Budgeting

Having a restricted budget doesn't mean you shouldn't get married. In fact, most people are planning a wedding on a budget... it's just that some wedding budgets are larger than others. Now, if your wedding budget is a bit tight, don't despair. There are many ways to plan low budget weddings and still have it be the best day of your life.

Now, when you're planning a wedding on a budget, the number of guests you invite can be a critical factor in whether you're able to stay within your alloted budget. Inviting tons of people to the ceremony itself isn't usually a major budget concern. If you're paying for the location you'll have the ceremony in though, then of course you'll pay more for a place large enough to hold large numbers of people in the ceremony.

When it comes to the reception though, how many people you've invited to your wedding can make a huge difference to your budget. Most people plan to have food catered at their reception for instance, and if you're planning a wedding on a budget, you'll quickly learn there are huge cost differences between having 100 people or 1000 people at your wedding reception.

It's still possible to keep within your restricted wedding budget while having many people at the reception: You simply have a non-food wedding reception. When planning a wedding on a budget, if you simply must have hundreds of people there then you can drastically reduce your wedding expenses by providing entertainment and possibly snacks at your reception instead of a fully catered sit down meal.

Another alternative for food at the reception when you're planning a wedding on a budget is to do a family cook off. Gather together various family members who enjoy cooking, and ask them to create easy casseroles and various other foods for your wedding reception. You should budget for buying those food ingredients of course, and you can even ask them to give this to you instead of buying wedding gifts. They can then get together and create a pot luck style wedding dinner, and your wedding reception can be pulled off in a buffet style form instead of having people served by waiters and catering crew.

A great creative idea when planning a wedding on a budget is to simply have a picnic or barbecue style wedding reception. This can be done at a local park or in someone's back yard, and it will save the expense of renting a reception hall.

Music and entertainment are another way you can reduce costs when planning a wedding on a budget. Instead of hiring a live band for your reception for instance, consider creating your own special song mix to have playing on CDs during the reception.

You can reduce the cost of flowers when planning a wedding on a budget too. You don't have to forgo having wedding flowers completely, but consider ordering only half as many wedding flowers as you originally intended. Better still, order the flowers you want for the wedding bouquet, but choose less expensive flowers for the rest of the ceremony and reception. There are many flowers which compliment each other in shape, size and color - so choose those that compliment the bouquet if you want the wedding to have a specific color scheme for instance, or go with a variety of inexpensive flowers to create a more spontaneous effect. Either option will still look beautiful, all while helping you to stay within the alloted wedding budget you've set.