How to Plan the Wedding of Your Dreams without the Financial Strain

The bride's elegant white gown flowed toward the ground like a fountain. Her veil was drawn back, exposing her glowingly radiant face, which wore a sweet, calm smile. She stood behind her bridal party consisting of two bridesmaids, two groomsmen, a best man and her maid of honor. The church sanctuary was filled to its maximum with joyous guests, occupying all 250 red, cushioned seats.

Baby-blue tulle lined the aisle leading to the front of the sanctuary. Delphinas, roses, birds of paradise and ferns flowed from clear glass, bottle-necked vases. The vases sat on tall, laced-covered, tables lining the aisle. The flames of the candles at each window danced to the classical music filling the sanctuary as the guests waited for the bride to make her entrance.

During the reception, smells of a home cooked food permeated the cozy-sized room. Lights strung along the food table twinkled cheerily in red, blue and green. The photographer wove through the long line of rectangular tables, snapping candid shots of the guests and the married couple. Plastic, white rose petals and glitter lay on the tables, surrounding the centerpiece of a flower-filled jar. The guests' laughter and chatter intermingled with the unique sounds of bagpipes, percussion, flutes and whistles.

And the cost for the entire wedding? Six hundred dollars.

Britney Spear's wedding totaled $1.8 million. How can parents of the bride or a couple find such an amount of money for a few hours of pleasure? How do couples manage to coordinate a wedding amounting to costs below $5,000? Here are a few ideas on how to plan a dream wedding without having to blow one's entire life savings or collect huge debts the couple will be paying on their 10th anniversary.

The bridal trousseau takes up a large percentage of the wedding cost. Instead of paying for a dress, veil, shoes and jewelry that easily costs thousands of dollars, here are ways to spend less.

Buy an affordable wedding dress from the "Making Memories" foundation. This program, also known as "Brides Against Breast Cancer," allows brides to buy used and new gowns between $49 to $799. This foundation organizes more than 32 shows a year nationwide, allowing brides-to-be to buy their dream dress at lower prices. All the dresses are donated. The proceeds from the dress sales enable the dreams of terminal breast cancer patients to be fulfilled. For more information check out the foundation's website at www.makingmemories.org.

Make your own dress. If you're ambitious and enjoy sewing, make your own version of your favorite dress you saw in a bridal store. Amber Zrust, a 2004 bride, received a handmade wedding dress from her grandmother-in-law as a gift. She chose a dress pattern that she liked and her grandmother-in-law made the dress for her. Instead of purchasing a veil, which costs around $100, she saved money by buying her fabric from JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts. She bought trim and embroidered it around her veil, fashioning her own creation for a total of $30.

Rent a dress. A bride wears her wedding dress for only one day. To save money, seek out bridal stores that rent dresses. Sue Klepak, a wedding coordinator of 10 years, said she found rental gowns for $250.

Scour the discount racks. Jessica Robillard, a wedding planner-in-training with experience, said that to cut costs, couples should attend wedding shows and be alert for sales. Jessica said that David's Bridal, a national wedding gown franchise, organizes sales two to three times a year. From her research, Amber found that David's Bridal offers wedding gowns from $100 to $300 at their discount racks.

Visit departmental stores. Although diamonds are said to be a girl's best friend, the jewelry a bride wears for her wedding does not need to be studded with real diamonds. Amber bought her necklace and earrings from a Claire's franchise, costing her less than $20. She described her shoes as "princess shoes." They were slip-ons with clear heels and a glittery strap. She bought them for $10 from Payless Shoe Source.

Another huge expense is the wedding cake. Here are some ways of saving money..

Buy sheet cakes. Jessica advices that buying the tiered cake for the bride's table and sheet cakes for the guests saves a considerable amount of money. Christina Ruble, a recent bride from Mt. Vernon, Wash., said, "To cut costs, we chose a smaller version of a bigger cake and just bought a couple of Costco [sheet] cakes to cover the rest."
Know exactly how much cake you want. "I always warn the brides that bakeries always overestimate," Sue said. "I've never had a wedding where there has been no leftover cake."

Have a cake potluck. Amber said she attended the wedding of a friend who organized a cake potluck. Instead of buying cakes, ask different friends to bake your favorite cake. The result there will be more than enough cake to go around.

Food has come to play a big part in weddings. Guests come with expectations to eat, drink and be merry. How can food cost be reduced?

Plan an afternoon wedding. Evening weddings tend to be expensive because of the need to cater a full dinner for guests. Mid-morning weddings are likewise costly because guests expect a full-course lunch. For an afternoon wedding after lunch, only light snacks have to be provided at the reception. "Instead of having a full blown catering service come, I cut costs by having a nice appetizer table instead of a dinner and asked several people from church and in the family to bring different side dishes of finger food," Christina said. Her food selection included bite-sized, marinated chicken; nuts; sandwiches; ham and lettuce wraps; fruit; Reeses Pieces chocolate; and frothy, fruit punch.
Organize a wedding potluck. Amber held her wedding during the evening. However, she was on a tight budget and could not afford a catered dinner. To solve her problem, she asked guests to bring different variety of food, allowing her to feed her 250 guests for free.

Now with the food taken care of, think of a location for the big day. The cost of using a church for both the reception and ceremony could easily cost $2,000. Here's how to have a fabulous location without later regretting the money you spent.

Plan the wedding in the spring or summer. The rule of thumb is this: "The less expensive you want the wedding to be, the more beautiful you want your backdrop to be," Jessica said. A garden filled with bright, blooming flowers creates a naturally beautiful backdrop for the wedding, instead of having to purchase flowers.

Hold the wedding at your home church. Most churches give their members a less expensive rate. For example, Grace Foursquare Church of Portland, Ore., allowed Amber, a church member, to hold her wedding there for free.
So you've found your location. Now you need to decorate, making it stunningly gorgeous for the wedding day. Decorations include flowers, which alone could cost between $800 and $1,000. Here's how to reduce décor cost.
Buy wholesale flowers. Instead of buying her flowers from a florist, Amber managed to buy all her wedding flowers for $125 from a wholesale store. Find a flower wholesale store in your locale by conducting an internet search.

Be creative. Amber wanted the church aisle to be lined with flowers. Yet she needed a way to place the flowers along the aisle. She was thinking of buying pedestals, placing flowers on them and lining them along the aisle. However $15 for each pedestal was too expensive. So she decided to borrow bar stools from friends and cover them with white, $1 plastic tablecloths from Party City. She found lace in her church's storage closet to beautify her makeshift pedestals. She used the same flowers as in her bouquet and placed them in a petite vase. She wanted to remember her grandparents during her wedding, so she planned her reception table centerpieces around her early memories of peach and applesauce canning with her grandparents. She borrowed canning jars from friends and filled them with flowers. She placed floating candles on the top of the jars. To complete her masterpiece, she sprinkled white, plastic petals and glitter on the table around the jars.

Borrow decorations. Christina recycled wedding decorations from a previous wedding held in her church. "Church family can be the most helpful when it comes to weddings and can save you a lot of money," she said. "I didn't buy a whole lot of décor because our church had some supplies stored away, and one of the ladies had a storage full of fake flowers."

Make two-in-one décor. Jessica has planned weddings where the decorations used in the wedding sanctuary doubled as table centerpieces. For example, the flowers or candles decorating the sanctuary can be transferred to the reception area as centerpieces.

Here is some additional advice on how to meet a low wedding budget.

Make a top-five must-haves list. By purposefully planning items that the bride definitely wants in the wedding, the bulk of the cost can go into those items, saving money on the less important items. "Keep things that you really, really want and don't cut costs on that," Jessica said. Instead, skimp on items that don't matter as much to you. For example, you may want a particular wedding dress style, or a specific location for the wedding. Be willing to splurge on those areas but save on other items not included on the list.

Organize the wedding yourself instead of having someone else do it for you. An average wedding planner charges a base fee of $500 when organizing the basics of the wedding. A wedding planning journal, containing the same information and assistance wedding coordinator provides, costs around $30. Or check out a book at the library for free. Planning books include categories such as:

- Schedules and checklists
- Budget, duties and pre-planning
- Wedding attire
- Invitations and guest list
- Flowers and decorations
- Transportation and accommodation
- Honeymoon

An exquisite wedding is in reach even with a small budget. Community and creativity play a big part in reducing the cost of a wedding. "When people offer their assistance, definitely take them up on it, and ask those close to you to help," Christina said.

The key idea to an affordable wedding is this: Simple elegance in a wedding captures the beauty of the day without having to burn a hole in the pocket. "A lot of people don't realize that you can save a lot just by not splurging on little things that you won't remember later on," Christina said. "For example, I didn't buy a special, expensive pen for my guestbook like the feathery ones that you can buy. When I go over the guestbook later, I am not going to think about what a nice flow of ink it was on the paper. I am going to remember the people that came."

"No one really cares what [tablecloth you use]. The wedding is a party," Amber said. "The guests are here to celebrate your marriage, not your linen tablecloths."

So start planning, and be flexible. The wedding ceremony is for all but a day, while marriage is for a lifetime.