11 Steps to a Frugal Wedding

The two most important strategies when getting your wedding game plan together are “organize” and “prioritize.” Once that ring goes on your or your fiancée’s hand, it’s easy for your daydreaming to turn into a dysfunctional mess of details.

1. The first order of business is to talk about is dates (if you’re wanting to plan this thing within a year). What season of the year do you want to get married? Keep in mind the height of the wedding season also brings higher prices with wedding vendors. How many months do you want to allot to wedding planning? You don’t need the national average of 11 months. You can do it in three months, but if you don’t want to stress yourself out, six months is a comfortable period. When discussing specific dates with your new fiancé, talk to your friends and family who will play an integral part of the wedding about what dates are workable for them.

2. Next, discuss exactly that — who should make up the wedding party? How many attendants will you have? Remember the more people in your wedding party, the higher the costs will be. Make a separate list of people you’d like to include in your wedding, but not as a traditional attendant, usher, etc. There are many ways to include a host of friends and family in your celebration.

3. Get an organizer (clean out one you haven’t used since college instead of buying a new one) to house all your thoughts and ideas. Use it to keep magazine clippings, brainstorms written on napkins, photographs and swatches. Make sure you keep these for later use in a scrapbook (if you’re the scrapbooking kind. And if not, ask a friend to create one as wedding gift if they’re looking for ideas.) Later your organizer will become more, um, organized, as scraps of paper turn into spreadsheets and typed notes.

But in the beginning, let your imagination run wild and find ideas in magazines, photos and catalogs for all elements of your wedding day. It’s easy at this point to spend half your wedding budget on expensive bridal magazines. Resist the urge. They’re full of ads anyway, not actual content. Find one or two magazines that you absolutely love and feel like have some useful content or pictures that you’ll want to keep. Ask around for friends and family members to see if anyone has a stack of wedding magazines from their wedding planning days within the last two years. You’ll be amazed at what comes out of the woodwork.

Once you’ve clipped pictures of bouquets, dresses, cakes and grooms you like (oh, wait, you already have that last item), you’ll probably begin to see a theme or color scheme emerge.

4. Now’s the time to infuse fantasy with reality. Set a budget. Talk with anyone who might be helping out financially with the wedding (bride’s or groom’s parents) and decide who is willing to pay for what.

My book, Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot, suggests a budget of $5,000. It’s best for you to plan below your means to leave room for last-minute purchases or unforeseen expenses. It’s highly possible to plan a wedding well under $5,000 — and as many unsuspecting brides and their families find out each year, it’s really easy to go far past the budget you have in mind. Preparation is your only protection.

5. Order your wedding rings. You have many options here but the wise choice is to buy from a reputable (reputable doesn’t have to equal expensive) dealer that you can come back to if you have any problems. We got a simple white gold band from a national chain that went perfectly with my new solitaire for under $50. Many wholesale warehouse chains like Sam’s wholesale and Costco offer very affordable, quality jewelry.

6. Request the wedding date from the church where you plan to have the wedding. Meet with the minister who will officiate your wedding. The church administrator will probably assign a wedding coordinator to you who will be your liaison throughout the process and explain any rules or restrictions the church might have for its weddings.  

7. Chances are you’ve been dreaming about your wedding gown before you were even aware boys existed. Now’s the time to start looking for your dream gown and the attire for the rest of your wedding party. Remember the theme you’ve chosen and get out those clippings of dresses that have caught your eye. Write down the four or five consistent characteristics and limit your search to dresses that fall within those. No use browsing through 150 dresses online with a drop waist if you’re sold on an empire waist.

8. Make your guest list. The number of guests will definitely affect your overall budget — especially if you’re serving food. But it’s not impossible to have a good-sized wedding on a small budget. If you’re apart of a church family, it may be customary to have an open invitation to the church as well as your private list of family and friends.

9. Start planning your pre-wedding parties, ceremony, reception and honeymoon. My fiancé took over all honeymoon-planning details to free me up to focus on the ceremony and reception. His mother volunteered to put together the wedding rehearsal dinner and friends took over the shower planning responsibilities. If there’s ever a time in your life when you allow others to give you a hand, now is it.

10. Start interviewing and hiring vendors from the wedding coordinator (if you don’t have one yet and want one) to the photographer, florist and caterer.

11. Legalize it. Check state requirements for obtaining a marriage license and find out how long it’s valid (normally 30 days).