Decide when your wedding will take place. Allow at least 9 months to research and plan your reception. If you choose to have a wedding on a weekday evening, instead of the weekend, you can save a significant amount of money on everything from the venue to the photographer. Thursday evenings are becoming increasingly popular for couples who want their dream wedding at an affordable price. You can also save money by avoiding the busiest months for weddings. These include September, October, June and August. If you want to have your wedding at a popular venue, you may need to wait over a year to secure the date you want.

Create your budget. You'll need to evaluate how much you plan to spend on your reception. Your budget will dictate how many people you can invite, where your reception will be held and what type of entertainment and food you'll be providing. The average wedding in the US costs over $28,000 (See Resources). When planning your budget, you'll want to think of creative ways to cut costs. These include reaching out to friends and family that may be in the catering, restaurant, flower or photography business. Family members or friends who are asked to take part in putting on your wedding reception will often provide their service as their wedding gift. If you have a special skill, like Web design, or profession, like that of an attorney, you may even be able to barter for some of your wedding services.

Choose a venue. Research places where you could have your reception. Look into church halls, banquet halls, restaurants and other places that host receptions and functions. When researching venues be sure to ask what is included with the price. Some venues include the cost of food and décor in the price. If money isn't a huge issue, you may want to look at having your reception at a fancy hotel or private mansion. If you're an outdoorsy person, you may even wish to have a beach or lake reception or a reception overlooking a cliff. You'll need to consider what type of entertainment you want when choosing your venue. If you're planning on having a live band, for example, you'll need to be sure that they'll have space and electricity, if needed, to set up their equipment. If you plan on having a lot of kids at your wedding, you may want to choose a location that has a kid-friendly area for children.

Finalize the details. You'll need to choose a menu, a theme, colors, flowers, entertainment, a cake and any other activities, decorations or special touches you wish to include. These details will help to personalize your reception, capture the feel you're going for and incorporate your theme seamlessly throughout the entire reception. If your bridesmaid colors are green, for example, you may choose to use centerpieces that have fresh cut greenery, place cards with green writing, green frosting on your wedding cake and green balloons floating above the dance floor. Many brides-to-be get overwhelmed at this step and decide to call in a professional to help finalize the details. A professional wedding planning can help you to coordinate all of your service providers and be sure that your planning process and day go smoothly.

Order or make the invitations. Once you've secured your reception location you can move forward with your wedding and reception invitations. Be sure to include a card for people to RSVP, directions and any other information people may need to get to and enjoy your reception. Some brides like to get their bridesmaids together and create handmade invitations from cardstock while others simply order them from their local card store. The Vista Print website has really inexpensive options for wedding invitations that suit a variety of tastes. You can even design your own invitation, upload it to their site and have it professionally printed for you.