How to Save Money on Your Wedding

You don't have to spend a lot to have a really meaningful wedding day. Some people are under the misapprehension that the only way to have a beautiful day that you and everyone else is going to remember for the rest of your lives is to spend thousands of dollars. Well, I'm here to tell you that just isn't true. There are many things that you can do to help reduce the costs of your wedding. After all there is absolutely no reason that anyone should have to go deeply into debt just to have a wedding to remember.

Here are some tips that are sure to help you save money on your wedding.

1. Plan your wedding far enough in advance that you can shop around for the things you want and or need for it. Only giving yourself two or three months is simply not enough time to adequately prepare for a big life event such as a wedding. Try and give yourself five to six months to plan and get everything into place. While the waiting is sometimes difficult, the money you will save having done so will be worth it. After all who wants to start their married life out by going into debt?

2. Take care of the flower arrangements and decorations yourself. If you don't know how to arrange flowers, or have any creative friends that do, you can take a flower arranging course or rent a video. Either one will work fine and save you a lot of money. This way you can purchase the flowers and create the arrangements yourself instead of hiring a florist to do so. Also, keep your decorations simple. It's not necessary to have huge arrangements on every available surface. You can also choose to have balloons or floating candles on table surfaces instead of flowers to help cut the costs of decorating.

3. Plan your wedding for an off day and or time. Saturdays are one of the busiest days for weddings so choosing a different day of the week will help you to cut down on costs considerably. Also, Spring and Summer are some of the busiest times of year for weddings, so choosing to have your wedding in the fall or winter can help as well. Why not have your wedding around the Christmas holiday? This allows you to use decorations twice!

4. Shop and purchase your gown from somewhere other than a bridal boutique. Bridal boutiques tend to have the most expensive wedding gowns. Instead think of shopping at places that have cocktail or evening gowns which actually are very nice because they can be worn again after the wedding.

5. Tell your bridesmaids what your colors are going to be for your wedding and have them pick out and buy their own gowns. If you are going to provide the gowns then keep the number of bridesmaids low. Either way, you will save money!

6. Have your wedding in the late afternoon and then instead of having the meal afterwards catered, have a potluck. That way everyone brings something, there's plenty of food to eat, and it helps to spread the cost around for you. Caterers can be very expensive and if there are leftovers you still get charged.

7. Instead of hiring a band for the reception, rent or borrow a good sound system, get your favorite CD's together in the same place, and then hire a music student from your local school to be the DJ. You might even have a young relative who would be interested in doing it for a small fee.

8. Provide disposable cameras to your wedding guests and ask them to take pictures throughout the wedding, and reception instead of hiring a photographer. This is a great way to have some really fantastic pictures taken from different viewpoints that you will treasure for the rest of your life because they were taken by the people that you know and love.

9. Make your own invitations using your home computer and special paper purchased from a stationary store for this purpose. While embossed wedding invitations are beautiful, once the event is over, unless the person is into scrapbooking, the invitation will probably be thrown away or put away somewhere. Why not save yourself the expense of embossed invitations, and instead create something that is unique and personal to you, and which those you send it to will want to keep because it is!

10. Have your reception in your or a friend or relative's home. You will save on the cost of renting a building for the reception which can be one of the biggest wedding expenses. This really works to decrease costs when you also have a potluck instead of a caterer.

11. Keep your guest list small. Only invite your closest friends, co-workers, and relatives. Less people means spending less money.

Even if you employed only half of these tips you would be able to reduce the cost of your wedding considerably. I had a close girlfriend who used many of these tips at her wedding and she cut her costs by 50%. I hope you find these tips just as useful.