how do you save money and be creative in planning your wedding?

When my son got married, I made all the floral tiaras for the bridesmaids and hoops with flowers woven in. I used artificial flowers but depending on when the wedding is and what garden flowers are available, they could be done with fresh flowers from the garden, keeping the cost down even more, or even small posies of flowers could be made with a doily and dangling ribbons. Invitations can always be made using the computer and whatever paper they choose to print it on. Parchment is quite nice too, with perhaps a gold border. Also, for my son's wedding, I wrote and printed off all the order of service and made the bridal favours. I made all the table centres from flowers and did all the catering for the evening. Hard work, I'll admit but I wasn't short of help from my sisters and others. I made special food for the evening and it went down very well. During the day, we had caterers and a sit-down meal, but even that could be done personally... it's not difficult to do cold meats and salads, and pretty them up. Brightest Blessings my friend.

Hi Sandra...Im getting used to writing to myself!! I guess it all depends on how important certain aspects of the wedding are to the individual person.. Heres what I have always thought. I purchased my invitations at the dollar store. No fancy printing expenses for me. Its just an invitation, its the ceremony thats important and what you do with your life afterwards. Many will just get thrown away eventually anyways and why spend a fortune for something that will be tucked away probably out of site, unless they plan on framing invitations and putting them on the wall, which I highly doubt. So having purchased them for a dollar, I then purchased a pack of embellishments from the same dollar store and dressed them up a bit. Theres lots of need stuff there and you can make them your own. I didnt pay any church fees as I got married outside, near the water, which is my favourite place to be. As soon as you step inside the church door, up goes the fees. But then again, some people wouldnt want to do that. Also, instead of renting a hall and paying a few hundred for that, I used the party room in a local restaurant. It was free to use since I was ordering from their menu, buffet style. THey also let us rearrange the tables afterwards to allow ample room for dancing. Also, there was no way I was paying over $100 for a cake! I made my own. What I did was a fall theme. I made a tier out of cupcakes so there was no messy cake to cut. Each person helped themselves to a cupcake. I bought the plastic ladder and figurines of bride and groom, again from the dollar store, to look like they were climbing the cake. I arrange plastic fall coloured leaves,,(from guess where???)...around the base. It was beautiful. As little souvenirs, since the wedding and dinner were at a chinese restaurant, I bought chopsticks enough for everyone, in bulk on ebay. In fact I bought my wedding dress there also for $125..it was gorgious!..I dont beleive in spending a ton of money for something that lasts for 10 minutes, and in years to come, you will look back at the wedding photos and laugh at how outdated your dress is!!!

Hey sandra! I'm sure that there are ways the nowadays you can save on a wedding if you are good with crafts and have the ingenuity! And I'm sure there a lots of good wedding planning sites on the Net that will give you some great tips as to how to save and plan accordingly! The bride could have her family and wedding party help with different parts of the planning. A friend of mine who is very crafty was making some beautiful wedding favors for her friends wedding! They were amazing! So all you need is some talent and you really can save a bundle! If someone is really good with flowers they could possibly make the center pieces for the tables and things like that!