Every girl may dream of her wedding day, but she might not dream it could cost more than her annual salary.

Your wedding may not match up to those celebrity galas splashed across the pages of InStyle, but author Leah Ingram notes that the average American spends $27,000 on his or her wedding. In her book, “Tie the Knot on a Shoestring” (Alpha, $14.95), Ingram promises she can show you how to do it for just $5,000.

Ingram leads the reader through the wedding-planning process, from setting a budget to finding reasonable prices for just about everything. She also includes appendices like a “Caribbean primer” to help those considering a destination wedding or tropical honeymoon, and a breakdown of companies she mentions in the book.

She assures that $5,000 can get you far; even destination weddings aren’t out of the question. Reading books about wedding planning can be just as overwhelming as planning the actual wedding. But to ease the pain, Ingram includes a checklist and a sample vendor letter for couples trying to turn a shoestring budget into a dream come true.