*A WORD BEFORE YOU EVEN START PLANNING...
You, yeah, you. Despite what anyone says or tries to convince you of otherwise, you CAN absolutely have a budget friendly non crappy wedding that doesn't remind you of a six year olds birthday party. The most important thing is coming up with a budget YOU can afford and sticking to that budget which as most can attest to, isn't easy, but don't fold just yet. This involves making abundantly clear to your partner and all that surround, that what you have is it, and that sacrifices will have to be made (even to altars) to make sure that you stay on budget. If you know certain family and friends are the type to want to take over and make plans like wedding castle in Ireland for a 1,000 people, you may need to fake plan that wedding in their minds while you real plan your real budget wedding for you in reality.
Guest List
More People=More Money no matter how you slice it, so you will have to clip the list to 100 or less, but more likely, if you really want to save, 50 or less. If this makes you freak out inside that you can't invite everyone you know, consider a simple solution like having a live video feed at your wedding, so those that are not in attendance, can watch you get married and hear the speeches and see the dancing like everyone else without the added cost.
Venue
Lose any dignity and pride you have, and start begging any friend or family with a big enough space to let you borrow theirs if you don't have one of your own. Most venues without even a crumb of food in a guests mouth will cost you minimum 5-10 grand. Pop up weddings are another idea. Heading out somewhere public, and having a short sweet FREE ceremony can work, but make absolutely sure you do not need permits or will not be shut down by police for hosting, b/c that's definitely going to ruin your day. Use your connections--if there is a space that you can use that maybe isn't typically used for weddings, but will suffice, don't be afraid to ask, *ahem*, beg to be able to use it for free or heavily discounted prices.
Photography
How much do you really need another toaster or some weird lamp shaped like a pig? Forget asking guests for wedding gifts, and register for a GoFundMe for your wedding photography. Make sure that you and your fiance include a nice little video asking, *ahem* pleading, with guests to allow the two of you to have the memories of your dreams with their help. Two, you can ask guests to snap shots like crazy and compose them in a candid wedding album. Three, you can have your wedding on a week day, during the morning time, or not in a peak season for discounts and mention your guest size asking that any assistants (more money) and interns (more money) be cut, and just a main photog be employed. Four, you can offer to advertise the photogs services at your wedding or elsewhere for a discount. Remember, lose your pride and just ask about these things. You'll never know if you can chop off a few more cents, if you don't ask.
Food
Asking family and friends to help you cobble together some grub for FREE would be great, but if you can't bring yourself to do that or can't find the help, hit up your local eatery. Many of your favorite little places offer catering which can be a heck of a whole lot cheaper than going through official wedding catering companies. The above pictured is Chipotle catering. Food trucks are an option. Hell, ordering Pizza is an option. Let me put the food situation into perspective...you are inviting guests to your venue to eat for free. Your only "obligation" is that you feed them and that they are hopefully full afterwards, so, so what if all you can order is pizza, or some subway sandwich boxes---the gripey bitchy ones will just have to get over it, and everyone else won't say a word, because they love you or better yet, don't care, as long as they are fed. Plus come on, same old boring wedding chicken, or Chipotle which very few people would turn their nose up having had it before.
Tables/Chairs/Plates/Cutlery
Borrow, borrow, borrow! Call your wedding "Rustic," which really translates into meaning "any crap goes," and then you can make any crap go. With a rustic theme, you can thrift/borrow mismatched chairs, cups, and plates, glasses, etc. and put it all together for those quirky, it some how all came together really cute on Pinterest wedding looks you love so much. To cut down on the level of colors and craziness, try to thrift or borrow mismatched items in the same color family, like all white, or just stick to your wedding colors. Most rentals of the basic white and black garden chair variety aren't too expensive for a small group. Same goes for cutlery and other dinner wear in basic silver/white, but if you borrow, that's more money to spend on other things or to save. Bonus---after the wedding, sell the stuff back that you thrifted on eBay posting pictures of your wedding, so other brides can be inspired and want what you've done for equally cheap prices.
Dresses/Suits
Rent your dress. Go to the mall and find a white dress rather than a "wedding dress." Re-work a relatives old gown to something new and modern with a tailor/seamstress. Wear a dress you already have. Thrift a gown. Suits, you can rent, borrow, thrift, or go to the mall.
Flowers
You can, you can, you can, do your own flowers. Having never touched a floral arrangement in my life, for my sister in laws wedding, all us ladies got together the day before the wedding and did all the arranging, so I speak from experience. You can see tons of videos online for how to do more elaborate things, but if you just have the mindset that you need a few flowers here and there, but don't want to arrange them yourself, go to the grocery store floral department. Buy up (or better yet, pre-order) some bouquets (avoid using the words "for my wedding" b/c some will charge more just for saying that...nope you need them for your dinner party, right, right? Cut the ends to bouquet length. Wrap the base with floral tape and then your decorative ribbon, and there you have it for about 10-30 bucks each. Need table flowers, same deal, but you would only need to trim the flower ends before sticking them in cheap glass dollar store vases or mason chars, and boom, you're done without breaking a sweat.
Decorate with a lot of crap
A little crap can look cheap and unimpressive, but A LOT of crap, can look amazing!
All this is is cut up strips of fabric and some rope---super inexpensive, but put together, it creates a beautiful focal point to an otherwise fairly plain dull space.
This dramatic background is nothing more than regular sheets of color paper cut out and shaped, and hot glued together and put on a background or if you are indoors, you can place it on a wall as an wedding altar or photo background. I've done this for another event, and it's time consuming, but pretty easy to do.
This centerpiece, a thrift store tray, glue, glitter, a couple of candles, amazing...no need for tons of flowers to make an impact.
Carnations and baby's breath, cheap flowers, but bunched together in multiple colors or simply bunched together, can look just as good and dramatic as roses or Peonies.
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