This review is based strictly on my opinion. I was provided the sample free of charge by the company to provide my honest review. No other type of compensation was received. All ideas and opinions are my own. When you have children, raising them is kind of complicated! When I had my first baby, I had no clue what I was doing. By the third one, I think I had things down to a science. As a parent, we want our kids to grow to be the best people they can be, right? You want them to be kind, respectful, have an excellent work ethic and find the job and partner of their dreams. My oldest daughter has found a wonderful guy to spend the rest of her life with. They are getting married next spring and there is so much to do. When I dreamed of the perfect wedding for my daughter, I really didn’t think about how much it would cost. Like the cost can be staggeringly out of this world. We just don’t have the funds to throw an extravagant wedding, so we decided to do as much DIY as we could for the wedding. Here are a few tips to help you throw a fantastic wedding without breaking the bank!

7 Ways To DIY Your Wedding On A Budget

1. Shave That Guest List: One of the biggest money suckers in a wedding is your food and drink. The more people you invite, the more grub you have to provide. Don’t invite people you don’t know for the sake of pleasing someone else. This is your wedding, so invite only those people closest to you. We were able to cut our guest list to just 75 people.
2. Ask For Help: Do you know someone who is a great amateur photographer? Someone who can sing or play a musical instrument? Don’t be afraid to ask friends and family to help in lieu of a wedding present. My youngest daughter is a great singer, so she will be sharing her gift at the wedding. Chelsea’s cousins are great cooks, so they are throwing the rehearsal dinner at their house.
3. Flowers: Here is another area that can really hurt your budget. We have an awesome farmer’s market less than 3 miles from Chelsea’s house. We are buying the flowers there and making the bouquets ourselves. We are cutting this part of the budget by 2/3.
4. Venue: If you are going to do most of the wedding on your own, seek a venue that allows you to bring your own food, decorations, etc. We found a cool historic train depot in Atlanta that was thousands less than other venues we found. I was able to get a great price that fit right in our budget.
5. Food and Drink: If at all possible, reach out to friends and family to help with the catering. We have a pool of people who are offering to bring food, cutting our budget by at least $1,000. We are stocking the bar ourselves, so that is another huge savings for us. Probably another $1,000. We are making 2 signature drinks, and then offering beer, wine, soft drinks or water. Much of this we are getting from Sam’s Club.
6. Dresses: There are a few great options to save you lots of bucks on the dresses. There are places you can rent your wedding dress or buy them used. If this is not something that appeals to you, many bridal shops have clearance dresses. Don’t be afraid to do some digging in that sale department. You can save THOUSANDS on a dress when you buy it on sale. For the bridesmaids, consider buying dresses off the rack at a department store rather than a bridal shop. I can sew, so making the dresses is another money saving option.
7. Decorations: Chelsea wants a more rustic look for her wedding, which fits right in with the old train station we found for the venue. We are making as many of the decorations as we can. What we cannot make, we are getting from Oriental Trading. This company is THE place to go when you are planning a wedding on a budget.

When we were talking about doing our own decorations, we weren’t sure where to start. Chelsea had an idea of what she wanted to do, but not a clear vision. After spending a lot of time on Pinterest, we had a better idea of what we wanted to do. I had shopped at Oriental Trading for birthday party decorations and party favors, but didn’t know if they had products suitable for a wedding. I was so excited when I found they had a plethora of products for a myriad of events including weddings, anniversaries, prom, graduation, and so many more.

We knew we wanted to use items that would give the tables at the reception a vintage feel. We found some gorgeous hand crocheted doilies. They are perfect for the base of our centerpieces for the reception tables. Chelsea’s colors are grey and purple, so we decided to paint some of the Mason Jars in a pretty hombre with 3 different shades of purple. Aren’t they beautiful?

For some of the tables, we knew we wanted to make our own lighting, and Caitlin found a cute idea to make DIY Mason Jar Glow Stick Lights for the tables. They are super easy to make too! All you do is cut 3-5 glow sticks in the color of your choice and bleed them into your mason jar (which we got a great deal on at Oriental Trading), add glitter and shake, shake, shake! The result is a quaint glowing light that is perfectly paired with the doilies.

For the overhead lighting, the venue had some lights strung up already, but we needed to fill that in. Chelsea wanted to do paper lanterns, and we found these White and Gold Paper Lanterns which were perfect. They come 6 to a set and at just $10.99, we can easily complete our lighting while staying within our budget. Need some ideas for planning your perfect wedding? Oriental Trading has a ton of ideas for the perfect recipe, decor, favors, and more for your wedding. Be sure to be social and like Oriental Trading on Facebook, follow them on Twitter and follow them on Pinterest.

Have you planned a wedding on a shoestring budget? I would love to hear how you did it!