Couples often have a hard time trying to figure out the best methods for having an expensive wedding but not pay full retail for it.

If you’re a regular followers on the blog, then you know all about the common tips and tricks of saving money.

If you don’t, today we’re going to actually show you how to have a $20,000 wedding for under $8,000.

Yes, it’s possible, BUT you will be making some sacrifices along the way.

The Number One Tip to do This?

“The number one thing couples needs to remember is to be flexible on everything, dates and time-frames, colors, styles, wedding size and the like too.”

Without being flexible, it’s going to be hard to make compromise’s and save money, so with that in mind let’s start.

Best way to save money on your Wedding Venue?

Finding a wedding venue isn’t hard but finding one that meets all the criteria for your wedding is a challenge, especially with recent barn style venues popping up all over the pace in the last 3-4 years.

However, is you want to score the best deal on a venue, these are the two pieces of criteria to use:

• Book during the week

• Book during the off-peak season

Booking during the week generally will save you about 30-50% off the weekend rates and that adds up. Additionally, booking in the very late Fall into the Wintertime can also sale you money if you live in a region of the United States like we do.

Here, our wedding season is from late March through October each year. That means venues that still operate November through March usually have even deeper discounts.

Let me give you a great example of a venue that’s not in our region. (so no one locally gets upset)

We took this example from a venue from Colorado, you can see the various rates and the same venue ranges from $1,500 to $4,000. For our budget, were going to use the “value season” they offer and pick a Wednesday in February.

Now, there are venues all around that offer similar packages but you just need to ask.

So far, we’ve spent $1,500 in our virtual challenge.

Best way to save money on wedding catering?

Catering mixed with your wedding cake and alcohol are going to be the biggest expense in your wedding if you’re going to have a large group of people. Since we are trying to stay within a budget here, we are going to have right at 50 wedding guests.

That’s enough to have most everyone that is close to you while weeding out those that you don’t really know of maintain a close relationship with.

There are plenty of wedding catering companies in our region and many that I highly recommend, but today, were going with the cheapest route possible to save the most money.

You can hire Olive Garden to cater your wedding for as little as $10 per person. Now, the menu is limited to pasta trays, salad and bread-sticks for that price, and you also have the option of hiring a couple of their staff to manage it all and that costs little extra.

50 guests plus about 5 for vendors, then the couple and 3-4 in the bridal party, it’s safe to say 60.

Regarding wedding cakes, you can get very reasonably get wedding cake $2-4 per slice in our region and you can also go alcohol free which again will save you a lot of money. So, we can safely say that for food and wedding cake, we’re spending $1,225 for a total of $2,725.

Best way to save on buying your Wedding Dress?

Next, is your wedding dress. While you can visit any of the wedding shop locally for a new dress which on average can run you $1,631 or more.

However, one thing you can do is buy a used wedding dress and save a lot of cash, so in our plan we’re going to do just that.

We have a few places to look and help choose from that include:

• Local dress shops sometimes resell used dresses

• Craigslist

• local Facebook groups

• Brides Against Brest Cancer

Now wedding dresses can range from under $1,000 and I’ve seen regionally dresses in the $12,000 range. Used, those same costs can range from $50 to $1,200. According to Value Penguin, the average price of a used wedding dress is about $646 without alterations, shoes and accessories.

So, let’s use that, $646 and lets add in $150 to make alterations another $100 for some basic shoes and pearl earrings.

$896 added to the $2,775 is $3,671 leaving us with $4,329.

Best ways to save on both Photography and Video?

We’re going to use our photo and video package that’s $2,450. It will include everything you need for the wedding and more, unlimited images, three videos, 10 hours coverage and a lot more. We’ll even provide a 10% discount just to help out.

If anything at all, hire the photographer for just the ceremony and ask them for ‘turn-and-burn’. This is where the photographer will literally take the images, go home and put them on a USB or upload them to a webpage and that’s it. There is no editing, processing or color correction here, just plain jane. While many wedding photographers will not offer this upfront, many will do it for a reduced rate. I’ve seen photographers do turn-n-burn for about 30% of their normal rate since there is not as time needed for post production.

Also, with regards to wedding video, if all else fails, you can hire a professional for a single camera/wireless mic shoot. It’s simple, it’s unedited, but you’ll happy that you that you spent the money on having a video, even just a basic one. Simply ask the videographer if they will do a one camera shoot of just the ceremony. Some will and some won’t, but expect to pay roughly $500 or less for something of that regard.

We’ll add in $2,205 and that brings us to $6,534.

Best way to save money on your Wedding DJ?

Wedding DJ’s can cost about $800-900 in our region and many offer great quality services. Trust me when I say that you will not want to skip out on hiring a DJ as they’re also going to be the guide for the reception and that’s very important.

You can choose to have an iPod and speaker system but we don’t recommend it.

We DO recommend that you hire a DJ, even if they’re a bit discounted, say $700.

Much like wedding video or photography, equipment is not a cheap thing, so you’ll want to pay a good amount. For the sake of a better and average cost without being cheap here is right at the $750 within my local market, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA.

Adding $750 to the budget, we’re now at $7,284.

Best way to save money on a Wedding Planner?

Because we’re trying to save as much money as possible, it’s not going to be feasible to hire a wedding planner for the entire day, however, you should be able to hire them for the wedding day. They’ll be able to make the day as smooth as they can, helping out as much as possible according to your schedule that you created. For the sake of finding a basic wedding planner just for the wedding day, $400 is fairly low, but reasonable.

The overall budget is now at $7,684.

Can you save money on hiring a Wedding Officiant?

Finally, you’ll want to hire a wedding officiant here in the region. I’m going to be honest, there isn’t a massive way to save money here unless you get someone who’s ordained to do it for free.

Here in our region, the average cost is going to run you about $200, plus you’ll want to provide them a small tip of some kind, so it’s fair to say that $250 is a good cost for the wedding officiant.

Our total is now $7,934.

Missing Details

Now you still have a $30 marriage license in Virginia to purchase and a few other line items too that are optional, although it will place you over the $8,000 goal of the blogpost.

That can include:

• Wedding flowers

• Wedding rings

• Wedding gifts

• Renting a Tux

• Sparklers, bubbles or other for exit

• Wedding programs

• Save the Dates and Invitations

While you could spend money in these categories, its also not necessary.

Being on a tight budget means that you have to make concessions in various parts of the wedding, like location, time of year, day, where you your dress and the like too.

Should You ‘Cheap Out’ on the Wedding Day?

Well, this is a term that is often mislead with the industry standard.

I’ve been to weddings that were Backyard BBQ weddings and enjoyed them just as much as $140,000 weddings that I’ve covered too. In reality, it doesn’t matter how much you spend on the wedding day as long as you and your guests are enjoying themselves and you’re making memories in the process.

Here in our region of Virginia, you can comfortably have a wedding for right about $20,000 to $25,000 when you compare that to the national average of about $34,000.

Roanoke and SWVA is about 23% cheaper to have the same wedding if you had it in Richmond or NOVA, with Charlottesville being states most expensive region to get married in at an average of $52,400.

Couples that come to regions that cost less can have a bigger, more impressive wedding than their own region. I’ve seen many couples that come to SWVA just for the savings and then apply that to a much better wedding experience.

Not matter how much or how little you spend, getting married is a fun, joyous and loving occasion for everyone.