For our wedding we did not supply alcohol but did allow people to purchase their own booze. If you do something like that then a simple note on the invitation like "bar facilities available" would be fine.

Bridesmaids: Mine paid for their dresses but I let them have a lot of say in the style because of this. They did their own hair and make up but I gave them the choice of getting it done professionally at their own cost. I did buy them matching necklace and earrings but didn't spend very much on that.

Groomsmen: Explored the option of hiring suits and discovered that for what we wanted it would be more cost effective to buy them. Found suits for about $100 and the guys paid for their own. I think we did buy the ties though.

Flowers I did on the cheap because we had a simple outdoor wedding so all I got was flowers for me and my bridesmaids, the florist provided a "throw away" posie for free.

We were luck with our reception venue, we had a ****tail reception (I think it was about $17.50/head including soft drinks). We didn't have to pay for waiting staff, cake cutting, corkage etc because my sister had her reception in the same venue 3 months later so they were happy to give a discount! (lucky, they could have charged us heaps more than normal because our wedding was on a public holiday).

Photos we didn't pay for because we had a family member do them and I know how to edit photos so I did and am still doing that.

Cake was made by a friend of the family who is a professional cake maker so she only charged us the cost of the ingredients (total cost was $80 instead of $400!)

Cars - we had a bit of a disaster the day before our wedding, the car we had arranged to hire that DH really wanted, blew up. The company was good though and gave a partial refund and supplied a different car. We then asked my next door neighbour and family friend to be a driver and use his car (a brand new statesman) and he was really happy to do that. Our wedding was at 5pm so while I was getting ready I was watching out the window as the guy gave his car a detailed clean (started at 8am!) The car was absolutely sparkling inside and out!

My advice to you is find out what your friends and family are capable of doing and take advantage of their skills, ask them if they will do such and such instead of giving you a wedding present, it's a real money saver and it helps to make the wedding more special because you are involving people you know.