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With 5 daughters I knew someday I would be an expert on frugal wedding planning. We got our first run a few months ago when our oldest got married right before Christmas. I wanted her day to be everything she dreamed of, but that didn’t mean the budget was unlimited.
We gave her a $6,000 budget (very large honestly and we really ended almost $2k under budget). At first the word budget to her meant that we didn’t want things to be special, but eventually we got on the same page and she saw that we were taking her dreams and making them happen in a way that was affordable.
I guess I should also mention that this was a wedding that had over 350 invited guests. That wasn’t the mother’s idea. They started inviting people before we even talked about money and budgets, so it made for some hard conversations. I highly recommend talking about budgets and expectations on all sides as soon as possible. I also wish we had sat down with the groom’s family and all had a chat about who was willing to pay for what as there were hard moments that more communication up front could have avoided.
My brain is still processing everything, but I thought I would share some of the key ways that we stayed under budget while still making it a gorgeous special day.
Utilize Spaces You Have Access To
The largest portion of most wedding budgets go to event space rental and food service. Going with a church wedding and a reception in the fellowship hall meant that we paid $0 on this category!
Whether you are a member of a church, have access to a rec space, or a friend of friend… you probably have some options that are very affordable.
Note: While we did pay nothing, we tried to also help the church out before the wedding and spent quite a bit of time cleaning carpets, and other small projects that needed to be done.
Bought the Dress 2nd Hand But Still New
We did the classic dress hunting with a goal to not spend more than $500. It didn’t take long to realize that in the wedding industry that is almost nothing. I guess if people will pay it…
I had Kate try on all the dresses, figured out what looked best on her, and found ones she loved. We took pictures of her favorite styles and then left. With the pictures of what she loved I used Google Lens to search for similar dresses and ended up stumbling on many used wedding dress sites, like the eBay of wedding dresses. We found her dream dress for $199, regularly $2000, on Still White. It had never been worn with tags still on it! The previous owner bought it and then changed her mind and bought another dress (my mind can’t even imagine).
A few places for 2nd hand used/new wedding dresses:
- Still White
- PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com
- Poshmark
- Goodwill locations
Extra Note: She is wearing my veil that my mother-in-law changed up a little bit. I didn’t expect this but it was very sweet and meant a lot to both of us.
Costco Fresh Greenery Is Amazing
When you start pricing out flowers you’ll quickly realize how expensive the greenery is! We tried our hand at making our own garlands a few months before the wedding and while we could do it, it took almost $50 in greenery to make a 4 foot section and took over an hour to build it. I needed 50 feet of garland…
Searching for bulk flower options I stumbled upon Costco Fresh Wedding Garland. It was GORGEOUS! Sold in 25 feet sections for $114 this was a crazy good price and a no-brainer on time. I had never seen it in person before so this was my one leap of faith in planning, but it turned out to be an amazing choice.
You’ll select the delivery date when you order online, we had it arrive on Wednesday for a Friday wedding. Keep it in the box the first day in a dark room. Open the box, spray it with water to keep it moist and then close the box until you are ready for it. We hung it the afternoon before the wedding and added the flowers to it the morning of the wedding.
We DIYed Flowers
The bride has plans to be a botanist, so this was her big category. We spent $1000 on flowers. She wanted ALL the flowers. The only way I could make that happen was for us to do them ourselves. First, I have to say I married up and my husband can literally do anything after watching one Youtube video.
If you aren’t sure about this category then start asking around. We had a sweet family friend that had helped with wedding flowers in the past. She helped put together exactly what flowers we needed and even helped me place the order using another friend’s wholesale flower account. (This is a classic “it never hurts to ask” moment). If you don’t have access to wholesale there are still lots of bulk flower options like Costco, Sam’s, and Farmgirl flowers. Also local grocery stores will happily place an order for you with their order. You will still pay the regular store prices for items, but they will be very fresh and you’ll get enough of what you want.
Make a plan upfront of what you need. How many bouquets, boutonnieres, plans for mothers and grandmothers, plus decorations. Our big plan was to add flowers to the Costco Garlands and bouquets. We really ended up with too many flowers, so we left them out in a hallway for guests to make their own bouquets during the reception. While that made it very fun, this is one area that I will reduce significantly on the next wedding.
(I also have an amazing mother-in-law that can do all things)
One last note on this category… I have heard so many people say they wouldn’t have time to do flowers themselves. We did all the bouquets and bouts the day before and kept them in a cool dark closet. The morning of, we had all the bridesmaids chip in and add flowers to the garland. Each took one type of flower and worked on placing them throughout the 50 feet so everything looked even. My husband kept doing arrangements and things the morning of, but I think it helped him stay busy and he did it by choice.
We did price this out with florists and for what we ordered and the size of the wedding party it would have been around $7000+. I’m very happy with our savings here even though it was a splurge category.
Bought Live Plants for Extra Decor
I’m probably not the only mama that worries that we still won’t have enough. We seriously had too much, but before the flower wholesale order arrived I just didn’t know. I grabbed some potted Lenten Roses from Trader Joes to add to the reception just in case (total cost $80). We didn’t need these, but honestly in the end it is the one thing I would do again and probably get more of (and less cut flowers).
Having live plants after the wedding is the only thing you get to keep and it feels like so much less of waste. All the bouquets can be dried, yes, but in the end you just throw away so much. We did hear about folks donating flowers to nursing homes, but honestly after the wedding we were beat.
We pulled the flowers out of the garland and the church got to enjoy the greenery for the last few weeks of Christmas services. It dried out within the week, but still looked great (just don’t bump it).
Borrow or Buy Used Candles & Decorations
I can’t take credit for this one, the mother of the groom was on it here! It was such a great idea though and saved us both money. There are so many post wedding sales on Facebook Marketplace and eBay, start searching and the algorithms will just keep showing you more!
There is no need to pay full price for candle sticks, lanterns, vases or any other classic decor. She grabbed an assortment of pink and gold candle sticks, various platters and stands and many other little things. This was decor for the rehearsal dinner that we also used some of for the reception. In the end she re-sold most everything!
It’s All About the Timing
If you are trying to stay on budget, food can be the most painful category. So much about what you serve is based on what time you set the wedding for. My ideal would have been 2-3 pm as everyone only expects light food. The groom felt strongly for right at lunch. We compromised at 1:30 pm.
Another big cost for food is how long you make the guests wait before the wedding party comes in. The longer they wait, the more they eat. We all eat when we are bored. So those pictures after the wedding, they have an added cost you need to consider. I tried hard to get a compromise here but this was a deal breaker for the groom, so we just bought more food. Learn from us on this one, you are talking quite a bit more food.
We also pulled the classic money saver for weddings and went with a Friday wedding. This made rental items a tiny bit cheaper and would also be a big money saver if you are paying for event rental space. Generally I wouldn’t recommend a Friday afternoon wedding, which is what they did, but had we been paying for rental space it would have been super cheap.
Heavy Charcuterie & Fruit
For afternoon weddings you can get away with heavy charcuterie and make everyone feel like they are at a lavish banquet for basically $4-$5 per person. I made a trip to Costco and Sam’s to get what each had to offer in meats, cheeses, dips, and crackers. They each sell different varieties so hitting both stores helped have more options.
In general this was a big part of our spread:
- Various sliced cheeses and meats
- Pecans & Almonds
- Dried Cranberries
- Dried Mango
- Various hummus and chocolate spread
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Cut up Peppers, Carrot & Celery Sticks
- Hershey’s Chocolate Bars broken into squares
- Various crackers: Ritz, Club, etc.
Most of this I purchased a week before the wedding, no need to worry about it the week of. The day before I tasked the bride’s twin sister with buying all the fruit and veggies and gave the job of slicing and cutting to a grandmother that wanted to help.
The day of the wedding we had a family friend that ran the kitchen and kept the table filled. She turned out to be an expert even teaching my younger girls how to make pepperoni flowers to decorate the table with!!
Total spent on food and drinks: $750 + $200 I gave our friend. She didn’t ask for money or want to take it, but she was worth 10 times that!
Limit Drink Choices for Ease & Cost
Another thing an afternoon wedding allows for is no bar. I get that for some this is part of the fun, but for me I only saw dollar signs. Instead of serving alcohol we went even tighter with options and served water, sweet tea (we live in South Carolina guys), hot cocoa and tea. The hot options we added in case it was crazy cold that day. Serving hot water for tea and cocoa is super cheap, so let the guests feel like you splurged.
Only serving basically 3 containers made keeping this filled much easier too!
Cupcakes vs Cake
This is one category that I’m going to leave up to you. We thought cupcakes would be cheaper, but in the end going cupcakes or wedding cake you can get great prices if you know where to look. I’m all for supporting the local baker, but on a budget your go-to needs to be Sam’s Club or the grocery bakery.
Talking with the Publix catering department I learned that when cupcakes are on sale you can order and pay for your wedding cupcake order and get the sale price. After learning that I started stalking the sale prices in the bakery. Around the end of October they ran 12 count cupcakes for $8.99 that included all buttercream varieties. That was our deal! We ordered and paid for all the cupcakes then with a pickup date almost 3 months later.
An Aunt made a small cake for the cake cutting and she used some of the extra flowers to decorate the top.
Because we bought cupcakes before people finished RSVPing we had to guess and really over bought. We were giving away cupcakes for days!
Total cost: $179.80
Some Live Music & A Playlist
This category was the bride’s completely. Her roommates and a few friends had formed a bluegrass group and she asked if they would play some songs. Most of them were in the wedding party so they were already planning to attend anyway. They planned to play for about an hour broken into two thirty minute segments and in between the bride and groom had a Spotify playlist ready to go. Paying for a month of Spotify so you get a playlist without ads is significantly cheaper than a DJ!
Buy Linens Don’t Rent Them
I learned this lesson years ago when we used to run a women’s conference. Most rental companies have you pay $20-$30 per table cloth. I rented some standup cocktail tables and then used some longer 6 ft tables the church already had. Rather than rent table cloths, we bought them off Amazon. Here’s what we bought:
White Floor Length for 6ft Tables, 6 pack – $44.99 ($7.49 each)
$20 each from the rental company
Green Floor Length for 8 foot Tables, 6 pack – $71.99 ($11.99 each)
$30 each from the rental company
Round Cocktail Tablecloths, 10 pack – $91.99 ($9.19 each)
$20 each from the rental company
We could have easily sold these after the wedding, they held up great and washed completely clean. I decided to donate them to the church though so they can use them for lunches and other events.
Shop Big Online Sales
Most weddings don’t sneak up on you. If anything, brides are planning them longer and longer now. Odds are you will have at least one large sale event to work with. We had Prime Day in July and Black Friday deals to work with and I tried to do most of my online shopping those weeks. Things to plan for:
- Linens
- Paper plates, cups, cutlery, napkins
- Serving tongs and spoons
- Fairy lights or other decor
- Ribbon for Bouquets, and Bows (Michael’s has the best options online and with BOGO Black Friday sales we did great)
- Tea & Hot Cocoa
- Charcuterie Boards, various bowls and platers – shopped deals at Sam’s and Kohl’s Black Friday for most of them
- You’ll also need wire cutters, wire, floral tape, and corsage pins if you are doing your own flowers
I probably would have asked friends to borrow the boards, and other serving dishes but decided with the deals we found and 4 more daughters that I would buy them.
I also bought two large storage bins before the wedding so I was ready to stow everything away for the next one.
