Love in the time of recession

Biggest splurge: Fabric for wedding attire

"My mom is paying for the wedding, and thankfully, she took her money out of the market over a year ago.

But we're still trying to keep costs down, and we don't want to take advantage of our situation. We want to use our wedding to help others. In order to stimulate the economy, we're sticking with small, non-chain companies.

I splurged on the fabric for our wedding outfits that my friend will make for us. I bought the materials from a North Carolina-based company. A small local restaurant will provide the food and entertainment. I bought our wedding invitations from a small letterpress company that I found on etsy.com, a marketplace for independent artists.

This has reduced our costs, and these smaller companies are very glad to have our business. They appreciate the large orders and are happy to work with us to give us exactly what we want.

We decided to forgo a registry and instead will suggest charities guests can donate to, if they feel the need to contribute. Similarly, for the bridal shower I've asked guests to bring a recipe for the bride and a donation for the food bank of North Carolina.

We were really hoping to take a trip to Europe, but instead we'll sit through a sales pitch to get a deal on a four-night stay in an Orlando Hilton spa. It's one way to take advantage of the suffering economy.

I've been laid off twice and Tim has been unemployed before. Luckily our family is okay now, and North Carolina doesn't seem to be suffering as much as other places. But a lot of people need help out there. So this just seems like a responsible thing to do." - as told to Julianne Pepitone

NEXT: Abby and Nick Herberg