When my niece got married last June, she and her spouse found lots of ways to save money.

They hired a caterer to serve finger food all night and slashed the rental fees for tables, chairs and cutlery at a sit-down dinner. They had a friend play their personal selection of music with an MP3 player, computer and speakers, eliminating the cost of a disk jockey.

The bride’s mother baked mini-cupcakes and stacked them on trays to look like a wedding cake, saving hundreds of dollars for a store-bought product.

Welcome to the new world of weddings, where brides and grooms shoulder some or all the costs. Excess is out. Extreme frugality is in.

Justin Moy and Andrea Lee plan to get married next year. Their original idea was to invite 150 guests to a multi-course Chinese meal at a banquet hall, with a budget of up to $30,000.

“We just bought a house and we’re crazy in debt,” says Lee, 24. “So, now we hope to keep the cost under $10,000.”

While searching for ways to economize, they found they could win $10,000 from ING Direct for a wedding. Couples had to submit a video on the theme: How do you do date night on a budget?

The winning couple can use ING’s downtown Toronto café for a ceremony next February, with the $10,000 going toward a reception at another venue.

Moy, 24, is a professional video assistant at CTV’s MuchMusic and moonlights as a wedding photographer. His expertly edited video, which shows the couple picking apples, is one of three finalists in the contest.

You can vote online for the best video until Oct. 18. The winner will be announced Oct. 21.

“We had almost 1,000 votes in the first four days, showing how engaged people are with the issue,” says Mark Nicholson, head of digital, creative and communications at ING, now owned by Scotiabank.

ING ran its first video contest, called the Superstar Saver Search, in 2007. YouTube had just launched in Canada at the time.

It offered a $10,000 prize in a Superstar Saver Search last May, featuring a Canadian indie band, Walk Off The Earth, doing a cover and video of Madonna’s hit, Material Girl.

“Weddings cost a fortune,” says Nicholson, explaining the origin of the latest video contest. “Young people are riddled with debt after college or university and then go further into debt to throw a grandiose wedding.

“They need to have these tough conversations about money as they get into a relationship. When you talk to couples, one in five knows nothing about their partner’s finances.”

A Canadian wedding is expected to cost $23,458 in 2013, according to Wedding Bells magazine. It rises to $27,658 with the engagement ring included and $32,358 with the honeymoon thrown in.

The wedding venue is the biggest expense at $9,430 (or $76 per guest). The photographer accounts for $2,300, the bridal gown $1,975, the florist and décor $1,478 and the DJ or musicians $1,250.

When asked about budgets, 69 per cent of brides said they were likely to exceed the amount they had expected to spend on their weddings.

ING offers advice to future brides and grooms about not going overboard:

Find people you know who can provide services, such as whipping up a wedding cake or growing fresh flowers.

Ask yourselves what you want to stand out on your wedding day. Guests usually gab about the food, so you don’t want to skimp there.

Build in a contingency fund. Set money aside in case you run into unforeseen expenses.

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Check your budget status regularly. As you find ways to save money on your wedding, adjust your budget accordingly.

Collaborate on costs as a couple, ING advises. Hold each other accountable and keep each other from going “from wedded bliss to financial miss.”