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Some might find this hard to believe, but planning a cheap wedding is quite easy to do. It’s also great fun and can be really unique and creative too! So if you’re planning a cheap wedding in the future, here are some great tips and ideas for you…

1. Cheap Wedding Locations. Planning a cheap wedding location is not impossible. In fact, you can have wedding ceremonies in a variety of places that are completely free. The local park is a great example. There’s usually no cost to go to a public park, and planning a cheap wedding ceremony there doesn’t usually require any permits or other fees either. Double check with your local city authorities just to be sure first of course.

The Beach is another free place to have a wedding ceremony, as is many churches for that matter. Other ideas include: Having your ceremony at a family member’s home, or having the ceremony in your own back yard. If the wedding couple loves nature, it may be free or very inexpensive to have the wedding ceremony at a local zoo, nature reserve, or flower conservatory too.

2. Cheap Wedding Receptions. Planning a cheap wedding reception is not too difficult either. One way to keep the reception super cheap is to make it a pot luck meal. You can have the guests each bring their own dish, and this could be requested in place of having them buy you wedding presents if you’d like.

If you’d rather not ask guests to bring food for your wedding reception, then ask a few family members to get together and cook the food as a wedding gift to you.

Planning a cheap wedding reception should also involve choosing cheap or free locations for the reception too. Try to make the wedding reception co-incide with the ceremony in some way. If you plan to have your wedding ceremony in the gazebo at the park for instance, then plan for the reception to be a barbecue or picnic style event in that same park.

Another easy and cheap example of course, is if you have the wedding ceremony in your home. Then you can plan to have the reception in your home as well, or out in the backyard if the weather is nice. If you’re planning a cheap wedding on the beach, an excellent reception idea is to have a beach party afterwards… bonfire and all.

3. Cheap Wedding Decorations. When planning a cheap wedding you’ll of course need to keep the cost of decorations down as much as possible. You don’t have to go without them completely though, you just need to improvise.

Instead of buying expensive flowers for instance, try decorating with balloons and streamers instead. Go to a local craft or fabric store and buy a few spools of pretty ribbon, then tie the balloons together with strips of the ribbon done up in a bow. Also tie the ribbons into bows themselves, then tape the ribbon bows around for decorations by themselves.

Another idea for creating cheap table decorations is to simply collect some pretty rocks. Wash them clean, then arrange them creatively on tables or other surfaces. You could even paint the rocks to match your desired wedding color theme.

Here’s a great idea if you’re planning a cheap wedding that will have an outdoor, picnic or barbecue style reception: buy pretty paper plates and napkins instead of using expensive china dishes.

As you can see with just these few ideas, planning a cheap wedding can actually be a lot of fun!