Planning a dream wedding often comes with a hefty price tag. From the venue to the catering and all the details in between, the expenses can quickly add up, leaving many wondering how to make money for your wedding and manage to foot the bill without breaking the bank. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to earn extra money to help pay for your wedding so you don't have to sacrifice your vision. In this post, I'll share various methods to help you generate extra income without compromising on quality. Here are 60+ ways to make money for your wedding.
Declutter Your Home
One of the first and easiest ways to make money for your wedding expenses is to declutter your home. Send clothes into ThredUp, resale on Poshmark, bring items to a local Plato’s Closet or Buffalo Exchange, list on eBay, or have a garage sale. There's also Mercari, Depop, Tradesy, Offerup, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace to try. In addition to clothes you may make a few extra bucks off of your used books, collectibles, furniture, accessories, and more.
Personally, I sold on Poshmark for years and still list the occasional item, but have found that it's much easier and faster to send my clothes off to ThredUp in one shipment––even if I sometimes make a bit less.
Get Cash Back for What You Already Buy
Why not earn money for your wedding on the things you're already buying anyway? Cash Back apps are one of the easiest options. Start making all your online purchases through the Rakuten chrome extension or app for 1-4%+ cash back at many online stores. Click here to earn an extra 10% cash back on your purchases for 7 days.
I've been using Rakuten for nearly 10 years and, depending on how much I spend, consistently make $10-$150 each month with almost zero effort. Plus, they have a coupon feature that can help save you money at the same time. During the holidays they also offer up to 12% cash back promotions.
There’s also Ibotta for groceries, Receipt Pal, Fetch Rewards, Get Upside, and tons more. Personally, Ibotta didn't work for me and how I shop for groceries, but a lot of people really like it. Click here for $5 free at Ibotta. I have not tried the other apps.
Travel Points and Cash Back Credit Card Rewards
Credit card rewards points are another great way to earn money for your wedding on what you're already buying. Credit cards can be scary if you don't have experience with them, but there are also many advantages to responsibly building credit as a couple. It is not a good idea to accumulate debt to pay for your wedding. You don't want to be paying off these expenses with interest for years to come.
However, if you're able to pay off your monthly charges without incurring added fees and interest, now is a great time to get a credit card (or two). For most cards, you have to spend $1,000+ to earn the card sign-up bonus, and it can take an extra month or so to receive the bonus on your statement.
The best card depends a lot on personal preference, travel style, honeymoon plans, and location (physical proximity to different airline hubs). But overall the best and most-loved card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred for its travel points flexibility and cash back options. Click here for a sign-up bonus.
Between the two of us, my husband and I also have cards for Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, Marriott, Hilton, Amazon (5% Amazon credit back on all Amazon purchases), and Nordstrom. This makes sense for us––even with the yearly fees for most of those cards. We have friends who swear by only their Southwest Airlines card to accumulate enough for a free companion pass for their partner, others who love their Delta or American Airlines cards, and others who have happily paid to upgrade to a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. During wedding planning I also signed up for the CapitalOne Venture card for the bonus, but have since canceled it.
All that said, Chase Sapphire Preferred will likely make the most sense to start. Do your research from there to figure out the best fit(s) for you and your partner. And for the sake of maintaining longterm credit, aim to keep your first credit card open forever.
Trade Your Time and Resources for Cash
Here are several side hustle ideas to earn extra money for your wedding:
- Pet Sitting: Rover. I love Rover! Before we had a dog of our own we hosted pets in our home their parents went out of town or had special events to attend. I didn't actually take any dog walking gigs, but that's certainly an option too.
- Ride Share: Lyft, Uber, and others. Some cities now require a business license. I did both of these during wedding planning until I hit the sign-up bonus (which was much higher several years ago). For the most part, I was able to work this into my commute and only drove 1-2 hours at a time each day.
- Commute Share: Pre-COVID I was using Scoop and another Google-owned commuter app to pick up people in my area and drop them off at work along my 45-60 min commuter route in San Francisco. I actually really loved this. It was easy, it paid for gas and more, and I enjoyed the conversations with my "regulars"––I'm still in touch with two of them. If you commute in a big city do some research to see what apps or traditional options might be available to you.
- Food Delivery: Instacart, DoorDash, UberEats, and others. I have not tried any of these, but from speaking with friends who have it sounds like income and effort varies by city. All-in-all these seem to be an easy way to make money on your own schedule.
- Babysitting: care.com, sittercity.com, or through word-of-mouth
- Second Job: Wait tables, host, bartend, or work retail
- Tutoring: VIPKid.com or tutor.com online or find somewhere local
- Rent out what you own:
- Your Car: In some cities you can rent out your car on GetAround or Turo. I made significant side income this way for years while living in San Francisco, but towards the end my car was stolen (and recovered) multiple times because of a specific issue GetAround has yet to resolve, FYI.
- Your House: In the early days of Airbnb my now-husband and I rented our small Los Angeles apartment on Airbnb every time we left town. These days, the expectations of Airbnb rentals are higher and the rules are more strict. We wouldn't be able to legally host in San Francisco––and I wouldn't really want to anymore––but maybe it could work for you. If you have a spare room or go out of town on a regular basis this could be an easy way to make money. Check your local laws first.
- Your Garage Space: on Neighbor.com or stowit.com
- Your parking space: on Spacer.com or Neighbor.com
- Your tools: on Rentmyequipment.com
- Your pool: on Swimply.com
- Your yard for dogs to play: on Sniffspot.com
Open a High-Yield Savings Account
If you have any kind of lump sum of wedding money sitting and waiting to be used, it should be in a high-yield savings account (HYSA). HYSAs have essentially zero risk, but offer a better 'reward' than the average bank account. Most savings accounts pay you back less than .05% interest on the money held in the account. HYSAs pay you 3-6%. So if you have just $500 a HYSA could be the difference between earning approximately $2 vs. earning approximately $25 in interest every year.
Interest rates on HYSAs can change every month. My husband and I had an HSBC HYSA that started with a great rate but ended up dropping over time, so we closed it. I'm sure this possibility was stated in the fine print, which we did not read. For the past two years we've been using Ally Bank's HYSA. We specifically opened this account because there was no minimum balance and the interest rate was above 4%.
Another way to make just a bit more in interest is to open a "certificate of deposit" or CD account. CDs hold your money for a period of time that you choose and you can only access the money at the end of the term. Otherwise you forfeit the interest you've earned. A CD might be a good option for you if, for example, your parents gift you a sum of money at the beginning of your wedding planning and you're reasonably certain you wont need to access it for 6 or 12 months. Most banks offer CD accounts online.
Online Surveys & Market Research
Find local and online market research and survey companies that pay in either cash or points to help make extra money for your wedding.
To be fully transparent, I think online surveys are mostly a waste of time. But if you have some time to kill on a fairly mindless activity, it won't be a total loss. I did eRewards and Survey Junkie for several years starting in 2008 while in school or between jobs and often traded my points in for airline credit. Today, in 2024 while writing this post, I logged into my Survey Junkie account for the first time in years and discovered that I had $11 in rewards and cashed it out for Amazon credit.
There are also many more sites like SwagBucks, National Consumer Panel, Branded Surveys, Point Club, Springboard America, Opinion Outpost, Pinecone, MySoapBox, VIP Voice, Survey Club, and others. I have not tried any of these.
There are some highly-reputable online and local market research companies that pay worth-while amounts. Many studies though are very specific and it can be hard to qualify. One great example is Maslansky + Partners. While I have yet to qualify for a well-paid Maslansky study, I have earned many $2 Amazon gift cards over the years for completing fun and fast political surveys that come up via email.
Another related option I recommend is usertesting.com. They're a well-known company that other businesses use to collect feedback on their website designs and new product features. You have to apply, and they might not always be taking new testers, but once you're in it can be kind of fun.
Donate Plasma
Selling plasma is essentially like giving blood. I did this in college through a university research center and made several hundred dollars at the time. In 2024, some people say they can make $1000+ to save for a wedding in a year. Research local opportunities in your city.
Work Your Current Job
Maybe the best way to make extra money for your wedding is to actually focus on your primary job or career. Can you take on overtime? Muster up courage to ask your boss for a raise? Over exceed your bonus potential? Maybe you can put your side hustle energy towards finding a new primary job with higher pay instead. The long-term benefits here will probably far exceed what you could ever earn with online surveys.
Get Crafty
If you're savvy and crafty, maybe furniture flipping or starting an Etsy store could be fun for you.
Furniture Flipping: Fixing up and reselling second hand items you find from thrifting, estate sales, or on Facebook Marketplace. Items can be large or small. This might be time intensive, but could be worth the effort.
Etsy: It’s well-known that Etsy is a popular place to sell handmade items, but this is not necessarily the quick path to financial freedom that so many people advertise online. Some products may take off quickly on Etsy, but more often than not it will take quite a bit of time and effort to become successful. Regardless, if other people can do it, so can you. From this link it's free to start with your first 40 listings. If you have an idea, give it a try. I have been selling on Etsy since 2012 with varying amounts of effort and success over time. You can shop my photography, vintage postcards, and gifts on Etsy here
Utilize Your Skills by Starting a Business Side Hustle
Do you have business skills to offer on marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork? Can you can market your consulting availability on LinkedIn? If you are more hands-on, maybe TaskRabbit would be a great fit. If none of those are a match or you're looking for more guaranteed income faster, try becoming a virtual assistant on sites like Odesa and Outsourcely.
About the Author
Hi! I’m Amanda. I worked in the wedding, hospitality, and event industry for over a decade before moving to tech marketing and then planning my own wedding. I’ve coordinated weddings, assisted photographers, shot & edited wedding videos, worked as a wedding banquet server through college, have had my writing and photographs published in a few wedding magazines and blogs, and lots more. These days I’m a part-time work-from-home mom and will always remain a dedicated side hustler--some links in the post above are referral and affiliate links.
Here’s my ‘real wedding’ featured on Zola.
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