Cheap Wedding

Quickest and most effective way is to cut your guest list. Food and drink are a huge part of the costs of a wedding, and the more people you have to feed, the greater the cost. Other than that:
- sample dress. Mine was $500 reduced from $1400.
- transport. You don’t need a fancy bridal car. We used our car for the bridesmaids and DH’s uncle drove me in his nice car to the church with Dad, and then to the reception with DH. Cost us $0.
- cut flowers back where you can. We had non-floral centrepieces and the bouquets were silk flowers - cost me $75 including shipping for all three of them.
- forget about favours, you don’t need them.
- rather than a full open bar, do beer and wine only.
- if your FH has a nice suit already, get him to wear that.
- small cake for cutting and a sheet cake for guests to eat.
- off-season wedding, or a Friday or Sunday - almost always cheaper.

We spent $13500 on our wedding for 75 people and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. We ate well, there was unlimited beer and wine, it looked lovely and everyone had a great time.

I agree with everything KiwiDerbyBride said! If you can, find a venue that has package deals. Our venue package includes all the tables, chairs, linens, glassware, etc (which can be really expensive!) plus a discounted rate for using their partner bakery. Off season and/or a Friday wedding instead of Saturday will save you so much money! Also, try non-floral centerpieces. You can DIY something super simple but elegant with really affordable items from craft stores/Etsy/amazon and save a ton of money.
Good luck!

Hi! I’m kind of in the same boat, but we have come to terms with the type of wedding we want so we have been just super vigilant about expenses and little details so that there are no surprise hidden fees anywhere... when I budgeted I just kept in mind gratuities and taxes. I decided not to have a bridal party and that really cut back my expenses. For some of the decor I will be uses some silk flowers instead of fresh... and I got crazy good deals on my wedding dresses

No videographer, no limo and no photo booth

All of these are great ideas. One thing I'm doing is getting food catered from a local taco place instead of through a typical catering company. Even if I rent charfing dishes to make things look fancier, it still will be around $800 for 60 people instead of closer to $2000.

We have 80 people and are doing less than 10k.
We only have appetizers and dessert caterer the rest is a potluck which we think is a super fun way to make it more personal. We didn’t do a DJ we just out together a special playlist and we did so many DIY things and scouted for sales everywhere on stuff we did need to buy. it’s possible!

All inclusive venues are amazing!
We used Holiday Inn for our reception and for $90/pp (including tax!), that included 3 entrees, 2 sides, extra desserts, extra mashed potato bar, open bar for beer/wine, cake, centerpieces and obviously the staff/venue.
We only needed to book the photographer and DJ.

Right off the bat, you can save big money on the venue by choosing a non-Saturday night, off-season. Doing a brunch wedding will save you more (brunch weddings are great if you don’t want/expect a lot of dancing, but for a big dance party stick with a dinner wedding).

1) don’t worry about table decor
2) consider food alternatives: do an early afternoon wedding and do lunch, do drinks and dessert instead of a full meal, etc. Example: we’re doing mini Bundt cakes instead of cupcakes or cake.
3) find a venue that allows you to book your own vendors and doesn’t require you to choose from their vendor list
4) have a friend or family member who is experienced in public speaking officiate your wedding
5) choose a non wedding venue as your venue. Ours is a local nature center and half the cost of “real” wedding venues and we can choose our vendors AND there’s large windows that overlook the property so we need very little decor

I've gotten most of my decorations on Amazon, or at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. I picked up a few things at Walmart and one or two at Michaels. Amazon was the true saver for me though. We saved on our venue by going with a community center for 275 bucks, and that helped with being able to use the extra money on other things

View Quoted Comment You are the bomb! Lol i love all of your money saving ideas!!

My small wedding won't even touch $5K. we're being our own DJ, having my fiance's family of professional cooks do our catering, we're DIYing our own photobooth and our arch that we're getting married under. We aren't inviting every person we've ever met. We're doing a Friday wedding which is cheaper than a Saturday wedding. We're doing a cash bar which saves us $12 a person. If you need anymore tips, feel free to message me! Oh, I'm my own wedding planner so that saves me about $5k also!

I agree with everything PPs have said! I, also, bought almost all of our decor and centerpieces from other brides on FB Marketplace, which has saved a lot of money. I bought my wedding dress from another bride as well so I got an incredible deal on it. It was brand new without alterations. The bride just needed to sell it since she wore a different dress. If you're needing to buy tablelinens, chairsashes, etc., tableclothsfactory.com has great deals & you get 10% off your first order when you sign up for their email list.