Delegate to relieve yourself

If you don't plan to hire a wedding consultant because you have family, relatives, and friends willing to help you out, then don't waste the resources, delegate tasks of wedding preparation to them. Not be shy to ask for help to your circle, especially to whom have specific talent on some aspects of wedding and handled similar tasks in wedding before, as most probably they would love to do this for you and appreciate you inviting them to show their talents. For people loving you, they would like to do these errands for you, such as flower decoration, tent setting, carpet and chair covering, music playing, etc. So by delegating these detailed tasks, you relieve yourself and survive the wedding and the following reception. Your responsibility is to plan the wedding and reception as fully as possible, and divide the tasks as detailed as possible to delegate so you make the delegatee clear what exactly to do and on what schedule. Remember delegating gracefully, your family and friends are not your staff; they are your support team.

When delegating you should make it clear to the related persons or contractors to contact the delegatee other than you whenever they need confirmation or instruction, so things will not be messy, neither out of control.

Your wedding day may be the most important time to delegate tasks. Don't forget your bridesmaids and the honor attendants, let them handle the sudden and urgent issues and errands, that's what they are for. They don't come just to look great in tuxedos or long dresses; they are also there to be your arms. You have no time and attention to handle that but need to focus on your ceremony and enjoy the reception afterward. It is your wedding after all, in which you deserve to enjoy and to show nice.   

Wedding preparation - set up a budget

From economy view, wedding is a losing business of much more spending than incoming, even in some eastern culture countries like China it is popular and custom for the new-couple to receive wedding attendants' 'red envelope' enclosed with cash, from long run they will lose money because they have to send at-least-the-same, or bigger, red envelope to whom attended and sent red envelope at their wedding when they get married or have some special socials. As wedding is a money-burning activity, and money is always scarce to us, so it is necessary to set up a budget to manage your spending. If your parents will pay for the wedding or contribute to it, be appreciative of whatever they provide, and be careful to include the money into your budget and work with that amount.

It is a good practice to set up the budget in spreadsheet software, say, Microsoft Office Excel, doing which  gives you much facility to adjust spending components and costings, and get updated results immediately. So it is easy to help you compare various spending options, keep balance, and make final decisions. Keep in mind that there is not only one type or one model of wedding, you are a project organizer with lots of options and alternatives to compare and choose from, which give you plenty edge of saving. For example, a weekday's wedding ceremony is cheaper than a weekend's. The process of organizing, planing and deciding itself is full of exciting and rewarding.

If your budget is limited, you will have to decide what takes priority and sacrifice other aspects. Don't be sorry to what you have to forgo, seems missing an interesting or romantic experience, in fact it is nothing compared to your long life together in the future.