Want to find out the secrets behind saving on your wedding day essentials? Katie Couric featured  Site Director Anja Winikka as a special guest on a wedding segment as she demystified what adds dollar signs to everything from shoes to centerpieces! Get a sneak peek of the tips here:

The Gown

Photo: Courtesy Disney-ABC

Splurge (left)

This Dennis Basso for Kleinfeld gown retails for $2,500. Hand-beaded embroidery, silver-dipped thread, forty layers of silk tulle, and three-dimensional French-imported lace all combine to create this gorgeous gown.

Steal (right)

This ball gown by Allure Bridals is priced at $1,200 and features embroidery and Swarovski crystals across the bodice. There are no lace appliqués like the Dennis Basso and the Swarovski embellishments on the skirt are scattered instead of in a dense band around the bottom.

How To Save On Your Gown

Choosing a classic gown without embellishments may lower the price tag significantly (often by up to 25%). Alternatively, opt out of some of the ornamentation. Get all that gorgeous lace and beading on the bodice, but eliminate the lace and embellishment on the hemline, waistline, train, or sleeves to save.

The Cake

Photo: Courtesy Disney-ABC

Splurge (left)

A three-tiered gold Swiss buttercream cake by Ana Parzych Cakes will run you $2,300. With features like pressed fondant lace borders with edible gold dust and brushed piped embroidery painted with edible pearl dust in addition to tons of hand-crafted gum paste flowers in different types and sizes it’s easy to drool over this splurge cake.

Steal (right)

Also by Ana Parzych Cakes this similar three tiered Swiss buttercream cake with light pink fondant finished tiers, but the design is far less intricate. It features fondant ribbon, which is painted gold and embellished with a single sugar and gum paste bloom.

How To Save On Your Cake

By the time the wedding cake is supposed to be cut, chances are, your guests are pretty full! So order half the size of a wedding cake you’d need (i.e. 150 guests = cake for 75 people) and actually serve half-servings. Trust us—your guests won’t even notice!

Want to find out how to save on your centerpieces, invitations, and wedding shoes? Watch Site Director Anja Winikka on Katie Couric: Secret Tips to Slash Your Budget!

> 10 hidden wedding costs

> Stay on track with our wedding budgeter tool

> 100+ budget wedding ideas

We’ve asked you about the most romantic honeymoon hot spot (Bora Bora here we come!) and the most adventurous honeymoon spot (hello South Africa!). Today, we want to know which honeymoon spot gives you the most bang for your buck. By the way, that photo is of Treasure Beach in Jamaica!

> Top 50 honeymoon hot spots for 2012 (search by romantic, adventurous, bargain and exotic)

Could this be the newest trend in dress shopping? DailyFinance.com reported that more and more brides are selling their dresses to other brides before their wedding day. Their goal? To save enough money to make what would be an out-of-budget dress possible — or even put the money toward other wedding details.

High-end dresses, especially styles worn by celebrities like the Vera Wang dresses Hillary Duff and Chelsea Clinton chose, are the among the best-sellers on sites like PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com. One bride sold her $6,700 dress for $3,500 (saving her more than 50 percent!). What do you think? Would you buy a dress that hadn’t been worn by the original bride yet? (I’d be worried about paying for a dress before knowing how much wear and tear it would go through before getting to me!) And would you consider walking down the aisle in a dress that someone else had already bought the rights to if it meant some major savings? Let us know in the comments.

> First things first: Let’s get you a dress. Search 1,000+ dresses

> 10 things to do after buying your dress

> The 10 hottest wedding dress trends right now

It’s a no-brainer: wedding costs add up. But in society-conscious South Korea, where cultural customs are also heavily factored into the budget, couples typically pay up to roughly $200,000 — and that’s four times the national annual income!

So where exactly does all the money go? Reuters reports that Korean marriage traditions require lavish gift exchanges between the two families (we’re talking mink coats and Rolex watches), along with the groom to shell out cash for a new house.

To keep up with these extravagant costs — and maintain their family’s social reputation and connections — couples are taking out huge loans and racking up serious debt.

While paying for the dress, florist, photographer and what seems like a million other details is a given, it’s fascinating that geography and culture can hugely impact budget and more importantly, wedding values.

Are cultural traditions playing a huge part in your budgeting?

Photo: CNBC.com

> The 25 most expensive places to get married in the US

Ever wonder how your wedding budget compares to the average? In our 2011 Real Wedding Study, we pinpointed the 25 most expensive places to get married in the country.

Some highlights? Fifty-two percent of these locales are clustered on the east coast. New York City came in at number one, costing upwards of $65,824. But Chicago wasn’t far behind — tying the knot costs an average of $53,069 there. And other than those two cities, we found that the majority of price tags hover around $30,000. Check out the rest of the details below!

> Read our top tips to creating a budget that works

It’s not the most glamorous topic, but you gotta do it. Even wedding planning has to be set aside so you can file your taxes (are you finished yet?).

The process of bucking up for Uncle Sam changes after you wed, though, so make sure you know the difference between filing as a single and a married. Our sister site, TheNest.com, has you covered on all the details.

> Read up on your soon-to-be tax process