7 Tips on How to save money on your wedding!

My own wedding was probably one of the smallest weddings ever (with only 2 guests!). I was never really into having a giant wedding and throw out all that money in only one single night. Why not take the money for a down payment for your new home instead?

Now, unless your name is Kim Kardashian or you do not have to worry about money at all, here are my tips to plan a cost effective, yet still beautiful wedding!

1. Location:

You can throw out thousands for a fancy country club or other locations- but the beach is free! Of course: if you hire a company to prepare everything for you, you might still spend thousands, even on the beach. But honestly: it is not at all that hard to do a simple set up yourself as well! I bet you have awesome family members or friends who would love to help you with this!

Get some chairs, get some flowers and decorations (see the photo above- super simple yet very lovely)! Remember: the beach is free!

If you are not lucky enough to have a beach around: a pretty park, maybe at a lake will be perfect too!

I think it is simply ridiculous what companies charge for a simple set up! (I´ve watched one time a wedding on a beach and the couple barely got married when the company already started to take away the whole set up- I thought that was very rude of them!)

2. Food:

Why not have a Picnic with a simple Buffet set up? Why pay so much money in a fancy restaurant (and some guests will still complain!). Check Pinterest for some inspirations! Even if you hire a Caterer- it will be cheaper then a 3 course meal in a fancy restaurant

3. The Cake:

Bake some cupcakes and decorate them nicely! You will find awesome ideas on Pinterest as well! Super easy and will save you lot´s of money! ;-)

4. The Dress:

Of course, you need a dress! But why pay thousands or hundreds of dollar, when you can get super cheap evening dresses? The online world makes it easy to choose from thousands of different dresses- all styles, colors, lenghts, sizes available. No need for fancy overpriced little boutiques!

Honestly: you will wear that dress only once (even if you think you might dye it a different color and wear it on a different occasion: I don´t think this ever happened!).

Check these wonderful cheap long evening dresses. All dresses in this post cost under $200 and look amazing! Makes me want to marry all over again! ;-)

5. Hair & Makeup

found on prettydesigns.com

Endless are the options you will find on the Internet. YouTube tutorials, Pinterest- the information is all out there!

Amber Fillerup has the best hair tutorials and I recommend highly Teni Panosian for Make up tutorials! With a little practice, I am sure you can master this by yourself or maybe with the help of a friend.

But if you must have a fancy updo and you don´t trust yourself: go to Supercuts! Go one time ahead to "practice", if they get what you want.

6. Nails:

Well, I always do my own nails (read why here and how here) and here are some wedding nail inspirations s for you. All simple enough to do yourself at the convenience of your home! Just add some flower stickers, or some glitter! Easy peasy!

7. Professional Photos:

I made this photo on a friend´s wedding

I made this photo and thought it turned out pretty good! ;-)

OK, we all want some beautiful photos of our wedding. In times of digital photography chances are high that one of your friends has an awesome camera- you might have noticed those picture perfect photos a friend always posts on Facebook of her kids?

If you think, he/she has enough talent to make photos of your own wedding day,  maybe you can ask her, to do the photos on your wedding. I did some wedding photos myself of a friends wedding recently (see photos above) and thought they turned out better then the photos of the photographer  she hired (who charged thousands!).

And remember: what really counts is: why do you marry and not how! ;-)

Disclaimer: Thank you cheap-dress for sponsoring this post.  Read my full disclosure.