Quick quiz!! What life event can cost as much as a house and having a baby? An unbudgeted wedding! Even the most luxurious and elaborate wedding can be created within a budget. There are many tips, trips and ideas to save money on everything wedding related, and many ways to track it, there’s a plethora of budget apps or Microsoft Excel has many templates on budgets.

While it’s not the best idea to begin your marriage with wedding debt, although many people do, from expensive wedding rings, to a lengthy guest list (remember, most likely you are feeding your guest), to a large wedding party, to having everything monogrammed. Now admittedly, the look of monogrammed champagne flutes are, for me, absolutely elegant and a must-have, but is it really necessary. Yes, yes it is. We all know, or are aware that when it comes to budgeting regardless if it’s just focusing on the household, groceries, clothing budget etc…they should be determined by needs versus wants.

It’s no different when it comes to your wedding budget, what do you AND your partner need versus want. This is also where compromising comes in hand, say you are deciding between, wanting a certain type of silverware but need 100 charger plates. Now it’s not always this simple, maybe you want to go all out and not cut corners and to that I still say, hey, you do you, but also just take a little bit of time to think where else you could either spend or save that $4,529.54 you just spent on napkins or silverware. Such as adding to your honeymoon fund, new home fund or even baby fund.

The average wedding cost an upward of $30,000 easily, with venue, entertainment and food being at the top of the list. And remember you still have attire, decor and other vendor cost, that price can steadily increase. How do you cut cost and avoid credit card debt or borrowing from family or friends? Look at where you want or need to scale down, you can still have an elegant and memorable wedding at a fraction of the cost. So after having a talk with your soon to be spouse about your budget, look for deals, shop at resale shops for ceremony and reception venue decor. I recently came across an ad from The Dollar Tree with tons of ideas for wedding decor that can create a million dollar look.

Now, if you are familiar with The Dollar Tree, you know they carry a variety of items that you can use for any occasion and maybe even donate later or you have heard of them but would not consider them for your wedding decor needs. Just check out this blog link from The Dollar Tree on wedding ideas and give saving some dollars a-go while still having the most luxurious and glamorous wedding.