How can you create your own dream wedding--on a not-so-dreamy budget? We asked Lovetripper.com readers for their tips. From these tips, which you’ll see below, we randomly selected a winner. Jen N.’s winning tip won her a copy of Jessica Simpson’s new wedding book, I Do: Achieving Your Dream Wedding.

Here is Jen's winning tip:

Chocolate dipping strawberries and serving them by themselves or with your cake can be a nice touch to your reception, or a tasty treat just before your ceremony. Chocolate Dipped strawberries can be expensive if you cater them, but by simply stocking up on chocolate bars, and catching strawberries in season you can inexpensively achieve the same task. Simply melt chocolate (white, dark, or milk) in a double-boiler, dip 3/4 of the strawberry while chocolate is still warm, lay strawberries on waxed paper and put them in the freezer--leave them there until just an hour or so before serving and enjoy!

More great tips:

My tip would be to exchange two red and white roses with your spouse- to-be along with your rings as your first gift of married life to one another; your bridesmaids can pass out roses to each guest in the row as the process up the aisle so that all can have an added keepsake of your wedding day. As in keeping with the Romantic poem by Thomas Campion XII:

"Thou are not merely fair for all thy red and white-
For all thy red an white
For all those rosey ornaments in thee
For thou art lovely." --A.M.

When buying a dress make sure it is long enough to cover your feet
and wear a pair of slippers. It might even keep you from falling. -- A.N.

At my "dream wedding" reception, I would like to thank all who attended and supported me by having mini cards with my picture in them (in my wedding gown, of course) as one of the souvenirs to remember my special day. I would have these cards at all of the place settings. --K.G.

I am getting married in May of 2005, so I don't really know much about good tips but I heard that instead of having people at your reception ring bells to get you to kiss, you should have them blurt out love songs to get you to kiss, it is fun and is a more intimate way than hearing bells ringing.

Ice sculptures --A.C.

Tip: Plan a year in advice--A.C.

Use potted plants placed in silver containers instead of cut flowers as
decoration. This way you can plant them and remember your day all year
long--D.R. D

Tip: If you an emotional person, or think you will be, on your special day, but really don't want to cry for makeup/picture purposes, here is an idea I've thought of to keep your emotions under control: as you walk down the aisle, gazing at your husband-to-be, think/sing a song in your head (it may even have to be a high energy or rock song...whatever works for you.) Don't concentrate on it too much, but just go through the lyrics in your mind to help you relax. This also helps nervous/anxious brides because it detracts your mind from the worries or fears you may have as EVERYONE stares at you.--C.M.

My tip: Personalize the wedding day in some way and don't worry about what others say. For instance, my future husband and I plan on using some rock music that we both love, but that also has meaningful lyrics during our reception...ex. Incubus, Silverchair. -- C.M.

My tip for the wedding tip is to leave your hair down for your wedding. It'll save you on the anxiety of messing up your hair and will enable you to brush it and fix it, or if its curly, a little bit of messiness will look earthy and natural. -- L.C.

Order your flowers in bulk instead of individual flowers and you and your bridesmaids or relatives can put together the bouquets. It's a lot cheaper to order individual flowers in bulk and it's a wonderful bonding experience! -- B.W.

Try to seat your older relatives and friends closest to the dance floor. It will help your older relatives feel a closer involvement in the reception even if they aren't dancing. Plus, your pictures will be full of people enjoying themselves, both dancing and seated, while the empty tables are in the rear. -- K.M.

My idea of a perfect wedding is a white spaghetti strap long flowing diamond printed dress with a long train and a long veil. A bouquet of white silk roses. With all my family and friends there to share this happy and exciting time together. -- J.L.W.

Something I did special and funny was had the florist make a special arrange of flowers, and when it was time for all "The Single Women" to get up, I pretended to throw it behind me, BUT I never let it go. You should have seen those women pushing and running to catch it! It was SO funny. I thought that was a highlight for us, and our guests. -- T.V.

My wedding is in December so my bridesmaids are carrying candles instead of bouquets. I found beautiful tea-light candleholders and I used one (silk) flower from my bouquet on each of them. The lights will be dim when the bridal party walks in and light up right before I go down the isle. I was able to make 7 of them for around $1 a piece! -- K.P.

Put Hershey's bars on the tables at your reception, but not just regular bars! Slide the outside wrappers off so that you just see the foil wrapping. You can order wrappers or even make them if you want to save money. Have the bride and groom's names, date of the wedding, and anything else that is special to you printed on the wrappers. Then place them back over the foil and you have a great little favor for your guests. --J.

Sing to each other. It saves you money on a singer and it is way more romantic and meaningful! -- T.D.

When choosing the site for your wedding, like we chose to do it outdoors...don't forget to set up depending on the sun...like have everyone sitting with their back to the sun....We live in Medford, OR where it is often in the three digits.. -- T.L.

Set up an on-site photo booth to take candid pictures that will work as a visual guest book. -- T.F.

Consider having a chef prepare the food right in front of the guests. They will have fun watching as the chef creates pasta, crepes, sushi, grills meats, etc. -- T.F.

A great tip that I can give to save money on a wedding day is to have a big get-together with your bridesmaids and other females close to you (for example: your mom and mother in-law to be), and do each others makeup, and hair....this is so much fun because everybody is having a great time, and calming down the bride as well so she won't freak out....this is also a great way to get funny pictures for your "wedding day memories" photo album. -- S.

Get a video done of all of the bridal party out at a day at the park. Set the video with a song in the background that has much meaning, and play it during the reception. --C.H.

At the reception gather everyone outside so that each will light a sparkler. It will be romantic and cute! Then, after the sparklers, everyone watches as a big array of fireworks go off. --C.H.

Be your own WEDDING PLANNER! I plan on doing as much myself as possible so I can look back on the day as MY day. Everything having my personal touch will just make me walk away from the entire experience much more fulfilled. -- S.R.

Place framed pictures (of you and your fiancee, family, friends, vacations, other weddings etc.) on reception tables to act as conversation pieces for guests. -- S.M.

For my wedding, next Aug. I wanted to have more people involved than just the bridesmaids for my special day. So, I decided to have "special" people help complete my bouquet. My dad will be the first to give me a gerbera daisy, and I have 9 more people that will be sitting on the outsides of the rows that will hand me another daisy and so on as I walk down the aisle. When I get to the front, I will have 10 daisies to complete my bouquet. My Maid of Honor is going to carry an extra ribbon with her to tie the bouquet together at the front. My Godmother, other friends, etc. can now be a special part in my wedding. -- S.E.

Tip: Have personalized bridesmaid gifts... they love it! -- E.D.

Tip: Instead of carrying a bouquet, have the important people in you life each hold a single rose and stand at the end of each pew. While walking down the aisle, collect the roses and have that as your bouquet. -- R.M.B.

Have a small secluded wedding on the beach with little or a lot of guests depending on your preference. Have the reception party filled with white flowers and the guests stay in a cruise boat for the location of the party. -- N.W.

If you think of a theme to your wedding then that will usually save you
money on the food , so it may narrow you down to certain choices or
selections on the food and alcohol which can be very expensive! -- N.C.

Remember that flowers can be very expensive; look to only decorate where people really notice them, like you don’t need to decorate the back of every chair for example, they will only really notice walking in to sit down. -- N.C.

My wedding tip: Have your photographer take candid shots, rather than stiff-posed shots; you'll remember the happy parts, and you won't get stuck with a bunch of stiff poses! :) - E.F.
A week to several days prior to the wedding the maid of honor should put a survival kit together for the Bride for her wedding day. What it should include: bobby pins, straight pins, safety pins, an extra pair of hose (if wearing them), extra make-up (for touch-ups), q-tips, Kleenex, hair spray, combs, brushes, snacks, juices or water, and any other extra necessities you can think of that she might need. The reason you should do this in advance is that you can continue to add items as you think of them. Take this to the Bride the morning of her wedding and she will be completely thrilled and slightly relaxed. -- M.L.

Really shop around when buying a wedding cake. You can find a gorgeous cake at Kroger or even Wal-Mart. It still tastes great and no one knows where it came from. It's one cake that won't last forever. Don't spend too much! -- M.W.

Tip: Put a disposable camera on each table at the reception for guests to use to take pictures. PS - They even make some with wedding themed borders. -- M.S.

Have a home video guests could watch of the couple growing up as they enter reception. Guests could see how they fell in love. -- A.V.

Send the most cheapest invitations because they get thrown out anyway. -- L.V.

An important key to completing my dream wedding are the importance of my guests and a lot of pictures: Have disposable cameras at each table during the reception dinner and ask guests to take pictures of themselves/people at their tables. It can make as a fun activity for the guest to kill time when it is slow. After the wedding day, the couple will be able to see the developed pictures and get a glimpse of what went on at each table - (this is good for larger weddings where the newly married couple may be so busy that evening that they may have missed out on greeting their guests in person). It will serve as a chance to laugh and smile about the memories, allows them to capture the warmest of their guests, and most importantly - remember their guests (what they looked like/wore that night) forever. Develop doubles and it will make a good keepsake to mail out with the thank you cards. -- K.S.

One thing that I am for sure going to do at my wedding is to just enjoy every single minute. This only happens once and I believe that worrying about everything that goes wrong will only stress me out, which I have a major tendency to do. I'm also having my wedding reception in my parents’ back yard, it not only saves money, but it's beautiful and it's where I grew up. -- K.

Instead of giving out gift to the guest you can give them bubbles with
little love quotes on them. This can be use at the end of the wedding
when the couple is leaving. Instead of throwing rice, blow bubbles. -- K.H.

Instead of hiring a cater you can have each family member bring
something for the reception. -- K.H.

Instead of buying real flowers, you can buy fake ones and they look just
as real. -- K.H.

Have your bridesmaids take izone sticker pictures of each guest while they are in the receiving line. Have each guest sign a card which will be put into a matching small envelope and then glued into your guest book with their picture on the outside of the envelope. -- J.N.

Instead of registering for gifts at a registry, we had printed on our invitations to give the gift of money toward our honeymoon! We had a great time in Hawaii! -- S.R.

Take your wedding photo and put that on front of your Thank You cards... (Make your own) -- J.L.

For your unique guest book:
* Glue each guest's R.S.V.P. card to a page in your guest book (choose one side of the book for this task: If you attach the first card to a right-side page, make sure you continue to do this throughout the book.)
*Ask the guests to "sign in" under their personal R.S.V.P. card and include something such as a quote, an impression of the happy couple, or what love means to them.
For an even more unique book, ask someone (preferably in your bridal party) to take a picture (a Polaroid camera will do the best job here) of each guest at the reception, and place the picture on the opposite side of the book as the R.S.V.P. card. -- J.S.

A great tip for a wedding reception that is inexpensive is to leave disposable cameras at each table where your guests will be dining. (Make sure you decorate the cameras to match your other themes so they don't look tacky.) Your guests will use the cameras to take pictures of the bride and groom, friends, family, or basically anything that appeals to them. Then when you collect all the cameras and get the film developed, you'll see pictures of so many great things, some that you never even noticed, and they will all be different! --J.

If you are the same size as your mom when she got married, use her old wedding gown... just have it tailored to fit your likes. you could save hundreds by doing so...-- H.C.

If you want to add some color to your reception center pieces, take a clear crystal votive holder, and some paint made for glass crafts and paint a thin coat of a solid color, like red, on the inside. It will add an elegant glow to your table. You can also take a clear crystal votive holder, thin silver wire, crystals and baby pearls (all can be purchased at any craft store). String the crystals and pearls onto the wire and attach to the votive holder. It will look very elegant and romantic. -- K.S.

Tip: For your bouquet, Carry a single flower of your choice down the aisle. As you walk towards the alter collect flowers from family members standing at the ends of the pews, rows of chairs etc. It adds a sentimental touch and more sentimental feel to the ceremony. -- E.P.

The key to a romantic wedding is lighting. Candle light is key! -- D.O.

For flower decorations, have one large floral arrangement and leave it in memory of those who are loved and lost, it saves money than having many arrangements and is a great way to remember loved ones who have past. -- R.E.

For flower decorations, have one large floral arrangement and leave it in memory of those who are loved and lost, it saves money than having many arrangements and is a great way to remember loved ones who have past. -- R.E.

Ask/remind the photographer to take candid photographs instead of just posed photographs! That way, your album/scrapbook will be filled with memories of the whole night, not just what everyone looked like!As a gift to bridesmaids, take them to a spa or treat them to facial treatments etc., so you can all have fun and look pretty before the big day! --C.P.

Have a potluck dinner as opposed to a big reception dinner if money is a problem.This way, the party will be filled with surprises as to what (and how diverse the food) is served! -- C.C .

We brought pictures of my mother's and mother's-in-law's wedding to the florist. We had the florist recreate both mothers’ bouquets, so it would be a reminder of their special day. too. I am glad we froze a big piece of cake because now we look forward to eating it on our one year anniversary. We had a unity candle that we lit at the wedding and now we light it every month on our anniversary. When people came into the reception, they signed and wrote good wishes in various colors on a white tablecloth. Now the tablecloth is under a plastic tablecloth on our table. -- M.M.

Tip: Have a two-piece dress made. Have a long skirt for the ceremony and a tea length skirt for the reception! Not only do you look highly fashionable (and it's like having TWO wedding dresses), you can dance the night away! -- S.S.

Tip: (Only applies to night weddings)
Instead of flowers, bubbles, or rice being thrown at you as you exit the chapel, have all of the guests holding sparklers (hand-held fireworks) so as you exit, it looks like fireworks are going off behind you!! -- S.S.

A little idea that I like and am in the process of using is something very symbolic to me. I like to dry all the flowers I’ve been given over the year because I just think the dried roses or flowers are really pretty. I have dried them all over the years and I'm using the petals as the flowers that my flower girl will drop because it symbolizes all the things of my past being left behind me as I walk forward into my future and leave the past behind. -- M.D.

Instead of buying expensive bridesmaid dresses, check out prom dresses in the summer after they go on sale. You can find really gorgeous dresses for cheap. -- A.C.

Create a website for your wedding! This will allow guests to keep up with wedding details, see pictures of you and your soon-to-be spouse, view lists of where you have registered, things to do in the city you'll be married in (including maps), and what ever else you want to inform friends and family on! -- J.N.

Instead of tossing rice or birdseed when the new husband and wife make their escape, ring tiny bells and use ribbon to attach a little tag with the bride and grooms name and wedding date. The guests will have a little token from your wedding day, and you won't be shaking anything out of your shoes. -- J.N.

Write your thank you notes as you open each gift. This way each note will naturally be more personal, you'll be far less overwhelmed trying to match the giver to the gift, and you'll be able to take more time opening your gifts together with your new spouse. Take turns writing, often us girls get stuck with all of the writing!!! -- J.N.

Instead of a guest book use an oversized frame with a wide mat. Have your guests write their comments and kids add their artistic touches around your favorite picture together. You'll better remember your special day and all of the loved ones that shared it with you. --J.N.

For inexpensive and romantic centerpieces lay a mirror (about 9"x9")in the center of each table with three pillar candles (small, medium and large). Sprinkle clear or colored flattened marbles (or a mix of both) on the mirror with some flower petals if you like. The light from the candles will reflect off the glass and marbles making your centerpiece dance! You can find all of this stuff inexpensively at any craft store and everything is completely reusable!!! --J.N.