Wedding Ideas

When you’re planning a wedding, most of your attention is focused on the big picture: the location, the dress, the food, the guest list. You don’t want to get too caught up in the small stuff and make yourself crazy, but you still want to include all those little unique wedding details that reflect who you two are as a couple.  

The trick to finding this balance is cutting out the details you don’t care about and focusing on items that do matter to you. Favors not your thing? Great, scale back or eliminate them and focus on finding the quirky cake topper you really want. 

Browse Etsy wedding shops for affordable and artisan-made wedding decorations that capture your style and personality. 

Stylish Wedding Details 

Table numbers

1. Tie the Knot 

These rope knot table card holders add a sophisticated, nautical look to your wedding reception. They are ideal for coastal or warm-weather weddings.

2. Rustic Burlap 

Each of these hand-cut burlap tags is stamped with a number in the color of your choice, treated to prevent fraying and includes a jute string for hanging. Attach table numbers to mason jars, vases or picture frames for a rustic chic look. 

3. Cubed 

These elegant table numbers are printed in black ink on textured ivory paper and held in place in beautiful walnut-stained wooden cubes. 

Cake Toppers 

1. Love Birds 

What better way to celebrate you two lovebirds? This Etsy wedding shop personalizes food-safe porcelain birds perfect to perch on your wedding cake. 

2. Classic Bride & Groom 

Send this Etsy artist photos, and she will paint detailed vintage-style wooden cake topper dolls to look like you. The design comes with a wood base and a customizable banner with four fabric flags on twine. 

3. Two Hearts 

The simple wedding details are often the best. This set of two heart-shaped cake toppers is personalized with your initials and wedding date. 

What Etsy wedding shops have you discovered? Share your favorites in the comments! 

Browse our selection of matching wedding bands 

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Spring is in the air! (And if winter is still clinging on where you live, we hope it reaches you soon.) Spring is a beautiful time of year to say, “I do,” and start your life as a married couple. Here are a few fresh spring wedding ideas to help you bring out the flavors and favors you love (without breaking the bank). 

Wedding Favors 

• Give guests a memento that will last long after the ceremony. Buy small packets of seeds for your favorite flowers, herbs or vegetables and give them as favors, or get crafty with this easy DIY seed matchbook project.
• If you have a favorite local specialty in the place you’re getting married, such as apricot jam, acacia honey or Texas hot sauce, find small, attractive jars or bottles to give to guests.

Food

You’re in luck! Spring has an abundance of seasonal produce that you can incorporate into the menu of your budget wedding reception. These spring wedding ideas are sure to be crowd-pleasers:

• Asparagus: Crispy asparagus and cheese wrapped in puff pastry for an appetizer or roasted asparagus with browned butter as a side dish
• Apricots: Fresh apricot, walnut and goat cheese tarts for an appetizer
• Arugula and strawberries: Side salad with arugula, strawberries and almonds 

Cakes

Get colorful and flavorful with your wedding cake! 

• Incorporate in-season fruit into the filling or decorations, or adorn the top of the cake with bright, fresh flowers.
• If you’re not really a cake person, explore other dessert options, such as cupcakes, fruit tarts, ice cream sundaes or easter egg candies.

What budget wedding ideas do you recommend for a spring wedding? Share your ideas in the comments!

Browse our matching wedding ring sets 

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Are you dreaming of a day at the spa with your maid of honor? Do you wish you could afford that designer wedding gown? Are you frustrated that you can't find affordable and original wedding accessories? Some couples feel frustrated planning a budget wedding, because they wish they could stretch their wedding dollars a little further. Fortunately, there are many different helpful sites on the internet that can help you do just that.

Planning a Wedding on a Budget Online

1. Groupon or Living Social

If you want to use Groupon or Living Social to allow you to make some budget wedding splurges, then you might first wish to make a list of your wedding priorities. Both Groupon and Living Social are unpredictable in their offerings, so you won't want to wait until the last minute to find a great deal on your wedding essentials. Instead, depending on how long your engagement will be, you probably want to go ahead and make arrangements for the basics (ceremony site, wedding gown, food) along the way as you begin planning a wedding on a budget.

But as interesting things become available on Groupon or Living Social, you might find that you are able to get great deals that allow you to make a few splurges on extras. Maybe you will get a huge discount at your favorite spa to purchase massages for yourself and your husband-to-be as a wedding gift, or manicures and pedicures for yourself and your bridesmaids. Perhaps you will find an amazing travel deal for a budget honeymoon destination. Or maybe you will purchase an amazing restaurant deal for a girls' night out before the wedding.

2. Ebay

Ebay is a great place to start budget wedding shopping, because you can bid just as much as you are willing to pay for an item, and no more. You just enter your maximum bid, and you will find out at the end of the auction whether you won the item you hoped to buy. On Ebay, you can search for dresses, veils, shoes, wedding jewelry, unused wedding favors, wedding decor, and just about anything else you can think of.

3. Etsy

If you are planning a wedding on a budget, then Etsy is an excellent site for finding lovely, eclectic, handmade touches for your wedding, sometimes at an excellent price. What about a vintage inspired 1950's ivory wedding dress for $105? Or custom-designed stickers to place on the bottom of Hershey's Kisses as favors on the reception table, only $13 for 540 stickers? Whatever your unique budget wedding vision, you are likely to find something creative and beautiful that fits the bill on Etsy.

Plan your budget wedding today!

Photo Credit: Horia Varlan

If you haven't discovered Pinterest yet, it's time that you do. The site allows you to share the beautiful and interesting things that you find on the web quickly and easily. It's free to register on Pinterest, and it's incredibly useful for discovering creative budget wedding ideas. 

Start by visiting Pinterest.com and start a free account. Select the people whose pinboards you want to follow (both friends and those you don't know personally). Then create pinboards for the topics that interest you, such as "Recipes," "Ideas for the Home," and, of course, "Wedding Inspiration." With the click of your mouse, you can now pin the photos you discover on the web and repin photos that other people have shared on their boards. One word of caution: Pinterest is seriously addictive.

Here are 5 ways that you can use Pinterest to plan the budget wedding of your dreams:

1. Save-the-Dates and Invitations

The easiest way to decide on the style of Save-the-Dates and Invitations is to look at a variety of examples and see what catches your eye. Do you prefer a modern design, or a more classic one? Splashy or understated? Whether you are planning a destination wedding or a homegrown event, you'll find inspiration for wedding planning on a budget.

2. Engagement & Wedding Photography

You may have rolled your eyes when you've seen run-of-the-mill engagement and wedding photography. Make sure to avoid cheesy poses yourself by finding creative shots on Pinterest and showing them to your photographer. Get ideas for props you can use in your engagement photos, such as chalkboards for writing fun messages, and start brainstorming unexpected settings. Give your photographer suggestions for uncommon wedding day poses and shots to capture.

3. Wedding Decor

Pinterest users (or "Pinners") share wedding decor ideas galore. Find pictures of gorgeous place settings for indoor or outdoor weddings, sweet wedding favors, and simple flower arrangements. You're sure to find the perfect accents for your budget wedding, including eco-friendly and DIY options. .

4. Bridal Style

You'll find many different ideas for bridal style on Pinterest. Pictures of wedding dresses range from elegant to simple to funky. You'll find ideas for wedding day shoes, jewelry, and styles for every kind of hair. There are even accessories that you can make yourself if you're wedding planning on a budget.

5. Honeymoon

What kind of honeymoon would you like to follow your budget wedding? One of the biggest benefits of Pinterest is that it displays a plethora of beautiful photos side by side. You can browse through them and decide whether you'd like to save or splurge on your honeymoon, and what kind of experience you'd like to have. Do you want to lounge on a tropical beach? Go camping in the wilderness, or ride the roller coasters at a Disney theme park?

BONUS - 6. Follow My Trio Rings!

My Trio Rings has created a number of pinboards which cover unique engagement and wedding rings spanning the entire web in addition to pictures of the latest ring styles and designs in the industry and by My Trio Rings. Follow the pinboards to see updates to these boards!

To look for wedding ideas on Pinterest, hover over the "Everything" option on your home screen with your mouse, then choose "Wedding & Events" from the drop-down menu. You can also use the Pinterest search bar to search by keyword for a specific type of item.

Happy pinning!

Last edited; 4/18/2012. Photo credit: Pinterest

Anyone who is planning a wedding, and especially someone who is planning a wedding on a budget, can benefit from gathering creative ideas from other people’s weddings. Budget weddings can be made more personal with inexpensive ideas from other cultures or even from popular wedding movies. So make some popcorn and cuddle with your fiancé on the couch to watch a movie about weddings to start the ideas flowing. Here are a few movies to get you started.

Love Actually

Love Actually is a romantic comedy that features the intertwining stories of several different couples. Early in the movie, Peter and Juliet’s wedding includes a delightful scene. After Peter and Juliet are married and turn to walk down the aisle together as man and wife, the curtains of the choir loft open, and a choir begins to sing the popular Beatles song “All You Need is Love.” Several of the wedding guests are in on the surprise and stand up to join in the song, playing instruments such as flutes, saxophones, and even an electric guitar. Such a musical event may be quite difficult to orchestrate in real life, especially for a budget wedding. However, you could use this scene as inspiration to come up with a way that your musically talented friends could participate in your wedding. A group of your friends might agree to play a favorite song during your ceremony or reception, perhaps in lieu of a wedding gift.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Toula struggles to balance her cultural traditions with a more mainstream wedding. By including her sometimes crazy family in the wedding plans, Toula is able to save money by taking advantage of family heirlooms such as traditional Greek Orthodox wedding crowns from her grandmother. She is able to take advantage of family connections with different retailers around town, and she even has lots of help from her large family as they all do each other’s hair and makeup before the wedding, saving a great deal of money. If you are planning a wedding on a budget, use this movie as inspiration to get you thinking about how you can honor your family’s cultural traditions and also get help from family members who have specific skills that might be useful and save you money.

What other ideas have you seen in the movies for planning a budget wedding?

Photo Credit: Corey Ann

Smart couples in the process of planning a budget wedding recognize the need to prioritize their wedding dreams in order to stay in control of their budget. Many couples prefer to spend their money on big-ticket items like a professional photographer, a beautiful bridal ring set, or a gourmet wedding cake. It is easy to forget how quickly the cost of the smaller details adds up in a budget wedding. One easy way to save money is to get creative with DIY wedding projects and materials you already have on hand. A unique and inexpensive wedding guestbook, for example, might be as close as your desk drawer. Here are a few creative ideas to get you started.

1. Decoupage your own photo book.

Find an unused composition book in your desk, or buy one inexpensively at a local office supply store. Collect photos of you and your spouse to be. For a more formal black and white look, xerox the photographs, and decoupage the black and white versions onto the guestbook. Mix your own decoupage solution by gradually adding water to white glue until it reaches a texture that is easily spreadable with a paintbrush. Paint the surface of the composition book with the glue solution before placing a photo. Once the photo is positioned, paint over the entire top of the photo. Repeat until the front and back covers are covered with special memories. Let dry completely before use.

2. Invite guests to write on index cards or recipe cards.

Find or purchase a stack of index cards or recipe cards, and put a small stack on each table at your budget wedding reception. Instead of the standard guestbook station, ask your family and friends to fill out an index card for you during the reception with a favorite easy family recipe on one side and their wishes for the bride and groom on the other side. After the wedding, you can store the cards in a small filing box; you could also punch holes on the sides of the cards and tie them together with piece of ribbon.

3. Ask your guests to sign scrapbook pages or a photo mat.

Set out a couple of pages of wedding-themed scrapbook paper and high-quality pens for guests to sign papers that will either go straight into your wedding scrapbook or could also be framed and displayed. If you know that you’ll be displaying your guests’ wishes in your home, ask guests to sign a large photo mat with a thin black marker or pen. When your wedding photos are printed, choose your favorite one to frame with the signed mat. Consider picking a black and white close-up photo of you and your new spouse holding hands; it will show off the bridal ring set surrounded by heartfelt messages from your wedding guests.

What are your creative ideas for a budget wedding guestbook?

Photo Credit: Corey Ann

Some brides and grooms feel that planning a wedding on a budget means cutting a lot of corners. But using budget wedding sites and finding a great deal on a unique wedding ring set are just a couple of the ways that smart couples find room in their budget to splurge on the things that really matter to them. It can also be less expensive and more special to deviate a bit from the typical American wedding (and the expensive mainstream wedding industry) to bring in cultural traditions from other parts of the world.

1. Japanese Weddings

After traditional Japanese weddings, the bride and groom trade their formal kimonos for pants and shirts in order to sing karaoke, act out skits, and play games with their wedding guests. These kinds of activities are a fun and inexpensive way to spend time with out-of-town guests, even if you are planning a wedding on a budget.

2. South African Weddings

After the wedding, the bride’s family brings fire from their own home to light a fire in the fireplace of the newlyweds in their new home. This could be a nice ceremony to incorporate into your wedding celebration if you are saving money by having a wedding reception in your home.

3. Filipino Weddings

In the Philippines, the newly married couple dances together as the bride’s family and friends race the groom’s family and friends to see who can pin more dollar bills onto the clothing of the bride and groom. The newlyweds get to take this money home with them after the reception. This contest is helpful to anyone who is planning a wedding on a budget because it brings in a little extra cash for you to start your life together as a married couple. Several other cultures also have a variation of this dollar dance at the wedding reception.

4. Dutch Weddings

In the Netherlands, family and friends of the bride and groom plant lily-of-the-valley bulbs all around the couple’s home to help the couple celebrate the renewal of their love each year when the flowers bloom. If you and your spouse-to-be have chosen a home with an outdoor area that can accommodate a garden, take advantage of this tradition and let your loved ones help with the planting.

5. Mexican Weddings

Traditional food at Mexican weddings includes such staples as rice, beans, and tortillas. Choosing to have a Mexican-themed reception could be significantly less expensive than trying to feed steak or salmon to your wedding guests. Mexican wedding cookies or cakes can also be inexpensive to make yourself.

Photo: Mark Sebastian