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Planning a wedding is a little bit hard. It’s more difficult to plan a wedding without debt. So what do you need to do when the prices of commodities and services just keep going up these days? According to Marilisa Sachteleben, a Yahoo contributor, she and her husband’s wedding went smoothly. “We managed to hold the wedding, the reception and the honeymoon without a hitch,” she says. “We were just debt-free.”

Here are her tips and advice in order to make your wedding a real success - without going through the courts because of what you owe.

1. Prioritize- Make sure you know the most important aspects of your wedding. Food, of course, is definitely included - along with decorations, balloons, flowers, music, location, cake, attire and figure out which among the common elements you can skip. Add a budget to each of these aspects and never stray away from it. Here’s a tip: if you have friends or family members who sing or friends who own a catering business, get their services.

2. Choose not to avail the services of a wedding planner- Wedding planners cost much. If you have friends or family members who are organized, responsible and are graceful under pressure, avail of their services. They can help you with the preparations - and they would do it gladly.

3. Instead of them giving gifts, ask your friends for discounts- If you have friends who have businesses related to cake decorations, balloons, music, flowers, attires, wedding dresses and the like, ask them for discounted rates instead of gifts. If you are fortunate enough, you can even get these for free.

4. Avail of club facilities or the church for the reception- When planning a wedding without debt, make sure that you avail of the church or club facilities for your reception. There are also apartment complexes or condominiums you can rent. Scour the internet for possible locations and ask your friends about this too.

5. Split the costs- If your other half’s family is helping you with the costs, make sure that everything is even out. “My husband paid for the honeymoon and I was in charge of the wedding,” says Sachteleben.

6. Serve buffet style- Per plate is a lot more expensive when planning a wedding without debt - and the food is sometimes not that good. Make sure that you serve buffet style.

7. Don’t go with the alcohol- To really enjoy yourselves at the wedding, don’t spend too much on wine or any other type of alcohol as these are way too expensive. Instead serve juices, iced teas or water which really doesn’t cost that much.

8. Order everything in advance- Don’t do everything at the last minute. Make sure that you are already working on the menu, with the decorations and the services months before your planned wedding. Take advantage with the promos and discounts that these companies offer. You can also buy in bulk. Instead of buying, you can rent decorations and balloons. You can also create souvenirs or wedding invitations instead of buying them.

Joy is an active blogger who is fond of sharing interesting finance management tips to encourage people to manage their personal finances. More specifically, she advocates that people should check credit report regularly.