Budget Wedding Ideas

The best way to save money is to keep your guest list to a minimum. Also, more bridal party members = more money. Italian, BBQ, and Mexican tend to be the least expensive catering options. Skip optional items like favors, photo booths, extra florals, etc.

DIY everything, especially if it's things that you can use later (like for decorations at home).


We have a small budget and we are having our ceremony at a park (we are letting nature be our decorations), our traditional big family BBQ for the reception. I'm paying for the bridal party dresses and I found the ones I want on Amazon for $25 for bridesmaids dresses, $15 for flower girl dresses).

I have found one of the best ways to save money (and keep things simple) is to find all-inclusive venues. When you rent the venue, catering, booze, tables/chairs, etc from one place you tend to get a “bundled” price that is much cheaper than hiring out each of these things seperately

I agree with pps. The number one issue is going to be guest list. Figure out how much you want to spend total on the wedding. A good rule of thumb is that the reception (venue/food/beverage/furnishings/etc.) will almost certainly be at least 50% of your total expenditures. So, if your total budget is $10,000, a good guestimate is that you can't go over about $5,000 for the reception. If you have 100 guests you "have to invite," that means your "all-in" expenses for the reception (including tax, service charge, and tips) cannot go above $50 per person. If you can cut the guest list to 50 people, you can either afford to spend more pp or can reduce your total cost/budget. I also agree that in MANY cases a more inclusive venue (those that include more, like: furnishings, linens, tableware, food, bev, etc. for a set cost pp) will be cheaper in the long run (and a lot easier) than DIYing a bunch of stuff. If it's a fairly small wedding, look at local restaurants that have a private room big enough to hold your guests; that is often a pretty cost effective way to have a "nice wedding" while controlling expenses. Finally, be careful about assuming DIYing a bunch of stuff will save a ton of $$$. That can be kind of a rabbit hole where you'll quickly start spending more than you thought you would, and sometimes you may end up changing your mind about stuff you thought you'd use and it's a complete waste of $$$. Good luck!

The dollar store will be your best friend. I made bouquets for the BM's from the dollar tree n it turned out great. Def what other people said: cut down guest list to immediate family & possibly limit the amount of kids (if any), no open bar (beer and wine only), catering can be Italian food maybe or even see about shoprite/local grocery store, no favors or do something cheap: homemade chocolate pretzels are what we are doing, wedding cake from Walmart/Costco Etc. Utilize pinterest !

Look for pre-owned dresses that have not been altered. Small shops that sell quinceanera dresses also tend to have cute dresses for less than David's Bridal and ship much quicker if you needed to order.
Hit up your local thrift stores for decor. I found matching chrystal goblets that us and the Party will be using at the reception and a cute vase for the head table.
Renting decor can sometimes be cheaper than purchasing it. Compare quotes from rentals and purchasing outright.

Borrow things so you don't need to buy them. when i planned my wedding, i borrowed little things that even if it didn't cost a whole lot, it at least still saved me money. for instance my art friends had easels they lent me for my signs vs me buying my own that i wouldn't do anything with after anyway

I got a new with tags wedding dress that I'm totally in love with on Poshmark for $71 including the shipping. A friend of mine is a seamstress and is doing alterations as a gift. I found an all-inclusive venue, so that takes care of ceremony, officiant, food, DJ, beer, wine, rum punch, soda/pop and includes a cash bar for other alcohol, and is a dinner cruise to boot! We're doing a small cutting cake and cupcakes from Publix, which we like better than the bakery cakes we tried. No bridal party. We found awesome digital invitations on Paperless post, total cost including RSVPs was about $20 for our small wedding (28 ppl). Had all our RSVPs back within 48 hours! No postage, no returns, everything went by email and we got so many complements! Everyone loved them and appreciated not having something to clutter up the counter! We've got a photographer coming for just the "boat time", 4 hours, will do ceremony and reception. Kids will take getting ready pics. Total cost for our wedding will be less than $3k. Just 3 1/2 weeks to go!