3 Ways to Save on Your Wedding

Do you have a Wedding approaching? Or perhaps you are in the EARLY stages of planning? If you are, you have so many great options to help you save.

A wedding does not have to cost a fortune to be beautiful ~ you CAN save and still have that special day.  Thankfully we have some pretty amazing sites out there that can share some tips with us to help us do that.

Read this guest post from A Bride on a Budget, she write’s about three ways to save on your wedding, these are great tips to help you find a path to savings.

There are celebrities who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on weddings, but for normal people, that’s just not possible.  Plus, do you really want to spend the equivalent of a down payment of a house on a wedding? Probably not. And I don’t blame you. At A Bride On A Budget, I post DIY projects and tips in order to help you keep your wedding costs reasonable.

I put together three really easy ways that you can save a ton on your wedding.

Use an iPod instead of a DJ or Band

If you’re having a reception, you need music. When we were planning our wedding and started pricing bands, we were getting quotes of $3,000. That’s crazy. A DJ averages around $750, depending on your area. An iPod is much cheaper.

Before your big day, create a wedding playlist and add it to your iPod (or whatever device you use to play your music). Then, have a friend man the iPod all night. You’ll want someone to babysit it to make sure no guests try to skip a song in the middle or put on their favorite Spotify channels. Pick someone who knows how to operate your music player so that the correct songs are played during your first dance, father/daughter dance, cake cutting, etc.

To assure the right songs are played, you can actually create a playlist called “First Dance” and add just your first dance song to it. Go over this with your “iPod DJ” before the wedding and everything will go smoothly.

Have a Potluck Wedding

Most of the expense of a wedding is paying for the food. If you’re having it catered, it can cost you about $50 a person. That adds up quickly. What you can do instead is have a potluck wedding. In your invitations, insert a recipe card. Tell your guests that instead of bringing a gift, you want them to bring their favorite dish (and ask that they write the recipe on the card and bring that with them). That way, you’ll have enough recipes to fill a newlywed cookbook. 

You’ll have to monitor this a little bit because you don’t want everyone to bring a dessert, especially if you’re planning on ordering a wedding cake, but your guests should be pretty understanding.

If you don’t feel comfortable asking all your guests to bring food, you can always just ask your bridal party, your parents, your grandma, your aunts, anyone who is close enough to you who you wouldn’t mind asking to pitch in. If you can get your family to make any appetizers and sides, you’re only going to pay for the main course. That will save you a ton of money.

Have it Outdoors

Part of why weddings are so expensive is because you’re paying top dollar to rent a venue. Even a bare bones venue will run you at least $1,000 — and you’re still responsible for decorating the entire place. Let the outdoors be your decorations.

Call around to your local park and see if you can rent it for the afternoon. A lot of parks will actually let town residents use the facility for free. Some will do it for a donation to the park itself. The park may already be set up for events, so you don’t have to worry about renting tables or benches since they’re already there.

If you can’t find a park that will allow this, consider having it in your parents’ backyard. Many brides I’ve spoken to have said they wish they had just saved all the money they spent on the wedding and just used a couple hundred dollars to throw a backyard BBQ bash.

If your parents have enough space, they’ll be sure to let you use it for free. Just keep in mind, if this is the way you go, don’t do it during an extremely hot or extremely cold month since your guests will be outdoors. Be sure to include something like a sunscreen bar so your guests don’t get burned. 

Of course there are many other ways to save as well ~ from invitations to entertainment, on the dress, and decorations – you’ll want to reference A Bridge on a Budget for more unique ways to save.

Lisa is the blogger behind the wedding blog A Bride On A Budget. She writes posts for the everyday bride, like Why You Should Always Go Wedding Shopping At The Dollar Store and Five Things No One Tells You About Your Wedding Day. You can find her wedding ideas, DIY projects, and budget saving tips at ww.abrideonabudget.com.