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While Nina Willdorf was planning her wedding in Tiburon, California, she realized her "on-the-job training" could help other brides-to-be maximize their funds.

So, she wrote Wedding Chic: The Savvy Bride’s Guide to Getting More While Spending Less (Perigee). Here, the author shares three money lessons she learned:

Hire a wedding planner. Coordinators get discounts from vendors they work with regularly, and those savings get passed on to you, says Willdorf, who spent hours shopping around for a reasonably priced makeup artist, but couldn’t find one for less than $200. “Even though a planner will charge you for her services, she’ll surely save you more than the cost of her fee,” she adds.

Choose locally available food. “One of the entrées we offered was salmon, but if I’d simply conferred with the caterer, I could have saved 20 percent by serving trout instead, which was readily available in my area at the time,” says Willdorf.

Buy the negatives of your photographs. “Many photographers charge a hefty markup to make prints of your favorite photos,” says Willdorf. “If I’d owned the negatives, I could have saved several hundred dollars by having copies for friends and family made on my own.”

Grape Bargains A good bottle of wine doesn’t have to cost a bundle, say Wall Street Journal wine columnists Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, authors of Wine for Every Day and Every Occasion (HarperCollins). If you’re on a budget, serve one chardonnay (white) and one merlot (red) at your wedding; most people like them, so you can’t really go wrong, say the authors. These delicious American wines cost less than $20 a bottle (those with a * cost under $10!):

Chardonnays

- R.H. Phillips Vineyard Best complements light, simply prepared fish or chicken dishes.
- Bogle Vineyards Founders’ Estate* A versatile wine that pairs well with any kind of fish or chicken.
-Cambria “Katherine’s Chardonnay” A great choice for fancier selections, like lobster or pork tenderloin.

Merlots

- Beringer Vineyards Founders’ Estate* This wine goes nicely with barbecued meat and rich Italian dishes.
- Benziger Family Winery Serve with lamb, beef or veal.
- Bogle Vineyards* A perfect complement for steak, spice-rubbed roast chicken or ribs.

Saving on Insurance It’s likely you have health, auto and homeowner’s insurance, which will protect you in an emergency. But consider taking a pass on these types of insurance, says G. Cotter Cunningham, the author of Your Financial Action Plan: 12 Simple Steps to Achieve Money Success (John Wiley & Sons):

An extended warranty for appliances Most defects will be covered by the manufacturer's warranty, and it can often cost just as much to replace the broken appliance as it does to pay for the extended warranty.

Rental-car insurance Most auto policies cover rental-car accidents—and at much cheaper rates. Standard levels of homeowner's, renter's and life insurance also provide coverage for many travel-related incidents in the U.S. Check your policy to be sure.

Credit life insurance Credit card and mortgage companies often sell policies that absolve you of credit-card debt in the event of your death. But this is what term life insurance is for—and you can usually buy that coverage at a much cheaper rate from another provider.