Wedding Attire

• Buy your wedding dress on sale or rent your gown
• Shop early to avoid rush charges
• Buy a gown from a resale shop or from a cancelled wedding
• Have the dress you like made in a less expensive fabric
• Borrow your accessories or make your own
• Order bridemaids' dresses from ready to wear designers

• Order thermography instead of engraved invitations
• Use standard size invitations or ones that will only require one stamp
• Order 25 more invitations in the initial order
• Include reception information in the ceremony invitation

Receptions

• Reduce the size of your guest list
• Have a morning or afternoon wedding or have it on a Friday night or Sunday night
• Have the reception and the ceremony in the same location
• Serve punch and cake or cocktails and hors d'oeuvres instead of lunch or dinner
• Try to limit the amount of alcohol served or limit the cocktail hour
• Avoid the expensive menu items
• Limit the reception time to three hours instead of the usual four
• Have an at-home reception and hire students from a nearby culinary school to make the food
• Serve carafes of wine, they are less expensive than bottles
• Don't serve a champagne toast
• Skip the favors

• Keep the decorations simple, use fresh flowers instead of gumpaste of sugar flowers
• Order less cake
• Don't have a groom's cake
• Don't save the top layer of the cake

Flowers and Decorations

• Carry a smaller bouquet or one flower and have the attendants do the same
• Do your own floral arrangements
• Use candles as centerpieces instead of flowers
• Carry wildflowers, which are cheaper
• Decorate the reception with flowers from the ceremony
• Share ceremony flowers costs with another bride having her ceremony that same day
• Use more greenery or potted plants
• Choose flowers that are in season

Music

• Hire musicians from your church or synagogue
• Compare the cost of a DJ verses a live band
• When hiring a band choose three or four musicians rather than a larger group

Photography

This is probably the one place that you really want to spend the money and get a quality photographer. When it is all said and done, your photographs will be the only things that you have left, aside from your love. Some money-saving tips would be to opt for a less popular time, order a smaller package or limit the number of hours that photographer works.