There are some cultures where weddings don't actually cost anything. In countries from Greece to the Philippines, for example, during the reception there's a money dance, where the guests pin money to the bride and groom. If you get the right balance between the amount you spend and the generosity of the guests you invite, you can break even.

For most people in the UK, the flow of money seems to be entirely one-way, where the only things you get in return for a stupendous outlay of money are a smattering of bath towels and saucepans. However, with a bit of creativity, you can make money from your wedding.
You can sell things on.

One of the best candidates for this is to sell your wedding dress. You can use eBay, or any one of a host of specialist sites such as sellmyweddingdress.co.uk. As a rough rule of thumb, you'll make back somewhere between a quarter and a half of what you paid for the dress, depending on the condition, size, designer and the style. For some brides, this can net as much as £1,000.

Less common, but equally possible, is to sell on your table decorations. This means thinking about things you can sell when you first order your decorations. So, for example, a fish bowl filled with a single pillar candle can look very effective with a stem or two of lilies or pretty shells and stones. These won't cost any more than flowers, and should net anything up to £10 each when they sell.

Personally I decorated tables with huge glass bowls of marshmallows, and scattered tea lights. I got the bowls and tea lights from Ikea, sold them on afterwards, and had a total cost per table of less than £5.

If you can't imagine anyone would want to buy the things you have in mind for decorations, think about how you can incorporate them into gifts. A friend of mine used beautiful photo frames on easels for each table number, then the following Christmas, her closest friends each got one of the frames, filled with a picture of us from the big day.

Once you've used up all the bits and pieces from the wedding, you can turn your attention to how you can reuse your ideas.

You could, for example, turn your best ideas into a business. A friend of mine created her own seating plan and invitations, and was so pleased with the results that she has started an eBay businesses selling similar ones. With the cost of a plan starting at around £25, it's a useful little earner.

You can also sell your knowledge, by setting up as a wedding planner. If you loved the whole process of planning your wedding, and you can see yourself doing it professionally, wedding planning is a growth business. You can charge around 10-15% of the cost of the wedding for a full service, or £50 an hour for bits and pieces. It's a great opportunity to be paid for something you loved doing, but bear in mind that it will involve working weekends.

Sell your story. OK this requires you to have very little shame. Not everyone has the opportunity to strike a Hello-style deal, but we all have wedding dramas to share. If you had a disastrous day, or a momentous one, you could put a call out to women's magazines about their true-life stories, and you could make some cash. Similarly, if your wedding video features something out of the ordinary, you could try sending it to a show like You've Been Framed that pays for submissions. There's nothing funnier than watching the bride and groom topple through a cake, and if you're the bride or the groom, the humiliation can be eased somewhat with a cheque.