This entry is from our Expert Guest series where wedding and honeymoon professionals share their best tips on creating memories that last a lifetime.

Every Bride’s goal is to have a stress-free wedding day, right?  Well, we have helped a lot of our couples not only save time and money, but also prevent unnecessary stress with some great ideas for their big day. Here are 10 hacks to make your wedding day that much more awesome.

Best Wedding Hacks For a Budget-Friendly, Stress-Free Day

Wedding centerpieces

Tip 1   Save Money On Your Flowers

You can share your wedding flowers by working through a company like Bloomerent.com or you can opt into something completely different and gorgeous like fabric flower from Eco Flowers. The “flowers” are simply stunning and you can even add a fragrance to them! Our June bride can’t wait to display her bouquet in her home for years to come!  

Tip 2   Wholesale Flowers

Don’t want to go the second hand route? Order your flowers from places like Fifty Flowers, Wholes Foods Market or even source them through a local farm to DIY your flower centerpieces using empty wine bottles or mason jars. If you have a Day-of Coordinator they can totally handle the setup the day-of and will have your wedding looking like you hired a florist.

Table numbersTip 3   Table Numbers

Double your engagement photos, take them and add your table numbers to them. You can use cool substrates like wood, canvas or think card stock.

Kids at wwedding

Tip 4   Saving money on the kiddies

Having kids at your wedding? Forget spending $35+ on chicken fingers and French fries- create a kids room with an event sitter like My Fair Nanny and order pizza! It’ll save you money – and the kids will LOVE it.  

Wedding cake

Tip 5   Fake cake it till you make it

You can splurge on a pretty, small cake for display and photo purposes (or have false Styrofoam tiers), then have less-ornate sheet cake in the back to be cut into slices for your guests.

Guest transporation

Tip 6   Here Comes the Ride

Invite your guests to leave their cars at home or at the hotel so they can enjoy the night and use an Uber! Perfect for both budget-savvy brides who chose not to have guest shuttles and high end weddings. Uber offers options to get your guests to and from your wedding and has customized weddings packages which gives discounted transportation when needed. Share your custom wedding promo code in your guest bags or place signs at the wedding. Guests simply use the promo code the day of and enjoy the ride.

Tip 7  Make Wedding Planning As Stress-Free As Possible

Hire a Day-Of Coordinator! Having a Wedding Day Coordinator is seriously the best wedding gift you can give yourself, no seriously. You can enjoy the planning process, plan the most perfect wedding, then hand it all over to a day-of professional so you can relax and have an amazing day. The last thing you want to do on your wedding day is stress over all the details like, is everything going right? Is everything being set-up and styled just the way you want it? or are all your vendors on time and accounted for? It is so important to have a wedding savvy professional to manage your big day and ensure that everything runs smoothly and on time. It will be the best investment you make for your wedding! 

Tip 8  Streamline your guest list and seating chart process

Using floor planning software can make your life so much easier when it comes time to creating the seating chart for your wedding. Companies like AllSeated can help keep you organized by allowing you to design floor plans, manage guest lists, and create seating charts easily. The best part is, it’s totally FREE! Simply upload your Excel guest list and the rest is a breeze. Keep track of your guests RSVP response, dinner choice, dietary restrictions, etc. You can even invite your vendors to collaborate on the room layout. 

Tip 9   Charge it

Let’s face it, wedding planning is EXPENSIVE. So why not get rewarded for the small fortune you are going to spend?Consider getting a credit card that offers great rewards or a good introductory APRMany cards give bonus cash, exclusive discounts, travel deals and/or other rewards when you use their card, which in turn can help pay for your honeymoon or other wedding related expenses. You’re going to be purchasing these items anyway, it can definitely be beneficial to put some items on your rewards card and reap some rewards for it! Tip: Make sure you can pay off what you are charging each month so you don’t rack up interest on your balance. Don’t forget to set up a honeymoon registry from Honeyfund. 

Bridesmaids

Tip 10 Rent the Runway

Having to purchase a beautiful wedding dress, AND a dress for the engagement party, bridal shower, bachelorette party etc can certainly add up. Try renting a few of the dresses and accessories from Rent the Runway. It will save you a boat load of money and you will still look like a million bucks in designer digs!

Bio: Carla Friday is the Founder and Day-of Coordinator at Details Made Simple, a Day of Carla FridayCoordination agency servicing New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and beyond. Carla leads an amazing team of passionate women that love making sure their couples have the utmost fun on their big day while making it seamless and smooth all the way through.

The savvy ladies at Details Made Simple are here to help you execute your wedding plans and details that you have spent so much time and money pulling together, we will make sure all of your wedding day details are in the right place at the right time! Your mind will be at ease and you can be confident that all of your hard work will be executed and styled the way you always envisioned it with your Wedding Coordinator. We know that you are on it and capable of the planning, from there our goal is to have you feel like you’re a guest at your own wedding! After all, you’ve planned the perfect wedding, shouldn’t you enjoy it?

Please visit our Wedding Coordination Packages page to learn more about what your favorite Wedding Coordinator can do for you!

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