Ideas for Planning a Wedding on a Budget

Set a budget: Start now, and be sure not to procrastinate!

Trim the guest list: I know you want to invite everyone, but many out of town guest don’t always make it. So send them the announcement with a personal letter and they’ll understand.

Stay organized: So much money can be lost if you’re not organized! Make a list of all items you need. Write the amount you can afford next to each item with an estimated cost and then write what you actually spent. Make sure to revise the list according to your budget. Keep track of all of your findings to compare prices! You will be surprised how much you can save by taking the time to comparison shop!

Location: Have the wedding at a family member’s house, or friend’s house: Outdoor weddings can be beautiful!

Make your own decorations: Instead of buying a bunch of fresh flowers, buy nice silk flowers *on sale. Look for ribbon to match your wedding colors and use it for many things – ribbon is inexpensive! I made corsages for my friend’s bridesmaids with ribbon and a few silk flowers. They were very easy to make. Decorate wicker baskets with ribbon and flowers – baskets are great for holding those little bottles of bubbles, for cards, and buffet items! Make your own centerpieces! Buy candles on sale at craft stores, or even dollar stores. Just be creative! For my friend’s wedding I bought a large bag of silver beads and used them as a decorative accent on some of the ribbons. I also bought inexpensive crystal-like garland and placed it around the centerpieces to dress up some inexpensive vases.Buy items on sale and use coupons: Buy a few Sunday newspapers to get those 40% off coupons if needed!! It will save you a lot of money in the long run!

Ask for help, you may even have a DJ amongst your family and friends: For my friends wedding, we used my microphone and speaker PA system. She also borrowed another friend’s nice stereo system for the music. One friend made her several CD’s with all her favorite songs for the reception.

Price around for the tables and places settings: Let merchants know you’re shopping around, because you’re on a tight budget! They might even lower their price to get your business. Be firm with your price and stick to your budget!

Maybe have a catered buffet, or do you know few people willing to prepare\manage some buffet platters for you: My friend had a few wonderful friends prepare the food for her wedding? She paid for the ingredients, and as a wedding gift to her they prepared and managed the buffet. Please be sure to think this one through, this could be a lot of work if not planned well. An elegant mid-day cost effective buffet with "tea" sandwiches (crusts cut off and cut into triangle shapes), puff pastries, hor dourves, pasta, fruits (strawberries, grapes, oranges and pineapple work well), casseroles, vegetable salads, cheeses & cracker platters, olives and pickles… Just look for easy recipes that can be made ahead of time. Be sure to consider all of your guests dietary needs, it is important to have balanced meals as well as a vegetarian option. Everything you serve should be attractively arranged on platters and garnished. *Remember to use coupons and buy in bulk (wholesale clubs, etc)!!

You could borrow items for the reception: Someone you know may have a nice punch bowl or serving platter! Maybe some tables and chairs! They may even have some nice decorative items too!

If a photographer is not in your budget, then have a friend take the photos: But make sure to write down a photo shoot\schedule for special poses, and backgrounds. Also ask a few other friends with digital cameras to click away to capture those candid shots too – in my opinion the candid ones are usually the most entertaining pictures! Many people have nice digital cameras along with nice editing software. Plus there are always great deals for digital printouts – just keep an eye out! As one of the gifts to my friend, I enlarged a photo of her fiancé proposing to her. I put it in a nice frame and placed it on the gift table as a decoration!

Here are a few pictures of some of the items I put together for my friends wedding – I wish I had more pictures, but unfortunately I didn’t make copies, and I lost many of my pictures from my hard drive (lesson learned – always make backups!)

***Most important: remember it’s your special day, so don’t worry so much about all the material things! Just think about what you have accomplished, and how lucky you are! If you do that - you will shine!

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Wedding gift idea: Take a few nice digital photos at the wedding, print them out, and place them in an Album.

Do you have frugal wedding ideas for planning a wedding on a budget? What is your favorite frugal gift idea?