Everyone wants to save money and still have a beautiful wedding, right?  We'll if you follow my few easy steps- you too (like me) can have both!  The first thing to remember when wanting to save money for your wedding, is not to become a Bridezilla.  There is no room for a Bridezilla when you are a Bargain Bride!  That is the first and number one rule: NO Bridezilla's allowed! 

Maybe you want to save money for a house.  Maybe this is your second marriage.  Maybe you are like I was and are paying for your wedding yourself.  No matter what your situation, there is a way to save money during your wedding. 

Today the average wedding cost over $20,0000!  Together with honeymoon and everything, my wedding cost aproxemetly $6,000.  That is a little more than 1/4 of the cost of the AVERAGE wedding!  How did I do it?  Read on my beautiful bride...

1.)  The number one thing you can do to save money is borrow and beg.  This does not mean stand on the street corner with a sign that says "will work for beautiful wedding".  No really, what this means is to recruit everyone you know and love who may have had weddings of their own, to help you.  Trust me- people love this stuff... everyone loves the fact that you are asking them to take part in one of the biggest days of your life!  Additionally, these people (family, friends, etc.) may have lots of decorations and things laying around at your disposal FOR FREE!  That's right!  For example, my mother in law had about 20 decorative rose balls that she had left over from many different family events/weddings that she really wanted rid of and well- I really wanted!  These beautiful rose balls were not only free- but helped me decide my color theme!  You can't be a Bargain Bride if you are dead set on simple things like color!

2.)  Speaking of color- to my advantage, these rose balls I enherited were red and white.  Which I truely consider the perfect wedding colors.  Why?  Not because I perticularly like these colors best, but because finding other simple decorations for the wedding was so easy with those two colors!  Think about how many holidays use the color red:  Valentines, Christmas, Fourth of July, the list goes on!  That means many opportunities to find red and white items that can double as wedding decorations for cheap!  Look for many off season items to use for your wedding, even if you aren't using my colors!  I got lucky and bought these really elegant red heart toupiaries that were on sale after Valentines.  I got them all for under $15.00.  Compare that to traditional wedding toupiaries at $20. + each.  What a savings! 

3.)  Don't be affraid to make things yourself.  This tip also includes the people who are helping you.  This is a great pre wedding party activity for all your bridesmaids, or family members.  Not only is it a great bonding experience with your closest buddies, but you are getting things accomplished for your wedding!  For my wedding, we used lucky bamboo and took shot classes and created pots for the bamboo to sit on the tables as wedding favors.  I also decorated some Chinese take out boxes and put little gifts in them for everyone who helped me. Along with making things, my husband and I created our own wedding invitations.  We went for this really cool scroll type invitation, that was not only fun for us to make, but everyone- even people who couldn't come to the wedding said they enjoyed. 

4.) Cut your guest list down!   This is a hard one.  Everyone wants to invite everyone we have ever known since the 3rd grade, but think about it this way: if you are planning a meal for your guest, every guest you invite is one more you have to feed!  Even if you are not feeding your guest, there are other factors that would cost you more in the long run if you invite more guest.  Just to name a few: Invitations, if you have not begun to price these out- the average price per invitation is $5.00 plus postage.  If you are having an outdoor wedding like mine, you might want seating for your guest, this is more money depending on how many guest you have.  Keep your guest list down, not only is in more cost effective it really makes your wedding more intimate. 

If you would like more ideas for an enexpensive wedding, please check out my auctions for the complete ebook to this article.  Thanks for looking!

girlspamper