Developing an inexpensive wedding plan is crucial to staying within your budget limits, but still remembering your wedding day as one of the best days of your life. No matter how great your wedding day is, going into debt over it will be regretted later. So, it is in your best interest to come up with a plan to meet your goals with the wedding, both for fun and money. Simply follow these steps, and create your own flawless inexpensive wedding plan!

Step 1: The big picture: The first thing you'll need to do is determine your limits. Stay general here, like: "How long do we have to plan?", "How much do we have to spend overall?", etc. By starting with the big picture, you'll be able to determine the level your wedding will be on, and how much time and money you have to reach that level. (Or a higher level with no extra time and money if you do things right!)

Step 2: Ask yourself this very important question: "Do we need to hire a wedding planner?" Sometimes, hiring a wedding planner can be a great investment. The key here is to relieve yourself of the stress of planning an incredible wedding. However, wedding planners add a great deal of cost to your wedding, and by doing it yourself (in a stress-free manner, of course) you can save $1,000's! There are many ways to eliminate the need for a wedding planner and still create and follow through with your perfect, inexpensive wedding plan. The best of which is to track your budget and plans with a software program and follow sound advice to help with your plan. More on that later...

Step 3: The little things. Now that you have made the big decisions, jump right into the details. The easiest way to do this is to break down each major part of the wedding, and go from there. Think of each piece of the wedding separately, and only tie them together for the overall budget. At this point, it is a great idea to break down your overall budget into a separate budget for the ceremony, the reception, the accessories and attire, the honeymoon and miscellaneous. By treating each of these as their own budget, you will save time, money and effort and end up with a much better wedding!

If you try to focus your attention and resources on too many things at once, you will only create more stress for yourself. While your perfect wedding will take a lot of work, keep in mind that the goal is to enjoy it and remember your perfect day forever. Also, your amazing wedding does NOT have to cost what you think...There is always another way to save money, many times without compromising quality.

Speaking of ways to save money, here are 8 great tips:

1. Have an outdoor wedding to eliminate renting and location costs

2. Create your own music mix with your friends and family to play at the reception

3. Get Titanium rings instead of Gold. (More durable, look similar, much cheaper)

4. Find coupons and discount offers through magazines, books, online, etc.

5. Talk to friends and family to find "hookups" for a DJ, caterer, band, etc.

6. Limit guests to the invitee and their spouse, and their kids if necessary

7. Have crafty friends and family help with decorations for ceremonies

8. Use online tools, books and software programs instead of a wedding planner

Many times people feel as though they are too limited with their budget, but there are always cheaper options that work in the same way. It just takes that initial planning and effort to find them. Just remember that with a bit of time and effort put into your well-thought-out inexpensive wedding plan, you too can have the wonderful wedding you've always dreamed of for less than you ever thought possible!