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