CNN iReport

I will be coming up on my second anniversary in March, and I will say that you can do it on a 'next to nothing' budget.

Despite dating for several years, my husband was reluctant to get engaged...I finally asked him why. Seems he had fallen for the DeBeers diamond ads that tell men they need to spend 3 months worth of salary or the ring they give is worthless. He didn't have 3 months of salary to give, so he felt that he couldn't buy me a 'dream' ring.

I laughed and told him that I had an exquisite antique diamond ring belonging to a great-aunt that I never wore. If he wanted to get me a 'dream' ring, all he had to do was get it sized. I was engaged the next week. The cost was $20...wearing a piece of family history, priceless.

He then became nervous about the wedding. His research showed that we would need to spend at least 10K to have a 'proper' wedding. I told him to let me handle it all....

I bought invitation kits from a 'big box store' and printed them myself. I didn't bother with a return card and gave my e-mail instead to respond to. Postage and invitation cost, $17.90.

The wedding itself was officiated by the local judge, neither of us are religious. Final cost was $38.00

We both love Chinese food and frequent a small restaurant. It's quite nicely decorated and the owner and his wife are just starting out. They were thrilled to book a Saturday lunch-time party for 30 guests. The big bonus was they run lunch specials that are between $4.50 and $7. The owner allowed us to bring our own wine and cake, which came from a local bakery. Food and tip came to $200, wine came to $50, cake was $25. The Chinese opera music the owner played was it's own bonus.

The decor really didn't need much work, so I went to a 'big-box' store and used a coupon to get several large Chinese vases for the tables and red glass votive candle holders and candles. The flowers were free...a neighbor allowed me to cut branches from her forsythia hedges and I 'forced' them to bloom by following instructions available on the net. Decorations totaled $23.60.

I found a website that sells the traditional Chinese red lucky money envelopes and bought everyone a lottery ticket as a party favor. They also acted as a placecard because I wrote the guests names on them in gold ink. Envelopes were $5.00 (w/ shipping), lottery tickets totaled $30.00.

As for clothing, my husband already had a lot of dress pants and dress shoes. I got him a new dress shirt on sale for $20 and a very nice silk tie (matched my dress) for another $20. I also had plenty of dress shoes, pantyhose, etc. I went to a 'discount dept. store' and got a VERY nice tea length crepe and satin dress in pale lavendar for $16.

For flowers, my husband had a small rose and I had a larger rose corsage. The total bill was $20.

Because my engagement ring was an antique from my family, my husbands aunt offered his grandparents wedding rings for us. We accepted graciously and had the rings sized for a total of $40. We also used his grandparents cake topper for free.

Several of our friends are good photograpers and they took our pictures. They had them processed for us as a wedding gift.

When it was all over, our bill came to $485.50! Everyone still talks about how unique our wedding was and how it reflected our personalities. It has been said to us that guests had a much better time at our wedding that a 'big' wedding because they felt they could be more of themselves.

I'm proud that we didn't need to ask his parents for a single dime (mine are both deceased)and that we incurred no debt at all. In fact, we had managed to scrape together almost $2000 for the wedding out of our own funds and spent the remaining $1500 on a nice honeymoon. That also went very well and we stayed in style because I watched for specials.

If you are planning a wedding, ask yourself a few questions....Do you really need a horse and carriage? Do you really need to invite the cousin you haven't seen since the 3rd grade? Do you need a whole church full of flowers that cost $10 a stem?

Big isn't always better. Many people in this country have been brain washed to think it is, and that every event in their life should cost as much as a down payment on a house. It doesn't need to.

Be creative! It can save you a lot of cash and make for a really unique memory.

PS. My husband now considers me a 'financial wizard' and brags to everyone about how much our wedding cost. Soon after we were married he was offered a once in a lifetime job in IT and took it. We are more secure and better off financially now then most people, but I have very much kept my frugal ways.