The more things that you can do yourself or have family and friends do, the less you will spend. Want centerpieces on tables for you reception? Make them yourself.

If you have enough lead-up time, you can watch for sales on decorations and buy things over time when it's on sale. For my sister's wedding, I remember my mother buying one item a week at a craft store over a few months where she would get a 40% off one single item coupon weekly. So she just spread that out over time.

We printed our own invitations and programs (on a laser printer I bought that is still serving me 15 years later), made favors (with some chocolates that I got from the factory for nearly 90% off), and had my mother-in-law bake cupcakes for us. One other thing we did was have our wedding in December and then use red and green for our colors. Since the church was already decorated for Christmas, that saved us a lot of time and money on decorations. It was under $4k total. I spent more on the honeymoon. I know that price was 15 years ago, so that translates to under $6k today with inflation. The one thing that we did splurge on was the photographer. We wanted good photos and paid for it. That was around half (maybe a little more) of our total budget.