With the costs of weddings skyrocketing, some couples are taking their cues from the Donald Trump way of having weddings by looking to corporate sponsors. Some couples feel it’s the only way to have a dream wedding they couldn’t otherwise afford.

Couples can sign contracts with vendors to include the companies’ names on cards next to the items they provide, a listing of sponsors in the wedding program, a link on the bride and groom’s website, or even a mention during a speech at the reception.

Although Kathleen Murrah, weddings editor for The Knot magazine, says big companies aren’t interested in sponsoring small-time weddings, some couples, as evidenced in the news, are making it work.

Todd Weiss and Debbie Lay of Philadelphia received cake, wedding ring, tuxes, gifts, mints, wedding programs, decorations and a website for free in exchange for advertising the sponsors’ names. “I don't think it was a blatant in-your-face advertising,” Weiss said. “There were no huge banners, the DJ was not giving 30-second spots for the different vendors. It was very subtle.”

One bride said she emailed about 4,500 companies and received 20 positive replies.3 She said the key is convincing sponsors that it’s worth their time and money to invest in your wedding.

Another couple got nearly everything for free. Sponsors names were on the back of the wedding invitations, on reception tables and in other discreet locations at the wedding.

The concept of a budget was foreign to me when I moved out on my own for the first time after college. I was just thrilled to get a regular paycheck. After all, I was making more money than I ever had. I always just kinda knew how much money I had and when I was running low. I often checked my checking account online but rarely sat down and actually planned where my money was going to go.

Until I unknowingly bounced a check. And then another. And then another. All in one week. About $200 in bounced check fees later, I realized that I didn’t have that much of a clue as to the flow of money through my checking account. I knew I had to set a budget and stick to it.

Creating a budget is the only practical way to get a grip on your spending and in the case of planning an event, to know how much you can spend on each area.

A budget is the total sum of money allocated for a particular purpose or period of time. Here’s a look at how far $5,000 will stretch to plan a wedding ceremony and reception at a church. These percentages are traditionally accepted.

One of my favorite episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond is when Ray and Debra sit down to watch their wedding video on their anniversary. Debra snuggles up to Ray on the couch, already awash in nostalgia. The video starts and scenes from their wedding years ago begin to unfold as she sits in the arms of her loving husband. To her shocking dismay, the screen blinks and the Superbowl cuts in, just as Debra’s walking down the aisle with her father. Her idiot husband had obviously taped over their most sacred memory together with nothing other than a sore spot in their marriage – sports.

That episode is so funny to me personally because one of the only mishaps/mistakes/regrets from our wedding experience was that I almost never got my wedding video. In fact, it was two years before it saw the light of day. We inquired as to its whereabouts from the friend we asked to video it several times, but got no clear answer and still have no idea why there was a delay. Whether it ended up being some sort of miscommunication between us and our friend or a horrible accident that happened after the fact that we’ll never know about, we had long given up hope of having visual record of our wedding other than our wedding photos.

And just like Debra Barone, I had to get over it.

That wasn’t the only disaster. The cake at my wedding was slowly falling over (thankfully it was cut before completely toppling over). My organist backed out the day before the ceremony (we bought a CD to play the wedding march with). Stuff happens. Just last week I got a call from a friend whose van was stolen, along with the only copy of her wedding photos on CD. Thankfully, her photographer had kept a copy of the best shots.

Many brides and grooms contributed their money-saving tips to my book, Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot. I’ve compiled some of my favorites to give you ideas on how to plan your wedding the cheapest and most creative way possible.

DRESS & ACCESSORIES

• Buy your shoes online, or at a store in the mall which tend to be cheaper than bridal salons. – Maisie, Deland, Florida
• If you live near L.A. or New York (or can take a trip to either one), visit their garment districts. These are the places where all the bridal boutiques order their wares, so if you can bypass retail and go wholesale, you will make a killing. (I bought my tiara for $16, the same one that was $150 at the boutique.) – Aly, Ventura, California
• There are places that will rent a designer gown for the day and do alterations to fit exactly. Just like you plopped down the $5k for the Vera Wang but at only a 10th of that price. – Joanna, Southern California
• I skipped on the on having my hair and make-up done. One of my girl friends is a great at hair and she did mine on my wedding day. This saved money and time because we had no appointments to rush to. Instead of paying someone to do my make-up I took that money and just bought new make-up and did it myself. Then I had all new stuff for the honeymoon. – Jaime, Cleveland, Tennessee
• Find a wedding thrift store to find odds and ends. I got my crinoline at a wedding thrift store and saved a ton of money. Wear fake jewelry. My earrings, necklace and bracelet cost me about $50. It was gorgeous and I was bling blinging. – Maya, Orlando, Florida
• I found a brand new knockoff designer gown for $229 on eBay. (Really, it's not as scary as it sounds). I also found many of my accessories (tiara, veil, necklace) as well as a flower girl dress, basket and even artificial rose petals on the auction website. – Alison, Ozark, Missouri
• Lots of people I know blow $700 (average) to $1,000+ on their wedding dresses – a dress that looks surprisingly like everyone else's who had a wedding that particular year. I'm having my dress made. The material cost $100, and my dressmaker said she'd make it for $100, so for $200 I'm having a non-traditional, black velvet (I'm getting married in November) and white chiffon, 1940's Hollywood glamour inspired dress that will fit me perfectly and will look like nobody else's. – Bridget, Rochester, New York
• If you are looking for a way to save your wedding party money, you can always pick a color and then have each girl pick a dress in that color. Some people might be concerned about picking the wrong shade of a color, but as long as you have three or four different shades of a color it is really difficult to clash – everything blends. Also, guys can wear suits. If they are too young to have a need for one yet and don't own one, then it is a great time to buy one. Every guy should have a suit in his closet. – Carey, Easley, South Carolina
• We bought our wedding bands during Valentine's weekend because every jewelry store was having a big sale. Most jewelry stores have big sales around holidays. – Jen, Lake Mary, Florida

FLOWERS

• If you love stephanotis, you're in for some sticker shock – they're extremely popular, and extremely expensive. Ask your florist to get a white hyacinth plant instead. The individual flowers look almost exactly like stephanotis, but the whole hyacinth plant is less than four individual stephanotis. – Rachel, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
• You can get roses at Sam’s Club or Costco for pretty cheap, much cheaper than from an actual florist. – Amanda, Nashville, Tennessee
• When doing your flowers yourself, less is more. Not less flowers, just less types. Pick a great flower, like Gerbera daisies and that’s it. – Joanna, Southern California
• Using the florist at a local grocery store can get your wedding flowers that look just as good the local florist shop. If you're a little squirmy about that, you can check a reference or two from weddings they've done. – Janine, Washington D.C.
• Don’t be picky. Because my wedding was on January 1 in Southern California (Rose Parade kinda corners the market.) There was a premium on flowers and I couldn’t really be choosy. But I was so happy with what I got. Instead of specifying a certain type of flower, be specific about color and style (e.g. tropical, white.) – Joanna, Southern California

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEOGRAPHY

• Look for photography students who have some experience, and are working on building up their portfolio. As long as they have some good shots under their belt, and you can schedule in a bit more time for photos, this should work. (My husband is a photographer and he did our photos: He set up the pose, set the camera settings and had my mom snap the shot with the remote.) – Alexsis, Denver, Colorado
• I knew I'd probably never watch a video, so I had a friend videotape our wedding for nothing. And I was right ... in seven years, I've watched it once. – Hannah, Lebanon, Indiana

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.

Don’t let the pressures of planning a wedding put a damper on your relationship. Take time out for dates that don’t include three hours of wedding decisions. Here are some ideas.

• Wedding video party—Invite newlywed couples over to watch highlights from their wedding videos. Get ideas as couples share stories from their days.
• Day trip it—Take a Saturday to explore a nearby town. Pack a picnic and eat in a park after window-shopping along the main street.
• Do something neither of you have done before, an activity you’ve never tried but both think would be interesting. Visit the flea market or local tourist traps just for fun.
• Photograph each other. Nothing could be more romantic than capturing the beauty you see in your partner in a photograph. Go to a local park, gardens or downtown and snap away. Try to take a few of both of you together. You can use the photos later to add a personal touch to your wedding showers or reception.
• Look up special events in the newspaper like bridal fairs. I have mixed feelings about bridal fairs, though. My experience has been that those places are teeming with people who want to take your money. But I have heard of several couples who entered contests and actually won stuff — big stuff — from free tuxes to honeymoons. Just be prepared to get a mailbox full of junk mail from vendors up to a year after. At the very least, pick up a local wedding guidebook and check out coupons or discounts for services you’re already planning to use.

1. Wedding Budget Software
Yes, there is such a thing, but a bargain bride doesn’t need to invest extra cash on software she’ll use a few weeks and then forget about. Budget on a piece of paper, in a budget software you already have like Quicken, or use a free online budgeter, like the one provided by TheKnot.com.

You can also find sample wedding budget worksheets in almost any bridal magazine or sites like www.weddinghelpline.com/budget.htm or weddings.about.com/library/blbudgetworksheet.htm.

2. Wedding Favors
Guests just don’t appreciate or care about wedding favors much these days. Probably because the wedding favors couples can afford to buy are cheesy or useless. Try to use wedding favors that will work into the design of your reception tables to get a double use out of them.

If there’s one way of saving money on anything, it’s by doing it yourself. Your wedding day is no exception (um… with the exception of the minister. You can’t actually marry yourselves). But when it comes to invitations, flowers, favors, decorations, food and music, a DIY couple can add invaluable personalized touches to their big day without shelling out a downpayment on a house. The DIY Wedding: Celebrate Your Day Your Way is all about that. Written by Tango magazine editor and Modern Bride writer Kelly Bare, this resource is chock-full of how-tos and tips for every aspect of your wedding.

Here are a few highlights:

• Amateurs can often do things just as well as the professionals.
• Avoid using “wedding” when you talk to vendors about your event to save money.
• The best way to find people who provide the best services is word-of-mouth.
• There are plenty of affordable wedding vendors out there (they’re not all bad!)
• Reject package deals, ask for alternatives and do it your way!

A savvy Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot reader named Buddy shared this fabulous tip for a frugal and adorable save-the-date announcement card for his upcoming wedding. I love the creativity and economical execution of the idea.

“I really enjoy your ‘Cheap Ways To’ ideas and wanted to share our recent ‘cheap’ success.

“We were looking for an economical ‘save the date’ card to mail to our guests for our summer wedding. I dabble in graphic design so I was convinced we could do something on the cheap. We liked the idea of a photo booth concept so I put my design skills into action. We took a bunch of photos of us in different fun poses holding the signs ‘we're’ ‘getting’ ‘married’ and the date. I then laid it out in Photoshop with the look of a strip of photos from a photobooth. So far no money spent, but no product yet either.

Since half of your entire wedding costs will be dropped on the reception, it pays to plan carefully.

The earlier the wedding, the cheaper the reception costs. If your reception is before noon, you don’t even have to have a reception. If it’s between noon and 4 p.m., consider a lunch reception (buffet or sit-down). With an afternoon wedding, you can have an elegantly informal appetizer or just cake and punch reception. It’s generally accepted that any ceremony after 7 p.m. will include dinner — this is the most costly option. But there are ways to save.

THE CAKE
It’s a largely held belief that wedding guests come to see two things: the bride and the wedding cake. No matter what type of reception you choose to have or how much you plan to spend, don’t scrimp on the cake.

Order three smooth frosted white cakes of different sizes from you local grocery store. Have the bakers pipe colored icing around the bottom edge of the cake, but other than that, have them leave it plain. (Or have a friend do the same.) At the reception site, arrange them with the biggest one resting on the table, the middle one propped up on upside down wine glasses directly behind it, and the smallest cake on a taller tier made out of an upside-down vase. Decorate the tops of each cake with cut flowers that match your bouquet.

For a Christmas-season wedding, place small ball ornaments on the cake instead of flowers. Sprinkle the cake with edible glitter for more snowy, holiday flare.