My Quick And Easy List Of Ten Cheap Wedding Ideas

There are a ton of wedding planning ideas out there on the internet.  In this article you'll find ten more as I brainstorm them off the to of my head.  If you can use one, fantastic! If you can use all ten, that will potentially save you thousands of dollars.  If you find you can't use any, well, I hope it helps you brainstorm other helpful ideas.  And off we go!

When you are planning for a wedding on a budget, much of the time is spent googling around for money saving ideas and inexpensive wedding ideas.

There are a ton of cheap wedding ideas out there on the internet.  Below are ten more for you.  I'll be writing these off the to of my head.  This should be fun and I can't to see how it turns out!

My list of ten cheap wedding reception ideas:

1. First and foremost and most important: avoid buying things labeled as "wedding". As an example "wedding private dance lessons" could be $200 per hour. But go to a ballroom studio for "ballroom private lessons" and you may only pay $80 to $100. That's a 50% discount. If you are able to apply that to EVERYTHING then your wedding budget just got cut in half.
2. Shop for flowers in season. Avoid costly flowers not in season
3. Keep it simple. cakes, wedding dresses, wedding favors.
4. sSmplify your menu. Eliminating a course or a choice can trim a bit. People will remember more how good the food tastes then what was actually served. Quality over quantity. So you may not want the steak or shrimp over chicken. (GO TO FOOD TASTINGS!)
5. Looking for live music? Engage the local college musicians for music.  Some colleges have swing bands or jazz bands.  And perhaps a harpist or orchestra quartet for the ceremony. 
   
6. Google "wholesale". wholesale flowers, wholesale wedding favors, wholesale florists to go for cheap wedding flowers. Easy tip I know, but sometimes people forget.
   
7. Book a year or more in advance. You can nail down this year's prices for next year's wedding
8. Buy online, especially at ebay
9. Buy last season's dress (April-May or October-November) which should be a cheap wedding dress compared to this year's models
10. Booking off-season
11. Booking off-day (not Saturday)
12. Booking off-time (not evening). Some of my friends hold Saturday brunch weddings. With the right elegant setting it can be quite fabulous!
13. For your photographer, get the negatives or cd of original images, no need to purchase prints or photo books. If you're going to cut costs on your photographer, better to pay for high quality originals with no photos then lower quality originals and lots of prints.
14. Buy a non-wedding cake that is three layers instead of a "wedding" cake
15. Donate and write off (flowers, dresses, musicians who are non-profit, churches that are non-profit, venues that are non-profit)

Wow, that was a whopping fifteen.  Brainstorming definitely helps and as you read through those I hope you got your own brainstorms.

The final idea, because I think it is just darn awesome, is from Erica Yoon's wedding planning book Amazing Wedding Planning. And it has to do with the honeymoon:

"If you want a fun, exciting and cheap honeymoon, go to Las Vegas, Nevada. If you've heard about all the cheap gourmet food and services, I can tell you that it's true. I happen to live just outside of Las Vegas, and it has so many gourmet foods and services that I love to jump in the car and hit the buffets for dinner."

Think about it:) Because saving money on your honeymoon means freeing up some budget for the rest of your cheap (or not so cheap) wedding reception ideas.

Congratulations and good luck with your wedding reception planning!

Article Tags: Cheap Wedding Ideas, Cheap Wedding, Wedding Ideas, Wedding Reception

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR