It is not proper etiquette to have a cash bar at any wedding, so you’ll have to do a little investigative work to save some money and stay on budget.  Pash Weddings has collected some of the top tips out there, so that you can make it look like you spent a fortune on your champagne and bar offerings.

• Explore the world of wines at www.winespectator.com, where you’ll read all about the best-rated wines out there from all regions of the world, and find great bottles of wine under $20 apiece (sometimes at $10 apiece!) that taste amazing. Wine connoisseurs have named these vintages as the best, so you’re offering high quality at 1/3 the price.
• Talk to your chef about doing wine and food pairings as part of the cocktail party and dinner, and you’ll be able to save money by bringing those wines out from behind the bar and serving them with specially-chosen dishes and bites. This seems like you have a wide range of drinks going on, but in pairing them with foods, you’re really able to limit the number of pricier full glass versions at the bar because you have tons of options around the room. It looks like you spent a fortune.
• Just serve a great variety of beer and wine at the reception, rather than a full bar of hard liquors. When you offer a great list of wines in a variety of tastes and boldness, your guests won’t miss the pricier hard liquor drinks. Serve unique microbrew beers as well as the usuals for the look of extravagance without high prices.
• Just have one or two mixed drink options at your bar, such as martinis and Jack and Cokes to limit the amount of hard liquor needed.
• Serve sangrias in a variety of flavors, both white and red, for a unique offering that doesn’t cost a lot. Guests love having something they don’t get everyday.
• If you’ll serve hard liquor, choose mid-shelf varieties rather than top-shelf for extra savings.
• Make it a rule that no shots will be served at your bar. That’s too much hard liquor consumption.
• Don’t serve after-dinner drinks with alcohol in them. You don’t need Sambuca, or Irish coffee if you’re on a budget.
• Have the bartenders stop opening fresh bottles of wine an hour before your reception ends. You pay for any bottles that have been uncorked, so make it a rule that nothing is to be opened after a certain hour unless there are no opened bottles left and the bar is still open. You want to avoid having ten opened bottles of wine with just one glass poured out of each.
• Arrange to take any open bottles of wine with you, corked for safe travel and legal transport in your car or to be brought up to your hotel suite.
• Don’t have a champagne toast. Guests can toast you with whatever’s in their glasses at the time. This will save you a lot of money.
• Have the site serve regular water, instead of imported bottled water.
• Provide a selection of great soft drinks, including iced tea and lemonade for summer weddings. Guests do want refreshing drinks, and many will only have one glass of wine.
• In cooler months, ask about the pricing on hot spiced cider or hot chocolate. The hot chocolate bar with all the fixings is going to cost less than an international coffee bar, so ask about this creative twist as a fun way to end your winter wedding.
• Close the bar an hour before the end of your reception, with only coffee service remaining. It saves you hundreds of dollars and is safer for your guests.
• Ask the site about their ‘dead stock,’ those bottles of wine they have in their basement that used to be on their wine list and haven’t been returned to their supplier yet. Can you have them for a discount? This is a great way to save hundreds on your wine supply.
• Find a great discount liquor store and supply your own wines, beers and drinks if you can, and use this option for any showers or pre-wedding parties.

Save the Dates are important because they announce your wedding date and set the tone of your wedding.  If you are looking for something less formal, magnets or postcards may be a good option.  Magnets come in a variety of sizes and can be customized with text or pictures.  Magnet Street offers a variety of templates to play with.

If you are on a tight budget, postcards may be a better option.  Target and WalMart offer photo postcards on their website that can be printed for about 33 cents a piece. These can also be customized with photos and text, and can be picked up at a local store or delivered directly to your home.  These postcards are a professional and inexpensive way to announce your wedding.

Wedding cakes can be quite costly, running in the thousands of dollars depending on the size and style.  For brides with a tight budget, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Instead of ordering a large multi-tiered cake, get a smaller cake and a few undecorated sheet cakes.  You can still have the joy of cutting your pretty cake with your husband, and your guests will never know they are eating sheet cake.

When my best friends accepted their invitation to be my bridesmaids, I promised them an inexpensive and cute dress.  Little did I know that a chic and low cost bridesmaid dress is hard to come by!  Most of the dresses I found were either far beyond my price range or were frilly monstrosities that looked like they belonged in a Disney parade.

After countless hours of searching, I finally found NetBride.  This budget wedding haven offers designer dresses at reasonable prices.  I chose a simple black Bill Levkoff dress that was under $100.  Since this is a popular designer, the dress was available in local bridal shops (for double the price) and my bridesmaids could try on the actual dress to find their size.  I ordered the dresses on NetBride’s website, and received them two weeks before they were scheduled to be delivered.  Cute, inexpensive, and on time….can’t get any better than that!

The hardest decision I had to make was what to give my husband on our wedding day.   As a poor grad student, I didn’t have the means to buy anything fancy, so I had to be creative.  I finally decided to get him cologne.  I picked out a scent that I liked, put it inside a Mr. Potato Head Spud Trooper (he collects them), and had my maid of honor deliver it to him the morning of our wedding.

Later that day as I walked down the aisle, I was met by the smell of the cologne.  During the reception, I could still smell it as we danced to our wedding song.  Now when he wears it, I am taken back to that day and remember the joy and romance of our “I dos” and first dance.

I am about to share the best secret on the web: Blurb.com.  At Blurb, you can create a professionally bound wedding album for as little as $12.95.   My favorite thing about this site was the ability to design the book myself, and it was so easy!  They offer dozens of page layouts that range from single photos to collages, and you can add text, borders, and ornaments to complement your photos.

Once you finish your book, you just submit it online, and they send it to you in the mail.  I created one for my parents that had more photos of me and my family, and then another book for my inlaws with more photos of my husband and their family. It made a great personalized thank you gift.

According to the Bridal Association of America , the average cost for a wedding officiant is $263.00.  An inexpensive alternative, and a more personable option, is to have  a friend or family member serve as your officiant.  Thanks to the smorgasbord of ministries online,  your selected officiant can become ordained for free (plus a nominal fee of $10 for the certificate) in as little as one day!  In addition to saving a couple hundred bucks, you can have a more intimate wedding ceremony overseen by someone close to you and your fiance.

The postal service is raising their rates, which means the price of stamps are going up to 42 cents from 41 cents.  1 penny may not seem like a lot but when you factor in the already high price of postage, it can add up.  Not only does this affect RSVP cards, but it could affect wedding invitation postage costs as well depending on how heavy they are.  So depending on the timing of your wedding, you might want to see how this affects you and make budget adjustments accordingly.

The other option which I am a big fan of is using an online RSVP tool.  Free wedding websites like those from WeddingWire offer online RSVP as an option to the wedding websites.  Many wedding website companies will charge for this feature, but you shouldn’t have to pay for it.

The honeymoon can be a large portion of your wedding budget, but it also doesn’t have to be.  Trying to find a destination that will fit your budget may not be as hard as you think.  When considering destinations, think about what’s important to you.  Do you really need to have a beach honeymoon?  If so, consider destinations with all inclusive packages like Jamiaca or in the Carribean, but also don’t overlook locations like Hilton Head, SC.  If you’re getting married in late fall or early spring, think about going skiing in Colorado or Lake Tahoe.  Another option is to simply visit a city you’ve never been to, like New York City, San Francisco or Washington, DC. 

Also, be sure to look for travel specials.  Try this new site SideStep for some great travel specials.

You have lots of decisions to make about your wedding, and the first decision is that of priorities.  The Wedding Photojournalist Association wrote an article about this choice and some tips on how to help pick a photographer.  Take a look at the article as it might help you make a more educated decision not only about how to pick a wedding photographer, but also what’s important to you as that will affect your budget allocation for a wedding photographer.

 Read Wedding Photojournalist Association Article