When my husband and I got engaged, my parents gave us only a limited amount of money toward the wedding and honeymoon.  That left the decision of the size and expense of the wedding up to us — if we wanted a bigger, costlier wedding, we would just have to pay for the difference ourselves.

We decided, therefore, to have a small, inexpensive wedding.  For those of you who want to do the same, I have a few tips to share on how to get married on a budget.

• Decide where you are willing to cut costs, and where you aren’t.  This is probably the first and most important decision you should make.  For instance, I was fine with making our own invitations and stuff like that, but I still paid a thousand dollars for the perfect wedding dress!
• Cut costs everywhere you can.  It may just be ten dollars here and twenty dollars there, but it all adds up — trust me.  For example, you could shop around to find a small-time seamstress who makes inexpensive custom veils, or even get a free veil by entering this contest.
• Eliminate the unnecessary stuff.  How important are the various parts of a wedding?  If you eliminate all the stuff you don’t strongly feel that you need — whether that’s a fancy bridal hairpin set, professionaal invitations, or those extra 30 guests you don’t really know very well — you can save a ton of money on things that you’ll hardly notice if they’re missing.

There are a hundred ways to save money on a wedding — you can plan it yourself instead of hiring a wedding planner, make invitations and favors yourself, etc.  Which ways you decide to cut money simply depends on you and what your priorities are.

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