5 Ways We Saved Money on Our Wedding

As most of you probably already know, my husband and I, after about 3 years of working through various forms of red tape, finally tied the knot about 3 months ago. Now, being parents to a fairly large family, and raising that family on one income, we didn't have a lot of spare money in the budget to throw at a wedding. Still, we wanted to have a nice wedding. Not huge and fancy, but nice enough to be worthy of the sacrament we were celebrating.

Now, there are as many different sorts of weddings as there are couples getting married, but today, I plan to share with you some of the ways we personally got creative to cut costs on our big day. Who knows? If you're planning a wedding, some of them might work for you, too.

#1. Buy a Used Dress

This might be one of the biggest potential money savers. There are loads of places one can keep an eye out for secondhand wedding dresses, and it's possible to save hundreds, or even over a thousand dollars simply by being willing to forego a brand new gown. We knew we wanted to get married for quite some time before we were actually able to do so, which allowed me to keep my eyes open for a dress that suited my style, fit my requirements, and was a realistic size for me to be able to wear. As it happened, the perfect dress ended up sitting in my closet for over two years before our wedding. But I knew I already had that major expense taken care of, and I paid hundreds less than retail for a gown that suited my style perfectly.

#2. DIY is Your Friend

There are quite a few things associated with a wedding that you can actually do yourself, and save a ton of money. For example, my dress, amazing as it was, didn't come with a veil. I did my research and decided I wanted a drop style veil, with alencon lace that (more or less) matched the lace on my dress. Similar veils were expensive, so I decided to make my own. Along the way, I discovered that one reason the veils are expensive is because alencon lace isn't cheap, y'all. I had a 55% off coupon for JoAnn's, and we still paid close to $70 for the lace trim and a cut of sheer illusion fabric for the body of the veil. However, if alencon isn't what you're after, you can save far more than I did. Many designs are amazingly cheap for materials, and very simple to put together. One thing I would have done differently, in retrospect, is buy the lace from a seller on Etsy. There are many styles available from suppliers in China for less than half what I paid per yard. But by the time I got around to seriously shopping for supplies for that particular project, I didn't want to risk shipping taking more time than I had. 

I also opted for silk flowers, and I arranged the bouquets, bouts, and altar flowers myself. You could do this with fresh flowers, but I knew I was going to have enough on my plate the last day or two without having to do the flowers right then as well. So I chose flowers that could be purchased and assembled ahead of time.

We designed, printed, and assembled our own ceremony programs, and they turned out beautifully. We had intended to print our own invitations, using some blanks I purchased on clearance, but when we were finally able to set a date, the one we chose was less than a month away. And so, we opted to skip printed and mailed invitations, and kept the invitation process less formal, creating an event page on Facebook and inviting friends and family through social media and by word of mouth. 

I never even considered having my makeup professionally done, but I know many do, so I'm putting it down here. Ladies, most of you know how to do your own makeup; I'm not 100% sure what this trend is even about. I did buy some special makeup for the day, so I'm not sure how much I actually saved with this move, but if you're not like me (kids had demolished my makeup stash) and have a healthy assortment of makeup, why not apply your own?

#3 Ask for (and Accept) Help!

I'll be honest; I was skittish about this one. Jon was much better than I was at asking our friends and family to take on various roles as we planned our wedding, but you know what? Everyone was super excited to help us celebrate! And there's no way we could have pulled off our perfect day on a budget without our friends.

My matron of honor happened to be very handy with a sewing machine, and she did some minor alterations to my dress. It needed a better bustling style than it came to me equipped with, as our church is very small and I didn't want to utilize the train at all. She totally hooked it up, and it was gorgeous. Also, it seemed like quite a simple job, really. I can't believe how much alteration places charge for that! She also helped me make table runners for our tables at the reception (did most of the work, actually, once we realized they only needed to be serged, not turned and hemmed as well; I don't have a serger).

Jon's mother happens to be very talented with a camera, and we asked her to take our wedding photos. I really was just expecting the digital copies, but a few weeks after the wedding, the most beautiful album arrived in the mail! It was obvious she had gone to a great deal of trouble getting prints of the best photos and arranging them in a lovely white photo album for us, and I was so very touched. What a thoughtful gift! She even sent a smaller album for my matron of honor a little later. Have I mentioned that I have the best mother-in-law, ever, y'all? 

The thought of catering the wedding ourselves was just as intimidating as the thought of paying for professional catering. In the end, we decided on a compromise. We came up with a few main dishes to make, and then we asked our church family (who would be the majority of our guests, and throw AMAZING potlucks) if they would kindly bring a side dish to share instead of giving us gifts. We're in our middle 30s with kids. We didn't need fancy wineglasses or a blender; we needed help throwing a party (something I've never been all that good at). They came through with flying colors, and wouldn't even let us clean up after. And many still insisted on giving us gifts, which came as such a touching surprise.

My hairdresser (who also attends church with us) surprised me by making my hair styling a wedding gift, and another friend purchased some flower arrangements as a gift. Yet another, when told the lettered sign I inquired about was for our wedding (she makes and sells them) told me to consider it a wedding present. I'm usually a terribly independent person, but I was so incredibly touched by everyone's generosity and love.

#4 Keep it Simple

We kept our wedding and reception small and simple, and while it was exactly what we wanted (no compromises there), it also saved a lot of money! We invited only family and our closest friends to share the occasion with us, and we kept it relatively simple. There are so many trappings out there that you REALLY don't need, if you stop and think about it. We skipped a lot of excess decorations that we probably could have had, and I'm quite sure no one missed the aisle runner, pew bows, or cherry blossom wreaths I almost caved and made for the front doors. No one cared that I didn't bust out a bunch of tulle and christmas lights for the reception space (and frankly, I wouldn't have had time to do so). 

Instead of renting a separate space, we had our wedding at 11 a.m. and had a simple lunch reception in the basement of our church. We didn't serve alcohol, and we didn't hire a DJ. Lunch was served on paper plates at tables decorated with white cloths, our handmade pink runners, and dishes full of pink and silver wrapped Hershey's kisses. Some little sparkly bits (loaned to us by a friend who offered our choice of any decorations she had stashed) were just the right finishing touch. It was simple, it was pretty but still casual, and it suited the happy couple and their guests just fine. Everyone had a fine afternoon, enjoying each other's company and celebrating our wedding.

We also skipped favors. I went back and forth on this one, but in the end, favors would have been a substantial expense given our entire budget, and I just couldn't see any of our guests being particularly disappointed to not have a can koozie, fridge magnet, or votive candle with our names and wedding date printed on it. Not that I didn't consider other options as well, mind you. But in the end, we skipped it, and I've had zero indication that anybody cared. 

#5 Shop Around

We didn't do as much of this as we might have, because it was important to us to plan and execute our wedding together as much as possible, and my husband shops like a guy--he likes to know exactly what he's after, go straight in, get that thing, and be done. We spent one particular day shopping for things for the wedding. I wanted to make a trip to the Dollar Tree, because you just never know what you might find there that would prove useful. As we walked into the store, he said, "What are we here for?" I swear I heard his brain explode when I responded with, "Possibilities." 

That aside, he did do an incredible job with looking online for things. Our tablecloths come readily to mind. He found exactly what we wanted on Amazon for a fraction of the cost of buying them anywhere else. I don't remember exactly what he paid, but like $2 and change a cloth. You can't beat that!

Plus, Places we Splurged

We did agree early on in the planning that we weren't out to just cut corners wherever we possibly could. We identified a few areas that were important to us, and agreed to splurge on those items to the extent necessary.

My grandparents on their wedding day.

Rings. We knew our rings would be blessed by our priest as part of our wedding ceremony, and so we rejected the idea of "starter" rings. We wanted the rings we placed on each other's fingers on our wedding day to be the rings we would wear for the rest of our lives. And with that in mind, we were willing to spend a little more to have exactly the rings we wanted. The diamond in my engagement ring is the one my grandfather bought my grandmother in 1941. The setting it was in was not the original, and was, dare I say, ugly, lol. I've dreamed for years of having it reset in something I'd actually want to wear, and we finally did so for my engagement ring. They were happy together until his death in 1985, and she missed him every day until hers in 2000. I love having a little piece of their love story as a part of ours. Our rings are simple gold bands (we're the traditional sort, with simple, classic tastes) with one of "our" sayings engraved inside the bands (we're also sentimental saps).

Cake. I thought about making my own; I really did. I know I possess the necessary skills, having made the cake for a wedding only a few months prior to our own. At the time, I told myself that in addition to being a wedding gift for our friends, it was also good practice for our own cake. In the end, I became overwhelmed by the sheer number of things I would need to accomplish in the final few days before the wedding, and I shoved the task off on a dear friend who makes cakes professionally. Best. Decision. EVER. She made us a beautiful and delicious cake that perfectly suited our theme (and Jon's dislike of fondant), and the best part was, I didn't have to do it. Know your limits, people. I was thoroughly crazy enough without adding a fancy cake to the mix, and I knew it.

Cake topper. In addition to the cake itself, we splurged on the topper. Much like the dress, it was purchased a couple years before the actual wedding, but we found it online and knew it was exactly what we wanted. It wasn't actually a cake topper, but a regular figurine, so we could easily put it on a shelf (or dresser, as it happened) in our home after the wedding. The catch was, we couldn't find any sources in the US for it! So we ended up not only paying for the figurine itself, but international shipping from Great Britain. Worth it. 

In the end, my advice would be to know which elements are the most important to you. Where are you willing to loosen the purse strings a bit to have exactly what you want? Where can you save by making compromises that, five years from now, aren't going to matter to anyone (even you)? Do it. You're more likely to regret blowing the budget--and arguing with your new spouse over it--than you are not having live music or releasing doves after the ceremony. Or really, any number of things the wedding industry butters their bread by convincing you that you absolutely must have. Take a step back, breathe, and ask yourself if whatever it is is really necessary. In the end, nothing is except a license, an officiant, and witnesses. Maybe rings, and even that is debatable. So decide what's important to you and your love, and don't get swept away in the madness. (Which, believe me, is hard.) Do you. And do it on a budget you can live with once the honeymoon ends and your real life together begins.