I got married at Highlands Christian Church. My parents are members there and I grew up at the church, but I believe there wasn't a charge for use of the facility, just a small charge for the minister. I can't promise that this is the case for non-members, but it is definently worth a look! I don't know what part of town you are in, but Highlands Christian Church is in Lake Highlands which is in Northeast Dallas - it is nearby Audelia and Northwest highway on McCree. Their website is http://www.highlandschristianchurch.com if you want to check it out. If you are on a super tight budget they also have a fellowship hall you can have a reception in.
If you are looking for a nicer reception, I had mine at The Guest Lodge at the Cooper Aerobic Center. It is one of the most beautiful locations in Dallas! It was really pretty reasonable as far a wedding reception locations go, I would check it out. The prices can vary depending on time of day, day of week, what you pick for food, etc. One good thing is you bring your own alchohol if you want it, so we just got a bunch of beer and wine from Sams and their staff served it. Their food is very good and you can do as little or as much as you like. You can bring in your own entertainment, which can be anything to fit your budget. Anything from a full band or professional DJ to a friend's or family member's band to a Cd player with CDs of songs you have picked. You can cut costs on flowers by getting them yourself at Sams. Another great thing at The Guest Lodge is they help you out by recommending venders they trust for flowers, cakes, bands, djs, whatever you may need. They are very helpful. I will say - for cake, I tried many and though many are good, we went with Radford cakery and were not disappointed. In fact we were overjoyed. They were quite a but cheaper per slice than comparable tasting bakeries and the cakes looked and tasted awesome!! One advice I have is don't skimp on photography. You will want the memories. Don't have a well meaning friend do it unless they are a professional. You are probably all right having a friend video if they know what they are doing. Also don't have a well meaning friend DJ. We did and it almost killed our reception. Recored CDs probably would have been better. Think about things you can truly skip. As you are looking at bridal magazines and planning you will fall into the trap of thinking you need things you don't - all excited brides do. Do you really need personalized napkins? No - nobody cares. Do you really need party favors? Think hard on this one - they are nice, but in the end, unless they are really special people tend to forget about them and its money you put out for nothing. Do you need special seat covers? Probably not - see what the venue offers. Oh - invitations. A couple of ways to go with this. I got super cheap invitations that looked awesome at Party City. If you are crafty/technical and so inclined you can do them yourself on your printer, but for the money I would go the Party City route, it looks nicer. Unless you are having a super super small wedding please don't send email wedding invites. I personally find this tacky. I think an email save the date is awesome, but I think guests deserve a mailed invitation. Besides, many of the older guests won't have email - maybe not even a computer! That being said, The Knot, or theknot.com has a great website with tons of wedding ideas and you can set up your own wedding website with all the information about the wedding and from this you can send out the save the date emails. You can also send out hotel info for out of town guests, etc. Speaking of out of town guests, if you did The Guest Lodge at Coopers they will give you a special rate there for your out of town guests, you also get the honeymoon suite for the night of your wedding - it is awesome! I'll stop rambling now, I hope I gave you some ideas. Definately check out Theknot.com though, there is so much info there! Good luck and congrats!!!