!

Don't be afraid to put your friends and family to work for you. Most will be more than pleased to help you on your special day and it will be cost effective as well. Ie...we have a friend who is in a band and has the equipment and he offered to DJ our reception free of charge. Also, Moms and Grandmothers love to cook and decorate, so if you're on a budget and can't afford to be picky...put them to work! Your wedding day is supposed to be an enjoying time, not a stressful one. And we all know coughing up a load of money is stressful for those who don't have a lot of it!

So happy to see that there are other women out there planning weddings with reality in mind! It's also refreshing to read of similar opinions on alcohol- I was starting to feel guilty for not including a bar (or offering a cash bar only) at our reception...my fiance and I do not even drink (for several reasons), so it's really not a major deal for either of us. So thanks for making me feel better about this, ladies! :)

There isn't any reason why a couple has to give the guest alcohol, or provide a cash bar. They are there to celebrate a couple's union, not drink. Anyone who thinks its required to provide alcohol, is clearly there for the wrong reasons, and is probably a lush, or an alcoholic, or has drinking problems, or has social issues, and cannot be in a social situation unless they are drinking. Sorry, but just because "some" people cannot enjoy themselves without a drink, doesn't mean that I have to provide them with alcohol at MY wedding. I can enjoy my life without alcohol, and it's not like its gonna kill you to go what? 3-5 hours for a wedding and reception without a drink.

I agree with mzgina and the dry wedding concept. Not only is my FH's family WAY conservative, we're on a very small budget and if we're already offering cake and soda and wedding favors, no reason to offer alcohol and give any others on my side to make a fool of themselves LOL.

I had a dry wedding. We got married on city property and I didn't want a lot of people drinking and driving back home. Instead we had a small party at a friends house closer to home where people could drink. I agree DIY and family/friends is the way to go. My wedding was WAY under 3,000 and it was an amazing day and very beautiful.

Honestly, if you and your fiance don't drink, then I understand having a 'dry' wedding, but otherwise, I think it's unreasonable to not offer a glass of wine at the very least for your guests. The general population does drink and a glass of wine with dinner is a daily thing for many, so you do have to think about your guests and their entertainment as well. Cash bar, fine, but a completely dry wedding better have a very good reason behind it, and not just because you don't want to pay. That's my opinion.

Really great ideas out here. My husband and I got married at SF's City Hall, and we're now planning an intimate wedding ceremony and reception for our friends and families. The most we want to pay for that PLUS the honeymoon is 10 grand, so I'm desperately looking for corners to cut and DIY ideas (I'm the worst DIY gal alive too.)

i downloaded a 30 day trial of adobe illustrator and used the program to design all of our invites/escort cards/etc! printed them at home on some nice cardstock and they look great. it took a little time to figure out the program, but it has saved us tons! we're also having a friend officate the wedding. he can get "ordained" online for free and thats some more cash in our pockets. plus it's cute!

We are on a pretty strict budget for our wedding. Fortunately, his sister is a card designer, so she is making our invitations. Another friend is a filmmaker and she is taking all of our wedding photos. And we are good friends with our caterer, so we're getting a great deal. I'm glad to hear everyone's comments on alcohol. My husband-to-be and I make wine and homebrew beer. So we are brining in only wine and beer that we've made (prety tasty too!). Otherwise it's coffee and soft drinks for our guests.

i love all of these ideas!!! When we had our orginial wedding we didn't serve any kind of alcohol and we didn't get any grief from our guests, because they were there to support us and knew we didn't drink so it was not expected at all... Now 10 years later we are planning a imitimate vow renewal and I'm struggling with rather to forget about having a party afterwards or should we invite our guests to join us for dinner at their own expense since we're only planning to invite our closest family and friends so around 30-40 people tops.... i would reallyl like to focus more on the cermony part since we're taking our honeymoon (that happened) to Hawaii right after... I'm open to suggestions and appreciate your advice..

I just started planning for my wedding!! I'm trying to keep mine on a lower budget too! I've already picked my reception location, and now I'm trying to book a location for the actual wedding ceremony! LOVE these ideas of cutting costs!!! :) I welcome ANY more ideas for me to keep the costs down!

Try to talk to the caterer, they usually charge you 15 dollars to bring your own wine and open it...that is saving us alone 250.00 on alcohol. You dont have to buy expensive wine for it to taste good, trader joes has excellent wine for 3-5 dollars a bottle

One of my best friends is in photography school and another one is studing to be a party planner so there is my photographer and my wedding coordinator. So don't be afraid to go to your local college they can put your wedding in their resume and they will not cost alot. I will not have alcohol at my wedding since we do not drink if your friends want to celebrate with you they will do it because they care about you and not care about you forking out their bar tab. We are all into grilling and family so for fun I am having a black tie wedding and my reception is going to have a coffee bar as well as a burger bar for dinner. We have another friend that has a massive grill who will do all of our burgers and another one in culinary school who is going to do all the burger toppings.

One of my best friends is in photography school and another one is studing to be a party planner so there is my photographer and my wedding coordinator. So don't be afraid to go to your local college they can put your wedding in thier resume and they will not cost alot. I will not have alcohol at my wedding since we do not drink if your friends want to celebrate with you they will do it because they care about you and not care about you froking out their bar tab. We are all into grilling and family so for fun I am having a black tie wedding and my reception is going to have a coffee bar as well as a burger bar for dinner. We have another friend that has a massive grill who will do all of our burgers and another one in culinary school who is going to do all the burger toppings.

Great tips!! I will follow this list definitely.

I love the alcohol tip. We are actually deciding on March and we're also only having one glass of champagne for the toast. We aren't big drinkers and neither are most of our friends and family so price and safety are taken care of with just the toast!

I completely agree with almost all the tips but especially with the alcohol tip. My FH and I are trying to have a nice wedding but NOT going into high debt and be able to afford a nice home for a future family. I really want to keep the cost of our wedding to a minimum but I do want it to look nice and people have fun. So I know most of my things are going to be DIY and if I can just simply convince my FH that indeed its a good idea to have a destination wedding since we will at least get a vacation out of it. I am going on the "You haven't had a vacation in a while" angle lol.