WEDDINGS USED TO

be about two people saying "I do." Now they're about the guests saying "Wow!"

"It's not just about having a nice wedding," says wedding planner Mikki Kane of Santa Monica, Calif. "Everyone wants to be creative and really cater to their guests."

But dazzling the guests typically requires nothing short of a stunning budget. Consider that the average wedding tab runs a whopping $22,000, according to the wedding-planning Web site The Knot. Those looking for celebrity-style upgrades usually need to be prepared to add a zero or two to that figure. For example, when ABC's Bachelorette Trista Rehn wed her reality-show sweetheart last December, the gift bags for the wedding party alone cost $30,000. (The total cost of the wedding was $3.77 million, according to ABC.)

Still, it is possible to have a red-carpet wedding for a fraction of the price. Here are some of the ways the stars have wowed their guests and how you can achieve a similar effect for less.

1. Russell Crowe Did It: The All-Weekend Wedding Bash
Last April, Russell Crowe wed actress-singer Danielle Spencer after three days of lavish festivities that featured a Friday night party and lightshow, a Saturday cricket match (her kin against his) and after the lavish ceremony on Monday a performance by the groom's band, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts. By some estimates, the wedding cost about $600,000.

But it's not just celebrities who are getting into the all-weekend wedding trend, says wedding planner Kane, who has planned celebrity weddings as well as "regular" ones. "People are really trying to do sort of event weekends, rather than just the wedding itself." The idea here is that this way, the bride and groom's friends and family actually get to spend some quality time with the soon-to-be Mr. & Mrs.

Your Way: A Destination Wedding for Less
Believe it or not, a potential way to save while still enjoying several days rather than a few hours with your guests is to have a destination wedding. Destination weddings also typically have smaller guest lists, which means more of the wedding budget can be spent on luxuries.

Resorts like Sandals and cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean offer special wedding packages with discounts and gifts for the bride, groom and their guests. The event planners at Sandals, for example, have organized all kinds of weekend-wedding activities, including a Family Olympics tournament and a golf-and-spa event (guys play golf, girls enjoy the Spa) all included in the wedding package. Other fun group activities like snorkeling are typically included as well.

For more tips on how to save on destination weddings, see our story.

2. Paul McCartney Did It: A Wedding at a Fairy-Tale Locale
With their multimillion dollar budgets, celebrities can easily afford to wed at locations taken right out of the history books. Sir Paul McCartney's wedding to Heather Mills in June 2002, for example, took place at one of the Great Houses of Ireland the centuries-old Castle Leslie. The cost: roughly $3 million, according to the British tabloids.

"It used to be that you got married at the Four Seasons or at a Bally's hotel and that was good enough," says Kane. "But now every bride wants a unique setting." For example, Kane is currently planning a wedding at the house where the HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is filmed. Unfortunately, the price could easily curb the enthusiasm of any budget-minded couple: "It's up in the five digits to rent this place," Kane says.

Your Way: Be Creative (How About a Central Park ceremony for $25?)
The good news is, you don't need a king's ransom to get married in a memorable setting. You just need to think creatively.

That's what 27-year-old Rene Zweig did when she tied the knot last summer in New York City. She created the wedding of her dreams for a total of $18,000 (honeymoon included). Zweig had always dreamed of a beautiful garden wedding, but renting a pricey mansion with lavish lawns wasn't quite up to the couple's budget. So they found a creative solution: They got married in the biggest garden New York City has to offer, Central Park. Their location fee: $25. After that, they had a reception for 45 guests at a small Italian restaurant in Manhattan that had never handled a wedding reception before. "I didn't feel like we cut corners at all, but using a few non-traditional sites made a huge difference in our budget," Zweig says.

By picking a venue that doesn't normally host weddings, you can cut your budget dramatically, so set your imagination free. Public parks can be beautiful settings, and they usually charge a nominal fee for any public event that takes place there. An added bonus to picking a beautiful natural setting is that "if you have a gorgeous venue, you don't need to spend a lot to dress it up," says Kane.

If you still want that fancy mansion, look for non-traditional ways to pay for your wedding, suggests Kane. One of her brides a Pilates instructor in Los Angeles will be married this month at a Hollywood mansion, and is paying many of her vendors with Pilates classes. "She's going to be working it off for a long time," she says with a laugh.

3. Carmen Electra Did It: Crystals in Your Bouquet
For photographs, visit the Web site. Since then, these types of adornments have become trendy, according to The Knot.

"Opulent accessories to flowers are very stylish and popular," says Joyce Scardina Baker, a wedding designer and president of Events of Distinction in San Francisco. But they're pricey. For a wedding she handled a couple of weeks ago, Baker had a $15,000-budget for flowers alone. Red crystals were embedded in the centerpieces on the 21 tables at the reception. The cost: $175 per centerpiece.

Your Way: Hit the Post-Christmas Sales
With a pinch of creativity, you too can have crystals in your flowers without paying a lot for them. A reader of The Knot shared on the Web site's message boards that she was planning to use Christmas decorations that she found on sale at a hobby store for her bouquet. The crystals looked exactly like Carmen Electra's, she said.

You can also save on the flowers themselves. A tried-and-true savings technique is to buy the flowers wholesale and then have a florist arrange them. By doing this, one of Kane's clients was able to reduce her costs to a mere $300.

Alternatively, you can have fewer tables. For one of her brides, Baker had nine long tables (rather than twice as many smaller ones), decorated with rose petals, greenery and fruit. After the reception, she took the bride's and bridesmaids' bouquets and used them as centerpieces. "We still had beautiful decorations," she says. And they cost only $50 per table.

4. Celebrity Way: The $21,000 Wedding Cake
Unfortunately, wedding planner Tony Conway of A Legendary Event, based in Atlanta, says he isn't authorized to disclose the identity of the celebrity who splurged on a $21,000 cake, which was created by celebrity wedding cake designer Sylvia Weinstock in New York and flown to Atlanta by cargo plane. The cake, adorned with 1,200 hand-made sugar flowers, fed 500 guests. "It was a spectacular cake," Conway says.

Your Way: Make it Yourself
At celebrity cake designer Gail Watson's Web site, you can order a cake kit with all the sugar-flowers or other decorations used to make any of her signature cakes for around $400 to $600. You can then bring the kit to your local baker and you'll have a celebrity look-alike for a fraction of the cost, says Rosie Amodio, executive editor of The Knot.

5. Toni Braxton Did It: Personalized Favors
For her wedding, Toni Braxton wanted each of her guests to have a napkin with their own monogram, says Conway, who planned the star's wedding in April 2001. Once the guests finished their deserts, Conway's caterers collected the napkins, had them dry-cleaned and put them into Tiffany's gift boxes. "The guests were so surprised that the napkins they had just used were dry cleaned and in gift boxes," Conway says.

Your Way: Monogrammed Cookies
Let's face it, wedding favors can cost a bundle and many are either left behind on the tables or tossed into the nearest trash bin.

But a personalized gift and one that actually tastes good is bound to be a hit. You could, for example, have homemade cookies monogrammed with your initials for each of your guests, suggests Susan Jablonski, a certified wedding planner and owner of the Left Bank in Chicago. For one wedding, Jablonski used chocolate Eiffel Towers as gifts because that's where the couple got engaged. "Do something that reflects both of you," she says.

6. Celebrity Way: An Ice Vodka Luge for $20,000
For the $150,000 wedding of a Russian couple who recently got married in Chicago, Jablonski arranged to have ice sculptures filled with vodka and caviar as centerpieces for the buffet tables. Ice-cold vodka flowed freely throughout the reception through a faucet. "It was nuts," Jablonski says. "It was the craziest wedding I've ever done."

Your Way: A Margarita Luge For $2,000
Ice sculptures shaped like sombreros, chili peppers or margarita glasses are popular and, if filled with margarita instead of vodka, cost a lot less since the alcohol is cheaper, says Jablonski. The luge itself would be around $500 to $750 and the liqueur and margarita mix might cost as little as $1,000 for 100 people.

7. Celebrity Way: The Designer Dress
Trista Rehn's Badgley Mischka dress reportedly cost $70,000. For a dress that's worn just once, many brides would think that's a little excessive.

Your Way: eBay
While some Vera Wang dresses retail for as little as $2,500, according to The Knot's Amodio, even better deals are to be found at online auctioneer eBay. "I have a friend who often goes to Badgley Mischka sample sales and then eBays the dresses," Amodio says. For a never-worn dress, "she pays $100 and she sells them for $1,000." Needless to say, if you live in New York City you could start frequenting sample sales yourself. (Or even consider flying in from another part of the country.)