Affordable weddings!

A friend of mine had asked me earlier to tell everyone how I was able to get away with a gorgeous, yet very inexpensive wedding. Seeing how budgets are tight and everything with "wedding" on it is quite expensive. I have compiled a list of things for you to think of when planning your wedding.
1) What are the things you really want for your wedding, but they may be pricey? and what can you do without... Mine was, I wanted princess earrings (yes, from Disney Bridal) and the headband. Bridal headbands don't come cheap. I chose to do away with a DJ. Instead I compiled all of my music on to a cd and a had a friend que it up. That saved tons of money right there.
2) Next, a dress is very expensive, but you don't need the greatest, biggest, most expensive dress out there. Look online, do some research, find the style you like best and don't let the consultants change your mind. They love to put you in a dress that is $200 over budget.I was able to find my dress on discount-the designer discontinued the brand, therefore that saved.
3) Find a venue that is lovely. You don't need to spend 10,000 dollars on a place. This can be costly and this isn't even budgeting in food. A lot of places cater but it is $$. I found a place that catered, but I chose hor de'euves, seeing as my wedding was at 2pm. If you don't want to spend a bunch of money on feeding your guest. 2pm and 7pm weddings are perfect. You can give some snacks which are fathoms cheaper than feeding a lot of people.

I was blessed to have a dear family friend make the cake, and I have tons of family that took pictures. Which I am glad because my photographer sucked. Oh! speaking of photographers.. make sure you sign a contract. My friend had one bail a month prior to her wedding, and had a tough time getting a new one, and the original photographer who was to do my wedding decided to do another event because they paid more. So this is very important.

I was able to pull off a very nice, beautiful wedding for about 4k. It's doable! I promise!