Cheap Wedding Plans For A Beautiful Wedding

If you don't have a big wedding budget, I have some cheap wedding plans that will help you create a beautiful Christian wedding with very little cash.

The average wedding today costs $27,000. Talk about insanity! Most of us just don't have that much to spend. You can have a beautiful wedding without spending a year's salary on it.

For instance, you don't need to order a designer wedding dress that you see in the bridal magazines. You can attend wedding dress sales and find a beautiful dress on sale. Sometimes you can find one on sale brand new for about $100! David's bridal has these sales frequently here in San Antonio.

You can hire a seamstress to make a wedding dress for a fraction of the cost of a designer dress. My grandmother was a seamstress and made incredible wedding dresses when I was a child.

You can check out consignment shops and purchase a slightly used dress in almost perfect condition for a fraction of the original cost.

You may be able to borrow a wedding dress from a family member or friend. You will probably need to have the dress professionally cleaned before and after the wedding before returning the dress, but that will still cost less than a designer dress.

Cheap wedding plans include making your own veil with materials from a craft supply store. Or consider purchasing a pre-made veil or wedding tiara from Wal-Mart or a craft store. Wal-Mart has a great craft department and in that department is an aisle with wedding supplies. They are inexpensive, but nice.

The beauty is that you don't have to tell everyone that you found your wedding dress on sale on the rack or that you purchased your wedding veil at Wal-Mart.

I visited Party City this past week (January of 2009) for birthday things and I was surprised to see that they have a wedding section filled with tasteful items to use for your wedding. Items ranged from tiaras that the bride can wear to wedding confetti, champagne flutes, photo albums, invitation kits, and a lot more. I urge you to check party stores in your area.

Hallmark stores and other card stores also have a nice selection of beautiful wedding items. These stores are more expensive than discount stores, but they are still cheaper than bridal shops. The items the Hallmark stores have are beautiful!

The location of the wedding ceremony and reception can save you a lot of money. If you are a member of a church, you may be able to use the sanctuary and fellowship hall free of charge or at a reduced rate.

Cheap wedding plans mean you do not have to pay for a reception hall. And, as an added bonus, if your reception is held at the church, you don't have to worry about purchasing alcohol or fighting with relatives who want alcohol at your wedding. Most churches do not allow alcohol on the premises. This will be a major savings for you.

You can make your own wedding invitations, which can save money if you have a dependable computer and printer. If not, borrow a friend's equipment and maybe get some help from the friend as well if you are not familiar with creating cards on computers.

Consider making your own wedding bouquets, flower arrangements, and reception centerpieces.

Your wedding rings do not have to come from the most exclusive jewelry store in town. They can come from a thrift store. They can also come from Wal-Mart's jewelry department. Wal-Mart has a beautiful selection of wedding bands and diamonds.

Cheap wedding plans can also include having a friend or family member who is great with cakes make your wedding cake. If that is not an option, order it from your grocery store bakery for a much lower cost than ordering it from a fancy bakery where it can cost you more than $1000. My mother was lucky. Her mother made her a beautiful wedding cake for her wedding. My grandmother always made wonderful birthday cakes for us when we were growing up. They looked great and tasted even better--always from scratch, both the cake and frostings. Yum!

Remember that no one has to know you saved money by having cheap wedding plans. You can save money and still have a great looking wedding!

Plan inexpensive weddings by doing some things yourself. Try making the bouquets and/or other flower arrangements. Silk flowers can be used and made well ahead of time. Wal-Mart sells a lot of wedding accessories in their crafts department. They have ready-made white flower bouquets to carry. You could use them and save a bundle. Just add some decorative lace and/or pretty ribbons and pearls that match your wedding colors.

Use silk rose petals for the flower girl to throw. Find a small white basket and glue some lace on it. You can find the basket and bags of rose petals at Dollar Tree and other dollar stores. For $1 an item, you can make beautiful wedding accessories.


Don't be embarrassed to go to dollar stores to save money. They have beautiful gift bags and ribbons as well as candles, baskets, and attractive thank you notes for the bride and groom to use.

Some brides are fortunate because they have family members who can make beautiful wedding cakes and other delicious wedding reception foods. This can be a great help to plan inexpensive weddings.

If this is not an option, consider going to the bakery at your local grocery store. Order your wedding cake from them. This is what I did. It is much cheaper than the $1000 wedding cakes from fancy bakeries advertised in wedding magazines. I paid $50 for a beautiful three-tiered wedding cake. It had a great flavor as well. Prepare to pay more than $50 now since that was 21 years ago.

Cupcakes in place of wedding cakes are a popular wedding item now. Make your own cupcakes and arrange them on a large tiered cupcake holder. Or have two separate tiered holders and offer two different flavors for your guests. Some guests will not want frosting so offer them several varieties of muffins.

Just get a little creative. Look at lots of wedding magazines and websites for great ideas. Take the ideas you like and rework them to fit in with your wedding and your budget.

If you want a destination wedding, cheap wedding packages can be found. If you are lucky enough to live in a place considered to be a "destination," you can still take advantage of these specials. And why not?

If you Google "cheap wedding packages" right now, over 24 million sites come up for you to check out. Many of the websites are owned by travel agencies. Some are owned by hotels, airlines, and just regular people like me who happen to specialize in finding great deals and promoting them on their own websites.

some of the wedding packages are as low as $199. Of course, there are very expensive packages, as well as many in between. You can go to an exotic island, to Europe, to Canada, or to many different places in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Some of the packages include airfare, hotel stays, meals, and a place for the wedding and reception. Many of them include the cost of the wedding and reception per person with food, drink, and a cake. Everything you need for a wedding is included except the bride and groom and their attire and rings!

This saves you a lot of trouble in the long run, but, of course, many of your friends and relatives would not be able to go for a variety of reasons so if you are counting on your minister to marry you, or if you want Aunt Sally to sing at your wedding, or if you want your elderly grandparents there, you may want to reconsider having a destination wedding.

If you do decide to take advantage of one of the cheap wedding packages available, make sure you call the facility and speak with someone, as well as your travel agent before you pay. Get some literature. Go online and see if you can find out about the company you are dealing with. Find out what other couples have said about it. Remember that not everyone online is honest so make sure you do some research. If a deal sounds too good to be true, IT IS! Walk away before spending your hard earned money. Research first, get the deal later!

Do you have a great money saving idea for a wedding? Please share it! Pay it forward by letting us know what you did or what you have seen done so other readers can save money too! Here is what some of my readers have shared:

Diamond Ring Alternatives

by Jess
(PA)

Who says you have to get a diamond! I was turned off to the idea of a diamond seeing how every woman gets one. What about diamond ring alternatives? Instead, I asked for a white sapphire.Not a single person can tell the difference between the diamond and the white sapphire. It is more precious and also harder than a diamond and not nearly the cost! I got a custom made band with a half carat sapphire and it cost around $600. A ring is just a material item; love is forever!

Jess,
You are right. There is no reason why a wedding ring has to be a diamond. There are many beautiful stones that do very nicely in a wedding ring. Princess Diana chose a beautiful blue sapphire ring. It is all about what you want to wear for the rest of your life. Thank you for sharing!

Emerald engagement ring
by: Kelly

I also did not get a diamond due to my having large fingers( size 9 in rings). When we went looking for rings the 1/4 and 1/2 carat sizes looked so small when I tried them on but the sales lady explained that the stone will look smaller on a larger finger. We did not have a lot of $$$ to spend on a bigger stone so I chose my birthstone an emerald instead. I love my ring and get many compliments on it.

Save The Date Magnets

by Jennifer W.
(Austin, TX)

I have a fairly large guest list. It is estimated to require about 250 save the date magnets and invitations. My future husband and I were frustrated to find that the cost for this many save the date magnets were around $150 to $200 - and that didn't even include postage or envelopes!

Then, we had a fantastic idea - we could make our own! But doing so could be relatively easy and wouldn't require us to sit at a printer for hours printing them.

We decided to design our own business cards from vista prints. The business cards were actually our "save the date" cards that included our picture and typical save the date information (date, city where the wedding would be held, etc.) I think the normal price for a box of 250 business cards is around $20.00. However if you sign up on the vista print mailing list, you can often get online coupons for a discount. We paid around $8.00 for our box of 250.

We then went to ebay to purchase 250 self adhesive business card magnets. We were able to find these for around $25.00

The next step is to have a fun evening watching a movie and placing the vista print business cards on the self adhesive business card magnets. It may take some time, but doing it together is a great way to get him involved in the wedding planning process and a good excuse to watch a movie at home (you save the cost of going to a movie! That alone is a huge savings!)

As you can see, we were able to get 250 Save the date business card magnets for under $35.00. That's like getting a 70% discount! What budget conscious bride wouldn't smile at that! And to sweeten the idea - we didn't have to sit at a printer all day and use half an ink cartridge!

I hope this tip helps you plan your Christian wedding in a budget conscious and efficient manner. After all, we are called to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with. And this is one way to be more efficient with our financial blessings.

*****
Thank you so much, Jennifer! I love craft ideas to make your wedding special for less $! Loved the idea of the magnet and making it out of business cards. Great idea.
--Juanita

HELPFUL!
by: Jerelle

Thank you so much for this tip! That is an awesome way to save $! This is very helpful!

Jerelle,
Glad this helped you! Best wishes on your wedding.
--Juanita

Wedding DJ

We found our wedding DJ by contacting a local Karaoke DJ. They informed us it would be $400 for 4 hours. Most DJs in my area charge +$1,000.

I'm also printing my invites. I found invite kits on Amazon that cost less than $30 for 100 invites.

Wedding DJ And Invitations
by: Juanita

Sounds like you got a bargain on your wedding DJ and on your Amazon invitations. I would say that 100 invitations for $30 is great. My son and his fiancee printed their own invitations as well and they came out beautiful. Best wishes on your wedding!

Make Your Own Wedding Dress

by Lynn
(Poughkeepsie, NY)

A great way for you as a bride to save money is to make your own wedding dress if you sew. If you do not sew, you can find a great seamstress who works cheap in your area. My grandmother was one such seamstress. After my grandfather passed away, she needed a way to support herself. She sewed beautiful clothes so that is what she did. Through word of mouth, she got more and more clients and made many beautiful wedding gowns and bridesmaid's dresses. She made them for less than half price of what it would cost in a bridal shop. The bride bought the pattern and the cloth and she would make the dresses and they were incredible! What you want is to find a home-based seamstress who does not have to pay employees or store rent so she/he can keep the costs down. Ask your friends and relatives. Chances are that someone has an excellent seamstress in your neighborhood.

If you sew and want to make your own wedding dress, there are easy, medium, and complicated patterns for wedding dresses available. Go to a cloth store and look at the pattern books such as Butterick, McCalls, Vogue, and Simplicity. Choose one you love, buy the cloth and thread and any embellishments and get busy. Allow yourself several months just in case something goes wrong and you need help from a seamstress. Don't wait until the last minute to try to make your own wedding dress. That is too much pressure and no bride needs anymore pressure on her than she already has. Good luck!

Making Your Own Wedding Dress
by: Juanita

Lynn,
If you sew, making your own wedding dress is not that difficult. Choose a simple design and you can always add a few accents to it. Less is more so you do not have to choose the most complicated pattern in the book. Thank you for posting.

Do It Yourself Wedding

The best money saving tip I can give you is to do as much as you can on your own. Have a real do it yourself wedding.

If you are not that adventurous, at least do one or two things on your own. You can save thousands of dollars off of your wedding budget.

For instance, cater your own wedding. Get some family members to help cook the wedding reception food. Keep it simple. Or sew your own wedding dress, make your own veil or wedding shoes or clutch.

Make your own do it yourself wedding bouquet and/or other wedding flowers.

Make your own music CD to be played at the reception instead of a band. Burn songs on to a CD from various albums that you have. Make your own wedding favors, invitations, or wedding programs. There are many things that you can do ahead of time to save money. Try it.

Wedding Do It Yourself Things
by: Juanita

I completely agree with you. Saving a little money doing one or two things for yourself is better than not saving any...Many things are not that difficult to do and with the help of your family, you can accomplish a lot and save a lot of money.

Ways to Save On Your Wedding

by Bobbi
(Green Bay, WI)

Here are some ways to save on your wedding. I found invitation kits to print them myself on clearance at Target. It saved me hundreds of dollars and was so easy to do! The invitations were simple, but everyone loved them.

Keep it simple with programs, save the dates, thank you's and you will save time and money. You can print save the dates/ thank you's at Walgreens for a decent price. I think it's nice to give a photo card. See www.walgreens.com

You don't have to go overboard on the flowers either. You can go with a less is more policy and do just a flower or two for the bridesmaids/bride instead of elaborate bouquets and use flowers at the ceremony that can be used again at the reception. For instance, we had flowers decorating our unity candle and that became our decoration for the head table at the reception.

Talk to friends and family to find out who they know that could do flowers, photography, bake the cake, etc. for a good price. A friend of a friend is doing my photography for less that I ever expected and I get to keep all the negatives/ digital prints to make my own copies.

You can find great deals from Oriental Trading too for favors, table decorations, etc.
My order was shipped very quickly and I got a lot of things taken care of at one time. Hope this helps! Happy wedding planning!

Save On Your Wedding
by: Juanita

Bobbi,
Thank you for all of the tips you shared to save on your wedding. The wedding invitation kits are so nice. I have looked at them. My son and his fiance got some for their wedding in May of 2009. Getting them on clearance is a very smart idea.

Now I did not even think of having things for the wedding printed elsewhere if not at home. www.walgreens.com sounds like a great way to go.

I have never used Oriental Trading before but I will check them out. Best wishes. I hope you have the wedding of your dreams and a wonderful, fulfilling marriage! Let us know how everything turns out!
Juanita

Toilet Paper Wedding Dress

by Jean
(LaGrange, NY)

Each year a contest to make a wedding dress out of toilet paper is held by a website called www.Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com and by Charmin. The entries are spectacular and are truly made out of rolls of toilet paper. Right now, the winning dresses are on display in New York City at Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

Making a toilet paper wedding dress, if you are a sewing whiz, is a great way to save money! Of course, if you are a sewing whiz, you might want to sew your own dress out of real cloth. You could make a beautiful dress dirt cheap.

My grandmother was an excellent seamstress and sewed many wedding gowns while she was alive. They were beautiful. She saved a lot of brides a lot of money while I was growing up. She had bridal parties in her dining room trying on dresses all the time. She was an incredible seamstress. I wish I had that gift but I cannot sew a straight line.
Toilet Paper Wedding Dress
by: Juanita

Jean,
Thank you for your comments. I saw the toilet paper dresses this morning on Good Morning America and they were beautiful. So hard to believe they are actually made out of rolls of toilet paper. Yes, they are low cost fabric can make some gorgeous wedding dresses. Take your minds out of the cookie cutter wedding box and see all of the possibilities. There are many money saving ideas out there. Think of some of your own. Please come back here and share with us!

Rosemary Plants For Wedding Centerpieces

by Anonymous

Use fresh rosemary plants for your wedding centerpieces.

***
Great idea. And they can be given away to a guest at each table after the reception as well! So they are a wedding favor as well as a centerpiece. Thank you for the tip!

Writing 'Thank You' cards is always proper etiquette. If you have even something as simple as Microsoft Word installed on your computer you can make your own. Two can fit on one sheet of paper and envelopes can be purchased at paper supply stores (A-2 size).

Writing Thank You Cards

by Harriet, former Wedding Coordinator, wife of 25 years
(Federal Way, WA)

One very cool Thank You we received was a black and white postcard of the couple, standing on the steps of the church in their wedding attire (obviously taken before the ceremony) each holding a placard side by side that said "Thank You!". I don't know how inexpensive you can have that done, but it saves on postage and because there is little writing space you don't have to feel like you must write a novel of thanks!