Nationally, couples are spending less on their weddings, saving what they can so as to get a good start at owning a home or starting a family.

And exhibitors at Sunday’s wedding expo at the Sheraton Providence Airport Hotel found prospective brides and grooms and their families paying careful attention to costs. But while money can be saved on hors d’oeuvres, the number of limos for the wedding party and the size of the band remain considerations. But Lynda Williams, who owns Formal Hair Design hasn’t experienced the effects of the downturn in the economy so far. In fact, she says, she’s twice as busy this year than she was last.

“Brides do not skimp on beauty,” Williams said.

Her point is that, regardless of the countless details that go into making the “perfect” wedding, the bride wants to be her loveliest and there’s no cutting corners for cosmetics.

Williams, who has been in business for almost two years, goes on site to do her styling. She offers a wide range of looks, from classic-style to runway. Bridal hair styling starts at $100 and members of the bridal party cost $75 and up. Her prices dip for the mothers of the bride and groom, as well as flower girls.

Williams’ work has taken her throughout New England. She says most of the Rhode Island weddings she does are in Newport.

“It’s a great service,” she said, explaining the wedding party has the peace of mind knowing they can count on her and not depend on a salon in a town they probably don’t know.

Alicia Walker of Lincoln was one of the prospective brides at the expo. She and fiancé Doug Rodrigues plan to marry in September of 2011. That is as much as is known. They haven’t got a venue for the big day, but they do expect about 175 people. They don’t have a budget yet, although they said they will be on the conservative side. They want to start saving for a house.

According to weddingreport.com, the average amount spent on a wedding in this country is $19,580, which is a drop of about $10,000 over the past three years.

Budget constraints are all too familiar to Mary Coutinho, who operates Creative Visions. She said, with the advent of digital photography, more and more would-be photographers are out there.

“People are trying to break into the business,” she said. A wedding shoot by Creative ranges from $1,000 to $3,250. Albums are an additional $400 to $950 and include some unique effects, such as prints on metallic photo paper, black and white subjects within a color photograph and super imposed images.

Coutinho has found brides coming to her after weddings, seeking her assistance to “fix up” photographs another photographer had taken but botched. Her philosophy has been to make the customer happy, and the referrals and reputation for quality of her work will bring in the business.

Things were slow at the expo.

Bands played, food was served and Mark Ferri looked for the first-ever wedding customer for his MAF Sound & Lighting Productions. Ferri does laser light shows and they can be as elaborate as halftime at the Super Bowl, if you want to sink $250,000 or more in it. Animated shows for weddings start at about $5,000 and go up from there, he said.

Slow or not, it was a great afternoon for Shelah Rice of Warwick. Her hair was perfect as was her makeup and she looked at ease in a gown from East Greenwich Bridal. Rice loves modeling the gowns, confessing, “It makes me want one…to buy one and keep it in my closet so I can dress up when I want to.”

What about the real thing, like getting married?

“I’m still young,” she said, but “it does make me want to.”