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We've spoken with Jay's Bridal and Special Occasions about wedding gowns, and now we're moving on to our second part on tuxedos. Jay's is a one-stop bridal salon located in Gainesville, Florida and their tuxedo department is online at jaysformalwear.com. Throughout the series, we'll discuss everything wedding, ranging from bridal gowns to music to tuxedos. In this installment, Kristen Seymour will chat with the owner of Jay's, Paul Rhodenizer.

Compared to shopping for a bridal gown, shopping for the guys' tuxedos might seem like a piece of cake. However, while there aren't quite as many options regarding formalwear for the men, it's not all black and white. In fact, sometimes it's chocolate, khaki, or ivory, and then there are the accessories ... it's enough to get confusing, if you let it.

Before helping brides and grooms choose the tuxedos for the wedding, Paul spends a bit of time listening. "First, I try to find out a little about the formality of the wedding, but just as important is how the bride feels about things like color coordination. To some brides, having the groomsmen's vests match the color of the bridesmaids' dresses is really important, while other brides find it tacky."

Your eyes keep shifting between your budget spreadsheet and your potential guest list. You love your friends and family -- all 250 of them -- but at 35 bucks a head for dinner, you can't afford to invite them all. You could save thousands of dollars by cutting your guest list in half, but how do you decide who makes and who misses the cut? This part of wedding planning is no fun.

So here's an idea: instead of an expensive, fancy feast that blows your whole wedding budget, ask your guests to bring a dish to share instead of a gift. Provide guests who travel or guests who simply don't cook with a list of pre-made items that can be bought at your local grocery store, and appoint someone to field all the phone calls about what to bring. Sure there will be some repeats, but with several dozen guests, you'll surely get a nice variety for your buffet.

Make sure your invitations are clear about this. "In lieu of gifts, the bride and groom request that you bring your favorite dish to serve at our reception buffet. Call Mandy, the Maid of Honor, at 555-5555 with questions." Then you can take the money you saved on food and buy your own wedding gifts, so you get exactly what you need and want. Encourage guests to include the recipe with the dish they bring, so that you can create a wedding cookbook. You can even post the recipes online to share with all the guests.

According to the Bridal Association of America, the average wedding cake costs almost $550. Most bakers charge by the slice, at about $5 or $6 per slice for a standard multi-tiered cake. Premium cakes may cost twice that much, or more -- more than you'd pay for original artwork, and you're only going to have it on display for an hour or two. Wow.

One way to save costs is to cut the cake right out of the budget. But who wants to do away with such a delicious tradition? More and more couples are pulling a sneaky bait and switch when it comes to their cakes -- using a fake cake for the display, usually made of styrofoam, and serving guests from a sheet cake they keep hidden in the back, which may cost less than a dollar per serving. Guests never have to know.

You can get special "cakes" designed just for this ruse, which come with a small concealed compartment where you can hide a real piece of cake for the traditional cake cutting ceremony. It sounds a little silly, but you'll get the last laugh when you don't have to write a three- or four-digit check to your bakery.

Lots of couples decide to elope when they get frustrated with all the pressure and expense of planning a wedding. Big weddings and secret elopements are not your only options, though. There's a middle path being forged by celebrities: the surprise wedding.

Surprise weddings are a sort of public elopement, where you invite guests to a party, and when they arrive, you surprise them with your wedding. There's still a ceremony, so there's of course still some planning to do, but it's much more low-key and low-stress than a traditional wedding.

When you have a surprise wedding, you sidestep the problem of overbearing relatives who hijack the wedding plans, and you can save big money. We also know that putting "No gifts, please," on an invitation won't stop people from bringing presents by the truckload -- so for the couple who really doesn't want or need any gifts, this is a great way to stop them from coming. And, according to Marilyn Oliveira, senior editor at the WeddingChannel.com, holding a surprise wedding is the perfect way to "make a big splash without a huge budget."

So before you toss all your spreadsheets out the window and run to City Hall, maybe you want to consider hosting your own surprise wedding instead.

If your reception venue doesn't provide table linens, or you don't like the colors they've got, you may find yourself looking at a big bill to cover those tables. Fancy table linens are expensive, and what are you going to do with fifteen tablecloths after your reception? Some places offer rentals, but these aren't always cheap, either.

Instead of looking for linens, consider paper. We're not talking about the stuff they covered the tables with in your preschool classroom, but nicely manufactured linen-like products. Reliable Paper sells a variety of these linen-like table covers, and you can purchase enough for your whole wedding for the cost of about two or three real linen tablecloths.

The site sells napkins and table runners as well, and we've heard positive reviews from a couple of brides who saved a lot of money with these products.

According to the results of this poll, most brides are willing to rent a wedding dress instead of buy one. But very few people actual do this. I asked around on message boards: why, if you are willing to rent a gown, are you buying them anyway?

Most of the answers were that brides didn't know they could rent gowns, or couldn't find a place that offered such a service. Hmm. There are a few places online that offer this service, but it seems that it's just not widely available. Yet, according to our readers, there is a market for dress rental.

Entrepreneurs, here's your chance. And if you know of any stores that will rent wedding gowns, by all means, let us know!

When you shop at big box stores like Costco, there are only a few things that don't come in packs of 12 or more. Luckily, diamonds are one of those things you can buy individually. But would you want to? The store isn't exactly known for romance, but it is known for value, and you can actually get quite a bargain when you shop in their jewelry section.

You might think you'd have to compromise on quality when you shop there, but that's not the case, either. Costco carries a wide selection from lower quality diamonds to high quality pieces that might even be nicer than you find in neighboring jewelry stores. Costco is not a jewelry store, though. Their employees are not trained to educate customers on diamonds, but all of their diamonds are clearly marked with their specs, so if you know your four C's, you can browse Costco's rings without the "help" of some commission-minded salesperson. This might actually be an advantage.

Do you hate your bridesmaid dress? Why? Maybe it's not your color, the cut isn't flattering on you, or it's just not "you." That doesn't mean it's an ugly dress that no one else could love. Since you're never going to wear it again anyway, why not donate it?

There's always Goodwill, but we've found a charity we like even more when it comes to formalwear. Keri's Fairy Godmother Foundation in Austin, Texas, is dedicated to providing gowns to girls and women who want to attend a formal event but can't afford the attire. There's probably someone out there who would really love to wear your bridesmaid dress to their senior prom, and this charity is the perfect way to make that happen.

This is a small, local charity. Do you know of others like this in other areas? It seems like such a nice way to rid yourself of dresses you never want to wear again -- and donations are tax-deductible, so you can recoup some of the expense of buying the thing in the first place.

Why is it that grooms are never expected to buy tuxedos, which can be worn again to other events, but brides are expected to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a dress they can really only wear one time? Does anyone else find this sort of stupid?

We understand that wedding dresses can be hugely sentimental, and many women like to own theirs simply to be able to look at it hanging in the closet, or dream of passing it down to daughters and granddaughters. But think of all the other keepsakes you'll have from your wedding -- gifts, framed invitations, photo albums, your spouse -- do you really need to spend so much money on the dress, too?

Some people will say yes, but for those of you who want to cut costs on the wedding dress and are willing to rent instead of buy one, you're in luck, because you can do that! Most brides don't even think to ask about this, because it's so out of the norm, and most stores won't mention rental to someone willing to buy, but just ask around and you may be surprised at how many options you have. Many of the stores that offer gown rentals will also rent out bridal accessories to save you even more money.

Not all wedding planning will directly affect you, but it just takes a few extra minutes of planning to make your wedding a lot more convenient for your guests. If your wedding will have lots of out of town guests, they'll need hotel reservations. They likely don't know the area and won't have any idea how to find the best place to stay.

An easy and courteous thing for you to do is to contact a hotel that is conveniently located near the site of your wedding and ask them to reserve a block of rooms for your guests at a group discount rate. Most hotels will offer a significant discount if you can guarantee a certain number of reservations by a certain date. You don't have to pay for anything unless you fail to meet the requirements, so be conservative in your estimates.

Lastly, inform your guests that reservations are being held for them at the hotel as long as they reserve by your cutoff date and ask for the "Smith Wedding" rate. If the hotel you contact won't offer a group discount, call another one. Make sure you select something modest so that it is within a comfortable price range for all of your guests, and also nice enough that it is a comfortable place for them to stay. This simple step bshouldn't take more than a few minutes on the phone and one extra line on your invitations.

When I was a child, I always wanted a pair of fancy patent leather shoes, but my parents would never buy them for me because I "would just grow out of them in a few months." That was always the excuse -- and a perfectly valid one -- against buying nice things for me as a child.

If you are having a flower girl and ring bearer in your wedding, the cost of their wardrobe can seem a bit exorbitant. Whether you or the parents are footing the bill, it makes little sense for anyone to spend so much money on formalwear for tots that will soon be too small. That's why I think this site is such a great idea. Gaga's offers 3-week rentals of boys' tuxedos and suits and girls' formal dresses, perfect for weddings, and most rentals cost less than $20.

This could be a great way to save money on wedding fashion, and the 3-week rental period is the perfect amount of time for the children to wear the clothes, enjoy them, and then grow out of them.

If wedding planning is just not your thing, but you still want to include friends and family in the joyous occasion, there is no law that says you have to have a fancy party with all the standard wedding regalia. You don't even have to have fancy invitations. Your wedding can be just like any other day out with friends. You make a few phone calls to round people up, you pick a destination, you pay a minister, sign a contract, take some snapshots, then dig into the picnic basket.

This kind of planning doesn't really take much more than a few days (that's just to get people on the same page and get your marriage license), and you can still have something beautiful and memorable for a big day that's not so big.

Living on the edge of the Shenandoah National Park, two of my friends decided this summer that they would take their families up in the mountains for a wedding. It took just a few weeks of planning ahead to get all the close family members together and line up a minister, then they drove to the park, walked up to a beautiful overlook, and said their vows.

It wasn't a formal wedding and it wasn't a big to-do, but it was perfect for what they wanted, and the pictures turned out as beautifully as any giant church wedding I've ever seen.

I really wish airlines didn't put the first class seats at the front of the plane, where you have to walk by them on your way to the seat between the smelly guy and the crying baby back in coach. That's the marketing strategy, though -- they show you what you aren't getting, and make you want it, even if it means paying three times more for the same trip.

And what better time to splurge on the high life than your honeymoon? Well, maybe you don't even have to splurge. Fare Compare, a website that tracks airline prices, boasts of discount first class airfare that can sometimes be even cheaper than coach class tickets.

If you don't find a good deal at first, don't give up. Our friends at Luxist offer these tips for scoring a free upgrade from coach. You won't get the free upgrade every time, but it's easier than you might think, especially when you are polite and friendly rather than pushy and selfish when dealing with the airline staff.

Does anyone here have a free upgrade success story?

When I got engaged, my brother gave us this book as an engagement gift. Written by Clark Howard, it's called Get Clark Smart: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rich from America's Money-Saving Expert. The book retails for $15.95, and it was by far the most valuable wedding gift I received.

Clark Howard is a radio personality whose motto is "save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off." This book is full of great money-saving and money-building tips that are so valuable to young couples, but also the not-so-young, and of course not just couples. Howard understands that most people have to start building wealth from very little, whereas so many other books on finance assume that you're already pretty well off and just want to get even richer.

This book includes fantastic advice on mortgages, vacation spending, saving for the future, finding deals, avoiding ripoffs, and much more, and it really is easy to understand and follow the advice. If no one gives you this book as a wedding gift, I highly recommend buying it for yourself. As I mentioned recently, money stress is a huge factor in marital turmoil. You can start forming the good financial habits that will benefit your relationship and your future as soon as you put down this book.

We all know how expensive weddings can be. Once you start spending the money, it seems to snowball. How do you rein it in a bit?

1. Prioritize! Yes, the chocolate fountain is a lovely idea, but are you willing to go without a bouquet to have it? Maybe you are! If you know what's essential to you, you can have everything means the most. (And, no, it isn't ALL essential. Stop that.)

2. For small things, try out the dollar store. For my wedding last spring, we decorated the tables with balloon bouquets -- $15/bouquet from the local party mart; $5 from the dollar store. Times 15 tables. Think about it.