Take care to maintain a realistic view when you are deciding on what you will spend money on, and don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the idea of a perfect wedding (which will inevitably be an expensive wedding).  

Above all else, when it comes to paying for your wedding, set a strict budget which you and your fiancé both agree upon and try your best to stick with it.  Ideally you should come out of the wedding ceremony married without owing a cent to the florist, caterer, or reception hall.

Take your other debt into account.  If you start signing up for credit accounts to pay for certain wedding expenditures you should temper these with any credit you already have or anticipate opening up soon.  

You need to think of your wedding budget in terms of it melding with your current and future financial situation.  

If you know that a couple of months after the wedding one of you will be quitting your job to start graduate school then you need to consider this before taking out a loan to pay for an extravagant reception.  The point is to have a nice wedding, not to buy a ticket to the poor house.

Starting a marriage with money problems is a bad decision.  Did you know that financial struggles are listed as one of the single biggest reasons for couples seeking divorce? Knowing this, you should take care to make sure that you and your fiancé’s finances stay in order.  You don’t want to enter into a new marriage with a big pile of debt from the ceremony and reception.  

Starting up a new household is expensive enough; if you are still paying for your wedding a few years down the road in addition to all sorts of other expenses you are really setting yourselves up for disaster.  

When you are making decisions regarding the things you need for the ceremony and reception you should always take into account how much of it you can pay for in cash and how much of it will need to go onto a credit card.  You may have the feeling that now is the time to splurge and that you can worry about the bills later, but this view is going to get you in financial trouble.  

Just think about how annoying it will be to still be paying off your wedding dress a few years down the road.  Can you imagine having a child a couple years down the road and having to put some of the expenses related to a new baby on the very credit card which is still carrying a balance from wedding expenses? Don’t set yourself up for failure.  Think of the big picture when making your purchases.   

One thing which is prevalent is the thought of personalizing everything.  Honestly, in today’s society, what is the point to handing out personalized matchbooks? The minority of people who actually do smoke more than likely use lighters anyhow, so in all likelihood the monogrammed matchbooks which you labored with deciding over what color, what lettering, etc, will wind up in the trash or deep in someone’s junk drawer.  

Just because something has always been done a certain way does not mean you and your fiancé need to follow suit.  Do what you can to cut costs and don’t be afraid to change things up a little.  

There are ways to save money without looking cheap.  Some receptions cost more than others.  For example, you can have a night reception complete with a full course dinner or instead have a morning reception with muffins and orange juice.  Both appear equally elegant in the right setting, but the morning reception will cost you a lot less money.  

You should keep your eye out for other ways to save money.  If you are lucky enough to live near a bridal shop you will probably notice that they periodically have sales to rid the store of gowns and make room for new designs.  

Who is really going to know if you are wearing a wedding gown which was designed last season? As long as it is pretty and flattering it shouldn’t matter when it was made.  

If you absolutely need to have the very latest designer gown then maybe you should consider renting it.  None of your guests need to know that it is rented, and you will undoubtedly look fabulous.  Think about some other aspects where you might be able to save money.  

Are you wearing a long dress? If nobody is going to see your feet during the entire ceremony then why bother purchasing expensive shoes? Most brides slip into comfortable shoes at the reception anyhow…why not go through the wedding ceremony with some cute white tennis shoes that you have decorated yourself with lace and sequins? Guests will think less that you’re trying to save money and more that you’re innovative.