8 of 8
BACKNEXT
Christy Smith and Adam Wallace
Location: Wylie, Texas
Wedding date: March 14, 2009
Biggest splurge: Location

"We started planning our wedding last July, before the economy really went downhill. We locked down contracts with the chapel and a makeup artist, and now I wish I hadn't committed to those.

This is my second wedding, and I did my own makeup and hair then. I decided to bring in a professional this time. And we could have probably spent less than $1600 on the chapel and reception.

But other than that, we hunted for deals and haggled on everything. We did our own invitations for 100 guests, and I searched Craigslist for my dress, photographer and makeup artist. We bought both rings on final-discount sale - less than $300 for both.

The rehearsal dinner will be a local bowling alley for about $15 a person, and a friend is making the wedding cake as a gift. Overall, I believe we will spend just under $4,000.

I'm disappointed because I wanted to have an extravagant weekend for my friends. Most people in my wedding party don't make as much money as I do, and I wanted to have a fun morning before the wedding: manicures and breakfast before going to the chapel. And now we're just going straight to the church.

We try to keep it lighthearted and remember what the day's about. Five years from now, no one remembers what we actually did at the wedding.

Our main goal was to have our wedding and a small honeymoon cruise without borrowing money from our parents, taking out a loan, or otherwise creating financial hardship for ourselves. With just a month to go before the big day, everything is paid for and we are nervously looking forward to it." - as told to Julianne Pepitone

More galleries
Last updated June 15 2009: 10:21 AM ET
Email | Print | Share  |  RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
Coping with cutbacks Smaller cakes, big sales, and other ways vendors have adjusted to budget cuts. More
Special Offer

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.