A reasonable budget is essential. It is not reasonable or loving to expect a couple or their parents to go into debt to pay for a wedding that is beyond their means. Many who can afford a more elaborate wedding still choose to keep it modest. In any event, some couples have found it helpful to have a checklist for estimated and actual expenses. It can also be useful to have a list of deadlines for all the things that need to be organized. Entrusting deadlines to memory is very likely to be stressful.

Though some spend a fortune, others are happy to economize—or do so because they have no other choice. “We were both pioneers [full-time evangelizers], and we didn’t have any money, but it didn’t matter,” said one bride. “My mother-in-law bought fabric for the dress, which was sewn by a friend as her wedding present. The invitations were handwritten by my husband, and a Christian friend lent us a car. For the reception, we bought the essentials, and someone gave us wine. It was nothing extravagant, but it was enough.” According to one groom, when family and friends give practical assistance, “expenses are greatly reduced.”

Whatever their financial situation, Christian couples will want to avoid any excess, worldliness, or ostentation. (1 John 2:15-17) How sad it would be if a happy event like a wedding should cause someone to fall short of Scriptural principles of moderation, which warn against overeating, overdrinking, or anything else that could impede a person from being considered “irreprehensible”!—Proverbs 23:20, 21; 1 Timothy 3:2.

Avoid the trend of trying to have a bigger and better wedding than others. Consider the extravagant veils two brides in one land wore—one veil was 42 feet [13 m] in diameter and weighed some 500 pounds [220 kg]; another was a thousand feet [300 m] long, requiring 100 bridesmaids to carry it. Would it be in harmony with the Bible’s counsel on reasonableness to imitate such spectacles?—Philippians 4:5.