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This post is all about unexpected money saving tips for wedding.
I guess I would consider myself a pretty practical person. I was never one of those girls who dreamt about her fairytale wedding day.
So when I would hear people talking about how many thousands of dollars they spent on a wedding, I couldn’t help but think to myself what other ways I would rather spend money.
With all of that being said, I should also preface this with that I also believe in “to each their own.” I am in no way frowning upon those who do choose to spend thousands on their dream wedding!
But for me, it just wasn’t something I cared much about.
I would personally much rather go on a dream honeymoon or put money towards my home. So needless to say, when it came time for me to start planning my own wedding, I did what I could to save money wherever I could.
Money Saving Tips For Wedding I Used in Order To Save Thousands
Before I get into the tips, I want to add that the very first thing I did was sit down and research which components of weddings people spent the most money on.
From there, I tried to figure out ways to possibly cut corners here on those things.
Luckily, I was able to figure out quite a few ways to make my beautiful wedding come together on close to a $5k budget.
I have since compiled a good list of tips that really worked for me to save hundreds and thousands of dollars on your wedding.
I should also add, I didn’t feel as though my big day was any less special than it would have been if we had spent loads more.
If you are looking to save some money on your big day, try implementing a few of these money saving tips for a wedding.
If you are not having an intimate (75 guests or less) wedding, it might be little trickier but it is still possible.
At the very end of this post, I have also included a breakdown of the final total cost of my wedding so you can see the exact amounts for everything.
The total cost for my wedding was under $10,000!
1. Limit Guest List to Close Friends and Family
The biggest and most important money saving tip I can give you for saving money on your wedding is to limit your guest list.
For us, this was super easy because my family is tiny! For those with bigger families, you could consider only inviting immediate family and close friends on each side.
This also worked in our favor because we got married during the middle of COVID. In fact, we actually had to push our wedding back 2 weeks because we contracted COVID a week before our original date!
Talk about terrible luck!
2. Explore Low Key Venue Options
Another great way to save money is to look for outdoor venues in state parks or small town golf courses.
A lot of them have beautiful amphitheater’s or sites you can rent for a small charge for the day. I rented a site at an amphitheater in a small state park in my hometown and it came out to only $25 per day. This was huge in the money saving department!
Not to mention, when you have an outdoor wedding you don’t need to spend as much money on decorations. Let the beauty of nature do most of the work for you on that!
3. Think About DJ Alternatives
Having a good DJ at your wedding reception is not cheap. To avoid this cost altogether, consider using up-and-coming local bands or musicians for live music at your wedding.
Not only will it create the cutest ambiance, it will set you apart from other wedding receptions.
We had a local musician play for the first two hours of our wedding and do all of our announcements for us.
After she left, we switched to a Spotify playlist I had created ahead of time and played it through the speakers at the reception venue.
4. Don’t Go Overboard with Favors
As tempting as it can be to try to impress everyone with over-the-top fancy favors, ask yourself how many wedding favors you actually remember or even kept for that matter.
I think simple is better and I love the cute little mints I went with from Etsy that had our wedding date on them.
5. Take Advantage of Mishaps for Discounts or Added Perks
Don’t be afraid to speak up and try to get a bargain for your buck if someone drops the ball along the way.
It just so happened that our reception venue had a lot of turnover with their event planners during the time we were trying to book.
One of them who had been recently fired had previously guaranteed us a certain date. A couple months down the road when I reached back out, they had no record of it and told us my date was already taken.
Thankfully, I happened to have email confirmation of them telling me our date was reserved. So as a courtesy for the mix-up, they dropped the event space minimum.
Although we didn’t end up getting our first choice for a date, we ended up saving THOUSANDS due to their mistake. We basically ended up only having to pay for the food at our reception and all other fees were waived.
6. Ask a Family Member or Friend to Officiate
If you know someone who is already ordained and trust that they would take your wedding seriously and put in the extra time to make sure all goes smoothly, definitely take advantage of that.
Or, if you know someone who is good at public speaking who would be willing to get ordained for you for a small fee, go that route!
My husband’s godmother ended up doing a beautiful job for us free of charge!
7. Use Baby’s Breath
Flowers can get pricy. When I was researching the price for flowers I was blown away.
That’s when I found out that Baby’s Breath is actually considered a filler flower. This means you can buy it in bulk by the bundle for pretty cheap compared to other flowers!
I love the simple look of baby’s breath! So I decided to use it for my bridesmaid’s bouquets and groomsmen’s boutonnieres wrapped in twine, as well as filling most of our mason jars with it.
For my own bridal bouquet I did allow a little extra and went with white roses, eucalyptus and Baby’s Breath. It was gorgeous!
8. DIY Projects are Your Best Friend
All the little things add up quick. If you are a hands on, DIY type of person, now is the perfect time to take advantage and put that to good use!
When it comes to DIY decor projects, I took advantage of Pinterest for inspo and made my own seating chart cards as well as signs using Canva. I printed them out for cheap at Office Depot on sturdy card-stock paper so I could use them as signs.
I also assembled bird seed tosses using these small mesh bags and gift tags I found on Etsy. I wrote “toss me” on each of the gift tags.
Another DIY were the wood tree slab centerpieces made by sawing real tree slices and sealing with polyurethane.
Bonus money saving tip: the florist shop will charge you quite a bit extra for pre-twine wrapped mason jars to hold flowers, so to avoid this expense, simply use a hot glue gun to attach twine to mason jars you have laying around or buy for cheap at a craft or dollar store.
9. Be Smart About Cake and Explore Alternatives
Another money saving tip is to go with a small cake for your main cake.
You can then get a large white sheet cake from the grocery store to divvy up for the rest of your guests. Trust me, no one is going to know!
Or if you aren’t much for cake like me, you can opt for cute customized cookies instead!
10. Do Your Own Hair and Makeup
Are you someone who is very particular about your hair and makeup and have the skills to do it yourself? If so, try cutting out this added cost.
I did a trial run with a makeup artist and ended up liking the way I do my own makeup better. So, I decided to eliminate that charge altogether.
And guess what? It turned out exactly how I wanted and I loved that I had full control over how I looked on my wedding day.
I know this tip won’t apply for everyone, but if you are capable – why not save yourself the extra dollar signs?!
11. Shop Dresses Online
Holy moly do people rake out the cash on wedding dresses. It’s honestly insane to me but as I said before whatever floats your boat!
I couldn’t justify spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on a dress I would wear for one day. So I researched the best places to buy a wedding dress online.
I found so many beautiful contenders on Lulu’s, Asos, and BHLDN (Anthropologies line of wedding dresses).
Not only are these dresses GORGEOUS, but they are super affordable all coming in all under $500!
I ended up ordering five dresses total, and I just simply returned the ones I didn’t choose! The one I went with was $100 from Lulu’s and guess what? NO ONE EXCEPT FOR ME KNEW!
Until now that is. 🙂
12. Don’t Pay Full Price for Decorations
When it comes to purchasing wedding decor, a great hack is to look out for friends or people you may know on Facebook/Marketplace selling their wedding decorations. Chances are, the decor was only used once and still in really good shape. If it goes with your decor style, why not save the extra bucks?
Another way to get discounted decor is to hit up Hobby Lobby when they are running their 40% sale on wedding decor. They rotate which items they place on 40% off sale weekly so make sure when you go to stock up on decor it’s during that time.
Final Thoughts on Money Saving Tips for Wedding
Here is the final breakdown for the cost of my wedding.
Note: As you can see, I do have an added cost for a decorator that could easily be left off if you have someone you trust to do this for you the day of. Since I was getting married in a different city than where I lived, we decided it would be practical and take away a lot of added stress to just hire this done.
Hopefully these money saving tips for a wedding are helpful to you. Moreover, I hope they show that getting married doesn’t have to break the bank!
All you have to do is get creative and do a little research ahead of time.
I would love to know; if you spent a lot of money on your wedding, was it worth it or do you wish you had spent less?
AND
If you spent less do you wish you had spent more?
Feel free to drop a comment below and share your experience or any wedding money saving tips you may have!
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I spent so much money on my wedding and reception and I wish I would have spent way less . I think if I could go back there’s so much I would change and put money towards other things.
These are great suggestions and tips!
Thank you! Hope they are useful to you 🙂