65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Limit Alcoholic Beverages

Limit alcoholic beverages to wine and beer, choices that will satisfy most of your guests.

Sign up for newsletters or join mailing lists at wine shops. Then, when wines you want for your wedding go on sale, buy in bulk.

Buy Wholesale

Buy your own wine wholesale. You'll pay your caterer a corkage fee to pour it, but wine purchased through him can cost twice as much.

Most merchants offer a 10 percent discount for buying wine by the case, and they'll often increase that if you purchase several cases at once.

Check into wine that's available in magnums (bottles twice the size of regular ones); several quality wines are. Wine sold in a magnum costs less per ounce, and because the corkage fee goes twice as far, you'll save on two counts.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Consider a Wedding Breakfast or Brunch

Breakfasts, brunches, and afternoon teas are usually more affordable than evening receptions: They're shorter, the fare is lighter, and guests tend to consume less liquor early in the day.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Comparison Shop Wedding Cakes

If your caterer's contract will permit it, hire an outside baker to provide the wedding cake. Even though you'll have to pay a cake-cutting charge, you will likely pay less overall if you shop around.

Even if you want a tall cake, have your baker make only the amount required to serve each guest one slice. Any additional tiers can be made of Styrofoam and iced to match the others.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Buy Local Ingredients

Have your caterer use local fruits and vegetables that are in season. Not only will these items be more economical, they'll taste fresher.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Avoid Pricey Main Courses

Use expensive ingredients, such as lobster, in hors d'oeuvres rather than in a main course.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Forgo Full Dinner Service

How dinner is served affects the price. French service, in which guests are served by waiters from a platter at the table, and regular plate service are the most expensive. More economical is family style, where diners help themselves from serving dishes brought to the table.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Make Cake the Dessert Course

Dispense with a separate dessert course, and just present the wedding cake as dessert, with coffee and tea to end the meal.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Punch-and-Cake Reception

A punch-and-cake reception held in the late morning or afternoon is the least expensive type of party. To make it special, serve several cakes of different designs and flavors, or make punch in colors that match your palette.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Two Wedding Cakes Can Be Cheaper than One

Order two cakes for the reception: a large sheet cake and a small fancy one to be used for display and the cake-cutting ceremony. The sheet cake, which can be less elaborately decorated than the other, gets sliced and dished up in the kitchen.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Top Off a Simple Wedding Cake

Order a moderately priced, plainly decorated cake, and make the focal point the cake topper. Vintage bride-and-groom figurines, wedding bells, horseshoes, a basket filled with fruit, or a pair of doves (from an antiques shop or handmade) are classic symbols that can make a cake memorable.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Champagne for Toasts Only

Instead of pouring Champagne all night long, serve just a single glass to each guest at the appropriate time to toast the bride and groom.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Select In-Season Flowers

While most popular bridal flowers are available year-round, some traditional ones -- peonies and lilies of the valley, for example -- can be difficult to find and expensive out of season. Seek your florist's advice before deciding on your flowers.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Economical Wedding Bouquet Embellishments

Mix berries, pinecones (for winter), and other economical non-floral embellishments among costlier blooms to fill out bouquets and displays.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Repurpose Your Wedding Flowers

Make floral arrangements do double duty: If there's an adequate number of ceremony flowers and they're an appropriate size, they can serve as centerpieces at the reception; otherwise they can decorate guest-book, seating-card, and favor tables. Place bridesmaids' bouquets on the cake table.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Streamline Centerpieces

Instead of decorating tables with large arrangements, float a few flowers in shallow bowls or glass cylinders filled halfway with water.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Arrange Fruit-Filled Centerpieces

Bowls or compotes filled with seasonal fruits from a farmer's market can take the place of expensive floral presentations.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Decorate Tables With Candles

A single pillar candle in a hurricane lantern is a wonderful centerpiece, as is a casual display of votive candles in the middle of a table.

Lacey Candle Centerpiece How-To

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Turn Favors into Centerpieces

As an alternative to traditional flower centerpieces, group favors together on the table. Even if you spend a bit more on the favors themselves, you'll probably save overall.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

More Flowers Can Cost Less

Don't overlook such floral standbys as daisies and carnations. They're available year-round, are quite affordable, and when arranged en masse make delightful centerpieces and bouquets.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Find Low-Cost Drama in Flowering Bulbs

Flowering bulbs -- amaryllis, narcissus, and hyacinth among them -- often cost less than regular flowers and are dramatic rising from a layer of stones set in clear containers.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Two-in-One Favor Place Cards

Use favors as seating or place cards to save a bit on stationery costs. For seating cards, write guests' names and table numbers on strips of paper, affix them to the favors, and set in order on a table near the entrance. For place cards, put favors with names attached at guests' places.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Use What You Already Have

Your florist won't have to supply vases for your centerpieces if you have a collection of containers, such as jelly jars or milk jugs. Filled with flowers, such vessels make pretty displays.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Put a Cap on Calligraphy

Have a calligrapher letter only the cover of the ceremony program; print the interior pages using favorite fonts on your own computer. Consider making up menus, seating cards, and place cards with your computer, as well.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Make Your Own Favors

Handmade favors and decorations are appealing and usually cost less than store-bought.

DIY Favor Ideas

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Celebrate Off Season

Vendors will be more likely to reduce fees if you choose a winter date rather than scheduling for summer, when rates are at their highest. This doesn't apply, however, during holidays.

Fridays and Sundays are generally less expensive than Saturdays for renting a venue.

Destination Wedding

For a destination wedding, book a date that is not as popular for travel in the region.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Downsize Your Bridal Party

Try to keep the number of attendants as small as possible: The larger the bridal party, the more you'll spend for gifts and flowers.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Set Guest List Boundaries

To minimize the guest list, refrain from inviting children and coworkers. Include your friends' significant others but not casual dates.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Negotiate Contracts

Before signing a contract with your caterer, photographer, or florist, try to negotiate a lower yet still reasonable price.

More Advice on Contracts

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Better to Borrow

Borrow accessories from family and friends instead of buying them; this can also provide your "something borrowed."

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Ask for Help

Ask talented friends or relatives to help with your wedding. An artistic friend, for instance, might design your stationery, or a baking enthusiast could make cupcakes or cookie favors.

See More Ideas from Crafty Friends

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

DJ vs. Wedding Band

For your reception, remember that a deejay can be less costly than a live band.

To avoid hiring two bands and paying two separate fees, ask if just a few pieces of the band can play during the ceremony and cocktail hour, as well as at the reception.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Party in Public Spaces

The nicest wedding sites -- parks, museums, public gardens -- may be the most affordable.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Skip Reply Cards

Eliminate reply cards and have guests handwrite a note instead. You'll save on stationery and postage, and the responses will be great keepsakes.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Know Your Priorities

Prioritize aspects of the wedding that are most important to you. By compromising in some areas, you can afford to splurge on others.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Lose the Limo

Use a personal car rather than a limousine to get to and from the reception.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Don't Pay Retail for Your Wedding Dress

Look for a dress at sample sales, trunk shows, and outlets; you can sign up for some designers' sample-sale listings online.

Consider wearing your mother's gown. The costs of cleaning and alterations will likely be far less than the cost of buying a new wedding dress.

See Our Listings of Sample Sales on Our Blog

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Fly on Credit

Pay wedding costs with a credit card to earn frequent-flyer miles toward your honeymoon. Just make sure to avoid incurring interest charges by paying the balance in full each month.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Consider a Cruise

Check cruise lines' websites for discounts or offers of free airfare during slow travel times.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Only the Most Important Moments on Video

Hire a videographer to work just from the ceremony through the first dance rather than for the entire wedding.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Initiate an Officiant

There are many unexpected costs that can inflate your budget; an officiant can be one of them. If that's the case for you, consider having your vows administered by a trusted relative or friend. Universal Life Church (ulchq.com) and Esoteric Interfaith Church (northern way.org) are two organizations that "ordain" laypeople so they can officiate weddings, which most of the 50 states will recognize. Laws in a few states, such as Virginia, are strict, requiring officiants to be active in their ministry. To be sure you're in the clear, check with the county clerk about the laws where you'll be wed.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Swap Cities

After moving her wedding from Brooklyn, New York (her current home), to a beach town in Michigan (her native state), bride-to-be Vicky Sherman watched catering quotes drop from $140 per head to $40 -- a savings of $15,000, based on her 150-person guest list.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Seek Free Fonts

Finding the perfect typeface that's also free is a bit like searching for the Holy Grail. Here's reason to rejoice: four decidedly un-tacky fonts that don't cost a hard-earned dime. Top row from left: Customize place cards, coasters, menus, or thank-you notes with simple Kontor serif or Lane sans serif, from dafont.com. Bottom row: Use the more stylized Monogram kk and Hoedown fonts from abstractfonts.com to stand in for a calligrapher or give a "Just Married" sign a retro Western kick.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Say Yes to All-Inclusive

"Choosing a venue that comes with extras built in, like a wedding coordinator or an on-site ceremony location, means significant savings," says Christina Latvatalo, wedding sales manager at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York. All those extras can add up to thousands you won't have to spend.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Create Your Own Dot-Com

Save on paper, printing, and postage by sharing your wedding details online. Many businesses charge only a small fee to use their webpage templates, and some charge nada. On weddingwire.com (one of our partners), for instance, users can pick a design, upload photos, and even add a song that will play whenever guests pay a visit -- all for free.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Focus on You

When it comes to your ceremony site, you don't need to deck the guest-book table and every pew with flowers. Get the most bloom for your buck by asking your florist to design two lush altarpieces, which will direct everyone's eyes exactly where you want them to be: on you and your groom.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Bouton-ette Your Bridesmaids

Turn your cost-saving tactics into a fashion statement. Instead of giving bridesmaids costly bouquets to carry, pin one beautiful blossom on each of your attendants.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Sign Up for Spam

Most wedding-dress designers allow you to sign up for news and updates. Even if you have a policy of sharing your e-mail address with only your nearest and dearest, this is one of the few times where it pays to offer up your deets. Get on their e-mail lists, and you'll be privy to time-sensitive insider info such as sample sales and trunk shows.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Sample-Size Your Makeup

If you're getting your wedding look done at a makeup counter, buy only the items you'll definitely use again (e.g., lipstick). Scoop up samples of anything you'll use only on the big day (e.g., face powder).

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Shorten Their Hours

"You can save on makeup by hiring the best person you can afford," says Rosemary Redlin, a New York-based makeup artist. "Then ask them to leave a touch-up kit behind." Many artists charge by the hour, and you'll rack up serious costs by having them stick around for your photo session, when all you will really need are touch-ups.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Use Bud Vases

Instead of centerpieces with oodles of blooms in them, consider using petite vases (ours are from Ikea and cost between $5 and $10). Fill them each with a few flower stems and spread them out. An added upshot: "Each person at the table will get a feel for the flowers, which isn't the case when you have one centerpiece," says Siu.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Give a Newbie a Break

There are many talented photographers who haven't made a name for themselves yet, and their lack of fame can save you a fortune. If you fall hard for a photographer who's in high demand, ask if she'll refer you to a lower-priced colleague (just make sure you like his work before you commit).

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Boycott Overpriced Bubbly

Technically, Champagne is sparkling wine that's from the Champagne region of France. But there are plenty of worldly competitors without the high price tag. Substitute with Cava, the Spanish take on Champagne, or Prosecco, from Italy, which is smoother, sweeter, and a better fit for a small budget. It's even true of French sparkling wine: "The least expensive bottle of Champagne we sell is $57," says Boutillier. "And Cremant, which is made the same way but isn't from Champagne, is $33."

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Pool the Presents

Instead of registering for stuff, ask guests to contribute to your honeymoon stash: At honeyfund.com, you can register for your trip, add vacation extras (from boat tours to spa treatments), then break the expenses down into gift-size increments. And if you're planning a honeymoon at a Sandals resort, all you have to do is register for it at weddingchannel.com.

65 Ways to Trim Your Wedding Budget

Show Off -- A Little

Can't do without a designer cake? Go ahead and order one -- but just for the two of you. You can put it on display and slice into it for the cake-cutting ritual; then serve a classic sheet cake for your guests to enjoy.