I agree the express passes are awesome.

I meant tips like: You can get blank invitation cards and print them out yourself. I went to Hallmark and they let me look at a book to get ideas on wording. I made some notes and then I figured out the wording myself. I bought 300 invitations and 100 thank you cards for less than $100 at Papers Plus. My mom took a picture of us at the park and we got 300 prints at Costco. We printed them with blue ink and they came out very nice.

I bought fabric for my bridesmaid dresses (3) at a nice fabric store and they gave me a discount too. I spent $120 on 15 yards of satin fabric plus I got lining zippers and thread for each color (pale blue, lavender, and pale yellow) and the patterns. My friends made their bridesmaid dress or got someone to make it for them.

I got my wedding dress for $400 off the rack, and my friend who worked at the store recommended renting the bustle since no one really needs to keep it and she was right. She made my veil with tule and used a pretty ribbon and glued it on the edge. (no one could tell it looked as good as the $175 veil in the store) She also did the beading for the top which was the most work and she gave me a very good price for her work. She also hemmed my dress and sewed the buttons on to bring up the train for me as a gift.

Flowers cost a lot in general. You can save money on decorating by getting friends to help you make the arrangements for the tables.

These are just some of the things that I did and I did have a lot rescources through my church that helped. I didn't have to pay to use the church cultural hall and one of the church leaders had a DJ system that he let us use for free. My brother did the DJ music for us. Another friend burned a great list of music for dancing that my brother didn't play much of but I loved listening to it until it broke.