Cutting Costs

We limited our guest list, which is probably what saved us the most money. Costs per person for dinner/beverages/dessert/favors all add up quick, and reducing the guest count will reduce the cost for each one of those. We also limited flowers to just my bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets, my husband's boutonniere, and the groomsmen boutonnieres. Floral centerpieces for reception, ceremony floral decor, etc. can all quickly increase your florist fees.


Other ways to save money could be to buy a pre-owned dress (many of them are still new with tags, but for way cheaper than buying from a bridal salon), skip things like favors or hotel welcome bags, reduce the number of hours that your photographer and videographer are there (such as, book each for 6-7 hours instead of 8-10 hours), book vendors that are newer to the wedding industry, etc.

My biggest money saver was finding a venue that doesn't need any decorations. I'm not sure if it really 'saved us money' as it did allow us to upgrade from a DJ to a live band.

Not having wedding party attendants nor optional parties like bachelorette or bridal showers. Saved me money on flights, attire, and WP gifts, not to mention saved me from unnecessary stress in my shorter engagement time frame. My time is money so . . .

We saved money on invitations and std. We caught them on sale and we also set a budget on flowers, bouquets and boutineers. We looked for sales for decorations as well. As for our venue, the cost she quoted us for the amount of guests we intended to invited came out cheaper because of the amount of guests who said they were coming ($3000). Try to find sales and set a budget for the things you want for your wedding. Sometimes you can save on things in bulk like candles/decor you just have to look around. Check with your venue about wedding packages.

I think our biggest savings were flowers/decorations and paper products. For flowers, we hired a florist to do the bouquets, boutonnieres, and floral swag for the ceremony arch and DIYed the rest - bud vases with wholesale flowers for centerpieces, a couple greenery garlands from Costco, lots of candles and hurricane vases from IKEA/Dollar Tree/Facebook Marketplace, etc.

For paper products, we didn't bother with ceremony programs, menus, etc. The only thing we had were our save the dates and invitations, and even then we did postcard STDs (no envelopes and cheaper postage) and all-in-one invites from Minted (the invite folded into an envelope with a tear-away RSVP card (again, no envelopes and cheaper postage - one regular stamp for the invites and postcard stamps for the RSVP cards).

We also DIYed favors that doubled as escort cards (bought frozen macarons from a wholesale club and boxed/labeled them ourselves), though favors are totally optional in my opinion, I just liked the escort card idea lol

Everything hinges on your guest list, though! In our case, less guests meant less flowers needed for centerpieces, less STDs/invites/postage, less escort cards... but also less catering/alcohol, which was by FAR our biggest expense. The only fixed expenses that don't seem to change with number of guests are photography, officiant, venue fee (usually), DJ/band.

Doing my own flowers. I talked with the local florist, and it was going to be $2K+ for the arch, $200 for my bouquet, $75 for each additional bouquet (four bridesmaids), $35 for each wrist corsage (my mom, his mom, and his grandmother), $12.50 for each boutonniere (doesn’t sound like much until you realize we need seven), then the delivery and setup fees… Compared to <$100 for flowers from Hobby Lobby and Amazon. Cha-ching!!!

We saved on invitations(RSVP on our webpage), saved the date (Evite), flowers( I did everything) and most of all making our ceremony small and intimate.

Guest count! My rule of thumb was, if I haven’t spoken to you or exchanged a simply “happy birthday/merry Christmas” in the last year then I’m not extending an invite. No distant family just because, no friends/co-workers of my parents. Keeping it intimate and to the people who are actively involved in our relationship!

Biggest savings for us was a few areas:

1. Flowers- we opted to use Costco for the bouquets and that saved us a bunch as well as going with a local family-run farm for table flowers in bud vases so we don't splurge on ornate centerpieces.

2. Invites/Save The Dates- I waited until Zazzle was having a 40% off sale and bought the save the dates and invites. We also printed our own envelopes at home with fancy script instead of having those done. The save the dates with postage for 100 mailed invites was less than $200.

3. Alcohol- we hired a bartending service that allows us to bring in our own alcohol as does the venue. We found a wholesaler that had reasonable prices for alcohol and was willing to buy back whatever we don't use.

4. Decor/Settings- I found my tablecloths on Facebook marketplace for $50 and they were immaculate. It took a bit of hunting, but it was so worth it. I'm still on the hunt for used charger plates, but it's a work in progress.

Good luck

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I am looking for a wholesaler like this for alcohol! Who did you use / how did you find one?

Eloping. So glad we did it!!! Received many wedding gifts and put it in our house down payment fund.

1) Cut your guest list
2) Find out when off-season is for your venues
3) Consider brunch over a dinner wedding 4) Consider a weekday wedding (check with key guests first though to see if they would attend)

Definitely agree on cutting down the guest list and not doing a bridal party! And if there’s no bridal party, you may be able to pare down a rehearsal dinner! Also agree with the “off-season” tips - FH and I are getting married at the beach in September, it will still be warm, but no peak pricing after Labor Day!


Some people will also say you can go beer and wine-only but I personally couldn’t imagine not having a cocktail at my wedding 😂 But if you end up a a venue that allows you to bring in your own alcohol, you can just buy some staples at a wholesale liquor store ie whiskey vodka rum etc, rather than serving every liquor under the sun.
I also have heard Costco does flower arrangements - haven’t checked into it yet but I thought of maybe splashing out only on my own bouquet and then getting more budget friendly flowers to decorate. Not having a bridal party saves mega $ on flowers!

We made a conscious decision based on weddings we have attended vs what current “expected” social media !trends are about what is important to us and what our guests would enjoy. We cut out the rest. Not spend less but completely cut out. Once we decided on a vision and where to spend money, we made a conscious decision on who to invite. If someone is on the list out of obligation to please someone else and we don’t want to celebrate with them, it doesn’t matter if they are related, they don’t get an invitation. At the same time, we are closer to some extended relatives than immediate relatives we cut contact with due to abuse, which is taboo online because extended relatives have no relationship with you according to the collective internet. In our families and friend groups, there is a specific dynamic where the guest list is concerned. It’s accepted that it’s a family reunion type gathering with all children invited and no one is tiered. That also means no B List and no reception for a different group a month later, and save the dates are sent verbally via phone call/email/word of mouth, all of which are controversial online, but it works for them and we couldn’t imagine it any other way.


For us, it was actually much cheaper to get a blank slate venue than an all inclusive. Even though it’s an unpopular opinion online, the majority of weddings in our families have been at blank slate venues. There is no time restrictions on when you can start, which eliminates the Catholic gap for other relatives, as well as being able to stay later. They have tables, chairs and a full kitchen so you don’t need to pay extra. It allows you to stay under budget by choosing your own licensed vendors including having your favorite local restaurant provide catering at a much lower price than a regular caterer and the food is better, along with larger portions. We just got a regular party dj and didn’t need or want an MC because they have not been beneficial at past weddings and guests know how to figure out what is happening, who the couple is and so on.
We went with a grocery store cake, which has always been a success at past weddings and tastier. Same for flowers that we found at the local wholesale market that all the celebrity florists go but they had vendors arrange and deliver for us. We were one of the few weddings in our families to serve alcohol since most are sober or they prefer liquor but they don’t drink at weddings. We saved a ton of money on alcohol because only 2 people drank beer and 2 people drank wine out of our entire guest list. It didn’t make sense to buy a ton of those that would not be consumed.
Tried on dresses in the local fashion wholesale district that were dirt cheap but ended up getting a custom made dress. Bridesmaids dresses and shoes were dirt cheap from the fashion wholesale district. No veil.
We skipped favors. Even the edibles at past weddings were left behind and the parents couldn’t give them away. We were intentional about gifts. Absolutely nothing that would be found on social media so no proposal boxes and no cliché jewelry, robes, pjs, etc that gets thrown in the trash. Everything we got as thank you gifts were related to their individual interests like we were shopping for a birthday.
No destination bachelor/ette parties. They were all local to us the evening before the rehearsal dinner. No weeklong events.
Most vendors were sourced on Instagram and a few on Tiktok but all were vetted by the Yelp reviews which they are not allowed to remove. They ended up being much cheaper and better quality than those advertised on TheKnot/WW./Facebook.

Also no one time wear white dresses for pre wedding parties. Worse what I already owned in regular colors. Rehearsal/welcome dinner was casual in tshirt and jeans and we ordered a ton pizzas.

I used fake flowers for my bridesmaids' bouquets and then I also have done a lot of shopping on Facebook marketplace or bridal groups on Facebook!