30 Ways To Save A Fortune When Planning A Wedding

2. Have An Off-Season Wedding

Most people get married in the spring and summer months, for obvious reasons. It’s sunny, warm, and easy to travel from place to place. However, it is also the most expensive time for wedding venues and travel. If you are willing to get married off-season in the fall or winter, you are going to find amazing deals on booking the venue that may even be 50% off the price the charge during peak periods.

3. Choose a Venue That Speaks For Itself

If you rent out a hall that is very plain, you will end up spending a fortune on flowers, balloons, and streamers to decorate the space and make it look more festive. If you manage to find a location that is in a garden, on a beach, in a brick building, or in front of a gorgeous historic castle, you don’t even need to decorate the place to make it look beautiful.

4. Make Your Own Invitations

If you want really fancy wedding invitations, they can cost a few dollars each. Some people even include photos, maps, and a huge amount of stuff that even costs a lot to ship. But you don’t have to go above and beyond on invitations, especially since some of them will likely end up thrown away.

On Etsy, there are PDF files for only $1 where you can customize your name, date, and time. If you have a really nice color printer at home, it may be as simple as buying a stack of 6×4 inch glossy photo paper, and you’re done.

5. Shop For Dresses Outside of a Bridal Shop

A lot of brides shop for dresses in bridal boutiques and shops, and they never even consider getting a dress from anywhere else. If you want to save money, keep an open mind. A lot of bridesmaids and prom dresses can be made in white. However, take your venue into consideration. If you wear a cheaper homecoming dress to a wedding at The Ritz hotel, it won’t exactly fit in. But if you are having a wedding in a backyard or a courthouse, it’s okay to get a cheaper dress.

6. Have Your Wedding and Reception In The Same Place

In a traditional wedding, the couple gets married in a church, and then the entire wedding party has to get in their cars, type the new address into their GPS, and move to a second venue where they have to wait around and get settled all over again. You are paying for transportation, and possible two venues. If your heart isn’t set on saying your “I do’s” in a specific church, why not get someone to officiate your wedding in the reception hall?

7. Don’t Over-Decorate

If you have been looking through Pinterest, and you can’t decide which decorations you like the best, it may be tempting to want to pick a little bit of everything. Just keep in mind that too much clutter can ruin the look. Try to stick to your theme, and narrow your choices down in a way that makes sense, instead of over-spending and over-decorating.

8. Go Thrift Shopping

A lot of brides (and even bridal boutiques) will donate dresses to thrift stores. These shops may charge around $100 per dress, but that is a great deal.

Thrift shops are also great for decorations and items you might use in your table settings. For example, if you want to use glass containers or mason jars, Goodwill should be one of your first stops.

9. Rent Or Borrow Your Dress

You are only going to wear your wedding dress once, and then it will sit in your closet or attic for the rest of your life. Most grooms rent a tuxedo, which includes free alterations right at the store. So, why should the bride be expected to purchase her dress for hundreds, or even thousands of dollars? You can rent a dress on websites like RentTheRunway or BorrowingMagnolia, or ask around to friends and family if they would be willing to let you borrow their dress, provided they are okay with you making alterations to the size.

10. Start Couponing and Shopping During Sales

Some people think couponing takes a lot of time and effort to get into, but it’s actually easy to get into the habit of picking up the Sunday paper. Check out blogs like Krazy Coupon Lady once a week. Once you get in the habit of doing that, you can start stocking up on items you need for your wedding. Food and drink items like pasta, soda, sauces, spices, and more can be free or less than $1 each once you get good at couponing.

Even if you don’t become a master couponer, and you end up using those items in your household before the wedding, every penny counts when it comes to saving for your wedding. You can also stock up on big sale events like Black Friday.

11. Go To The Dollar Store

You don’t want your wedding to look cheap and tacky in any way, but there are tons of things that you might need that no one will ever notice where it came from. Type in “Dollar store wedding” into YouTube, and you will see dozens of videos with women who have figured out clever hacks to using $1 items to make gorgeous centerpieces, seating charts, decorations, favors, and more.

12. Buy in Bulk Direct From Wholesalers

From food to wedding decorations, everything is cheaper if you are buying in bulk from a wholesaler.

For decorations, look at international websites like Alibaba, where you can order direct from China. Keep in mind that these take over a month for delivery, and the products may look different once they arrive. If you still want decorations or favors in bulk, but you’re scared about quality and the shipping times, that’s where American-based companies like Oriental Trading come in. For an added bonus, check their site around October, because all of the wedding party favors go on clearance when the peak season is over.

Bulk wholesale stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s are also a must for wedding party shopping. If you’re lucky, you may even have a meat wholesaler near where you live, which is perfect for planning your signature dishes.

13. Bake Your Own Wedding Cake

If you are already a great baker, why not make your own wedding cake? There are so many books and YouTube tutorials out there about making a wedding cake, and it can actually be a lot of fun to practice and do a few trial runs with different flavors leading up to your big day.

Just keep in mind that if you’re not very good at cooking and baking, you really might want to leave this to the professionals. You are also going to be extremely busy leading up to the big day. Basically, it’s not the best idea for everyone, but for some people, you could make it work.

14. Offer Signature Cocktails

One of the biggest expenses of a wedding is having an open bar. It’s a lot of fun, but your guests will take total advantage by going back for multiple drinks. Some people opt to have a dry wedding, but if you do that, your guests are probably going to be disappointed and possibly bored at your reception. You want your guests to have a good time.

A great compromise is to have signature cocktails. You can even invent your own cocktails with some clever names that represent you two as a couple. By narrowing down the options people have, you will have the option to buy one or two types of alcohol in bulk.

15. Let Your Bridesmaids Choose Their Own Dresses

Anyone who has been a bridesmaid before knows the anxiety of hoping the bride doesn’t pick a hideous dress that you will be stuck wearing for one day before it starts collecting dust. Some brides opt to give their bridesmaids a color palette, and they can choose what style dress they want to wear. If the bridesmaid is paying for her own dress (just like any wedding guest would) that saves the bride a ton of money, too. Basically, everyone wins in this scenario. The bridesmaid can choose a dress that she loves and will re-wear again someday, and you get to save money.

16. Find Flowers That Are In Season

Some women have their favorite flowers, or they imagine having certain colored roses on their wedding day. But being picky about the bouquet means shelling out extra cash to get something out of season. Do some research about what flowers are going to be in-season on your wedding date. It might even be a good idea to look through Pinterest to get inspired. It would also save a lot of money if you could assemble your own bouquet. Check out YouTube for tutorials.

17. Mix Fresh and Fake Flowers

Flowers are a big part of weddings, but a lot of people make the mistake of spending a fortune on fresh flowers for every single aspect of the wedding. The only people who get up close and personal with the flowers are the bride and the bridesmaids. Consider buying fake flowers for your decorations, and give the real flowers to the ladies in the wedding party.

18. Skip The Wedding Favors, Or Go For Something Cheap

There are so many options for cool wedding favors out there, so it’s understandable why it may be tempting to drop a few hundred dollars giving them to your guests. However, a lot of those trinkets never get used, or they only last a short while. If you really want to get cheap favors, though, check out Oriental Trading Company when their wedding favors go on clearance in the fall and winter.

19. Keep It Intimate

You may feel obligated to invite everyone you know to your wedding. Some large ceremonies even have aunts, uncles and cousins you may not have seen in ten years. Remember that the more people who show up, the more expensive a wedding becomes. You may be afraid of offending someone by not inviting them to your wedding, but friends are more understanding than you think. Having a small, intimate wedding with just your inner circle may even be more enjoyable than a large wedding, too.

20. Stay Close To Home

Destination weddings might seem like a dream, but they cost a fortune. Before you jump to going far for your ceremony, give your hometown a second chance. You may be surprised to find really beautiful venues that you never heard of very close to home. You may even be able to find a venue by browsing AirBnB.

21. Hire a Rookie Photographer

There are tons of aspiring photographers out there who would love the opportunity to shoot a wedding so that they can prove themselves, and use the photos of your wedding as an example. Everyone’s gotta start somewhere, right? Newbie photographers will also be willing to get paid far less than a professional, because they just want to get their foot in the door. With Instagram, Flickr, and online portfolios, you really can see how talented this rookie photographer actually is, so you’re not taking too much of a risk.

22. Go For a Smaller Wedding Photo Package

If you are scared of taking a risk on a student photographer, you can save money with a professional by picking the cheapest package option. Do you really need 1,000 photos of your wedding day? Plus, everyone has a smartphone nowadays, and you will probably have family members sending you pics and videos they snapped of the day. You can also save some money if they allow you to take all of your photos in digital form only. This way, you can go to Walmart and pick your favorite photos to print on paper, instead of paying for the printing of hundreds of pictures.

23. Consider Eloping and Having a Party Afterwards

You might spend an entire year planning for your wedding, but it’s over in just one day. Many brides say that their wedding day goes by like a blur, and they can hardly remember what happened. Some even go as far as saying they wish they just eloped.

Eloping at a courthouse with a few witnesses and then throwing a party afterwards is significantly cheaper than a wedding, but it can be just as fun. Consider taking a video camera into the courthouse, and showing it to your friends and family at the party so that they can still witness you say “I do”.

24. Narrow Down Your Food Options

Buffet dinners are ideal for guests, but expensive for couples. Consider giving your guests two main meat options. You also have to plan for guests who are vegan or have food allergies. Thankfully, vegan food is pretty cheap. Just make sure to keep ingredients separate until it’s time to serve the meal. For example, if you are serving chicken parmesan and you have a vegan guest, it’s as simple as giving them plain pasta with red sauce.

25. Have a Potluck Dinner

If you are on a really, really tight budget, and you cannot afford a caterer, you may want to reach out to family and friends and have a potluck style wedding. If you have never heard of this, it’s when each guest brings a hot dish to a party. Just make sure you are keeping track of what everyone is bringing. (You don’t want 5 bowls of potato salad!)

26. Plan For Hidden Costs

There are a lot of costs that brides and grooms don’t even think about until the week of the wedding. Last-minute purchases, tips for delivery men and chauffeur, and so much more. Things can get thrown at you when you least expect it. Try to set aside a few hundred dollars for these unexpected costs, so that you aren’t blindsided. If you saved more than what you actually needed, that’s great, because you can use it as spending money during your honeymoon.

27. Pick A Local Honeymoon Destination

You may have this idea of traveling to another country for your honeymoon, or flying to a tropical island destination to soak up some sun. If it’s your dream, and you have been itching to go on a trip, you should go for it. But there are probably really great places to go within a one hundred mile radius that will be a fraction of the cost. Beaches, mountains, and resorts are all over the place.

28. Collect Airline Miles For Your Honeymoon

If you really have your heart set on flying somewhere tropical for your honeymoon, plan ahead by collecting free airline miles. There are a lot of travel credit cards out there. Most of them require you to spend between $1,000 to $3,000 within the first three months of opening the card, and you can get 30 to 50,000 airline miles in exchange. Depending on the airline, those points usually add up to a flight that is valued at a few hundred dollars.

Since you are going to be spending a lot of money for your wedding anyway, it only makes sense to take advantage of credit cards that offer airline miles. Just be careful not to get too carried away, and remember to pay off your debt as soon as possible.

29. Consider Hiring a Wedding Planner

The idea of hiring a wedding planner seems like a luxury that only rich people can afford. In reality, hiring someone to help you plan your wedding may actually help you save money overall. Right from the beginning, you let your planner know your budget. They have the experience to give you the options you can actually afford in the area you are looking to work in, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time researching.

More importantly, wedding planners are there to help save your time, stress levels, and sanity. If you and your partner both work full-time jobs, there is very little time to plan a big wedding, too. It doesn’t hurt just to see how much your local planners charge for their work.

30. Put Yourself First

This may be one of the most important things to keep in mind, if you want to save money. One of the biggest reasons why people spend a lot on their wedding is that they are worried about what everyone else is expecting. They compare themselves to friends and even strangers on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Always ask yourself if a decision is based on trying to one-up your friend, or if it is something that will truly make you happy. Remember that at the end of the day, it’s all about spending the rest of your life with the one you love, and that’s all that matters.