Throw a Great Do-It-Yourself Wedding

Anna Sattler, a blogger on diylife.com, says that thrift stores, dollar stores and garage sales are great places to get the ball rolling.

"You just can't beat the bargains you find there," she says. "You will find all the items you need to make your wedding a day to remember if you decide to shop at these bargain places."

Not every do-it-yourself project will save you money, however. Some parts of a wedding, such as food preparation and photography, can be more difficult when you do it yourself.

Dusick says it all depends on the skill sets of the couple and their friends and family -- as well as what's important to them.

"Unless you have professional wedding photographers at your wedding [as guests], you might want to spend the money to hire a professional," she says. "This is one area where couples commonly feel disappointed afterwards if they didn't hire someone."

Also, Dusick says hiring a caterer often makes sense because it allows couples to enjoy their big day.

"With food, there is a lot of busy work on the actual day of the wedding which would be too stressful for a couple to worry about," says Dusick. "Unless you are doing something potluck-style with the help of friends and family, it can be very hard to do yourself."

No matter how much or little of the planning is do-it-yourself, any areas where you can trim from the wedding budget can help prevent couples from having to take out a wedding loan, which is almost never a good idea. Obviously, the more projects that are homemade the more money can be saved and some projects are better on the wallet than others.

"The savings really depends on your style of wedding," says Dusick. "Obviously, if the ultimate goal is to save money, you can save the most by doing things yourself. I've helped plan weddings where we slashed many wedding costs in half with do-it-yourself projects."

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