My husband and I attended a low-budget wedding about four years ago in Dayton, Ohio.

The groom-to-be had lost his job as the result of a company sale / downsizing, under the same circumstances that my husband went through. After the layoff, our friend moved to Dayton, where his girlfriend lived. And they had a very tight budget.

The couple wanted to have the nicest wedding possible, given the circumstances. They scheduled a small church ceremony with a cake-and-punch reception in the church gym.

At the reception, I remarked about the pretty cake.

“The bride made the cake,” someone told me.

“No way!” I said.

Yes, one of the ways they cut back on the wedding expenses was for the bride to make her own cake.

A few months before the wedding, she signed up for a community education class to learn cake decorating. Now she had a new vocational / home economics skill. And the first wedding cake she created was her own.

If you are so inclined, Monroe Community Education has cake decorating classes starting the week of Jan. 28. (Go here for schedule)

But for a less stressful alternative, you could do what my sister did at her wedding and serve cupcakes!

Previously on this topic: the wedding favors

Next on this topic: the cupcake alternative