How can I save money on a wedding!!

"Mom, we're getting married!" one of your children comes home and says with great excitement!!  You knew this day would come but you weren't expecting it so soon.  You have a little bit saved up but what are you going to do about the rest?  You want to make it memorable but don't want to break the bank.  According to http://www.costofwedding.com/  on average, US couples spend $24,066 for their wedding. However, the majority of couples spend between $18,050 and $30,083. I checked other sites and they estimate about $20,000 on the low side and about $40,000 on the high side.  Also, on http://www.costofwedding.com/  I took a wedding survey.  Let me tell you what I found.  In my hometown, if I were to plan a wedding it would cost me between 28,000 and 47,000.
Do not fret!!  There are several ways to pay for yours or your children's nuptuals without breaking the bank.

Do you have to be extravagant to make your wedding day memorable or are there some things you can do to cut the costs of getting married?

We spent between 3000 and $5,000 on our wedding and here are some of the things we did it.

• Jody worked at a print shop and she made our wedding announcements.  Not everybody has the luxury of working in a print shop but you can buy announcements and make your own.    $25

• Jody's mom made the wedding cake and did a great job!                                                 $30 
• We reserved our church and decorated it with some decorations we purchased.               $50
• We had a friend who was studying photography who took our pictures                             $200
• We asked a friend of ours who worked in horticulture to arrange our flowers                    $200
  
• Knowing you looked for and found ways to scale back on the price of your wedding      Priceless

Some of these options may not be available for you but if you seek for other options instead of the easy idea of calling an expensive shop you'll be able to find ways to cut down on the price of your wedding but still have an elegant and beautiful day.

This is an important day, one which you should enjoy and be proud of, but don't get caught up in the line of thinking, "This is a once in a lifetime event and you need the best".  If you do you may be paying for a long time with a lot of interest.

You can either spend a lot on your wedding or scale back significantly and use some of the money and put  a down payment on a house.  This will pay you in the long run as you begin to build equity.  May you have a wonderful day filled with love, friends, and family.

Thank you,

Greg and Jody Roche
Be Frugal Live Wealthy

PS.  Next week we'll discuss Inexpensive Activities you can do for Spring Break