Learn the Tricks on Saving Money on your Wedding

Wedding table decorations. When you picture your wedding is it the most lavish and expensive production since Waterworld? I had that image of my wedding since I was five and dressing Barbie up in lace and tulle, although I planned a different outcome than Waterworld. I had so many Barbie wedding dresses at one point that I could have supplied every 5 year old girl with one. I wore my husband out the same way I wore out those wedding dresses when I began planning our wedding.

When we tallied our budget, after my initial budget planning, and it was clear I wasn't going to meet the $10,000 allowance. I could beg and plead all I wanted but my husband wasn't budging on that amount. I, of course, told him that if I had known he was going to skimp on our wedding day I would have married for money, not love. He still didn't budge! Go figure. At that point I began really thinking and imagining my wedding day. I realized if I wanted the important parts of my dream wedding, I had to save money on the not so important things.

When the realization hit that I had to start reducing wedding costs, my shoulders slumped. How on earth was I going to have my once in a lifetime perfect wedding day if I didnt have exactly what I wanted? Five determined minutes later, I decided nothing was going to stand in the way of my perfect wedding, except of course one very grumpy 6'0 tall handsome Swede.

When I began to reconfigure the wedding budget, I surprised myself in the first 15 minutes by reducing the costs $5,000 dollars. By moving my wedding to a more remote location I actually saved money. All it took was a little networking. Not all the budget trimming was that easy, it took some time but I managed to trim the budget by nearly $20,000. I detail a lot of my wedding cost saving techniques in my blog.

The remote area where I moved the wedding venue included a tent rental (see picture) which cost only $300.00. The same location threw in flatware, silverware and benches. Pretty amazing in my opinion.

One of the ways I trimmed my budget was buy doing my own wedding table decorations. Calla Lilies are expensive but when you buy them in bulk from a wholesale broker you get a much better price. Small business owners are willing to give the same price if you barter properly and offer to advertise their services. Buying vases and candles at the dollar store and flea market will really save a lot of money. We bought 10 vases, which you can see in the photographs below, for a total of $20. We got over 30 different candle sizes at the dollar stores for about $12.

By simply being my own wedding planner, I was able to save thousands of dollars.

When hunting for my wedding gown, I saved money by checking every web site over a two month period. Everday I set aside 20 minutes to visit some web sites I hadn't before. I kept track on an excel sheet and ended up paying a lot less than over 20 of the websites in the first pages of Google's search engine.

The bridesmaids picked their own dress style and therefore they were happy. They went for the vintage bridesmaid dresses styled like the empire dress style from the Napolean Era. These dresses usually run about $110, but we paid about $96 for each one. That doesn't seem like a lot, but since we were doing so well on our budget and the bridesmaids helped with that, we picked up the tab for their dresses. This is a great way to enlist the help of your friends and you can find beautiful cheap bridesmaid dresses, and put them on your tab. Bridesmaids can confirm vendors for you, pick up cleaning and alterations, and do fun stuff like go to cake tastings with you. Don't be afraid to make the offer.