“I know that it can be hard to see past the day itself, and you’re just doing whatever you can to craft a beautiful event, but there is often so much waste that goes into a wedding. It’s just one day in your life together, but the environmental toll can continue long after the day is done. Go simple, modern, vintage, or minimalist—any of these routes will help you reduce your impact on the environment and will likely save you money. So many people told us how blown away they were by our wedding, and yet, we spent less than $15k on the entire affair and managed to keep things very green.

Also, I highly encourage couples to ‘pay it forward’ and give away anything they created or bought for their wedding.  I plan to give away almost every single thing we made and thrifted for our wedding so that they can have a second (and hopefully, third, fourth, and fifth!) chance to make someone else’s dream day come true.” —Amber and Nate

Read more: Wedding Tips from Real Couples via Bridal Guide