Denise Fields, co-author of Bridal Bargains, reveals her tips for having a cheap wedding that looks absolutely fabulous! She shares advice about buying a wedding dress, avoiding sneaky bridal shop tricks, picking your ceremony and reception sites, and choosing a wedding photographer, DJ, and caterer.

Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) and Javascript is required to play this episode. iPhone users can read the transcript below or subscribe to the podcast.

Do you need more advice about planning a budget wedding?
Read her book, Bridal Bargains.

Almost everyone sometime in their life has to plan a wedding. You hear about people spending ten or twenty or thirty thousand dollars or more, and it seems like all the costs really start to add up fast. Can you have both a cheap wedding and a beautiful wedding, or is it pretty much a case of you get what you pay for?

The average wedding today is about $20,000, and while that’s down a little bit because of the economy from the past, that’s a chunk of change to put out there, so I think you can actually plan a wedding that fits you and your family for a lot less than that. And you can use a lot of tricks to save money that your guests would never see. The first thing that you need to do is sit down and decide what your priorities are, because that’s where you’re going to spend your money. And you’re going to use some of tricks and tips to save money on those things that aren’t as important.

For most brides, their wedding dress is their most important purchase and probably one of the most complicated. Give us some tips about finding the best deals on wedding dresses.

One of our best tips is to think outside the box. For example, there are a lot of wedding-style dresses that are sold in stores that don’t have the word wedding in the name. For example, J. Crew has a wedding line, Ann Taylor has a wedding line, at both stores and an online option for shopping, and for example, an Ann Taylor wedding dress costs about $275. That’s more than half off what a dress would cost you from a wedding store like David’s Bridal for example. Another option is to buy direct from China. Almost every dress in this country is made in China today. And now you can actually go online to websites that will actually sell directly to you from China, so you cut out the middleman, the store, and you get an even cheaper price.


Denise, I realize that most bridal shops are honest and I’m sure they’re looking out for your best interest and aren’t trying to rip you off, but what are some of the scams and other shady practices you might find at a local bridal shop, and how can you avoid them?

That’s true that most bridal shops are on the up and up and they’re there to help brides have the perfect wedding or the wedding that they want, but there are some shops who we get complaints about. Probably the biggest thing we get complaints about are alterations, because most dresses come into a traditional bridal shop and have to be altered to fit the bride exactly. So what happens with some of the less reputable shops is they oversize the dress so when it comes in, they end up charging the bride a huge amount of money to cut down an oversized dress. So what we tell brides is to get their measurements taken, ask to see the manufacturer’s sizing chart, and choose the size yourself. That way, you know they’re not oversizing it in order to make extra money off the alterations. Other stores unfortunately sometimes tear out labels so you don’t know who the manufacturer is. You don’t know what the fabric is. That kind of information is really important because that’s a harbinger of quality, knowing who the manufacturer is, what the fabric is made of. And I think accessories is one area that some bridal shops over mark—shoes, undergarments, veils, headpieces, sometimes 300%, 400% over wholesale so they’re making a ton of money on that. We recommend that people go to non-bridal stores for shoes or undergarments.

Picking a venue for the ceremony, I’m imagining, can be another big challenge. What are some smart choices for a wedding ceremony location that will impress your guests without breaking your bank account?

It’s interesting, yesterday, we got an email actually from a bride who said that she had never thought about what it might cost to have a wedding in her home church. She sort of assumed it would be free because that’s her church and she goes there every Sunday, but she realized that they were going to charge $1,000 to hold the ceremony in her church. Then she realized that she didn’t have to have a Catholic wedding at a Catholic church—she could combine her ceremony and reception site and have the wedding there. The priest comes, the reception site offers the ceremony section for free—she saved $1,000. You have to think about things with ceremony sites that you might not realize, like church fees, but combining the ceremony and reception in one place will save you some money. It makes a lot of sense to look into things like public parks. There’s usually a fee involved, but it’s usually very tiny. For example, in Austin, Texas they have these unbelievable Zilker Rose Gardens, and they have a bunch of different places within the gardens where you can choose to have a wedding—you pay a small fee, I think it’s under $150, and you set a time, you bring your own officiant, you all come there, and you hold the wedding surrounded by beautiful roses and greenery and everything, so that’s a great thing to look for. Look for city sites. And you can do that for receptions as well—consider museums. A lot of times people don’t realize that you can get married at a museum, or a restaurant banquet room—you can actually find a restaurant that maybe has a nice outside site, and you can have the reception there.

Talk about buying flowers for your wedding. What are some of the ways you can save money and what should you know when working with a wedding florist?

The interesting thing about flowers is that they don’t come with a price tag. If you walk into a florist, for the most part, you don’t see a bunch of bouquets on the wall and they don’t say, $100, $150, so on, so you’re kind of flying blind with this. But what we tell brides is be careful about what flowers you choose. Roses and orchids are always the most expensive, but they are always ones that people think of first when they think of flowers. There are less expensive choices—stock, gladiolas, in season peonies, the hydrangeas, they’re 50% less and they give you a nice lush look, but they’re not roses and orchids. We also tell brides to avoid February—Valentine’s Day—and May, Mother’s Day, if you can, because flowers are always the most expensive around those two holidays. Some people don’t think about that if they want to get married on Valentine’s Day, and then they’re shocked at the price of roses. One great way to save money, too, is to stick with flowers that are in season. I mentioned peonies, for example. You can only get peonies in May and June, but they’re very affordable at that time. If you wanted to have tulips in December, they’re going to charge you an arm and a leg because they’re going to fly them in from South America and it’s going to cost a lot of money. Make sure that you stick with flowers in season.

Where should you buy your wedding invitations? Is your local bridal shop where you get your dress, or maybe a local stationary store, are those good bets?

Usually they’re actually the most expensive. The cheapest option? Make your own! There are kits you can buy at craft stores that include the paper and templates and all that kind of stuff. A lot of people are very creative now on their computers, you can design them yourself and you can buy paper online, sometimes real fancy stuff, real plain, there are just a lot of different options if you want to make it yourself. And then there are traditional wedding stationers who have online sources, so you can actually get discounts if you order them online and you could find a lot of the same manufacturers at a bigger discount. Like Invitation Hotline, she offers a 25% discount off of all the name brand manufacturers you might see in an invitation store. We have another one called Invitations4sale.com, and also You’re The Bride. There are a lot of really great online discounters where you can get the same quality and the same designs for a lot less.

What’s your advice about picking a place for your wedding reception? Where are you going to find the best value for your money?

First, brides should consider checking at their favorite restaurants to see if they have banquet rooms, because they’re usually half the price of hotels. In fact, hotels tend to be the most expensive options. There are historic homes, sometimes run by local historic boards, sometimes run by the city. Museums, I mentioned that as well. For example, here in Denver, you can rent out the Natural History Museum. You can have your reception with Woolly Mammoths and all kinds of interesting critters, or at the art museum in your town. If you have your heart set on a hotel reception, avoid budget busting menu items like seafood, shellfish, things like that. As I said before, lunch is always less expensive than dinner, so timing is everything.

Give us some tips about booking a caterer for your reception. What should you consider when choosing a wedding caterer and how can you avoid paying more than you really need to?

One thing we always tell brides is avoid the wedding packages. First off, they’re not very imaginative, and second, it can be cheaper to custom-design your own menu. You can pick and choose from different hors d’oeuvres or main courses and things like that in order to work out a menu that’s affordable. Again, avoid those budget busters. Shrimp is always pricey. Chicken is always less than steak. Limit your alcohol. In our research, it’s the alcohol that costs the bride the most, so if you limit it to just beer, wine and maybe champagne for a toast, or some brides have found caterers who are willing to allow them to bring in the alcohol themselves, so they go to a place like Sam’s Club or a local liquor store that will allow them to buy in bulk and they can get the alcohol for a lot less. Now obviously, you have to sort of coordinate with the caterer to ice things down and stuff, but it actually tends to work out that you save as much as 20-50% on your alcohol budget. And finally, get everything in writing so you can avoid a price increase. A lot of times the brides are planning a year, year and a half in advance, and in that time, we might see some inflation and all of a sudden they come back with the final figures and its 15% more than you expected, so get it in writing so you can avoid that surprise.

Wedding cakes can be pretty elaborate. Can you share some tips about choosing a cake maker and strategies for getting a beautiful wedding cake without spending a fortune?

Well, you know, we just got back from a wedding and there were 300 guests there, and the bride was so smart—she slashed her cake bill by about 50%. How? Well, they had a beautiful tiered wedding cake for 100 people, and then they had sheet cakes to feed the rest. The wedding cake cost about $4 a slice because they had to set it up in tiers, they had to decorate it nice and everything, but the sheet cakes were only 50 cents a slice. So she spent $400 on this beautiful traditional wedding cake, and then 50 cents a slice for the other 200 people, and nobody noticed and nobody cared—they all loved it! You had choices between different flavors and different sheet cakes, and so it was great! But it is really important that you get to see real photographs of the designs that the cake baker has made so you know what you’re getting, get a taste test so you know how it tastes, and one way to save money as well is don’t save the top tier for your first anniversary—eat it at the wedding. And then, come back a year later, and get another cake to celebrate your anniversary. You’ll actually save $20-$50 depending on how big your cake is.

Your wedding is a pretty special event and you want to make sure that all of the special moments get captured on camera. Talk about choosing a wedding photographer and your advice for getting good wedding photos without overspending.

This is probably the most important thing you’re going to get from your wedding. It’s your memories, and so you don’t want to skimp, necessarily, here, but you want to spend your money wisely. So the first thing is, of course, you’re going to go shop several photographers. The important thing is to compare apples to apples, and what we mean by that is, photographers seem to like to do these weird packages. It makes it really hard to comparison shop, so go in there in mind that you’re going to ask them to develop a package for you with a minimum number of photos to tell the story—four hours of photography, 40 5x5s, 20 8x10s, and a high quality album. Get the price for that. Then you can compare that to the next photographer. Also, remember that it’s important to make sure that you have enough time at the wedding—you don’t want them to say, oh, we’re going to shoot for two hours, because you’ll be rushing through everything. And then make sure you get the photographer’s name in the contract so that they don’t pass you off to a less experienced person. That’s more of a rip-off, really, than a money saver, but it’s really important that you make sure that photographer’s going to be at that wedding and not some stringer or something like that. To save money on photography, one of the best ways is to buy your album online instead of through the photographer, because there is a markup there. You can find high quality albums online. Also, try not to buy like the bridal portraits—sometimes they’ll try to sell you on coming in for a separate bridal portrait—instead, blow up one of the really nice photos you have from your wedding and use that and display that in your house as a 16×20 or something instead of a separate bridal portrait.

What’s your advice for choosing a wedding DJ? What are some of the strategies for getting the absolute best deal?

Well, the good news about DJs is they’re always a good deal, because if you compare them to the price of a five or six-piece live band, they’re always going to be a lot less expensive, sometimes half or more than a live band. But it is important that you see the DJ at an event, because you don’t want some real blow hard guy that’s going off embarrassing people, you want to get references from friends, so you make sure that you get the best quality guy for your wedding. And you might also want to ask if you can come and see him at an event. What you do is you dress nicely and you sort of sneak into the event just so you can see him spin for a couple of songs and see how he works with the party. One way to save a little bit, ask the DJ to throw in an hour of cocktail music for free during dinner. Because they’re already pretty inexpensive, they’re often aren’t a lot of ways to save money here, but some DJs will give you an hour of free cocktail music and three hours of dance music.

What if you’d rather have a live band or maybe a string quartet? How do you find musicians and other performers willing to perform at your wedding for a reasonable price?

Well, you know, one of the best tips we ever came up with was to go to the music department at a local college. We actually got contacted once by a secretary at a local college and she said that it’s an excellent way to give an opportunity to students and even professors who will come and play at your wedding, and it’s a whole lot less expensive. Reception sites can give you suggestions and you can often hire people from the local symphony rather affordably. The main way to save money, try to book directly with a live band rather than through an agent. Now in some parts of the country, you have no choice. That’s the only way you can book, through an agent, but if you can book directly, they will often give you a discount, because of course they’re paying the agent and they’re charging you for that. Lastly, I think, avoid New Year’s and Christmas. That’s when live bands are the most expensive.

Are wedding expos and bridal shows good places to book wedding professionals and other vendors? Are you likely to get a good deal at these kinds of events?

I like to think of bridal shows as an opportunity for you to sort of browse and get ideas. I don’t think they’re the best place to hire somebody. You might find someone there who has some interesting photos, for example. You look through a few photo albums and make an appointment. But I wouldn’t book anybody based upon just being at a bridal show. One thing we’ve found over the years is that the best businesses often never show up at a bridal show—they’re word of mouth only, they like it that way, they don’t want to have to go out and try to sell themselves at a bridal show, they’d rather work by word of mouth, so it’s a great place to get ideas, but it’s not necessarily the best place to hire somebody, at least on the spot.

Outside of the big popular wedding sites, what are some other online resources that can be useful for brides when planning an inexpensive wedding?

Like you said there are the big wedding sites, like The Knot, or the WeddingPages.com, places like that, and message forums where you can link up with other brides, but we actually found some great places that are totally different. For example, local convention and visitor bureaus have databases of local facilities, and in some cases, they’ll tell you what they cost, how long you can rent them for, how big they are, all kinds of information. So go to the city sites and see if they can link you off to the convention and visitors bureaus. Craigslist, now you would be absolutely amazed at what’s on Craigslist, and most people don’t even think about it. I found a bridal gown for $50. The ad said wedding was called off, need to sell, brand new, still in the box, size 18X, never been worn, never been altered. What a great deal, $50 for a wedding dress! You’ll find wedding rings, you’ll find bridesmaids dresses for sale, all kinds of things! Another offbeat site, Costco sells engagement rings, wedding rings, invitations, flowers—so again, if you have a Costco membership, what a great way to save some money on all that stuff.

Denise, what are the most common mistakes that people make that cause them to pay more than they need to for their wedding?

Well, I think it’s that search for perfection, and it’s something that a lot of sites and a lot of wedding magazines create for brides, is that you must have this perfect wedding and we always tell people you just want to have a fun wedding, you want to have a terrific wedding, that perfection can drive people to spend more money than they intend to. As sort of a sister to this, is the don’t you want the best for your daughter ploy—I’ve seen this over and over on wedding TV shows where they’ll bring out these $3,000 wedding dresses—even though they told them, well, we can’t spend more than $2,000—they’ll bring out a $3,000 one and everybody will look at dad, oooh, dad, don’t you want the best for your daughter? That kind of pushes people over the edge sometimes, and that sort of Martha Stewart syndrome where you have to have these over-the-top cakes and flowers that are impossible to re-create without costing a fortune. There’s nothing wrong with sort of looking at over-the-top items and getting some ideas, but to get carried away by that, you need to set that budget up and you need to follow that budget. That’s probably the hardest thing for some people to do because they do want to have that perfect wedding.

Any other advice for planning your wedding on a budget?

A wedding is like the gateway to adulthood, even though brides and grooms are getting older and they’re in their late 20s instead of their late teens these days, but it is kind of a gateway to growing up and accepting that they’re adults now, so here’s a great opportunity to learn to negotiate, because nothing is set in stone here. Everything is negotiable. You’d be surprised at what you can get from people by simply asking, so be brave, step up, and negotiate. And the other thing is concentrate on why you’re having a wedding, because really, all you need is a bride, a groom, an officiant and a couple witnesses—there are no legal requirements that you go there in a fancy dress and tux. So concentrate on what the wedding is all about. It’s about a couple coming together and starting a new life. So that’s our best advice for planning a wedding, that sort of personal planning thing—don’t get so carried away with all the fancy stuff.

Denise Fields co-authored the bestselling book Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget with her husband, Alan. They’ve been featured on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Dateline NBC, and 20/20.