Maybe you want a fairy tale wedding but don’t necessarily want to sacrifice all the college money for your future kids. Although that’s what most of us want, it’s hard to keep a ‘budget wedding’ within budget. There are many ways to avoid stepping on one of those financial minefields that explode the cost of your wedding. Here are just a few.

Don’t Hire Unnecessary People:

You can have music at your wedding without surrendering thousands of dollars to a performer or a band. Here’s another option: Create Spotify and Pandora playlists for your ceremony, reception, and after-party. Budget weddings can be pulled off with little things like this. By using this method, you can save $1000 or more.

Keep it Smaller:

No matter how tempting it is to invite everyone you ever knew and all their friends and family, STOP! Keep the wedding small and only invite your very best friends. And your family too, of course. Leave everyone else out of the list. Ask everyone you do invite to please not bring extra guests. Stick with the people you invite only. This way, you don’t have to worry about the expense of feeding all of these people.

Think About Food:

One of the major expenses for weddings is the food and catering. Avoid fancy little foods that nobody normally eats, especially the ones that few people can pronounce properly. What you should consider instead is a potluck wedding. Or, you can enlist some friends to help you serve finger foods and hors d’oeuvres. Budget weddings can be just as wonderful as expensive weddings, and you won’t spend yourself in a pit. Who wants to enter their marriage in debt?