How to Plan a Wedding on a Small Budget

Wedding on a Small Budget Ideas

According to The Knot, the average wedding cost is $33,931 and that doesn’t include the honeymoon.

Does that number make your head hurt? (It makes mine hurt!)

What if you only have a budget of $1000, $5000 or $10,000?

Does that mean your wedding won’t be as good or as special?

At the end of the day, the budget doesn’t dictate how wonderful the wedding is.

The couple does.

How much fun people have at a wedding is determined by the little touches you make that day.

So, how do you plan a wedding on a small budget?

In this blog post, I am sharing over 20 tips to have a traditional wedding that’s special and customized no matter the size of your budget. 

I’ve included examples from my own wedding on a small budget with recommendations, mistakes, and solutions.

But first, let’s address the elephant in the room – what is actually the cheapest way to have a wedding?

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What is the cheapest way to have a wedding?

When you or your friends and family think of a budget friendly wedding, you all probably think: Courthouse wedding. 

Yes, these are the cheapest types of weddings you can plan. 

But a courthouse wedding is NOT the only way to stick to a budget when planning a wedding. 

You can have a traditional wedding filled with all the classics like walking down the aisle, enjoying good food, dancing, all without breaking the bank!

So yes, even though a courthouse wedding is technically the cheapest, it’s not what we are focusing on in this blog post. 

How to Plan a Wedding on a Small Budget

As I’ve said, it is 100% possible to plan a wonderful wedding on a small budget. 

Want to have photos to remember the day by? No problem! 

Want to sit down and enjoy a meal with the people you love? Let’s make it happen! 

So, here are 20+ ways to plan a wedding on a small budget! 

1. Determine your wedding budget

Before you run off and start getting quotes, (I get it, you’re excited!) you need to have an idea of what is attainable based on what you can afford. 

Here are ideas for how you can estimate your budget:

• Look at your savings and investment accounts.
• Ask your parents if they’re willing to contribute. (Keep in mind if your parents contribute, they might expect to have a say in how the wedding is run.)
• Estimate what monetary gifts you’re likely to receive. (Be conservative with this estimation because it’s not guaranteed! If you have a family member who recently got married and you’re inviting similar people to your wedding, you could ask them how much they received roughly per person.)

When you have a ballpark figure, have a long discussion with your partner about what you feel comfortable spending. 

Your final answer is your budget. 

I do want to give some friendly advice here though. 

It’s important to remember that your wedding is just one day.

It’s a big day, but you don’t have to throw everything you have at it to make it fun and memorable!

Two things about a wedding budget:

1. If you need to organize your budget, here’s my wedding planner spreadsheet (which includes a wedding budget). It has space for all of the information, a summary and a chart so you can quickly see the big picture as well as the details.

If you prefer to use a paper budget, here’s a minimalist wedding planner printable.

Since it’s a printable PDF, you can just print off the pages you need. There are 108 pages to choose from!

You can use code SALE10 to get 10% off any of these products.

2. If your wedding budget number is not quite where you’d like it to be, here are articles on how to make more money to add to it:

• 11 Easy Ways to Make $100 Quickly
• 11 Work at Home Jobs to make Side or Full-Time Money

2. Prioritize what’s important

The way to stay within a small wedding budget is to prioritize what’s important.

Here’s how you can start prioritizing:

• Think about the previous weddings you’ve been to and identify the top 3 things you loved the most.
• Discuss what elements are nice to have, but not entirely necessary.
• Pinpoint what things you just don’t care for so you can skip them completely.

Here are the typical wedding categories you can talk through to get you started:

• Venue
• Food and Beverages
• Cake or other Dessert
• Photography and/or Videography
• Entertainment (e.g. DJ, band)
• Dress and Tuxedo
• Rings
• Invitations
• Honeymoon
• Wedding Planner
• Decorations (e.g. flowers, candles, lighting, centerpieces, signage)
• Favors

We decided early on that the most important aspect to us was food and the least important aspect were flowers.

I also wanted to get a diamond engagement ring, but not spend a fortune to get one.

We went through the process of going to the mall and specialty diamond stores, but the prices were astronomical!

Then as we continued researching, we came across Blue Nile. They’re an online retailer with a huge selection of low-price, high-quality diamonds.

They have a diamond price-match guarantee and provide free shipping, returns, and a lifetime manufacturer warranty.

Most importantly, all the diamonds are GIA (Gemmological Institute of America) certified.

Each diamond comes with its own diamond grading report, GemEx certificate, and Blue Nile appraisal.

We purchased my engagement and wedding rings from them 8 years ago, and they still look great!

If you want to get a stone that looks very similar to a diamond (where you need to be a trained jeweler to see the difference), but a fraction of the cost, you might want to consider a moissanite ring.

Charles & Colvard specializes in selling moissanite rings. They’ve been creating them for over 20 years.

If you subscribe to their emails, you can closely monitor their discounts.

Related Article: 18 Tips on How to Save Money on an Engagement Ring

3. Don’t be afraid to have the wedding you want

It’s natural to want to have the big, glamorous weddings you see on television.

Fundamentally, the wedding is a day to celebrate the couple’s commitment to each other.

The strength of the union is the same whether it’s at the Plaza Hotel or in the middle of the street.

Don’t give in to society’s expectations.

Also, don’t give in to your relatives’ expectations.

I know what it’s like to go to a relative’s wedding and feel like you have to at least do what they did.

Or maybe you’re feeling the pressure from your mother or mother-in-law to have a certain type of wedding…

The ONLY type of wedding you should have is the one you want.

Don’t be afraid to stand up to those around you who feel otherwise. It’s not their wedding.

Your wedding should reflect you and what you feel comfortable spending.

How much you budget doesn’t make the wedding memories more special.

You don’t have to do all of the usual traditions like throwing the bouquet.

Be your different self. If they gossip behind your back, that just reflects their character and not yours.

4. Be your own wedding planner

While planning a wedding can be daunting and it’s nice to be able to hand this off, it’s something you will realistically want to handle yourself when planning a wedding on a small budget. 

Seriously, doing this will save you thousands of dollars! 

But, after having planned my own wedding, I can tell you it’s not easy!

On the day of, there were a lot of details I didn’t realize would go wrong like…

The tables were not set up according to the table layout provided, so the table numbers were incorrectly placed.

It rained on my wedding day and the wedding venue staff member was supposed to redirect people to the new ceremony location, but it was never done.

But, at the end of the day, this is still something you’ll want to manage yourself to save the money. 

Don’t be afraid to ask family members or friends for help with this on the day of as well, as I’m sure they’d be happy to lend you a hand. 

Just make sure you’ve thought about some of the possible problems you might run into and have a game plan ready to go. 

If you’ve never planned a large event before, you might find these Best Selling Wedding Budget Planners and Books on Amazon helpful.

After what happened to me, I wish I would have looked through resources like these beforehand.

5. Focus on the highest cost – the wedding venue

Banquet halls that are known as wedding venues will often have a large price tag.

However, they will often include a lot of necessary aspects like tables, chairs, linens, food etc.

It’s worthwhile to check them out and read the fine print to find out exactly what’s included and what the total cost is.

For example, there might be unexpected costs for set up, cake cutting, power for your DJ, corking alcohol etc.

I also recommend getting quotes from alternate venues to compare.

Some ideas of where you can look include: 

• Farms
• Parks
• Beaches
• Libraries
• Museums
• Aquariums
• Zoos
• Universities and Schools
• Theaters
• Breweries
• Court Houses
• Community Center
• Community Hall

Another alternative is having the wedding at your home.

If you go with a relatively blank space that requires you to bring everything from tables and chairs, your rental costs can add up quickly.

You need to factor these in when you’re comparing venues.

If you’d like to trim the price down even further, consider looking within your network of friends and family who probably have connections to amazing venues at a lower price or ideas of where you can look.

Don’t be afraid to ask around for recommendations.

Here are a few additional tips on keeping costs down for your wedding venue:

• Time your wedding during off-season: The typical wedding season is June-October, which means it’s not only more expensive to get married during this period, but vendors will be booked up quickly so you’ll have less room to negotiate. It’s cheaper to book your wedding between November-May, aka, the off-season. 
• Don’t have your wedding on a Saturday: Have it on a Friday or a Sunday. If you prefer to have a Saturday type wedding, you can schedule it for a long weekend Sunday, which is what we did and it was so much cheaper!
• Have a breakfast or lunch wedding: Not only will this bring down the cost of the meal, but it might bring down the cost of the venue as well.

Wedding venues can easily break the budget.

There is always the option to elope. You can host a more casual, small wedding reception when you return so you still celebrate with family and friends, but don’t bear the huge cost.

Tip: If you have guests who need high chairs, check to see if your venue has these available or if you’ll have to rent them and factor this cost in.

This was something I did last minute because I didn’t have kids at the time and didn’t realize kids would need high chairs.

I paid ridiculously high rental costs for high chairs!

Related: If you’re planning a beach wedding, here are tips on how to plan a beach wedding on a budget.

6. Be mindful of the second largest cost – wedding food and drink

The traditional 3-course, plated meals are often the most expensive option.

But don’t worry – this doesn’t mean your dreams of enjoying a nice meal with your guests has to get tossed out the window!

When discussing with the venue or caterer, look into buffet or family-style meals.

Not only will this give your guests more variety, it’ll be more satisfying and filling for the ones who are often still hungry after a 3-course meal.

You could also use food trucks as they’re often a good deal.

For alcohol, you can bring your own beer and wine. Groupon for Wine Insiders has a great deal on premium wine.

Another option that I mentioned above was to opt for a breakfast or lunch meal instead, which will present plenty of cost options. 

Or, if you’d like to serve hourderves between the ceremony and the reception, consider making them yourself or asking friends and family to bring their favorite dishes! 

Suffice it to say, there are plenty of ways to save costs on the food and drink at your wedding! 

7. Skip the traditional wedding cake

A traditional wedding cake can easily cost over $300 at a wedding cake store!

I’ve even seen cakes sell for more than a grand!

You can nix the wedding cake altogether and just have desserts available.

My sister-in-law did this, and it worked out great! She asked a few family members to make their famous desserts.

It added a nice, personal touch to the wedding!

Another idea is to DIY cupcakes, which is what we did.

You could do the same thing with cake pops!

Here are some other ideas: 

• Ask a family member or friend to make the cupcakes. You can buy them the mix and frosting. If you don’t know anyone who’s a baker, you can contact local bakeries or grocery stores (even Walmart sells custom wedding cakes!) for cheaper options.
• Buy a cupcake stand or cake pop stand (which you can resell afterward). I got this clear, acrylic cupcake stand. It made the cupcakes look great! When I posted it for sale after the wedding, someone asked if they could just rent it so I charged them a rental fee. When I got it back afterward, I sold it. I ended up making money on this stand!

8. Negotiate with vendors

Negotiation can be scary.

I know the feeling firsthand of thinking that if you try to negotiate, you might offend the vendor, and he or she might not be willing to work with you OR WORSE – they will give you poor service or product delivery.

The key to negotiating is to be tasteful about it.

You’re dealing with a professional who has set their rates carefully based on their services and experience.

So, the key to getting a yes is to treat them respectfully. 

The best way to have a successful negotiation is working out a win-win scenario. 

Here are some examples of how you can do that.

Photographers – When you ask them for their quote, make sure you’ve worked out: 

• What you need or envision receiving from that vendor
• What exactly is included and not included in the quote the vendor provides: For example, if you’re dealing with a photographer, the quote should include the number of hours serviced, edited pictures, non-edited pictures etc.

Be upfront with them and explain that you’re looking to stay within a certain budget and ask if there is room for cutting costs, even if it means removing a few items from their package. 

Venues – If all the venue packages come with table and chair set up costs, is the venue open to you doing this yourself and not having to pay this extra cost?

Vendors – If the vendor is new to weddings, you could also ask if they are willing to reduce prices for an honest testimonial on their website.

These are just a few ideas, but get creative and see what you can work out! 

If you are uncomfortable with negotiating, learn from a negotiation book.

Getting to Yes is an international bestselling book about how to negotiate. It’s based on the work from the Harvard Negotiation Project. It can be applied to every type of negotiation.

Bonus Tip: When searching for vendors, don’t just Google your location + the service.

Instead, look outside of your local area, but be sure to ask if there are extra charges for the added mileage. 

You can also search the keywords in local Facebook groups where you might find cheaper rates.

I’ve also seen people work with students to get services at a discounted rate, such as photographers, DJs, etc. (Note – the quality won’t be as good. Consider asking for a portfolio or examples of past work to get an idea of the end product you’ll get.) 

9. Use digital wedding invitations

You can use evite.com or RSVPify.

You don’t have to pay for printing and sending invites. It’s also more environmentally friendly.

Plus, this makes it way easier to track RSVPs and send reminders.

If you prefer to use a printed invite, you could also buy a wedding invite template on Etsy and then print it on card stock at a local print shop.

Usually if you go with a wedding invitation vendor, the high costs are in the printing, so this will save you a lot of money! 

If you’re crafty, you could also make your own wedding invites. 

Make it even more fun by turning it into a girl’s night with your bridal party! 

10. Skip a theme

You don’t need to have wedding colors or a specific theme.

Having a theme actually limits your options and usually costs more.

For example, say you have a blue-and-white theme. (Yes – this was me!) 

Now you have to get blue candles, blue uplights, blue ties, etc.

When you shop around, you realize there are so many different shades of blue!

So you have to pay extra to customize the color or spend lots of time looking for the exact blue item you need.

When you’re planning your own wedding, there are a lot of other details you could be spending your time on that are more important!

Keep it simple and classic!

Just choose the pieces you like. At the end of the day, the theme is the couple. That’s all the theme you need!

A classic way to emphasize the theme is to display pictures. You can put the pictures on a portable memo board on an easel.

11. Limit music time or DIY this

Music can eat up a huge chunk of your budget!

If it’s important to have a DJ or a band, limit their time.

For example, you can have them come just after dinner.

Alternatively:

• Upload songs to your computer and pay a friend to monitor this and be your DJ. This would work for both the ceremony and reception music. This also allows you to customize the playlist!
• Contact your local high school, college or university and ask about the possibility of asking music students or teachers (particularly for the ceremony music) to play music at your wedding. This will probably be at a significantly reduced fee!

Tip: You can get Amazon Music for 30 days for FREE for your playlist. This gives you unlimited access to 50 million songs on demand without ads. You can cancel it before the 30 days is up if you don’t want to pay for the subscription.

12. Don’t get the top of the line photography

Photography is also where you can lose a good portion of your budget if you’re not careful. 

While it might be tempting to get free or significantly reduced rates from an amateur photography student or someone looking to build their portfolio, I highly recommend not doing this.

In a survey of 500 people, EverQuote pinpointed that photography is one of the top 3 categories people wish they spent more money on. The other 2 are food and drinks, and the ceremony.

That said, you don’t have to pay for the largest package with the most expensive photographer in town.

You can get a basic package that will still give you photos that you love. 

If it’s not on a Saturday or off-peak, you might even be able to score a discount!

You could also ask guests to share photos:

• On social media like on Facebook or Instagram and tag you or a specific #
• Through disposable cameras, you can leave on a table at the front

You can ask guests to leave the photo and a note in a wedding guest book as a keepsake!

Tip: Hire a photographer that doesn’t watermark their images – that will give you a CD of all of the images unedited as well as the ones that are edited as per your agreement.

That way, you don’t have to go through their photography studio and pay high fees each time you want to get a photo printed.

You can get it printed at a local store.

13. Don’t do the traveling hair and makeup

If you’ve ever been a part of a bridal party, you might know there are hair and makeup specialists that will do your hair and makeup at your house or hotel on the day of your wedding.

While it’s convenient, this is the most expensive way to go.

Consider doing your own hair and makeup. You know your hair and face best.

If you’ve been doing your own hair and makeup for work and other events, you might even do a better job than a professional.

If you don’t want to DIY this, just go to a hair and/or makeup salon.

You can book a FREE makeover at Sephora (when you spend more than $50 on products).

I love this option! I’ve used it to get a professional look done for attending weddings.

14. Have minimal wedding decorations

If you’re having the ceremony or reception outdoors in the garden, you might have all the decor you need.

If you want to add to the scenery, the first thing I would focus on is good lighting for photos.

I rented uplights, which was a mistake. It was still way too dark in the room.

Instead, I wish I had gotten brighter lighting like using these white Christmas lights.

I saw the effect of these in another wedding later on and they were gorgeous and tasteful!

They were hanging across the ceiling, but I can see this also being used as a backdrop for the dessert table.

Here are other ideas for simple and inexpensive lighting:

• Paper lanterns and battery-operated LED party lights that you can hang from the ceiling.
• Solar mason jar lids with mason jars that you can hang on a tree branch

The second thing I would focus on is flowers, but you don’t actually need this.

I skipped having flowers and I have no regrets!

One way to lower the cost is to get used flowers.

My sister-in-law had her wedding on a Sunday and bought her flowers from a bride who was getting married on a Saturday.

I thought this was such a great idea!

She just placed the flowers in the middle of the tables. 

It was a nice centerpiece that didn’t block you from seeing and conversing with people across the table.

You could also advertise that you’re looking for flowers on a local buy/sell Facebook group or other local community site to see what’s available. 

If you have room in your budget, you could also add a wide glass bowl and floating candles to it for a simple and elegant centerpiece. 

You could also go with artificial flowers.

There are some flowers that look quite real! There are also silk flowers.

If you’re having a Fall wedding, you might even be able to gather leaves outside to go with them without paying a dime!

Flowers are just one decorative option.

You could also: 

• ask a local nursery if you can borrow or rent potted plants.(I know one couple who did this.) 
• use balloons like these gorgeous white balloons or these silver balloons. 
• place garland around the tables, chairs, etc. 

15. Don’t buy your attire from wedding clothing stores

When shopping for a tuxedo or wedding dress, you might immediately think about wedding stores. 

Unfortunately, these places charge a premium price. 

Luckily for us, there are more places than ever before where you can find wedding clothes on a budget! 

Here are some ideas of where to look. 

• Department stores: Check out the prom or formal sections. Instead of getting a tux, you could get a suit, which is formal and can be worn at more events.
• Used wedding dress or tux stores in your area: That’s where I got mine! It was in great condition. Nobody could tell it was used. After I finished using it, I sold it online. Here is a used wedding dress store online – StillWhite.
• Your mom’s or relative’s former wedding dress: If you don’t like the style, get it altered or ask an alterations expert to give you advice on how to freshen it up.
• Wedding attire rental store: You could rent your wedding dress and tux for a fraction of the price. You’ll probably only wear it that day anyways! If you’re looking for different (not white) wedding dresses perhaps for a change of clothes in the evening, Rent the Runway has a nice selection of designer dresses.
• Wedding dress sample sales: You might be lucky to live in a city that has the occasional wedding dress sample sale.

If your heart is set on a particular piece at a wedding clothing store, sign up for their email newsletter or website so you can get on the list for upcoming deals.

Bonus Tip: Borrow jewelry from family. Not only is it nice to wear jewelry from your family, it can be your something borrowed!

16. Have a limited wedding registry

It’s nice to have a wedding registry to give guests the option of buying you a gift vs. giving cash.

There are other benefits to creating a registry. For example:

If you create an Amazon Wedding Registry, you’ll get up to a 20% completion discount on any items left on your registry.

When guests buy select items from your registry, you’ll get a free gift. It’s FREE to sign up.

If you prefer to receive cash:

• Keep the wedding registry limited to under 10 items and/or
• Don’t list your registry (don’t link it to your wedding invitation or website), but still create it (to receive the registry benefits and to give people who prefer to buy a gift and will go to the extent of searching for your name on a vendor registry).

We kept our wedding registry limited and unlisted.

We did get a handful of gifts, but the majority of the gifts ended up being cash.

After putting the cash towards the wedding costs, we actually ended up making money! It was an unexpected, welcome surprise.

17. Skip all the wedding extras

Wedding extras are the activities you do that are nice to have, but not necessary. Here are a few examples:

• Rehearsal dinner or party to welcome out-of-towners
• Ceremony or reception programs
• Bathroom baskets
• Monogrammed signs
• Wedding cake knife
• Projector for showing pictures
• Limos
• Welcome bags
• Favors
• Photo Booth and props

I spent way too much time and money on some of these things.

When I look back, many of them didn’t matter.

If you want to add wedding extras, pick just a few that are important to you and make them great!

To save money, you could also DIY some of these things, but be mindful of the amount of time you spend doing this as your time is worth money.

I DIYed stuff up until a few days before my wedding. It was a totally unnecessary, added stress that I shouldn’t have put myself through.

Bonus Tip: If you do get these types of extras, don’t forget to sell everything that’s sellable afterwards!

18. Have a small bridal and groom party

It’s nice to have people you love stand next to you on your big day.

But truthfully, they will be just as happy for you sitting in the audience. 

Unfortunately, there can be many costs associated with a bridal party when you decide to have one which is why I recommend keeping your bridal party small. 

The couple often pay for their bridesmaid’s hair, makeup, dress, and bouquets, their groomsmen’s boutonnieres etc.

There’s also the flower girl’s flowers and the ring bearer’s pillow.

The bride and groom often get their wedding party small gifts as a thank you.

Then there’s also the costs associated with the stag night or weekend.

All of this could quickly amount to $1000’s. 

The more people you have in your wedding party, the higher the total costs are.

If you want to have a large wedding party, you can cut down on what you pay for. (e.g. ask your bridesmaids to wear dresses they already own, ask them to do their own makeup, etc.) 

Alternatively, you can just limit the number of people in your wedding party. We had 7 people in our wedding party…gulp! There wasn’t a flower girl or ring bearer.

If I could do it all over again, I would have just had 2 people in it – the maid of honor and the best man.

If you have more than 1 person you’d like to be as the maid of honor or best man, have 2 people be the maids of honor or best men. You can do whatever you’d like. It’s your day.

But remember, the less people you have involved, the less money everyone has to pay.

19. Limit the guest list

This is probably going to be one of the most contentious issues.

The fact is: the larger your guest list, the more your overall cost will be.

For example, you have to pay for each guest’s food, drinks, etc. 

You have to pay for each guest’s food, drinks, etc. If you have a budget and you know the cost per person, you can have a rough idea of the number of people you can have at your wedding.

Here are a few ideas to limit the guest list:

• Only invite people you are presently speaking to: For example, if you have friends from high school or university that you haven’t spoken to in a year, don’t invite them.
• Limit the number of your parent’s friends: We actually didn’t invite any of my parent’s friends. We couldn’t just invite 1 or 2 people without offending everyone else, making my parent’s lives difficult. Our families are large so we decided to just include our family and friends.
• Eliminate plus 1’s: While plus 1’s are nice to keep your friends company, usually there will be other people they know at the wedding anyways. If you’re uncertain about where to make the cut, you can include plus 1’s for common law and married partners only.
• Have a kid-free wedding: This not only avoids the possibility of hysterical outbursts, it also means the parents can stick around for a little while longer and not have to put their kids to bed early.
• Invite some people after the dinner is over: This idea might offend people and be in a bit of a gray area in terms of your etiquette. I thought I’d mention it because I saw it at my friend’s wedding. The music started and suddenly, the dance floor had people who hadn’t been at the ceremony or dinner part of the reception. My friends had invited a few people after the meal so they could come celebrate, and you save money on their plate (I’m assuming these people weren’t expected to bring a gift as well.). If you’re having a small wedding and there are friends you are interested in inviting that you’re not super close with (e.g. friends from your recreational sports team), this might be an idea to consider. Of course, you’ll want to consider the venue’s stance on this. For example, if you have unlimited drinks as part of your package for the after dinner party, this wouldn’t be ethical.

20. Ask your friends and family to help with the wedding

There are a lot of little details like set up, placing decor and signs on tables, designing the seating chart etc. You’re going to want to ask family and friends to help!

I know it can feel awkward to ask people for favors.

They’re probably more than happy to help and will feel privileged to play a role on your special day. It also adds a sense of belonging and community to a wedding.

Just make sure the people you ask are:

• Reliable
• Trusted
• Produce good work
• Actually want to help

You don’t want to force anyone into this.

Give them an out and let them know it’s okay if they don’t want to participate.

Communicate the expectations so they know what’s involved.

To thank them, you can give them some monetary compensation, a small gift, buy them a meal or make what they’re doing into a fun activity as opposed to work.

For example, you can ask a few people to come help set up and decorate the venue the night before.

Put on some music and make it a party. You can order pizza for everyone as a thank you.

Final Thoughts on How to Plan a Wedding on a Small Budget

There are so many ways to plan a wedding on a small budget and I hope this gives you a baseline of ideas to start with.

Let me know in the comments if you have other ideas.

Do you have a story about how you were able to pay for your wedding on a small budget?

Recap of How to Plan a Wedding on a Small Budget

1. Determine your wedding budget
2. Prioritize what’s important
3. Don’t be afraid to have the wedding you want
4. Be your own wedding planner
5. Focus on the highest cost – the wedding venue
6. Be mindful of the second largest cost – wedding food and drink
7. Don’t have a traditional wedding cake
8. Negotiate with vendors
9. Use digital wedding invitations
10. Skip a theme
11. Limit music time or DIY this
12. Don’t get the top of the line photography
13. Don’t do the traveling hair and makeup
14. Have minimal wedding decorations
15. Don’t buy your attire from wedding clothing stores
16. Have a limited wedding registry
17. Skip all the wedding extras
18. Have a small bridal and groom party
19. Limit the guest list
20. Ask your friends and family to help with the wedding

Related Money Saving Articles:

• How to Save on an Engagement Ring
• 18 things I stopped buying to save $5000
• 11 ways to save money on groceries every day
• Best tips to save money
• 18 Fun Saving Challenges You Need to Try
• Home Date Night Ideas that are Fun
• How to get FREE Furniture including Couches and Tables

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