Have a journal or notebook to write it all down…There is a lot to remember when it comes to planning the big day, especially if you are on a budget and are doing a lot of the work yourself. Take down notes and ideas as they come up…a pretty location that might work for the reception, a great cake flavor, a source for flowers that comes highly recommended, slip in samples of wedding invitations and fabric for dresses, and of course a place to keep your budget handy.

Things to keep in mind:

Size of the wedding—keep the guest list small to contain costs, determine who absolutely must be invited. The guest list determines almost all of your other costs—the more guests the bigger the venue, more food and drink.

Size of the wedding party—keep down the number of bridesmaids, groomsmen and ushers. Even though they buy their own clothing, you are paying for rehearsal dinner, flowers and thank you gifts. A small casual wedding allows you to forego the flower girl and ring bearer, too.

Formality—the more formal, generally the more expensive, but if you scale it down even a formal wedding can be done on a budget.

Time of year—get married in the off- season, typically November – March, except for right at Christmas, but check in your area to be sure.

Day of the week—avoid Saturday weddings—you will save money and have more options

Time of day—this tends to dictate the type of food you serve which is a big cost and less alcohol is consumed at weddings held early in the day

Location—save money by having your wedding and reception in the same place. Beautiful weddings and/or receptions can be in your backyard or a local park

Photography—augment professional shots with candid shots by your friends and family

Music—hire student musicians, or a young DJ, or ask a couple friends to run the sound system that you rent with CDs that you love

Clothing—look at cocktail, party and prom dresses. Look for pre-owned gowns, hats or veils on eBay, Craig’s List or consignment shops. Borrow a gown or rent one that can be custom fit. Cleaning is expensive so be sure the gown is immaculate as well as fits. The groom can wear a nice suit with a new tie rather than renting a tux. Shop sample or “trunk” sales if you are a size 6-10. Don’t forget undergarments, hosiery and shoes.

Invitations—Save printing costs by using thermography or laser printing rather than engraved invitations, or make your own. Eliminate the inner envelope and blotter paper. Use a reply post card rather than card and envelope. Use a standard mailing size to save on postage.

Flowers—Choose flowers that are in season. If you absolutely want exotic flowers, go with simple and elegant rather than large bouquets. Remember bouquets for the bridesmaids, corsages for mothers and boutonnieres for the men including fathers. Can you make the arrangements yourself, or will you hire a florist? Rent or borrow large potted plants for decorations rather than displays of flowers.

Food—will you and your family be able to prepare and set up the food? Save money by having a buffet or by serving breakfast or brunch for morning weddings, hors d’oeuvres for an afternoon wedding or dessert after a night-time ceremony.

Alcohol—A dry wedding is the least expensive, or consider having a champagne toast only. If you are at a catered event have a cash bar or serve house brands or only beer and wine. If you are providing the alcohol buy in bulk at a local warehouse type store.

Beverages—be sure to include non-alcoholic drinks such as punch, sodas or coffee and tea

The cake— Make your own cake or arrange for a small fancy cake for display and the cutting ceremony with large sheet cake for the remainder. Pick out your own topper rather than buying one from the bakery.

Gifts for the wedding party—simple, thoughtful gifts are best.

Wedding Favors—Go without or make them—enlist the wedding party to make them ahead of time.

Decorations—Rent bows, swags, plants, chair covers, linens, etc from a rental supply company, check local thrift and discount stores for other inexpensive decorations. Add white LED lights for lots of sparkle.

Often overlooked expenses—fees for the ceremony (the minister or justice of the peace), the marriage license; transportation to the wedding and the reception for the wedding party, parking attendants; tips; Jewelry for the bride and cuff links for the groom, hair, makeup and manicures (pedicures if toeless shoes); guest book and pen (drop the monogram and save money)

You walk into the shop of your chosen vendor and announce “Hello! I’d like to get ________ for my wedding.”

Only one thing will happen. The vendor’s eyes will light up. You can practically see the dollar signs flashing in them. They will start falling all over themselves to lavish attention on you and make you feel special.

You’ve said the one word that all frugal brides should avoid when they first approach their vendors. The “W” word. Wedding.

Why should the word wedding be such a dirty word? Weddings mean Big Bucks to vendors. The average wedding these days costs well over $20,000, and many couples are happy to go into debt to create the wedding of their dreams.

Vendors know how important a wedding is. After all, this is supposed to be “the best day of your life” right? They also know that you’re likely to have a very specific idea in your head of what you want and you’re willing to spend just about anything to get it. And they charge accordingly.

In fact, some brides have reported that when they ask for the vendor’s service without the word “wedding”, they are quoted a price that’s at least $1000 less.

If you want to save money on your wedding and keep costs at a reasonable level, you need to drop the word “wedding” from your vocabulary. This is the biggest wedding money saving secret of them all. When you call to speak to a vendor, you should say that you are planning for a “family gathering” or otherwise conveniently leave out the part about this being a wedding.

You may feel a little uncomfortable doing this. I know. It feels like you’re lying. But this is a war and you need to fight to come out on top. If you say the word “wedding”, the vendor has already won.

Rest assured, you don’t have to keep the secret forever. After you’ve gotten the vendor to agree to a price, and sign a contract, you can let the cat out of the bag and mention that it’s a wedding. They may fight about this, but know that you are right and stand your ground. They’ve agreed to a certain price for a certain service and they should stick to that price.

Weddings can be incredibly expensive, but with a bit of ingenuity (and a slight omission of details), you really can have the wedding of your dreams and a price that you can afford.

You will be bombarded by questions from everyone and if you’re not careful the joy of being engaged and the imminent wedding will all seem far away. You really do need to take things one step at a time and remember don’t panic! You need to prioritise each thing you need to do and try and do one thing at a time and remember to take your time – hasty decisions can make you very unhappy in the long run.

Buy some magazines

Magazines are fantastic, they provide you with a valuable ideas, tips and general information. Especially important when looking for a dress, venue or decoration ideas. Try and read as many different types of magazines as possible, it will be worth it. And don’t forget to check out the books etc at www.mynetwedding.com.

Setting a Date

This works pretty much hand in hand with choosing a venue. Try not to think about a specific date before you have checked availability there as you may find that you’re disappointed. Check the date with family, bridesmaids, best man and ushers but don’t be tempted to try and check the dates with anyone else, you won’t be able to find a date that everyone can make, so don’t try! Once you have confirmed the date, you should put together a simple to do list, which prioritises each task and will help you manage the whole process. Remember to do one thing at a time, or you will be freaked out by the sheer volume of work that needs to be done.

Choosing a venue

First thing to decide is where you want to get married i.e. in your home town or abroad. Once you have decided on the country/area, you will need to decide if you would like to a church or civil ceremony. When both of these questions have been agreed, you should then draw up a short list of places you would like to hold your ceremony and then your reception, if they are not being held at the same place. We found it useful to write a list the things that were most important to us in a venue for the reception i.e. is it child friendly, does it have a dance floor, how many can they cater for, is the menu what we would like and of a good enough standard?

It’s a lot to take on board but woith some careful planning – and we can help here – you can have a dream wedding on a sensible budget. More soon.

This idea of this site (and it’s sister e-book at www.mynetwedding.com) was conceived after we realised the huge amount of invaluable knowledge we had acquired while planning and arranging our own wedding and helping and assisting many of our friends and relatives over the years.

As confirmed analytical types, we left no stone unturned in our search for perfection – we wanted the best quality at the lowest prices and we wanted it all done as quickly as possible.

We know that we can add value to your wedding experience – we’re sure we can save you money with our tips and recommended resources and make your budget go much further than it would otherwise. And we can save you a lot of hassle too.

We think you can easily save $00’s (and probably thousands of $) by applying a few of our tips and tricks; and you can save countless hours of searching for information too.

We look forward to helping you!