I am getting married in the summer of 2014, and we’re therefore in the throes of wedding planning. With the wedding only six months away, I’ve been booking photographers, putting deposits on caterers, wedding dress shopping and connecting with family and friends.

Throughout this flurry of activity, we’re also being very mindful of our budget. Since my fiancee and I are footing the bill for our wedding, we have to be mindful of where are money is going and ensure that we keep the costs down so that we don’t start our married life on poor financial footing.

Because of our limited budget, we have prioritized most of our spending to the most important of things, and skimped out on many other things. To us, the more important aspects of our wedding are the food (everyone remembers the food), the venue, and the photos. We are saving money on some other things so that we can afford to spend a little more on the important pieces.

Invitations

Invitations can cost a lot if you get them done professionally, and nobody really cares about nor remembers the wedding invitations.

We found a printable template, plugged our information into it, bought some card stock and made them ourselves. We made 100 wedding invitations very cheaply, and the entire batch cost us under $60.

They are beautiful and unique, but not expensive. We even saved money on the card stock by buying it on Ebay, and cut down on the cost of RSVP cards and envelopes by requesting that guests RSVP using our free wedding website or email.

Flowers

Especially if you are getting married outdoors, you don’t have to go overboard with the flowers. Flowers cost a lot of money and your guests won’t remember them at all.

Our wedding and reception is outdoors at a summer camp on a lake, so although we will have flowers, we will keep them to a minimum.

My bridesmaid’s bouquets will be repurposed as part of the centrepieces on the table.

We plan to find the flowers at Costco as their pricing is very good for floral arrangements.

Music

While this may be an area of higher importance for some people, we are not interested in hiring a band or even a DJ. We have an iPod that we can load a wedding playlist on, and will be asking one of my cousins to just watch the iPod if there is an issue.

My friend took a similar approach when she got married last summer, and it worked out perfectly. Nobody noticed or cared about the absence of a DJ or band, and the money that was saved could go toward a good photographer.

Favours

It used to be that favours were expected at a wedding. Favours are no longer expected, so you can cut the cost of favours out all together, but even if you do want to give favours they don’t have to be expensive.

We are going to be giving our guests little jars of lavender jelly, which we ourselves are making. We are buying the lavender from a local lavender farm and it should be quite inexpensive.

If we hadn’t come up with that idea, then we wouldn’t be giving out favours at all.

By saving on these things, we will be able to hire a quality photographer, and provide our guests with a delicious meal in a beautiful setting. There’s something to be said for cutting back on the things that people don’t remember to spend more on the important stuff!