When I finally decided which dress was “the one,” I called several bridal salons to find the best pricing. During my inquiries, I discovered that my dress came in two types of fabrics: silky taffeta and Godavari Silk. Godavari Silk was the material I had tried on at the bridal store. When I found out the price for silky taffeta, I was ecstatic! It was $300 less than the Godavari Silk!

But I was a little skeptical. What if the fabric is cheap looking? There was only one way to find out. I went to another bridal shop that carried the same dress in silky taffeta. Not only was the fabric more beautiful than Godavari Silk, it was much, much lighter and had a beautiful sheen to it. It made Godavari Silk look like dull, heavy drapery. Haha! In the end, I came out with a gorgeous dress and I was instantly $300 richer. I was the happiest bride on earth!

If you’ve got a bit of Martha Stewart in you, try baking your wedding cupcakes yourself. It might sound like an impossible feat but it’s much easier to tackle than a traditional wedding cake. Just imagine all the money you’ll save!

I remember baking cupcakes out of the box as a child. It was fun and easy and most importantly…delicious! I’ve never made cupcakes from scratch but looking at the recipes, it doesn’t seem too hard even for an inexperienced baker. And if it doesn’t work out, you know you’ll always have Betty Crocker as your backup. Shhh…you’re guests will never know!

CupcakeRecipes.com provides a variety of recipes that you might want to consider for your wedding cupcakes. I’m not much of a baker myself but these recipes seem easy enough. There’s even a section about wedding cupcakes with some useful tips.

I know it’s easier to watch a demonstration on how to bake cupcakes rather than read about it so I’ve also included some how-to videos on cupcakes. (You can navigate the videos by hovering your mouse over the video and using the right and left arrows in the middle of the screen.)

I just started planning my honeymoon and I came across a travel blog called Champagne Travel on a Beer Budget. I must admit, it caught my eye simply because we have rather similar slogans…champagne wedding on a beer budget vs. champagne travel on a beer budget.

I checked out the site and discovered that it’s a valuable resource for soon-to-be newlyweds planning their honeymoon. The blog offers great tips on how to get an upgrade when you fly or where to get the most bang for your buck. I love the post about where to rent your own private island for less than $100! I never knew that was possible but it sounds like a truly romantic honeymoon if you ask me. Champagne Travel on a Beer Budget is a great blog and will come in handy even after I’ve planned my honeymoon.

In the early stages of my wedding planning, I truly had no clue what I was doing. I booked a hair and makeup artist without doing any research whatsoever. Her fee was $375 and an additional $150 for the trial. Of course you can’t go without a trial run…so that put me at $525 for hair and makeup and that doesn’t even include tip!

“Are you nuts?!?!” was the reaction I got from a close friend. Retrospectively, I think I was. Haha! Who in their right mind would pay that kind of money on hair and makeup alone? Since then, I’ve discovered ways to avoid spending that kind of cash on your wedding day hair and makeup.

Let’s start with makeup. You should not have to hire a professional for this.

• Do your own makeup. Most of us have had 10+ years of experience doing our own makeup, I think we can manage just fine the day of the wedding.
• If you aren’t comfortable doing your own makeup or if you just want a different look, try recruiting a friend or a bridesmaid. I’m sure you have at least one friend who’s great at this.
• Go to the makeup counters at department stores and learn a tip or two. Try on different colors and techniques to achieve the look you’re going for then replicate it.
• Practice makes perfect so practice, practice, practice!

You may be able to do your own hair on a day to day basis but it’s difficult to do wedding hair or know someone who can do wedding hair. This is where I think it’s worth spending the money to get it professionally done. But that doesn’t mean you have to pay an obscene amount of money for it either.

• Instead of hiring the hair stylist to come to you, go to them. It’s convenient, yes…but at what cost?
• Ask for a group discount at the hair salon. Chances are your mom and your bridesmaids will want their hair styled as well.
• Consider getting your hair done at a salon school. I know it sounds scary but that’s what trial runs are for.

I’m lucky to have a friend tell me I was nuts. The day after, I canceled my contract and lost $25 for the processing fee but got the rest of my deposit back. That was a good lesson learned…not bad for $25 because in the end, I still came out a winner!

Check out these cute Personalized Wedding Lemonade Mix favors from MyWeddingFavors.com. If you’re having a summer wedding or beach wedding, these favors are perfect! There’s 20 designs to choose from with two lines of text for your names and your wedding date. So cute and so unique! At $1.60 a piece, these are definitely an affordable option for favors. Plus, MyWeddingFavors.com has an ongoing promotion for 10% off if you spend over $150. Use coupon code “SAVE10″. That brings the price down to $1.44 per favor! It doesn’t get better than that.

The time has come to talk about the dreaded topic…the wedding budget. With our economy in a recession, the dollar just doesn’t stretch very far. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you’ll soon realize that the mere mention of the word “wedding” drives prices up through the roof. I call it the “wedding tax.” This is how the wedding industry remains a multi-billion dollar industry year after year.

Since most of us have never planned a wedding before, wedding budgeting can be a real challenge. The first step is to find out who is contributing to the wedding and how much. It’s quite common for couples these days to pay for the entire wedding themselves. Tally up the total and take 80% of that figure. This is your budget. You will want some breathing room because you will soon realize how easy it is to go over budget.

Next, find out the average cost of a wedding in your area by going to CostOfWedding.com. This is a very good resource. They show you the average spent by couples in your zip code and they also break down the costs into categories such as, wedding dress, ceremony & reception locations, flowers, wedding cake, etc. You can get a good sense of how far your budget will take you.

After you do some research, create a budget list for yourself. I like to use The Knot’s Wedding Budgeter. It’s a great tool to keep you on track. Remember…when entering in your budget, put in 80% of what you can afford to allow yourself some leeway.

This should be a good start to your wedding budgeting. I will get into finances at a later time. Happy budgeting!