Planning a Wedding on a Budget

It’s wedding season! Some of you may be planning weddings yourself or have friends that are planning weddings. Did you know that you don’t have to break the bank to plan a wedding? With some planning and doing some work yourself, you can have a nice wedding on a budget.

My husband and I had an evening wedding with approximately 150 guests on a very tight budget. For the next few weeks I would like to share a few tips on how to plan a frugal wedding. Now if you are not planning a wedding, I hope that you can implement some of the tips in the next large party you host!


If you have family and friends that are willing to help, don’t be afraid to put them to work! I am lucky to have a very supportive and talented family. My mom and I made a list of people who offered to help. We noted their talents and strengths. My aunt and cousin have wonderful voices so I asked them to sing. The bridesmaid dresses and table decorations were made by my wonderfully talented mom. The party favors were put together by me and my husband. Our engagement pictures were taken by my grandpa. And the food was made by all of us!

From the beginning I knew that we could not afford a catered event. But, I did want a dinner. We ended up having a cookout (or barbecue as we call it in California!) style meal that was made by family and friends. My great uncle grilled beef and chicken. The other menu items were homemade chili beans, green salad, garlic bread and potato salad. My dad arranged a deal on the meat with the butcher at the grocery store. The bread was purchased from a local bread company at a discount. The rest of the items were purchased in bulk at Costco. It took some organization to feed 150 people, but it worked and the food was great!

We did have wine and beer at the reception. At the time, Trader Joes had a good inexpensive Two Buck Chuck Wine. Whenever it was in stock, I would go buy a case. Around New Year’s Eve, I stocked up on the champagne by watching the sales. It was much easier on the budget to buy a little at a time. Plus, it was much more affordable for us to purchase the alcohol versus a catering service.

Ask your friends and family members if they are willing to help out at your wedding or event. Figure out what you can do yourself that will be more cost effective. Although it was a lot of work, I enjoyed doing a lot of the wedding planning. It was sure rewarding when almost everything worked as planned!

Next week, I will tell you how to make inexpensive favors and decorations! Have you planned a frugal wedding? I would love to read your ideas!

Now it’s your turn!

If you are a blogger, write a post about your idea for making dollars out of change. It can be on any topic as long as it has to do with saving money. Please link directly to your post and not your homepage. A link to Madame Deals in you post is appreciated!

If you do not have a blog, we still welcome and encourage your participation! Please leave your thoughts in the in a comment below!

This post is linked at My Coupon Teacher.