Have your wedding on a day other than a Saturday. Saturday is peak wedding day so having it on a Sunday or during the week can be cheaper. Also, use family and friends skills to your advantage. If you have a family member or friend who can take exceptionally good photos get them to do the photos, if someone is good at cake making take advantage of that etc. They will feel special because they are involved in your special day and you can save thousands!
Have a ****tail reception rather than a sit down, depending on how formal you want things. This is a good casual thing and great way to allow people to mingle. It's also heaps cheaper.
Make your own invitations, wedding programs etc or have a crafty family member or friend do it for you.
Most importantly, know what you want and set a budget. Try to haggle with the price of somethings if you can. Unfortunately weddings are big business and as soon as you put the word wedding in the sentence the price seems to skyrocket!
Ours came in at $4000 and that included everything and I mean everything !! We got some great bargains along the way though, like candle holders that were supposed to be $7 each went through the checkout for $1 each. My dress was the most expensive at $700. We only had 1 bridesmaid and best man, and they were happy to hire their own stuff.
Car wise, my step-dad's boss owned a burgundy Jaguar. Our colour was burgundy. So he let my step-dad borrow it for the weekend. My step-sister who owned a Harley Davidson, gave me a Harley escort to the park we were married in.
We hired a hall for $200 and when we got our deposit back, they gave us $150 lol. We know people in the hiring business and they supplied tables and chairs for next to nothing. We brought all our flowers (burgundy in colour) from places like go-lo and my MIL made up all the bonboniers (Sp) and made a huge bridal table display from the flowers we brought. I had my bouquet, and my bridesmaids professionally made.
A friend made our wedding cake. Another friend took all our photos and video. The hall we hired had a kitchen area with a bar into the actual hall, so we had teenage daughters of friends at the wedding serving drinks. Food wise we got in Aussie Spit Roast catering and everyone was fed for $12 a head. We organised people to set up the hall (the teenage girls again) and alot of people pitched in after we left to help my parents clean up.
Still 8 years later we often get comments from people to say it was one of the best weddings they had ever been too. 1 woman even saying it was better than her own daughters, claiming her daughters was so OTT!!
Planning a wedding yourself not only saves money but, gives that personal touch that provides lasting family memories. Personal touches like creating your own wedding favors and planning your own reception can be particularly satisfying.
We’re all for used dresses. But keep in mind, it’s best to look locally as used dresses have been altered, and are no longer true to their label size. If you check out local classifieds, you can meet the seller, try on the dress, inspect it for damages or stains and then negotiate a deal.
The other options are to look for new dresses in classifieds or to buy a new dress and sell it afterwards to recoup about 50% of your cost. Often there are people who wind up with two dresses after a change in location, or just being indecisive and have to sell one.
It looks like you probably have enough good Ideas, but here are some that helped us cut costs:
We wanted the wedding at a church, so we joined the church, and got it for 200. Our celebrant was part of my old church and he was free, he just made us do a bit of couciling first so he knew it was right for us to get married. Got to know him a bit more so it was more comfortable on the day.
Bought my dress on sale for $100, was exactly what I wanted too. (think I was lucky with that one)
Hunt around for reception places, and choose the cheapest. Most of them do a great job. Ours was a spit roast dinner $60 a head, at a winery with an EXCCELENT veiw.
Make your own invites, bombeneires We did lollipops with a little measage on them, and for the girls, little lavender plants.
Get a friend to videotape and photograph, or get a local (they are usually cheaper)
Good Luck! It can be frustrating, But I did it all by myself.. and I have vowed to NEVER do it again!!
We ended up doing the whole thing, simple and srtess free, for under $8000 There are a lot of discounts to be had for getting married in winter (and lots of freebies when you're IL's own a bridal shop and you finally get over your stubborness and let them help you out )
Winter wedding much cheaper ... My sister got married in a church but the reception was cheap ... my sister had her Wedding 3rd week of August and the reception was at a local hall she hired & in the morn she decorated the hall herself with fresh flowers & her partner printed up a paper scroll with a ribbon around it placed on each guests sitting with what the menu consisted of.
They hired a company that does a buffet that was a set price per head who came to the hall.
Two friends volunteered to wear a bow tie & shirt & served drinks from a little table in the corner of the hall (done up nice).
My Mum made the cake & my younger sister decorated it ... my Dad worked at a printing company so invites were done free from him.
Our Uncle drove his nice car as the Wedding car in which he tied the Wedding ribbon to the front.
My sister bought her Winter outfit in Summer on special.
The bridesmaids bought their own outfit but were asked to NOT give a Wedding gift instead.
Wedding bands were bought in a secondhand vintage shop.
A friend was the photographer and another friend the video person.
She did her own makeup & hair.
The most amount of money she spent was on a band to play at the hall.
We just got married on Jan 16th, and it cost us less than $2,000.
Celebrant - $375 included table & chairs to sign the certificate, microphones, speakers, CD player, ribbon for knot tying ceremony & 25 booklets for the guests to read as the ceremony was progressing.
Bombonniere's - $110 as we bought some simple little picture frames from a $2+ shop and used some thin silver ribbon/thread to tie little 'Thank You' cards onto them. I decorated the ends of the ribbons with some beads that I had in our wedding theme colours.
Men's Suits - $260 included DH's shirt, vest & tie (he already had the pants) as well as the shirts, vests, ties & pants for the two groomsmen. (it helps when you know the sales rep who deasl in them all too)
Men's Shoes - They all wore their motorbike boots lol so FREE
Reception Hall - $560 but we got the $200 bond back in the week after the wedding.
Ceremony - FREE!!! We held it on the beach, and it didn't cost us a single cent!
Food & Drink - We had a BBQ. My aunt donated the meat from a cow she had (tmi?) slaughtered, we spent $15 on salad items at our local fruit & vegie market (we know the mother of the boss, who still works there, and she gave us a discount as a wedding gift), and just bought a box of tea bags, a jar of coffee and sugar, a bottle of milk and requested on the invite that anything else was BYO (from alcohol to soft drink).
Wedding Cake - DH brought the ingredients (cost $30) and his older sister made it with his recipe (a white chocolate no-bake cheesecake).
My Dress - total $70, corset off E-bay for $40, and skirt for $30.
My Shoes - $99, down from $200
Alcohol for us - $60, 2 bottles of melon liquor from Aldi & 2 6 packs of johnny walker red from the supermarket where we held the wedding.
Soft drink for us - $10
Wishing Well - Free from in-laws who had one made for both their daughters weddings.
Invites - SiL made them, we just had to pick out what we wanted and it just cost $100 for the materials.
Gifts For The Bridesmaids - $70, included 2 x necklaces and 2 x Broach/Hairclips (could be used as either). Third bridesmaid refused to let me get her anything, instead she got big sloppy kisses from DS the night before the wedding lol
Bouquet(sp?) etc - Total $125. Included 1 main bouquet, 3 smaller bouquet's, 3 pocket things for the men and about 8 extra stems for emergencies.
Photo's - We got someone to take photo's with our camera and requested during the speech that everyone send us their favourite photo's that they took. That way our wedding album would be from everyone's perspective and not just one persons. So they were FREE too.
My Nails - FREE one of my bridesmaids is a nail technician and did them for all of us as a wedding gift to me and DH.
My Hair - Again, my bridesmaids were all involved in it and took turns doing it while getting ready themselves.
My Makeup - I did it myself.
Temporary Liquor Licence - $87, paid in advance.
Cook - A mate of the best man offered to do it when our original cook went AWOL and we couldn't find anyone else. $200 cash in hand, and he got to join in with the party.
Total We Spent - $1,871
It can be done! And it was perfect! (Except for the wind that messed up my hair lol)
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There are a lot of discounts to be had for getting married in winter (and lots of freebies when you're IL's own a bridal shop and you finally get over your stubborness and let them help you out 
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