$10k budget. Is it really enough?

This is really a difficult question for anyone on here to answer for you. Is it do-able? Yes. The problem is that it is region specific (10k goes further in some parts of the country than others). It also depends on what you're wanting/expecting. Fastest way to bring costs down though: cut people and have a small guest list.

Whether or not 10k is realistic depends on your location and your guest list. I'm in NYC/NJ and 10k is tough even for a small wedding. In most places 10k is doable as long as you are not trying to invite 250 people. Do make a priority list of what's important to you (photography, flowers, etc) and put more money towards those things. If you are unsure of what things cost in your area reach out to vendors to get an idea as most of us do get sticker shock. The budget tool and checklist tools on wedding wire are super helpful. Some brides have bought their flowers at grocery stores rather than going through a florist to save money. Often non floral centerpieces are cheaper. Instead of a fancy cake, you could do a small cake for you and FH and a sheet cake for everyone else. Or you could do pies or cupcakes or a dessert bar instead of a cake. If you want to do DIY, make sure it will actually save you money. Skips favors and programs as they are often a waste of money. If most of yor guests are local, you can skip STDs also.

I will say that we pulled it off. This will completely depend on the size of your guest list, your theme, and friend or family who can discount their services of donate them for you. DH'S aunt does wedding cakes and did ours for free, our photographer was a friend of the family that gave us the day for half price, and our officiant was free as he is also a family member and MIL is a florist who did our flowers for the cost of materials. This coupled with guest list trimming gave me my semi fancy event with amazing food. Good luck!

The best way is to cut people from your guest list. The more you have to feed, the more money you have to pay. Don't worry about the little pinterest things like proposing to your bridesmaids. In fact if you don't even have a bridal party or a very limited bridal party, that will save you (and your friends) money. Shop around for everything as well, you never know what kind of deals you can get out there especially for wedding things. Try to buy pre-owned items, there are tons of websites where brides are selling things they no longer need. Even look into pre-owned wedding dresses if you are ok with that idea.

Where are you located? Mine will be about $12k for 85 people. With full bar and dinner. I am in CT though. $70pp.

All in, our wedding will be less than that - but we also are thinking outside the box with some stuff and really researched a lot to find nontraditional vendors that fit our personalities and ideas for the wedding. We also are inviting 85 ish people, so the biggest tip is definitely to put together a guest list and stick to it. Feeding people (and providing drinks of some kind) is definitely the biggest part of any wedding budget.

It's totally do-able.

It just depends on what you want to do.

Prioritize and budget the top 2-3 things and go from there. like RJ said- 10K in NJ/NY won't get you incredibly far- but you can still have something nice- it's just going to be nice tidy- and no frills and the things you really want will be there.

Pick your battles and your priorties and start pricing vendors and you'll get a sense of what you're really working with... remember- you're just as married with a 50$ certificate from the courthouse- getting married does not HAVE to be the thousands of dollar event.

Nothing wrong if it is- but nothing wrong if it isn't.

Depends on location, guest count and your expectations. Please don't count on friendors; it's a recipe (no pun intended) for unpleasantness if not disaster.

In my area, you could do 50ish people and have a really nice wedding instead of 150 and pulling your hair out.

Again, your area will dictate a lot of the costs. We have an $8K budget, but my photographer is discounted (my cousin), the DJ is accepting whatever we want to pay (close friend), wedding planner is free (FH's aunt who is using us to build her portfolio), our ceremony and reception are in the same place and many things are already included. You have to decide what things are important to you (dress, flowers, attendants, etc). For me, I want real flowers, but am going the wholesale route so I can get what I want.

As others have said, it's totally doable. Can you have your dream wedding for $10k? That depends on what your dream is.

Agreed with others that the easiest way to have a nice wedding on a small budget is to slash the guest list.

Wowzers! I have hope! I am in Austin, Texas. I'm thinking we'll have roughly 80 people, but that could easily be cut down. I'm willing to forgo stuff like favors, get my dress from a discount site (found one for $300), buy used stuff (Wow! I didn't even know this existed), am considering having a potluck for food (our friends show up bigtime for potlucks), make everything digital (except for two sets of printed invitations for my parents and MIL) to cut out stationary costs, and MIL used to be a florist, have a friend that is an incredible baker, and a friend I think might do the photos, or we just do the crowd sourced photos since everyone has a phone camera these days. The one thing I would like to have is a nice venue with a nice relaxing bridal suite. I know that sounds silly, but I'm willing to forgo so many frills to have that. I will keep researching, and would love to hear more tips you might have! Thank you!

It's definitely do-able as long as you don't get pulled into what I refer to as the "wedding whirlwind." I swore I wouldn't spend more than $10K, but then I started the "but I HAVE to have an amazing photographer" and "oh, people spend $6k on a dress, $1600 is nothing!" and "but EVERYONE has welcome dinners and farewell brunches and buses from the hotel to the venue." Needless to say, I'm now over my $10K budget. Food will definitely be your biggest expense, so figure that out and then go from there. Potlucks aren't well received on the forums, but it's your wedding. Stationary doesn't have to be expensive and you can still have decent invites. If the venue is where you want to splurge, do that. It really just depends what you want to splurge on and what you want to cut.

Rosemary, I'd love to see that!

Hey Jennifer, are you familiar with offbeatbride.com? From what you are describing I bet you can find some great practical advice there as well. I also like apracticalwedding.com.

Sounds like you have a good start with figuring out your priorities. Knowing what's most important to you and your fiancé (and what's NOT) is going to really help you stick to your budget, since you won't be tempted to spend a lot of money on something you don't care about.

For 80 people in TX, it's probably doable. Potluck and self catering are not popular on here. It opens you up to extra stress and the possibility of a guest getting sick from the food. Your venue also may not allow it. I 100% recommend you hire a caterer or get a local restaurant to do the catering for you. This will save tons of headaches. That's awesome your MIL can help with flowers. I caution against crowd sourced photos as key moments may be missed. If you have a friend that can take photos that's great. Otherwise maybe reach out to a local college and try to hire a photography student. Their photos won't be the same as a professional, but they will get all the big moments and be cheaper. Check out the facebook group WW Bride 2 Bride for some great used items. Digital STDs and RSVPs work, but I would consider sending physical invites as someone could easy miss a digital one. Sites like Vistaprint have 40-50% off sales all the time, so I'd check that out.

Being in Texas with only 80 guests and your small wish list $10k is totally do-able. It sounds like you could probably spend more like $5,000-$6,000 depending on the venue you chose. Talk to the florists at the grocery store. A lot of people think they have to cut flowers out of their center pieces but getting your flowers from a local store is so reasonable, my florist is only charging me 1.6% of the total cost of the flowers (which comes out to be like $2.50 for me). Consider having the wedding on a Friday or Sunday. Also, check out Joann's or Michaels, they always have coupons for 40-60% off and you can pick up little things that will add a lot to your wedding for so cheap (they even have wedding invitation kits, I got 50 invitations with response cards, direction cards, envelopes, etc for only $25).

No potlucks please. Stress, sickness, disorganization.....just no.

I think as long as you have realistic expectations, which is seems you do, a 10k budget should be able to be done. My original budget was 10k and I am in MA which everything here is pretty expensive, we kicked in 3k more but we probably could have kept it lower if i really tried. I had 93 people so i think you should be able to do it for 10k with 80 people invited, just research your vendors and try to negotiate where possible.

eta: one of my big saves was hiring my photographer for 1/2 a day which was half her starting price.

Its definitely possible! I will have about 200 guests and my wedding will be right at 10k which is our budget. You have to be willing on compromising on certain things like flowers and a dress in my case. But it ill all work out if you set your mind to it. I am doing this in 7 months.

If anyone has a budget I could look at, I'd really appreciate learning from you!