Money Saving Ideas For Your Wedding
Your wedding will hands down be the best day of your life. This vision you have created comes together, you vow the remainder of your days to the love of your life, and you’re surrounded by the people you care about most in the world.
But, let’s not pretend that it will most likely be the most expensive day of your life! If you’re planning on going the traditional wedding route and not elope, buckle up for some sticker shock in your future.
When I first started planning my 2020 wedding in 2019 I was thinking it would be around $15,000… Jokes! High cost of living area + appreciation for a high level of service clocked us in at about $25,000 when it was all said and done. I’m just going to throw out there that this ended up being a COVID wedding that I had to completely re-plan in six weeks, so some unexpected costs needed to be eaten.
However, as the frugal person that I am, I cut cost drastically on things that I personally didn’t find important for our big day. I’ll be sharing a list with you on easy ways to save money on your big day, without sacrificing the quality.
Here are the item’s I saved on:
1. Décor
2. Dessert
3. Paper
4. Rehearsal Dinner
5. Flowers
6. Accessories
Alright, Lets Dive Right in!
Décor
Even before we knew we would be hosting out wedding at our house due to COVID, I had a game plan for décor that went like this:
I only wanted item’s that were either:
1. Inexpensive/on sale/second hand/already owned
2. Something I could use for décor in our home after
3. Something I could easily re-sell on a wedding Facebook group
And I would say I was 95% successful with this! I chose to use a lot of picture frames we already had. I went to Goodwill and bought a ton of mismatched, antique looking glass where to hold candles in. Michaels was a great post-lockdown re-opening deals on boho décor that I scored big on and was able to re-use some of it as home décor after the wedding.
Facebook Bride Groups are a GREAT resource for shopping pre-owned wedding décor! Search these groups regularly for what you’re looking for. Not only will you get things for less than retail, but you’re also helping a fellow bride and keeping things out a land fill. And then after the wedding, turn around and try to re-sell it on those groups! I would say I re-couped most of the money I spent on décor from re-selling. Gosh, I even sold the stumps shown in this picture and table rounds that my husband cut himself…
Dessert
My husband and I aren’t huge cake fans, and I knew wedding cakes were ridiculously expensive. We opted to go with renting a local ice cream truck, and this saved us huge!
For 50 guests to have massive, homemade ice cream sundaes, including tip cost us $320. And get this, $75 of that was a permit the truck had to pull with our town…crazy! We were so happy that we got to save money and have a dessert we were excited for.
I highly recommend looking into different dessert options if cake isn’t a make-or-break for you.
Paper
Invitations, save the dates, thank you cards, programs, menus, name tags…there’s so much paper that goes along with wedding that you don’t even think about until you’re in the thick of it.
For invitations and thank you cards, I used Vista Print but went with their highest quality card stock. I was so happy with how these came out and their pricing was great. The only thing that killed me was the crazy shipping costs during the COVID lock downs. I ended up spending $93 on the invitations and $36 on the thank you cards - $32 of that being shipping costs…so I would get my invites within 2 weeks. It was crazy times y’all!
For save the dates I used Shutterfly, which I was very happy with. I spent $75 on these, but honestly, I feel like I would have been just as happy with Vista Print for less money.
Also, check out Walmart! I got my Christmas cards from their last year using their premium card stock and I was so impressed!! They’ll be my go-to now.
I chose to forgo programs and names cards for the tables. Not important to me! I did however create my own menus for the tables on Canva and printed them on card stock I purchased.
Rehearsal Dinner
I know this is something the groom’s family usually pays for, but incase they’re not, or you want an affordable option I wanted to include this.
We had our rehearsal dinner at our house because of COVID (shocker). Part of this was because we were already going to have the tent, tables and chairs rentals there so might as well get another use out of them! Anyways, we decided to just get BBQ catered from one of our favorite places. I kid you not that I have fonder memories of the rehearsal dinner food than I did of our actual wedding food that I paid an arm and a leg for!
$300 to feed 30 people and we probably only needed half the amount we ordered. I ended up freezing a ton of the pulled pork and chicken, it was great! If you’re looking to cut costs on the rehearsal food I’d shy away from plated dishes and have more of a help yourself buffet from your favorite restaurant.
Flowers:
Some of those photos you see on Pinterest of amazing flower arrangements and center pieces are to die for. And once you see their price tag, you will probably die. This was one of those line items in my budget where I was not willing to spend $3,000 on something that I wouldn’t be able to physically keep forever.
Here are a few ways I was able to have a beautiful aesthetic for my wedding without breaking the bank:
1. Bought my bouquet from a florist at a local grocery store. $150 for a huge bouquet and it came out beautiful!
2. Made 8 boutonnieres from supplies from Hobby Lobby. I think I watched a Youtube video and went on Pinterest, then got to work! It probably took me an hour to assemble them all and cost me $20 TOTAL!
3. Bought loose flowers from a local florist and cut some from family’s gardens and assembled arrangements and bridesmaid’s bouquets the day before the wedding. I spend $80 total on these flowers.
Accessories:
It’s easy to get carried away when you’re at a bridal shop trying on your wedding dress and the stylist “jacks you up” with all their accessories. Obviously you’re going to look beautiful, but you can find many more budget friendly option elsewhere!
Example #1, the veil. At the bridal shop they threw a $300 veil on me; something that I knew I would only wear for maybe a couple hours of my lifetime. I opted to go for a simpler veil that I found on Etsy for $75. And then after the wedding I sold it on Facebook Marketplace for $55.
I was also able to get a beautiful, great quality hair piece on Amazon for $15 that I later sold on Facebook Marketplace for the same price.
Look around, there are great options for accessories that won’t break the bank!
Thanks for making it all the way through this post. I hope some of the frugal strategies I used for our wedding can inspire your wedding planning (:
