What are you doing to cut back wedding expenses?

- No videographer (we are DIYing video through WEDIT)
- DIYing flowers through Fifty Flowers
- DIYing our dessert bar
- getting married at a state park pavilion, vs a traditional, professional venue
- no professional transportation, but my boss is letting us borrow an ambulance to get us from the hotel to the park!! 😆
- dress was less than $500, including alterations
- officiant is a friend, doing the ceremony for free!
- DJ is a friend of FH’s, a pro, who cut us a steep discount since they are old high school buddies
- photography for only 7 hours
- kept our guest list count low at just under 100 total attending.
- beer/wine serve yourself bar instead of an open bar with poured drinks


We also are skipping welcome gifts/after party, and DIYing our rehearsal dinner family cookout/bbq style at the park pavilion the night before.

Basically we are DIYing A LOT. So it has been a ton of work, but we are three days out and everything is just about done, and I feel really good about it!! 🤷🏻‍♀️😍

To save money we are getting married on a Friday, it was cheaper per person and there was no minimum we had to meet. We are also doing buffet style

We arent doing real flowers. i bought my bouquets from a previous bride on facebook marketplace. 6 bouquets for $50.

We arent doing cake, but are doing apple cider donuts instead.

ive been buying all of our invites and decor during sales.

we arent doing a limo, photo booth. No programs, no favors, no welcome bags

my uncle will be officiating.

My fh and I are not traditional in any way so we're cutting a bunch of things:
1. We have a small guest list (33 including us).
2. We are doing a cookie cake instead of wedding cake since fh doesn't like cake.
3.Found videographer & photographer for a great price.
4. no wedding party
5. Paper flower bouquet
6. Non traditional dress
7. No DJ/alcohol
8. Ceremony/reception at same place
9. A friend is officiating

Florist - everyone wanted to quote us with insane minimums when I only needed 2 bouquets, 2 boutonnieres, and possibly 2 displays for the ceremony. I was originally doing sola flowers off etsy, but discovered lings moment and I love how the roses photograph. Saved myself 2500+ dollars.

Menu - printing my own on pearlescent paper. Cost comes to like $13.

I'm a bargain hunter, so I found awesome paintable table numbers on Amazon for $7. My centerpieces include a gold placemat instead of a mirror.

My venue is all inclusive and we got a deal on doing a Sunday wedding. My cake is included or else we wouldn't be doing one. My dress budget was 2k, but I found a trunk show for my designer and got the dress around 1300 - which my godmother paid for.

Our favors cost roughly under $2 each and are something that no one will leave behind (no waste!). No guestbook. Found an 18x24 vintage wood frame at goodwill for $9 and will print a seating chart at staples for $15. My bar signs cost $7 each. I use Michael's/AC Moore coupons daily since the store is a block from my work. So, I just randomly go grab needed items for 50 to 60% off daily.

I honestly believe we will com in under budget which will allow us some wiggle room with the guest list. That's my ultimate goal.

Oh. Not having a huge wedding party is a savings on stress and money! Just a MOH and a BM!

We are doing a lot of the same cutbacks as you!
I got my dress for under $1000 because I bought it off the rack - hoping alterations won’t cost more than $200.
We are doing a solo top tier cake for cutting and the rest will be cupcakes from a local bakery, only about $400 total.
We aren’t having a videographer and don’t plan on doing the uplighting thing from the DJ.
And I’m thinking we’ll skip the champagne and just stick with beer, wine, and sparkling cider (I actually hate champagne lol)
Hubby and his side will be wearing suits (maybe even just pants and vests, no jackets) instead of tuxes.
Hoping to DIY most of the decor and flower arrangements

Oh also! My cousin is AMAZING with makeup so I’m asking her to do mine & bridal party’s makeup, and I’ll be asking her sister and a close family friend to do our hair

We’re cutting back on these items:
-videographer
-wedding bands (found THE CUTEST idea on Etsy and the two rings= $40)
-guestbook (we got one for free or else we weren’t going to do one at all)
-centerpieces, we we’re going to do the whole lanterns and garlands and candles, but we chose to do a smaller lantern with fake pearls draped on it
-flower budget was $500
-getting married on a Sunday in April
-Uber cards for guests rather than a shuttle

This is super helpful while planing for my wedding in June 2020! We are getting married in a park and then using his armory for the reception which should cost us $400 at the most. Unsure about alcohol or not since it’ll be at the armory. Also planning on making a playlist instead of having a DJ. We will each have four in our bridal party. I am planning on letting my bridesmaids pick out their style dress (in the color of my choosing) and then the guys will just have suits. We’re having a patriotic theme wedding! He is in the army national guard so our “take home gifts” will be mini soldiers and the mini flags to wave us off. We are able to find those in bulk for pretty cheap and then will also do a buffet style sandwich luncheon (we’re having our wedding early afternoon). I’m hoping to keep the cost under $5000, but I’m sitting at $8000, right now. The photographer seems to be the most expensive, but we probably won’t have flowers/make our own and will be able to find decorations at craft stores. I’m keeping my eyes open!

1. Serving only beer and wine (at a winery so there's a high wine requirement, no need to add liquor)

2. Skipping champagne toast as well, guests can use whatever they have.

3. No videographer

4. Most likely skipping cake entirely in favor for donuts.

5. No guestbook, favors, welcome bags, programs (limiting waste as well as saving money)

6. Using both real and artificial flowers.

Using centerpiece provided by our venue (beautiful lanterns with candles), photo booth instead of favors. Small mini moon right after our wedding and a big honeymoon a few months later

You're doing exactly what I'm doing! I do plan on having a guest book, but I'm thinking more like a rustic/wooden type "book" that we can hang on the wall, and I'll probably make it myself. The dress I have my eye on is around $500. We aren't having a videographer. I doubt I would ever watch the video anyway so what's the point? We're getting cupcakes and a small cake for cutting. And no champagne. If we're spending the money on a full bar people can just toast with what they have. We aren't providing transportation because our ceremony and reception are in the same place and we are local to about 90% of our guests. I'm borrowing decorations from some of our friends that have gotten married in the past year and just altering them to fit what we need. I also don't want to pay someone to do my makeup so if you're comfortable doing it yourself you could cut that out of your budget. Good luck!

We designed our own Save The Dates and invitations on a photo editing app and we’re having them printed at Office Depot. It’ll be about $50 tops to have both of them printed!

We’re skipping on wedding programs, we’re skipping the photographer. Our venue is in my parents’ backyard, so that’s saving us quite a large chunk of money. We’re also hoping to buy a plain white cake from the grocery store and decorate it ourselves! We’re doing flowers ourselves.... We’re pretty much doing everything ourselves. 😂

We're skipping hiring a traditional florist. Instead, I'm going to get flowers in bulk from Kroger's floral department and make my own bouquets and floral decorations!

We are skipping on the champagne toast.

Got a small 2 tier cake to cut and went with sheet cake for the rest.

Got my FH's cousin to do my hair (for free) and for the bridesmaids at a reduced rate than she normally charges.

Doing rehearsal the morning of (6pm ceremony) and my mom will be making a light brunch and bringing to the venue for after rehearsal.

Got a hotel block the included shuttle transportation to my venue for ourselves and guests.