How to Plan A Simple and Frugal Wedding in 6 Months - Part 1

Step 1: Phone your venue of choice and set a tentative date.

Step 2: Choose an officiator and set a date. The officiator will travel to the location where your wedding ceremony will be held. He or she may also wish to meet up and discuss your relationship/thoughts about marriage and other details.

Step 3: Meet with event manager and lock in your wedding date. Discuss details such as time of day wedding will be held, open or cash bar, cocktail hour appetizers, dinner selections. Discuss any questions you may have.

Step 4: Begin writing up the guest list. This may change as things progress. Parents often find people to add. Choose your bridal party if you plan to have one. We kept things simple, and had only a maid of honor, best man, and ring bearer (our son).

Step 5: Do a price comparison on the cake bakery. I am embarrassed to say that we spent about $350 on the cake because we didn't shop around. I'm told my friend got her wedding cake for $15! Select a bakery and give them an idea of the design/type of cake you'd like.

Step 6: Start hunting for your wedding dress. This is one of the more time-intensive aspects of getting married. Like any bride, you want to look good on your wedding day.

Step 7: Choose your music: wedding DJ, band, or both? We ended up having both, but only because our band guy informed us that this was what "the kids" enjoyed.

Step 8. Purchase wedding invitations. We bought ours online, but you can print them yourself if you know how.  

Step 9: Begin collecting the addresses of people you plan to invite. Parents are typically a good source for this type of information.

Step 10: Follow up with wedding event manager and cake baker about the anticipated number of guests. Do a food tasting if you insist on one. We didn't. The guy told us the food was excellent, and we believed him. It really was!

Step 11: Buy your dress! Be sure it's at least 2 sizes bigger than your street size. Anticipate alterations.

Step 12: Initiate a discussion about what the bridesmaids and maid of honor will be wearing. I personally was very relaxed about this. You may decide that you want everyone to wear a specific dress, in a specific color. Or, you may choose the color but allow them to wear whatever style of dress is most flattering for each person. Finally – you might just say something like, "Everyone wear black!"

Read Steps 13 through 26, here