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In case you missed it, weddings aren’t cheap.
It’s a challenge, but they can definitely be done on a budget, and we’ve compiled a list of wedding freebies and tips to help you save money. Yep, it’s true.
1. Don’t Hire A Wedding Planner
Wedding planners can cost a lot of money. If you’ve been to enough weddings, and talked to enough friends who have tied the knot, you can learn a lot. If you think you have enough in your budget, many couples find it helpful to hire a “day-of” planner or coordinator who can help everyone and everything get to where they need to be on the big day—for a fraction of the cost for a full-on wedding planner.
2. Use Wedding Planning Apps
Once again, instead of shelling out money for a formal wedding planner, wedding apps can be lifesavers for keeping you organized and on track. We like WeddingHappy and WeddingWire.
3. Get Free Wedding Registry Gifts
Did you know that you can get freebies just by signing up for a wedding registry? Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Crate & Barrel, Dillard’s, Williams Sonoma and Amazon all offer free gifts to couples, some simply for registering with them, others provide gifts when guests purchase certain items and some retailers offer gifts when the value of registry gifts purchased for you reaches a certain amount.
For example, when someone gets you a Nespresso machine for $199 or more on the Amazon Wedding Registry, you’ll get a $50 credit. The other beautiful thing about an Amazon registry is being able to add products from other websites to create a “universal registry.” It’s nice for couples and guests alike to be able to make registry visits a one-stop shop.
Sites like MyRegistry and Zola allow for this as well.
4. Reap Post-Wedding Discounts
Most retailers will offer you between 10-20 percent off on your remaining registry items (or on all merchandise) after your big day. That discount usually lasts for six months to a year after your wedding date, so you have plenty of time to determine if you really want that gravy boat after all or would rather get something more practical like extra bath towels.
Amazon’s “registry completion” offer gives newlyweds 10 percent off remaining registry items after their wedding day—and that number jumps to 20 percent off for Prime members, which is quite nice indeed.
5. Have A Friend Do The Flowers
Though flowers are an important part of your wedding and reception, you can save hundreds (or thousands, depending) if you do the flowers yourself. An actress friend of mine could have hired anyone to do her flowers—she had the money—but chose a friend instead. Although her friend wasn’t a professional florist, she had an eye for what flowers went together well and no one at the wedding knew the difference.
6. Find An Art Student To Do Your Invitations
Wedding invitations can easily cost hundreds of dollars. But when you find an art or graphic design student to do them, you’ll automatically save. It’s a win-win because they can use the invitation template in their art portfolio, and, of course, you can use them for your wedding. A friend of mine did this, as the art student, and soon she was in demand with all the bride’s friends, too. You never would have known a student was behind all the invitations—complete with guests’ envelopes individually done in calligraphy. In addition, the invitations were one-of-a-kind, which not many people can say these days.
6. Buy A Floor Sample Wedding Gown
Yes, just like when you’re out buying a bed or couch and negotiating with the salesperson about the floor model, the same goes for a wedding gown. According to The Knot, you can get a floor sample wedding dress for up to 50 percent off the retail price. That’s some serious savings! Remember, always negotiate, too.
7. … Or Buy A Second-Hand Wedding Dress
Before you skip over this one, don’t! No one will know your wedding dress is second-hand, except for you, so why not consider it? There are plenty of places to find these, like Still White and PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com, where you may find your million-dollar gown—for far, far less than that, of course.
9. Cut Down On The Number Of Guests
Of course, having fewer people at your wedding reception will mean more savings.
“Don’t invite more guests than you can spend one minute of time with,” said Rev. Roger Coleman of Clergy Services Inc. in Kansas City, MO, who specializes in small family weddings. “If you invite 300 guests, spending one minute with each would take over five hours.” Wow, right? Point taken!
Cutting down a guest list is no easy feat, but if you frame it this way, it shows you have quality time with your guests in mind—and want to spare those who don’t make the list from being just a number.
10. Don’t Get Married On A Saturday
Saturdays tend to be the most expensive days to get married, according to Bankrate, so choosing another day will save you a good chunk of change from the start.
However you choose to save money on your wedding day, just remember that it is possible. Then, you can use the money saved for other things—like the honeymoon.
In addition to Don't Waste Your Money, Natalia is an ongoing writer for Bustle (sex, dating, relationships, and money), HelloGiggles (pop culture and news), Simplemost (lifestyle topics), and The Delite (feel-good stories). You can also find her writing in the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune's RedEye, xoJane, Elite Daily, Scary Mommy, Elephant Journal, and Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies, among other publications. She has a Ph.D. in couch-surfing, having spent four years sleeping on over 200 L.A.-area love seats and sectionals, all in an effort to whittle down her student loan debt. She still loves couch-surfing in other cities, too (hint, hint). More.
