The wedding of your dreams can be a cost-effective affair; it's entirely up to you how much you spend. Just make sure you don't scrimp on the important stuff! It's not a good idea to compromise on quality; after all it's the day you and your partner will remember for the rest of your lives! To help you keep to your wedding budget, we share our top tips for having a thrifty wedding!

1. Know Your Budget

That means outline how much you are willing to spend on each aspect of your wedding! It's great to have an overall budget, but breaking it down will help you decide what is important to you.

The engagement ring will most likely cost you a bit. After that you're likely going to want to spend the most money on the reception (food will be your main expense) and the honeymoon. Our budget breakdown will give you an idea of where the majority of couples' money will be spent. Just remember, think about what is important to you and your fiancé and adjust your spending to reflect that.

2. Have Realistic Expectations

Don't be a control freak and expect everything to be perfect. You may have planned your dream wedding on your secret pinterest board, but you were most likely looking through that inspiration without your budget in mind. When you look back at what you've pinned, remove what is completely out of your budget to avoid disappointment. Also try to think of ways you can DIY some of your inspiration or how you can achieve the same look or ambience on a smaller scale.

3. Use Your Imagination

There is so much you can do with humble everyday items like empty glass sauce bottles, wine bottles, jam jars, tin cans, gift wrapping paper and ribbons. These materials can be repurposed into useful items such astea light holders, candle sticks, vases, table numbers and bunting! Even if you don't plan on a complete DIY wedding, there are little bits and pieces that you can create yourself to add to your look. All of these little things can add up to potentially save lots of dollars or enable you to allocate your funds to something else.

4. Be resourceful

Ask family and friends if they have any items such as furniture, pot plants, ladders or old school cases that they want to dispose of and which might fit in with your theme. Often people are keen to have an opportunity to put to good use pieces that have been sitting in their garages gathering dust. Having additional help will relieve some of the stress and there is no harm in asking family and friends to help or contribute in some way to your wedding - just be sure that whatever you ask them to do won't take away from their experience of your big day. For example, your bestie might be a photographer, but you'll need to weigh up whether it is worth saving on photography by using her rather than having her by your side.

5. Try DIY

You'd be amazed at how easy it is to create beautiful things for your wedding! Even if you don't consider yourself artsy! There are so many tutorials available online and in Modern Wedding DIY Magazine to help guide you through each step. Even just doing a DIY for one or two aspects of your wedding will help you save and DIY wedding projects will help add a touch of personality to your day. If you're feeling overwhelmed at the enormity of a project, ask friends and family to help out! They'd be thrilled to see the products of a fun-filled crafternoon come to life on your big day.

Looking for more wedding budget savers? Check out our article on '5 ways to be a thrifty bride' in the new Modern Wedding DIY Magazine on sale now!