Budget Smart or Cheap?

Ehh, the gifts for guest. Wedding favors, you can skip those as most times those are typically left behind. As far as wasting paper. If you wish, you can do electronic invitations as well as STDs. This will help cut down on paper use. Also, if you’re not interested in doing a cake maybe you can do a different route with cupcakes, or brownies and cookies. It won’t cost as much. How many people are you having in your bridal party? Would it be easier if you gave them all a $25 gift card? At least that way they’re still getting something from you to show your appreciation.

I feel if you expecting your bridal party to spend money on a dress shoes makeup jewelry and a bachelorette you should get them a gift. if you are paying for their things then don't get them a gift. don't do favors! do QR codes for paper things at the wedding. as far as, invitations and STDs do electronic ones. but I found cheap/ good deals on invites. I only spent $189 on the invites and $100 on STDs.

Skip the bridal party entirely. This will save you time, money, and disappointed feelings. The other posters gave good alternatives as well.

View Quoted Comment Hi Kenya! I agree on not skipping out on bridal parties gifts. How many people did you have for your wedding and where did you find invites and save the dates that cheap? Thanks!

There are many things the wedding industry pushes that are unnecessary. Things we skipped: bridal party, favors, guest book, cake topper, parent gifts, and second dress,
Bridal party eliminates a ton on expenses like Michele mentioned.

View Quoted Comment We invited 200 and i got them at www.magnetstreet.com They are normally always running a dealz

Personal opinion here, BUT ..... as long as you have GOOD food and plenty of it along with a fun party atmosphere, no one is going to thing "cheap". We are not doing any guest favors since we have a photo booth. I DIY'd my centerpieces and saved over $1500. There is SUCH a push for cluttering you event with "stuff" and honestly, the guests aren't going to notice!

View Quoted Comment I could not agree more! I skipped the bridal party and best decision I ever made.

Yep you could totally skip the bridal party no prob. If you do have a wedding party, they will need gifts. Guest favours can be skipped. Prioritize food and drinks. Best way to save $ is to have a smaller guest list.

If it’s really not in your budget then do what makes sense, but I’ve seen other posts where people have gotten there wedding cakes from Whole Foods & add flowers so it looks like a wedding cake. You can also make gifts as simple as you want, macaroons from Costco put them in little plastic containers from dollar store (keep refrigerated tho) and boom or others who buy bulk seeds for helping the bee population and just a sign saying plant in your honor.

We have actually used WeddingWire as our RSVPs. We did send out paper STDs, but that's because my mother offered to pay for them due to a huge discount she had. We're saving on money on doing our own things like the following:

DJ, Music & Sound: Bluetooth Karaoke machine (due to us already having one)

Venue: We actually are getting married at the courthouse and doing a big reception at our home

Vendors: No catering, have family members who cook well and see if they're willing to help pitch in a dish (usually only okay with a small wedding like we're doing)

Photography: we are hiring a family friend that offered to do it for us cheap, but we are also going to try to buy a few disposables for the wedding party to snap shots after the photographer goes home to capture even more.

We also decided on a small wedding party 2-3 on each side and I have actually been doing the hard work like contacting family and friends myself instead of hiring a planner that usually does all that stuff. I also found that if you have enough time, you can add wedding decorations and stuff like that into registries and some individuals will buy it for you.

My fiancée and I are both young, on a tight income, and also are skipping out on a honeymoon right now because we'd rather spend that money on our first home. Hope some of these ideas help.

P.S save on a ring barer if you have a dog lol

It depends. I would cut the bridal party all together or I would give them a gift unless you're paying for all of their hair/makeup etc. But if not then I think it's rude not to gift them anything. Also I think you should offer some kind of dessert. It doesn't have to be cake but it should be something. You can do electronic invites. You don't have to give favors but you could get to go boxes for everyone to grab extra dessert that's left over to take home

I think it’s a smart idea. We didn’t do gifts for the bridal party or guests. We do have a family member that makes cakes so she did our cake for free but no one ate any so you could probably skip that up to you! We did have a “bachelor & bachelorette party” sort of we had a get together with bonfire food & drinks (byob) it was real fun & cheap! We also bought fake flowers that looked real & was cheap!

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Totally agree with this!

whenever i tell people about things i'd do differently if i had to redo my wedding, it's mainly the fact that i wish i skipped out on stuff to make it simpler! because at the end of the day people are there for you so as long as you're hosting the meal it's all good lol. i had a whole candy bar table, a table for games, glow sticks, photobooth, entrance photos, wedding cake [i already had a dessert the meal came with] and all these little extras that were time consuming for me to deal with.

The only things that are required are your fiancé, the officiant, the license, legal witnesses to sign the certificate, and a reception immediately following for those attending the ceremony. Everything else is fluff. A thank you gift for bridesmaids/groomsmen is polite considering the money and time they invested. However proposal gifts and getting ready props (robes/pjs/jewelry, etc) are the first that can be tossed out to save money. Favors, any signs, seating posters can be skipped but escort cards are easier on you and guests. Wearing white and reception dresses are both a new trend and don’t feel the need to spend a lot of money of something that will only be worn one hour at most.


A late night snack can be skipped as well as champagne toasts. Toasts in general can be skipped. If you are being announced by your officiant, there is no need for the dj to repeat it 10 minutes afterwards. Skip the expensive rehearsal dinner and serve pizza and sodas. Some people look forward to cake and you can get an amazing cake very inexpensively at Costco or the local grocery store. Cupcakes are not cheaper and they are messier, just as a fake cake is just as expensive as a real one.
Most couples try to focus on the guest experience of good food, drinks within your budget that guests don’t open their wallets for, great dj and then great photos for your memories.

View Quoted Comment I tried to save money by getting my bridesmaids gifts that they would use again according to what I had read, like not putting titles on the robes, champagne glasses, etc. however most of them never use them again anyways. It was more because I wanted to give them a “bridesmaid proposal” that wasn’t a one time use but oh well. I would suggest getting things like robes only if those getting ready photos are important to you. I wanted those photos. For the wedding cake, my mother in law wanted a real one and was extremely generous to buy that for us. (We were going to just get two fake layers and one real one to cut). In the end no one ate the cake and it was tossed.
Our wedding was last minute. I planned it in 3 months. We had no save the dates, no programs. Sent out official invites in the mail but used a website (Zola) for RSVPs!

View Quoted Comment I actually just ordered my STDs from Zola. Came out to $98 for 50 of them.

Also, you can save money on stationery by doing phone save the dates as parents’ generation and earlier are accustomed to. However some circles still prefer paper invites which can be purchased inexpensively via Annsbridalbargains.com. They don’t always consider e-vites to be serious enough for a wedding. Replies can be done free via Withjoy.com or rsvpify.com. While wedding websites are popular online, not everyone in your everyday life will visit them so don’t put all the information there and nothing on the details card insert.


Don’t forget that your time and labor cost money at minimum wage per hour. DIY often is more expensive than renting services and products. Unless you are a professional vendor or entertain multiple times each month, you will not save money by purchasing items such as vases, linens, dishes, etc. People forget or ignore that setup/tear down/steaming/cleaning/transportation/selling is part of the time and labor that is added to the cost of supplies for the final price.

I'd say that it's smart to try and save money on a wedding by not buying unnecessary things, but where money is spent it's nice to prioritise other people.

So if you only have a limited budget, maybe don't buy yourself a "getting ready" outfit or toasting flutes etc but do buy presents for your bridal party - or pay for their accommodation / outfits.

I really don't regret our guest-focused spending, and it's possible invest in things that cover multiple purposes (for instance plants that can be centerpieces or table decor and favours).

It will only come across as cheap if you spend the money on lots of extras for yourselves but don't for your guests.

I've been to many, many weddings and never have seen a cake nobody eats. That's a first for me! It's a highlight of the wedding and normally very popular but it's not necessary to have a cake I guess. What many do is to have the cake as pudding - we paired ours with strawberries. That way, the amount of food including the cake was just right.

There are many ways to save money with your wedding, and DIY is one of them. We did all stationery, flowers, decor ourselves and got creative with venues. The flowers were a massive saving. I think it's worth putting in the elbow grease to make sur your guests feel cared for, and the satisfaction you'll get from having things just the way you want them if you do yourself is fantastic too.

Just remember that this is YOUR day and you have to do what makes sense for you two.....some things will be irrelevant and can be cut out. There were some good suggestions to replace with gift cards....that is a good idea. But to answer your question.....no you're not going cheap, you're being practical