Everyone would like an amazing wedding. Everyone would also like to be able to say that they didn’t save any expense when it came to organizing their wedding day. But the truth is most of us need to organize the wedding ceremony and reception on a tight budget, so any way that we can use to save a little bit of money is more than welcome. We put together a list of excellent money saving ideas for your wedding that anyone can use.

1. Print things yourself

We know that you probably take great pride in having beautiful wedding invitations. But the stone cold truth is that nobody really cares about how the wedding invitation looks like, they just care about the information in it. So, instead of having them professionally printed and engraved, why not do it yourself, using your printer? Make a clever design, buy some pretty paper and you’re on your way to having great wedding invitations at a discount price. Also: when it comes to the wedding programs and the menus for the reception: repeat all of the above steps.

2. DJs are heroes

Wedding bands are overrated. And they overcharge you as well. A DJ will play any song that a wedding band will try to cover, sometimes poorly, and will never tell you that he doesn’t know how to play a specific song that the wedding guests want to hear. Plus, a DJ is one person, so the costs of hiring a DJ vs hiring a band don’t even come close.

3. Save on the wedding cake

A wedding cake is the centerpiece of any wedding table, but the really elaborate and large wedding cakes can really rank up the costs. There’s also a little known secret about wedding cakes: they’re sometimes not really that tasty, since when it comes to making wedding cakes, the way they look is given a lot more importance than their taste. The affordable option is to have a smaller wedding cake to appear in all the pictures and having actually tasty sheet cake to offer your guests.

4. Open bar

A wedding without an open bar may be considered a cheap wedding. Depending on your guests, this could also be an incredibly expensive option, because someone will have to pick up that bar tab. An option that people follow is to have the wine, beer and all non-alcoholic drinks be free and have the hard liquor and spirits be paid for. Some will even tell you that this is a good idea to stop some of your guests from getting too drunk, although that’s probably not going to stop them in the end.

5. DIY

Our last advice is a general one. Anything that you can do yourself, do it. From arranging the flowers to making the centerpieces for the tables, if you like doing things with your hands and you’re good at it, go right ahead. It will not only be cheaper, it will give the wedding a far more personal touch.