Congratulations! You are now engaged to your best friend! You have told your friends and family, the initial excitement is starting to die down and then you realize, wait… you suddenly realize that you have no idea how to plan a wedding! The last party you hosted was at a sorority on your college campus. Where do you even begin? Aren’t weddings expensive? Who do I invite? I decided to do some research on what brides wish they knew before planning a wedding including my wife and I.

Let’s look at 6 different ideas that can help you plan and save money for you big day.

1. Find and book your vendors as soon as possible

   The wedding industry is making a big comeback this year and next year. People who have delayed their weddings due to covid are itching to get married finally. So if you have been eying a photographer, venue or whatever, go ahead and book them while you have a chance.

2. Use apps

   The days of having no choice but to send out paper invites or trying to come up with your own to do lists when it comes to wedding planning are over. Wedding sites like weddingwire.com and evite.com gives you the check lists, invitations both paper and electronic, registry, vendors etc. The point is, is that there are websites that allow you to do all of your wedding planning all in one place.

3. Consider Eloping

   Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing wrong with eloping. This is a great option whether you have a lot of money or a little bit of money, eloping is a great choice for a multiple reasons. For one, it allows you to save money. You can use that money for a better honeymoon, or even a honey moon at all, for rent, for food etc.

   Eloping also allows you to having a more intimate event. Not having to invite so many people allows you to keep your big day much smaller and lets you just hang out with only the people that mean the most to you.

4. Don’t try on that expensive dress

   When it comes to something as extravagant as a wedding, there is a lot of glitter and shiny things that can grab your attention. It can be easy to be swept away in all the beautiful things that one can purchase, therefore, if you are looking at a dress to purchase, only try on ones that you can afford. Do not make your final decision at the store! Get the model numbers so you can look at them when you get home. My wife and I call this the 24 hour rule.If at any point you try on one that is well out of your price range, you will not want to go back to the ones you can afford because of the difference in quality. Vendors are no different than say a car dealership. Being reasonable and staying within your budget will keep you happier and will help keep your eye on the goal which is to get your wedding planned as quickly and efficiently as possible.

5. Find alternative places for the accessories

   Any time you can save money when planning your wedding, is a major win. Look for discount places to purchase your wedding accessories such as flowers, place settings, table cloths. Listen, you are purchasing things for one, single party. There are a lot of places that will ask for a ton of money for the simplest things, when you can go to your local stores and get the same things or even better for a lot less money. Here are some examples. For table placements, you can purchase entire plate sets, center pieces, cups at places like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby or even Marshall’s.

   If you don’t feel like getting off your couch, try out joining Facebook bride to bride groups. You can often buy lightly used items for a quarter of the price new. When looking for flowers, consider going for fake ones. Maybe you go for a real bouquet but make the center pieces fake. If you are a die hard real flower person, when doing hings like center pieces, try going to your local grocery store like Kroger or Meijer where they usually have very fresh flowers for very reasonable prices and arrange them how you like.

6. Listen to what you want

   There are going to be a lot of people giving you advice. Everyone has an opinion, and wants to give advice to help you make your wedding perfect. Make sure to listen to yourself, and not try to please everyone else. Not everyone has the same taste as you, so make sure to prioritize yourself. Anyone giving you advice simply wants you to be happy. They won’t care that you didn’t buy the thing that they suggested.