My Two Cents (For What It's Worth) and Handy Advice I Picked Up Along the Way...
Know your limits. The cost of getting married in SoFL is pretty ridiculous, so to save money, we DIYed nearly everything about our wedding. However, despite the money it saved us (to the tune of around $10K), I spent 15 months trying to squeeze in DIY around two full time jobs, a full courseload, dissertation research, and two major surgeries.
Before you commit to doing anything, sit down and make some lists. Look at your calendar and figure out what your major committments (work, school, travel, etc.) are going to be. Figure out what is worth DIYing and what you're better off just paying someone to do. Once you know what you want to DIY, decide what is an absolute must, and what you can live without if you run out of time. Take a week and figure out all the supplies you'll need and budget them out, so you have a rough idea as to whether you're saving money by DIYing, or if it's cheaper just to pay someone to do it. Once you have all that info figured out, plot out what needs done when, and attack it in that manner.
No one expects you to be Wonder Woman or Martha Stewart. Sometimes, you just can't do it all. Know what your realistic situation is, and know when to either a) pass it along to someone else, b) give up on it all together, or c) ask for help. There is nothing wrong with asking friends or family for help, so long as you don't expect it of them.
Make it your wedding, not everyone else's. Your wedding should reflect who you and your SO are as individuals, and as a couple. Just because Martha Stewart magazine says you need to do a, b, and c, doesn't mean you actually have to.
I wanted a wedding with 10 people on a beach somewhere. Our families alone comprise 50+. We settled for less than 100 in an quiet country club on a lake. I tried to make our wedding as intimate as possible, so that our guests felt like they were in our home, not in a fancy party hall. I incorporated things that meant a lot to us throughout the decor and tiny details of the day. We wrote our own vows that reflected the promises that were important to us - from promising to root for the other one's football team of choice to promising to be a friend and partner, as well as a spouse. We used the theme song to our favorite television show (True Blood) for our garter toss (it got HUGE laughs/cheers). We tucked inside jokes for our guests throughout the wedding and got to enjoy their laughter when they noticed them. In the end, it didn't feel like 90 people in a big fancy, stuffy room - it felt like an intimate celebration with our nearest and dearest.
Listen to your gut/heart. I once had another Knottie rip me to shreds when I said I was donating to ACS instead of giving out favors. Apparently, she felt it was rude and patronizing, and other girls agreed with her. I knew in my gut/heart that no one there would have any objection to it, considering the reasoning behind it, and we made sure it was done in a discrete way that didn't rub it in people's faces. My mother about cried when I told her we'd be walking into the reception to Dropkick Murphys. We wanted to reflect my Irish heritage and my FIL's Boston roots - all she heard was the theme song to The Departed.
There may be things that you want to do with your wedding day that other people (family, friends, other brides) look down on - whether it be playing Metallica for your first dance, or having your best buddy marry you instead of a pastor. While you should take people's opinions (especially when they're given out of love) into account, ultimately, it's you and your DH's wedding. Your wedding should reflect who you are as individuals and as a couple. I imagine the people who love you will appreciate a wedding that is totally you over a cookie-cutter, out of a magazine wedding that speaks nothing of who you are.
Let your bridal party pick their outfits. I understand that every bride has different ideas on how this should be done (same dress, different dresses, etc.), but one of the best decisions I made concerning the wedding was letting my BP pick their dresses and shoes. They range size 4 to 14, ages 13 to 27. They all have incredibly different tastes. I gave them basic parameters (a brand and a color), and left the rest up to them. Allowing them to pick their dresses and shoes let them find a dress that looked good on them, that they felt good in, and landed in their personal price range, making it far more likely that they could use it again. Every girl had a different dress and shoe, but it still looked tied together, with the same color and similar details (jewelry, flowers, hair piece). They all looked stunningly, breathtakingly beautiful, but more importantly (and beautifully), they all looked like themselves.
Number your RSVP cards. We assumed that most people would realize that the empty line on the response card was for their name. I had intended to number the backs of my RSVPs (thank you jeanacorina), but completely forgot until after they were mailed. We got several RSVP cards back with no names, and had to try and figure out who they were prior to giving final numbers to the venue. Numbering them would have made it a lot easier. Listen to jeanacorina - number your cards. :)
Wear colored shoes. They make you feel sexy. :)
Hunt down the bargains. I shopped around and compared prices early on in our engagement. Once I knew where I'd be getting various supplies, I searched Google for coupons, discounts, coupon codes. I literally printed over a hundred 40% and 50% off coupons for Michaels, and used every single one. I ended up saving 20% on my invite supplies, 10% of my DH's gift, 20% on my flowers, all because I took the time to hunt down the codes. I waited for sales to buy specific items I needed. It took a nice chunk of time and effort to do that, and made for many more stops to the store, but it saves us hundreds of dollars.
Etsy, Etsy, Etsy. I got some amazing items of Etsy, and it made them so much more interesting and unique, knowing they were handcrafted or vintage, or that they were custom-made for me (often without the hefty price tag that typically comes along with getting items custom-made).
Take time for yourself. It is very, very, very easy to get wrapped up in everyday life, and the added pressure of wedding planning. The best thing you can do is take time for yourself. Yoga and Wii Fit became my best friends in the final two months of planning...whenever the stress started to get to me, I'd pop that sucker in and dance around the living room to Ke$ha. Take a step back, and do whatever you need to do to relax and clear your head - do some yoga, go for a run, have a date with your FI, have some drinks with a girlfriend, sleep in. Wedding planning should be a fun and exciting process, but there's going to inevitably be stress that comes along with it. Taking some time to decompress will allow you to get back to that fun/exciting part a lot quicker and a lot more often.
Be thankful (and vocal about it). I had had it engrained in my head from Day #1 that asking for help on wedding planning was rude and a total bridezilla move. Big mistake. Asking isn't rude. Expecting or demanding is.
Thankfully, I'm blessed with amazing friends and family who offered their help from Day #2. They helped put together invitations and programs, they made salads for day-after picnics, they shuttled dresses and vases and cardboard boxes to the venue. We even had a squadron of friends show up two hours before the ceremony to help put flowers out, so my DH and I could go relax and take our pictures, then stay afterwards to break it down so we could go sleep. They were amazing. And I made a point to tell (and, when I could, show) them how grateful I was for their help at every chance I could. I had a friend tell me "I don't mind doing this stuff, considering I know how much you appreciate it. Plus, I know you'd do it for me in a heartbeat." A heartfelt thank you (or ten) goes a long way.
Have a sense of humor. We put a "child" option (as in child meal of chicken fingers and fries) on our RSVP cards. We had friends call us and ask if they could get their child medium rare, as it looked like we were offering child as an entree, in addition to chicken, beef and fish.
I forgot DH was miked during the ceremony, and so when I whispered "I love you, you're doing great, don't cry now" to him, all our guests heard it and busted up laughing.
My shoes cut off the circulation in my feet during photos to the point they were going numb. I had to walk down the aisle in my reception flipflops, which meant my bustled dress tended to drag the floor.
I got food poisoning the morning of the wedding, and spent the entire night chugging ginger ale. My brother thought it would be funny to tell everyone in the family I was pregnant (which I was - and am - not) to explain the lack of booze.
My dad gave this beautiful 5-minute toast, and ended it with "So here is a toast to ScubaSteve and Oceana'sMom" by accident.
Someone could trip down the aisle. Your ring bearer could spend the entire ceremony picking his nose. Your grandpa could photobomb the one nice photo of you and your DH cutting your cake. Aunt Shirley could get plastered and insist on singing "Let's Get Drunk and Screw". You just have to find the humor in things like that and laugh it off.
Know what's important. No one's wedding goes absolutely perfectly as planned. Things happen, mistakes get made, things get forgotten or pushed to the wayside. Go into your wedding day knowing that some things may go wrong, but the important thing is that by the end of the day, you'll be married to the love of your life. Anything and everything that happens beyond that is just icing on the cake.