How To Be a Frugal Bride and Cut the Cost of Your Wedding

1. Avoid guest list bloat.

For some people, it can feel very tempting to invite hundreds of people to the wedding. Try cutting your list in half and see if you’re happy with it.

2. Go less with the flowers.

Instead of having huge piles of flowers everywhere (something that will only really last for an afternoon), instead simply go with a single rose for each bridesmaid and a very small bouquet for the bride.

3. Choose very personal books for groomsmen/bridesmaid gifts.

It’s often customary to give gifts to the bridesmaids or groomsmen. One very effective (and frugal) gift is to give personally important books to each person. Choose one that expresses something personal that you feel is appropriate for each member of the wedding party and hand-write an inscription on the inside, noting that it is a gift for the wedding and why it’s an appropriate book.

4. Make your own invitations.

With a quality home printer and some time, you can make very classy invitations on your own. Buy a simple blank invitation kit and make your own invitations. No pictures or anything – just a very classic font and simple text. It looks stylish and will cost much less.

5. Patiently shop for any decoration needs.

Most of the craft stores have sales somewhat regularly. Know what you’re looking for as far in advance as possible and let the sales come to you. Clip coupons, too.

6. Buy dresses together when a sale is on.

Similar to the tip for shopping for decorations, you can often save a significant amount of money by shopping patiently for dresses as well. Many dress stores have sales on holidays such as Memorial Day – keep an eye out for them. You may also want to shop together so that you can all save during the sale.

7. Rent tuxedos as a group.

Unless you have a specific reason for owning a tuxedo (and few people do), you should rent one. It’s often useful to rent the tuxedos as a group through the same business, as you’ll often get a group rate. It’s often useful to rent through a place that’s fairly close to the site of the wedding so last minute adjustments can easily be made.

8. Make a simple honeymoon.

A huge, over-the-top honeymoon might sound fun, but it’s far, far cheaper (and often more enjoyable) to have a much more laid-back honeymoon. Instead of planning a big trip, just hop in the car and spend a week or two together just driving around and enjoying being married. The fewer plans, the better – and more cost effective.

9. Involve your closest friends and family in the preparation.

As you’re developing plans, you should get your closest friends and family involved with the details. Quite often, they’ll have surprisingly good ideas that can save you money and effort – maybe they’ll just volunteer to help out with that a particular piece of the preparation. Good friends and family are always there to help, so you might as well use it.

10. Plan, plan, plan.

List everything you can think of and walk through these items step by step. The earlier you get started – and the more things you think about early on – the less “last minute stress” you’ll have and the more time you’ll have to find sales and discounts and other good ideas.

11. Don’t stress.

Something will probably go wrong at the last minute – a little detail of some sort won’t work out. Don’t worry about it – just assume something little is going to go wrong and don’t respond by throwing cash at it. Most likely, no one will even notice the little issue, and quite often someone in your wedding party (or someone helping out) will come up with a pretty good solution to fix things.