12 Ways To Save Money On Your Wedding

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On average, couples spend about $27,000 for a wedding. Yikes! We’re not even including the honeymoon or engagement ring into the figure. For someone in school, forking over that much money is pretty much an impossibility. However, your big day doesn’t have to be that expensive. Here’s a list of 12 ways you can have a wedding on the cheap.

1. Have the ceremony and reception at someone’s house. Renting a reception hall is expensive, and often churches charge a hefty fee for using it for weddings. Why not save some money by having your wedding at yours or someone else’s house? I’ve been to a few weddings where people have done this, and it’s been great. They just set up some chairs in the backyard that has lots of pretty flowers everywhere. Not only do you save money on the location, you save money on flowers.
2. Keep it small. Do you really need to invite 500 people to your wedding? By keeping the guest list to family and close friends you save on the amount of food you have to buy for the wedding. But besides saving money, you keep your wedding intimate. My wife and I had a small wedding. I think we had 75 guests, just family and a few close friends. What I liked most about it was I was actually able to talk to everyone at my wedding.
3. Hire a friend or student to do your photos. Wedding photos can cost a fortune. If you have a friend who does photography as a hobby or if you know a student who’s studying photography, hire them instead of a professional to take the photos. My wife and I had one lady who does photography as a hobby take our engagement photos and some of the pictures at the wedding. She did a great job and she didn’t charge that much either.
4. Buy your wedding rings on the internet. You can save some big bucks if you buy your rings on the net. My wife and I bought our rings on the internet and got a really great deal on them. We saw the same ring at a jewelry store for almost double the price.
5. Have wedding pie instead of wedding cake. Wedding cake is overrated. Plus, I have a theory that kno one really likes wedding cake, but everyone loves pie! My wife and I did this for our wedding and everyone loved it. Instead of having one huge expensive cake, we had several different pies.
6. If you have to have a cake, keep it small. Don’t go overboard on the cake. Honestly, no one remembers what wedding cakes look like. Why spend a ton of money on it?
7. Rent your wedding outfits. Rent your wedding dress. You only wear it once in your life. Dudes, just rent your tux.
8. Ladies, have someone make your dress. Ladies, if you want to keep your dress, instead of buying one at a fancy wedding botique, have somone make it for you. My mother-in-law made my wife’s dress and it turned out great. The only cost was material.
9. Don’t use tuxedos. Instead of a tux, I got hitched in a suit. I bought a new one for the wedding, but the investment was worth it because I’ve been able to wear it since then. Have everyone in your wedding party just wear a suit and you save a ton of money on rentals.
10. Make your own invitations. One friend of ours did this and the invitations were pretty cute. I’m sure she saved a ton of money by doing this. Computers now a days have some awesome publishing software. Take advantage of it.
11. Make your own DJ. DJ’s are expensive and annoying. I don’t need someone to tell me to raise my hands in the air or do the chicken dance. Here’s how to make your own DJ. First, make a huge playlist of music on winamp, iTunes, or Windows Media. Borrow someone’s stereo and speakers. Plug your laptop into the stereo, push play on your playlist, and whola! Instant DJ.
12. Ditch the alcohol. Booze at weddings can really raise prices. You can save a ton by not serving it. If you decide to have alcohol, don’t do the full bar service. Instead, buy your own wine and champagne and serve it yourself.

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13 Comments

1. Christine on 19.09.2007 at 11:14 (Reply)

   All but the last one seem like sound advice. Not offering booze to your wedding guests, though? I find that offensive. That would be like asking someone to your house for dinner and then asking them for $5 for a glass of wine. Being a wedding guest is expensive - you have to pay for travel and a gift at the mimimum - is it fair to expect people to pay for a wedding gift, hotel, flight, etc., and then not offer them the hospitality of a drink with which to toast the marriage?

   If someone wants to save money at their wedding, that’s great - but I don’t think they should do it at the expense of their guests’ enjoyment. If you can’t afford booze for 200 people, invite 50.

   1. Brett McKay on 20.09.2007 at 21:35 (Reply)

      You make a good point, Christine, but is alcohol really necessary for a guest to enjoy a wedding?

2. Emily on 19.09.2007 at 14:32 (Reply)

   Excuse me, but why do you need alcohol for enjoyment? I thought weddings were to celebrate the marriage of the bride and groom, not to get wasted at the open bar. If the couple wants to save money, that’s their prerogative.

3. Leah Ingram on 20.09.2007 at 09:57 (Reply)

   Great topic. Yes, I’m biased, since I’m the author of “Tie the Knot on a Shoestring,” but you’ve got some really sound advice here.

   Since the alcohol thing seems to have touched a nerve, why not come up with a compromise? Stock your own bar (cheaper than if the caterer did it), and limit selections. With vodka and gin, and various mixers, you can offer your guests plenty of drink options without busting your budget. Also, buying wine in bulk and having a bottle each of red and white on the table for guests to drink at dinner is another way to keep your alcohol expenditures on the cheap side.

   Also, you can get a freshly baked cake, albeit a sheet cake, from a warehouse club like BJs for WAY less than what you would pay a baker. So if pie isn’t your pie in the sky idea of a wedding dessert, you may want to consider this kind of cake instead.

   1. Brett McKay on 20.09.2007 at 21:39 (Reply)

      Thanks for stopping by Leah! Great post, by the way. I’m definitely for the compromise. In fact I mentioned it in the original post. If people want to serve alcohol, just buy the bottles of wine and champagne and let the guest have at it. You’ll definitely save more money doing that then having an open bar.

      Great tip about the sheet cake!

4. Ashley on 20.09.2007 at 14:38 (Reply)

   Hmm it seems like you missed the most important thing: Make a wedding budget and stick to it. Figure out what the most important thing is to you, and sacrifice in other areas. For example, your advice about photography wouldn’t have flown with me. I am a graphic designer, and the photography was really really important to me. I would never EVER ask a friend to do it (unless my friend was a professional wedding photographer), because I am too picky. I ended up going with a more expensive photographer, but I got awesome artistic pictures. Since we had a budget, I knew to afford the photographer I’d have to sacrifice in other areas. So, hiring a professional photographer is not necessarily a bad choice unless you don’t allow for that in your budget. You have to figure out what’s important and what isn’t, and make that fit into your budget. We checked into the renting tuxes vs. buying suits thing, and found that the tuxes was cheaper. We spent less than $3000 on our wedding - we splurged on photography and inviting lots of people, and cut back on flowers and a stocked bar.

   1. Brett McKay on 20.09.2007 at 21:43 (Reply)

      Ashley-
      Looks like I missed the big picture. I guess I assumed people had a budget and these were suggestions on how to make it work. I shouldn’t assume.

      I can see how different people would have different preferences. If photos are important to someone, by all means splurge on that. Or if having alcohol is really important, then do it.

      Congratulations on the $3000 wedding! That is definitely a feat.

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6. shawnna on 25.09.2007 at 11:08 (Reply)

   Not sure if this was said yet, but by asking your friends to do all the work for you by making this and making that and doing the photo’s, you’re essentially pushing a significant part of the true cost of the wedding onto them. I don’t feel that is fair. I’d rather hire an outsider who I can sign a contract with and pay fairly the money they deserve to do a good job with my wedding.

   I agree with the stocking your own bar bit and getting sheet cake or pie. I’m not even going to bother doing the whole ‘cake cutting’ thing.

   A smart man who writes a blog called “i will teach you to be rich” claims that budgets for weddings don’t work. The better approach is to actually start saving for your wedding when you’re young. There’s lots of things that will come up that you didn’t think to budget for, and then all of a sudden the budget is blown. Just planning ahead is all it takes to not go into debt.

7. a. shannon on 03.10.2007 at 05:13 (Reply)

   These tips are some great ideas, but I have to say that you need to be careful with the first one. Some things to keep in mind when having a ceremony/reception at someone’s house (a good friend of mine did this and it ended up costing as much as it would to rent a place):
   1. You will have to rent tables and chairs for the guests as well as shade umbrellas, depending on the climate/location.
   2. If you want a dance floor, that will also have to be rented.
   3. Port-o-Potties also have to be rented. 3 nicer potties will run about $1,000.

   Of course, if the above can be borrowed or rented at a reduced rate, then having an outdoor wedding would be a cheaper option.

   Another alternative to buying a wedding cake is to get sheet cakes (as someone mentioned). You can rent styrofoam “wedding cakes” so you’ll still have the beautiful cake and they even have them where a small portion of the cake is real so you can do your cake cutting thing.
   I also attended a wedding where they bought those round cakes you can get in any bakery and placed them on tiers, so there was a wider variety of cakes to choose from and it was really pretty, too.

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9. 12 Ways To Save Money On Your Wedding - MakeupTalk on 15.04.2008 at 00:01

   […] 12 Ways To Save Money On Your Wedding On average, couples spend about $27,000 for a wedding. Yikes! We’re not even including the honeymoon or engagement ring into the figure. For someone in school, forking over that much money is pretty much an impossibility. However, your big day doesn’t have to be that expensive. Here’s a list of 12 ways you can have a wedding on the cheap. 1. Have the ceremony and reception at someone’s house. Renting a reception hall is expensive, and often churches charge a hefty fee for using it for weddings. Why not save some money by having your wedding at yours or someone else’s house? I’ve been to a few weddings where people have done this, and it’s been great. They just set up some chairs in the backyard that has lots of pretty flowers everywhere. Not only do you save money on the location, you save money on flowers. 2. Keep it small. Do you really need to invite 500 people to your wedding? By keeping the guest list to family and close friends you save on the amount of food you have to buy for the wedding. But besides saving money, you keep your wedding intimate. My wife and I had a small wedding. I think we had 75 guests, just family and a few close friends. What I liked most about it was I was actually able to talk to everyone at my wedding. 3. Hire a friend or student to do your photos. Wedding photos can cost a fortune. If you have a friend who does photography as a hobby or if you know a student who’s studying photography, hire them instead of a professional to take the photos. My wife and I had one lady who does photography as a hobby take our engagement photos and some of the pictures at the wedding. She did a great job and she didn’t charge that much either. 4. Buy your wedding rings on the internet. You can save some big bucks if you buy your rings on the net. My wife and I bought our rings on the internet and got a really great deal on them. We saw the same ring at a jewelry store for almost double the price. 5. Have wedding pie instead of wedding cake. Wedding cake is overrated. Plus, I have a theory that kno one really likes wedding cake, but everyone loves pie! My wife and I did this for our wedding and everyone loved it. Instead of having one huge expensive cake, we had several different pies. 6. If you have to have a cake, keep it small. Don’t go overboard on the cake. Honestly, no one remembers what wedding cakes look like. Why spend a ton of money on it? 7. Rent your wedding outfits. Rent your wedding dress. You only wear it once in your life. Dudes, just rent your tux. 8. Ladies, have someone make your dress. Ladies, if you want to keep your dress, instead of buying one at a fancy wedding botique, have somone make it for you. My mother-in-law made my wife’s dress and it turned out great. The only cost was material. 9. Don’t use tuxedos. Instead of a tux, I got hitched in a suit. I bought a new one for the wedding, but the investment was worth it because I’ve been able to wear it since then. Have everyone in your wedding party just wear a suit and you save a ton of money on rentals. 10. Make your own invitations. One friend of ours did this and the invitations were pretty cute. I’m sure she saved a ton of money by doing this. Computers now a days have some awesome publishing software. Take advantage of it. 11. Make your own DJ. DJ’s are expensive and annoying. I don’t need someone to tell me to raise my hands in the air or do the chicken dance. Here’s how to make your own DJ. First, make a huge playlist of music on winamp, iTunes, or Windows Media. Borrow someone’s stereo and speakers. Plug your laptop into the stereo, push play on your playlist, and whola! Instant DJ. 12. Ditch the alcohol. Booze at weddings can really raise prices. You can save a ton by not serving it. If you decide to have alcohol, don’t do the full bar service. Instead, buy your own wine and champagne and serve it yourself. Source […]

10. Utah Wedding Pianist on 24.06.2008 at 07:39 (Reply)

    Rather than using an iPod to replace a DJ, consider live music. And you don’t have to spend a ton of money. There are excellent musicians available for very reasonable prices. You don’t have to have the best one around (who will also be the most expensive). Wedding reception centers will often have business cards of local musicians who provide services for weddings and special events. You can also check at local music stores, who often have a bulletin board where musicians advertise.

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