Where to save??

We had to spend WAY more on our photographer than we were planning. The first thing we cut was transportation for guests to/from the hotel. We wanted to include this for our guests, but it just wasn't in the budget. Another way we cut costs was to create our invitations/save the dates/response cards super early and then waiting until the website we used had a major sale. We ended up saving about $300 that way.

View Quoted Comment

Great idea! Thank you!

We aren't doing STDs, we are doing a Cake & Punch Ceremony, I might DIY my flowers, we chose a weekday wedding, do RSVPs via your website so you don't have to buy those extra cards, DIY hair/makeup, favors are unnecessary IMHO, and we aren't serving alcohol. We are doing a 250 guest wedding for $9000

We saved money by finding a non-traditional venue that doesn't charge as much as a regular banquet hall. We are getting married at a popular brewery in Milwaukee. For $41 per adult and 27 per child we get a huge buffet and unlimited beer, wine, and pop all night long. That helped out a lot.

We saved big on decor and flowers by using decor that our venue is able to provide (lanterns with candles) and using fake flowers bought from hobby lobby during a 50% off sale (which they have pretty much every other week—also a good place to save on decor). We’re also hoping to buy our invitations during a sale to save some money there.

There are many different ways you can try to save money. For instance, our venue's primary packages were plated meals, but to save money we went with buffet style which saved us about $30 per person. You can also see what your bar options are. Our venue has two different open bar packages (one has more expensive options) or they have a beer, wine and soda bar. Like the other poster said, you can look for sales on invitations. If you create an account for a lot of places that sell invitations they often email you when they have sales. Not sure how creative you are, but you could try doing some stuff yourself. If you want to DIY I would practice beforehand to make sure you like how stuff looks. Also, not sure if you planned to pay for your bridesmaids dresses, but most girls expect to pay for their own. As for hair and makeup, if you are not requiring the girls to have their hair and makeup profrofessionally done then I would say they can pay for that themselves as well.

We spent less on flowers & rentals (linens/china) & invitations. These things weren't super important to us. If you are looking to save a lot of money, I'd cut things that aren't required like professional hair and makeup, transportation, paid hotel block, favors, programs, menus, extra decor. I'd look for a friend or family member to officiate, I'd look into cheap or free venues (park, etc.) and I'd look into restaurant catered food rather than a traditional catering company.

We are doing our topper cake ourselves and doing cupcakes thru Sam's. We are also looking at grocery chain catering at less than $12/person.
Our centerpieces are DIY and upcycling and will cost like a dollar per table.
I also despise flowers, so I was going to skip them till I found someone on Etsy that does paper flowers. And they are much cheaper. And I'm skipping anything beyond bouquets and boutineers.
I also chose a venue that I liked the decor and wouldn't have to do much too.
Also, bridesmaid hair and makeup is up to each girl individually. So I'm not footing the bill. (They know how they like their hair and makeup, they can make their choices on their own.)

Food and photography is most important! Go cheap on invitations (vistaprint's semi-annual sale will save you a ton), don't bother with too much decor, go cheap on flowers, skip favors and programs

Look for sales on invitations, decorations, favors, toppers, or centerpieces. Real flowers are costly, not many people care about your invitation as long as they can read it, and unless favors are edible most people don't take them. Personally I'm going to just have a sheet cake and some faux flowers.

Make sure you put your money where it matters. Food, a good DJ, alcohol, and overall comfort (ie a nice heated/cooled venue). Guests will not remember your centerpieces, flowers, dress, favors (they probably won't even take a favor), etc.. After you've removed or lowered some of those expenses, maybe you'll find room in the budget for the photographer and videographer.

I did electronic Save the dates. And found a videographer who is film school. He didn't charge an insane amount because he is a student. And we are ordering bundles of real flowers and making our own centerpieces.

We're doing minimal flowers and will be DIYing most of the centerpieces. We're skipping favors. We're hoping to do invitations and STDs when there's a good sale through Zazzle, and will be doing purely-online RSVPs to save money too. We're also just doing wine and beer at our wedding, rather than hard alcohol.

I’m saving money on a florist. We aren’t using floral centerpieces or decor at all besides bouquets and boutonnières. We also got them from Shoprite (grocery store). That saved so much money and I know they do good work because they did my sister’s wedding as well.

If your venue is not a blank slate , consider working with what they have already for decorations. My venue is a Victorian mansion (small wedding of 75) so I’m not buying any decorations. I’m barely buying any flowers, the ones I will buy will be from Costco or Sams club.
People don’t really remember what flowers you had so don’t spend too much on that. I’m also saving on not sending out Save The Dates, we are sending them via email , which also makes it easier to retrieve any missing mailing addresses. For invitation I’m using minted and you can actually get super cute invites for about $300 and cheaper! Of course that depends on your guest numbers too. I’m not wearing a veil so that’s another $200-300 saved. Not blocking hotel rooms for guests, every wedding I went to didn’t block any hotels for me and I was totally fine finding my own accommodations. The city we picked for our wedding is thankfully very walkable and because the ceremony and reception are at the same venue we are not hiring transportation. For grooms suit you can look into renting if you guys want a tux. A good tux will cost him anywhere between $**** if you want real deal quality designer. Plus no one ever wears their tux again so that’s something to consider as well! I also have a pretty small budget for a dress $1500 , since my wedding is not formal. So if your wedding is less traditional/formal you can save on certain things like attire and decorations in my opinion. Hope this helps!

Skip on the things folks won't notice, favors, welcome bags, signs, and misc. decor such as aisle runners. Also see if you can find a lower key rehearsal dinner spot as well.

Also agree with everyone on favors! Every single wedding I’ve been to had favors and I saw so many people not take theirs! In some cases groom and bride spent a lot of cash on them and were a bit sad most of them were left over. That’s why for favors I’m just doing local sweets like pralines, that way if people don’t take them I can always give them out next day to family.

We saved a lot of money by not spending a ton on food. We found a caterer that makes amazing Mexican food and so we're having tacos, rice and beans, chips, guacamole and salsa. We wanted delicious food that everyone likes.

I am doing a lot of DIY. From the STD's and invitations to all the signs and decor. I have saved hundreds if not thousands. We also opted for a buffet style meal vs a plated meal and are having a short mix and mingle style reception that ends early so there was no need for a DJ. Just having some light background music. Our group aren't dancers so it works for us. Our venue also doesn't allow alcohol which was a big $$$ saver. Instead of a typical wedding cake, we are having donut towers. We didn't want a videographer but we definitely splurged on an amazing photographer.

We are saving money by hiring a wedding planner/decorator who already has a large inventory of decorations so we don't have to spend that money on items we won't use after the party.