Getting married almost 6 months ago was a big game changer for my finances. First, my husband and I were faced with the task of keeping our dream wedding within our budget. We knew we couldn’t afford to spend the typical $25,000-$30,000+ on our dream wedding, but still wanted to live in the moment and have an amazing traditional wedding that we could remember for years to come.
Funds were already limited since I got engaged smack dab in the middle of my debt repayment journey. Taking out a loan, carrying a balance on our credit cards, and accumulating more debt to pay for a wedding was not an option for us. Waiting until we could afford or even justify spending more than $10,000 on a wedding would cause us to push off our big day by at least 5 years – that wasn’t going to happen.
Instead of feeling sorry for myself or deciding to delay my gratification completely and accept the idea that I couldn’t afford to get married, I decided to tap into my frugal mindset and habits to find real strategies and tactics to help my husband and I save big on our dream wedding.
If you are finding yourself in a similar situation, here are 25 easy ways to save a significant amount of money on your wedding.
Table of Contents
Save Money on the Ceremony and Reception
1. Cut your guest list. Keep the guest list tight by only inviting close family and friends and limiting +1s.
2. Have your wedding during the off season.
3. Have bigger tables so you pay less for centerpieces and tablecloths.
4. Have your ceremony and wedding at the same location.
5. Get married in your church.
6. Purchase wedding bands during Valentine’s Day sales.
Save Money on Food and Decor
7. Have a buffet-style dinner.
8. Get married in the morning and have a brunch-style meal afterward.
9. Have cupcake tiers instead of cake.
11. Have a BBQ or potluck-style meal if you are doing a very laid back reception or backyard wedding.
12.Serve vegetarian appetizers during the cocktail hour.
13. User more greenery in your wedding bouquets along with filler flowers.
14. Purchase decorations from the dollar store like vases, candles, fake flowers etc.
15. Rent decorations instead of buying them.
Save Money on Decor and Attire
16. Order your wedding dress online after you determine your measurements and the style you like.
17. Purhcase shoes at a consignment shop. (I got my beautiful silver shoes at a store called Clothes Mentor for $4. Unfortunately, they didn’t get too much action since my dress was so long most people didn’t see them.)
18. Take advantage of buy one get one tux rental deals. For example: Rent 5 tuxes and get your 6th tux rental free.
19. Wear your mother or grandmother’s dress. You can take it to a tailor to alter and modernize it.
20. Buy your dress at a retail store instead of a bridal shop. (My sister bought her wedding dress at the mall.)
More General Ways to Save
21. Negotiate with vendors and ask for deals.
22. Keep your bridal party small.
23. Skip the open bar and do a cash bar or prepare a signature drink instead.
24. Design and print your own wedding invitations.
25. Hire a student photographer for engagement and wedding photos. If a friend or family member is good at taking photos, you can even ask them to photograph your wedding and rent a professional camera for them to use. Pittsburgh Lens Rentals provides photos and video equipment rentals.
26. Hire a DJ instead of a band for the reception.
27. Email your save-the-dates and skip seating cards at the reception.
28. Bonus Tip: Determine your values and focus on them during the entire planning process. Your big day is all about you and your future spouse so you should honor what you both want over what anyone else wants. When you stick to your values no matter what, you’ll find that you’ll spend less on aspects of your wedding that don’t really matter to you which will free up more money for what is important.
My Personal Wedding Savings Strategies
I understand that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to pulling off the perfect budget wedding but if you’re anything like me, you probably want to spend as little as possible so you can focus on other aspects of your finances like paying off debt, saving, contributing to retirement, and breaking the dreaded paycheck to paycheck cycle.
My husband and I pulled off a fabulous wedding for only $9,000 which included a week-long stay in the Caribbean for our honeymoon. I recently released my very own wedding guide called Save Thousands on Your Dream Wedding that includes the specific savings tips, strategies, and resources along with the specific budget I used to save big on my traditional dream wedding.
Download the guide for yourself of a friend!
If you’d like to sign up to become an affiliate for the guide and receive a 50% commission for helping future brides slash their wedding expenses, you can email me at chonce (at) mydebtepiphany (dot) com for more info and so I can sign you up!
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Liz P. says
We did a lot of these. We used cupcakes (SO MUCH CHEAPER), kept our bridal party down to 2 people per side, and cut the guest list down to under 100 people (it could have been like 300). I can attest that these things work, and while my mother-in-law threw a fit, 1.5 years later, nobody cares anymore. I say do what you want to do because you’re probably the one footing the bill.
Great tips here! I did many of these things and they work!
Choncé says
Great points. Saving money where you can is necessary and no one really cares after it’s all said and done.
Fehmeen says
These are some amazing tips for wedding planners!!! A lot of people do not realize they can save tons of money by making simple flower arrangements or seat labels at home, as well as other decorations. Of course, it takes more time but it also saves you a lot of money in the long run.
Choncé says
Thanks Fehmeen, DIY can come in handy and help you save lots of money as well.
Rachel @ The Latte Budget says
Goals! This is awesome. We have 300+ people on the guest list (my fiance has an ENORMOUS family), but are saving money by doing stations instead of a meal, using fake flowers from afloral.com, and borrowing a ton of decorations (I’m not crafty so I love that they’re already done!) We also got both of our wedding bands for about $100 total. You’re right, it’s all about prioritizing. For us, we wanted everyone there more than we wanted fancy rings or a sit down dinner.
Choncé says
Sounds like you’re focusing on your priorities which is great. We also used flowers for Afloral.
DC @ Young Adult Money says
18 is a good one. It’s a great way for the groom to not have to pay for a tux. I took advantage of this deal and I suspect that it will continue to be a deal that tux rental shops offer.
Choncé says
Yeah we loved it. Our son even got his tux for free as well since there were so many groomsmen and ushers and I think the deal was ‘every 6th’ tux. When they got their tuxes for free it felt like a major win for all of us, haha.
Frugal Millennial says
Great tips! I used a lot of these strategies for my own wedding. I also skipped some things that I didn’t feel were important (the limo, videography, a cake topper, a candy buffet, etc).
Choncé says
We seriously considered doing a candy buffet but decided not to ultimately. I also found a pretty cheap cake topper at WalMart.
srahjayne17 says
We used a lot of these for our wedding too! My husband got his tux for free after the groomsmen all rented theirs, I used Sam’s Club to purchase wedding flowers, I bought my dress online (on sale) from David’s Bridal, only served beer, wine and champagne, and used dollar store vases and candles as decor and finally (my favorite) bought a ton of Easter candy on clearance after Easter, put them in the fridge, and put them in bowls for guests to snack on after dinner.
Choncé says
The Easter candy idea was genius! I wanted to have a candle table/bar set up, but never got around to organizing it for the wedding.
Lizzy says
Thank you for these tips. My daughter is getting married next year, and I have a limited budget. We are going to do our own flowers. She offered to make the cake, but I think that might be a little too ambitious.
It is tricky because she is getting married in the city where she and her fiancé now live. It is a place I have never been, and it is harder to do research long distance!
It is so different than when I was a bride. My fiancé and I were from the same area. I had the ceremony at a hometown church and the reception at a nearby club. It was very traditional, and very different than what my daughter likes.