by Emma Lynn

Created on: May 15, 2007   Last Updated: May 21, 2007

You've set the wedding date and now wonder where you'll come up with the cash to have the perfect fairy tale wedding. Here are a few budget minded ideas to help you out:

1. Invitations can be expensive but with all the wonderful technology now at your finger tips, make your own. Have a friend take a picture of you and your fiance, perhaps at the beach or at a park and send it into one of the on line photo sites. You can frequently find coupon codes on line to get photo cards made at a discount. Use those as a wedding invitation.

2. Do you have a friend of family member that is crafty? Let them make inexpensive centerpieces. An idea would be to buy small baskets, paint them in your wedding colors. Place small inexpensive vases in them, buy flowers from the grocery store, cut them down and put them in the vases. Inexpensive, but cute!

3. Food....yikes! The cost can really add up quickly. If you have family that loves to cook, lasagna may be a good option. It can feed a lot of people. Serve it up with salad and garlic bread. If not, lasagna, you can serve deli meats and cheeses with different breads.

4. Your photographer, if hiring one, can be the highest expense of the day but there's no reason you can't "employ" some friends or family members to take pictures for you. If someone loves taking pictures, have them check out on line photographs of weddings to give them some ideas of what to shoot on your special day. Enlist more than one person so you can have a lot to choose from. Also, placing inexpensive disposable cameras on each table is a fun way to get candid shots of your guests.

5. Do not hire a wedding coordinator. I'm sure we all know someone that likes to be in control. As long as you get along with them, have them lead the day.

6. Do you know anyone that has a beautiful backyard? Ask if you can get married there.

7. What about a piano player? They really only need to know how to play the wedding march. Find someone you know who plays piano and ask them if they'd do the honor and play at your wedding. The rest of the music, like when the bridesmaids are walking down the aisle, can be from a CD.

8. The dress is probably the most important purchase. Visit wedding shops and ask if they have any discontinued dresses. These are always marked down considerably and you just may find your perfect dress for a lot less money.

I hope you can use some of these ideas to help make your wedding day all you had dreamed it would be.

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