Styling your wedding can be both challenging and exciting. While doing your décor on a budget isn’t easy, it’s definitely doable with some planning.

Simple, Yet Stylish Decor

Assess your décor needs and wants. Start with ceremony, considering what you’ll need including bows, runners, flowers and candles. Then think about what you’ll need for your reception such as centerpieces, linens, lighting, table decorations and chair covers.

Next up, inventory your home (and your friends’ too!) looking for items that you can repurpose for your wedding. A few dozen votive candles found at your mother’s house for example will definitely be useful. Do you have cake plates in your cabinet? Use them to hold your wedding cake or other treats, like cookies or pastries. Borrow wine glasses from family and friends too.

Don’t worry if all these items are not a perfect match. Having mismatched décor can look really good if styled well. Try to stick to a specific color, design, pattern or overall look like shabby chic or monochromatic. That means don’t place modern glasses with vintage dishes or have red charger plates with purple napkins. If needed, keep things simple—just make sure the décor items don’t clash.

Dollar Stores

Shopping retail for your wedding doesn’t necessarily have to be pricey but it does mean you need to look for deals. Bargain retailers like dollar stores can result in significant savings.

Maider Izeta, communications specialist at 99 Cents Only estimates brides and grooms can save $500 to $600 on wedding goods by shopping at the discount retailer, compared to traditional bridal and retail shops.

Whatever you buy at dollar stores, you should buy all you need at one time since it may be hard to find the materials at a later date.

Using gift certificates provided by 99 Cents Only, I was able to create a place setting ideal for the sweetheart table, including a cream tablecloth, lavender table runner, coordinating lavender napkins, votive and pillar candles, a silver charger place, a pink and lavender printed dinner plate, a butterfly favor trinket box, a heart shaped bowl and three small hydrangeas, as well as a few more décor accessories like colored glass gems, glasses and “love bird” salt and pepper shakers. The price for all these items? Just under $30.

Craft Stores

Often brides shop craft stores like Michaels, Jo-ann Fabric and Craft Stores and Hobby Lobby in search of inexpensive decorations. The key to shopping these craft stores and others is to watch for sales and to use their coupons, such as “forty percent off one regular priced item.” Many craft stores will accept competitors and/or expired coupons, both of which can help you rack up savings.

Many brides get wedding décor at Ikea, hoping to pair value with style. As detailed in this Mashable.com article, Ikea is full of cool wedding decorating options like paper lampshades, plates and flatware, pillows, rugs and canisters.

This bride, who bought candles and picture frames at Ikea, says she saved almost $200 on big day décor by shopping at the store.

Thrift Stores

Check out local thrift stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army where you pick up many gently used items such as glassware, linens and table decorations for a few bucks. For example, one bride found glasses at her local Salvation Army that cost just $0.45 each! This blog shows a variety of ways to use milk glass, which can be found at many thrift stores, for affordable and attractive décor.

No matter what wedding items you find at a thrift shop, buy them when you see them because these stores don’t hold onto inventory for long.

Share With Fellow Brides

Rely on your peers in the bridal community to help you furnish your wedding. Many brides have lots of items that were used and no longer needed or never used at all. Share, buy or sell extra supplies like favor labels, flowerpots, mason jars or lanterns.

List your wedding wants online on sites like the Knot's forums or Weddingbee's classifieds. You can also connect with other brides on sites like Craigslist, Twitter and Facebook to buy, trade or donate wedding goods.

You can get more deals online too. Shop websites like Tradesy for deep discounts on gently used wedding decorations including hanging crystals, shepherds hoods, tulle, pearls, table runners and favor bags.

Borrow

It never hurts to ask, right? Keep that in mind when you’re planning your wedding. In addition to asking friends and family to let you use their decorative items, ask your vendors if you can borrow décor materials from them.

Often vendors have items you can use for free or can be rented for a nominal fee. For example, consider asking your venue if you can use their linens and mirror centerpiece squares and check with your caterer or baker about borrowing their cake stands and other display plates.

Rent

While renting décor items can be pricey, such as paying to rent one hundred chairs, you might be able to rent must-have items for a discount. Don’t be shy about requesting discounts, especially if you’re renting items in volume.

Before you rent, do the math. Is it cheaper to buy the item outright than it would be to rent it for one day? In some cases, it may be cheaper to buy, such as purchasing lounge seating (which you can use or sell later) at Ikea versus paying for a one-day rental on a few sofas.