How to Have a DIY Wedding: For Under $3000.00

The flowers are one of the most important centerpieces to a wedding. They are also important for the boutonnières and the bouquet. Looking for a whole seller in flowers will save you lost of money. Buy the flowers and ask your family and friends to help put them together for you. This will cut down on costs. Depending up on the size of your wedding you might need more flower arrangements. For example if you have a wedding guest list of 65 people you can buy you're flowers and the materials needed for the boutonnières and the bouquet for around $200.00

Using a Minister that is close to your family or you church minister is a good idea. Ministers are still available if you do not have a family minister. You will need to call around. Most of the ministers want to sit down with you and your partner for about an hour and talk about your life goals, why you are getting married and etc. Ministers usually will work for donations. A donation of $100.00 to the church and $50.00 to the minister for their time is a good idea.

Shopping around for a beautiful wedding dress that you will like can be a little bit of a headache. David's Bridal usually runs sells on wedding and bridal gowns for $99.00. You will have to definitely start looking ASAP to ensure that you can find the best most inexpensive dress. Tuxedos run the same amount pretty much through out the year there are occasional sales, but you are looking at spending around $150.00 to rent a nice tuxedo. For your dress and tuxedo plan on spending at least $500.00 possibly a little more if you need to buy a dress and rent a tuxedo for your children.

A beautiful place to have your wedding would be in a park if it is the summer and spring months. An area that provides coverage from the sun and the weather is a good idea. Parks that can be rented out usually go for $100.00 or less for 2 to 4 hours.

Catering is what a lot of people love when they have their weddings. I prefer to use my family, I have been to a few weddings where it was catered and the food was horrible. The sandwiches were still frozen, and at other times the food had no taste to it. Asking family and friends to help with preparing the food is a great idea. This will save you a lot of money, and you will be able to have the foods you enjoy the way that you are used to eating. If you know someone who can make wedding cakes with tiers that will save a lot of money also. If not you can go to your local grocery store and have one done for you. I would plan on spending $500.00 for your food and wedding cake. This amount can be cut down depending on what you have in mind for your wedding.

Alcohol always plays an important role at weddings. The amount of alcohol you will need will depend on how many guests and how many of them drink. Another determination is the type of alcohol you buy. If you go with a more expensive type it is really going to add up in the end. I would put the alcohol budget at $300.00 this can be raised depending on your preference.

If you are able to have friends and family video tape and take pictures at your wedding. Hiring a professional to do this can be very expensive. If you ask a few people to video tape your wedding you can edit all of the videos together and keep what you want and delete the scenes you don't want. There are places that will do this for around $100.00. With the editing of the video tape and printing the pictures that you picked out from your family and friends taking them you are looking at $200.00

There are some miscellaneous items you will need. You can buy an arch and decorate it with flowers and vines if you are planning an outdoor wedding. Tables and chairs will need to be rented, but these can also be used at the reception also. Little mementos of your wedding like matchbooks with your wedding date on them, these can be given out to the guests. Use any memento you can think of. Disposable cameras are a good idea to hand out to everyone. Just make sure to let them know you need them back. Miscellaneous will around $300.00

Planning your wedding yourself will save you a ton of money. This money can be used on your Honeymoon or whatever you can think of. When you do the wedding yourself it is more personal because your friends and your family all came together to help create this beautiful experience for you. They do the pictures and the videos; this is what they wanted to take pictures of.