$3,000 Budget

We are also on a small budget, and my FSIL is doing her entire wedding fir 200. So it is doable. I found my dress on ebay for less than 100 after shipping. Plus wish has been great, we have gotten a lot of the wedding stuff from there. We are also just getting a few things here and there, we arent trying to break the bank and go in debt for our wedding. Just research look. Find a park or center or something like that in ur area for the venue. We are doing a taco bar for our dinner. So it is possible. Just research and look for deals.

As long as you're flexible, its so doable! Totally suggest Dollar Tree and YouTube for beautiful centerpieces. Some parks have building or shelters than can easily be decorated for outside events for $20-$400. Catering: I would check food trucks, chain restaurants, culinary arts schools, and even consider doing a potluck where each family brings a dish. If you want music, Id suggest buying a set of speakers woth good reviews and the right device connections. I found a set on walmart.com with great reviews for $50. We're doing our own playlist and pre-recording announcements into the playlists. Saving money on a DJ may help you free up enough money for the videographer!

Everyone who posted on here has such great ideas. I wish we saw more threads like this. When I got engaged I knew I didn’t want to spend $33,000 on a wedding. I’d rather buy a house. I already coupon so I wanted to have a beautiful wedding without paying full price for anything. I think there are plenty of brides working within a $3,000 to $5,000 wedding budget and making it work without being tacky.

That is an extremely tight budget. I would say maybe do BBQ for the food or you could have everyone bring a dish. Are you going to wear a veil? There are so many things you’ll need to look at costs wise for the wedding. Where are you getting married? Do you have to pay for a venue? Sometimes churches are free. What about the officiant fee and marriage license cost. I would google what is typically purchased for weddings and decide on what you have to have and pay for.

David’s Bridal also has excellent sales on dresses! Some stores are doing a $99 dress sale at the moment so I would check in there.

While I understand wanting your wedding videoed, just know that for $750 it may not be the “perfect” video. I’m sure you did your research though so I’ll end with that.

Jewelry can be found at extremely cheap at Icing/Claires. Occasionally they run a $2 clearance special where all their clearance jewelry is $2 AND they have a buy 3 get 3 free deal. I used to work at Icing so I believe that if you explain the situation to them they will do their best to let you know when the next $2 clearance is. They also have Bridal events occasionally where you can go and get 10-25% off their bridal items.
if you don’t want to use Icing/Claires, find a costume jewelry store. I will be buying from either Sam Moon Trading Company or $1 Jewelry Galore.

I found my veil on Amazon for $15! A full raw edge cathedral veil in white! And it has 4.5 stars in the hundreds of reviews so I’m confident. Even if it is awful, amazon has free returns.

Do a cake & punch reception so you don’t have to figure out a full meal.

Have a friend be your DJ or make a playlist.

3000 will be difficult, sure, but definitely not impossible! Can’t wait to see your BAM!

My budget is also 3000 for around 100 people. Do you have a venue yet? We're trying to get a local community center, it's only 275 dollars, plus 125 if we get the kitchen. We can only get it if we have a caterer. I found one that charges 10 person. We're bring our out beverages. I'm looking at dollar tree and walmart for most of the decorations. Walmart or Sam's club for my cake, and like you i'm going for a dress that's under 200. For years i've done online surveys for gift cards, so i'm doing that to help the budget stretch further. I"m hoping to talk my fiancee into having the wedding there too, so we save the cost on the church

I just got my wedding dress at a BHLDN sample sale for $200. The exact same dress currently retails for over $1600! I was worried the sample sale would be madness but it was very civilized and actually fun - they only let in 6 brides at a time. My advice is get there early so you can be at the front of the line and have the most selection (we arrived an hour before doors opened)

I’d make sure it’s held early, 11am-4pm so that the meal can be less expensive. A light luncheon style menu of items like: sandwiches, pasta salad, garden salad, fruit, veggies, etc.

Having nachos for a food bar is what I am doing and I added all the sides my guests could ask for... Also fresh fruit with a cheap from Walmart chocolate fountain is a good touch as well.. cut your own fruit... I made most of my decor and my wedding is rustic, but Amazon does wonders for anything in bulk.. I know a photographer who is good and charges $300.. he will even put all photos on disk with no charge... the 4 Generations barn in pickerell nebraska is awesome and great priced... That's what I have hun... Best of luck and congratulations from one bride to another!!!

Okay! So this is a big ask girl, but TOTALLY possible IF, and ONLY IF, you literally X out the things that are not important to you. NO centerpieces, NO photographer ( create an instagram for your guests to upload photos any that’s like 100 walking photographers at your wedding. NO paper invitations (excites are the way). You MUST do a FREE or nearly free venue. And Food/Drinks should be made by a family friend if possible. A lot of wedding expenses are just that- wedding expenses. They don’t make the day any more special that you allow them to, and they will have no impact on your marriage. I’d say the most cost affective food options are: local diners, Taco Bar or Pasta! Have a spaghetti dinner and no one will complain- make sure there is gf options and everyone will be happy. Once you figure out how much you need to spend to feed your guests, you’ll know what you have left for your dream items. If you cannot choose all of them- maybe get creative with the vendors and ask if they’d be willing to cover half the event for half the price etc. try Anthropologies bridal store ( beholden ) BHLDN. I know you’d think they’re prices would be out of this world and maybe in a few years they will catch up the the rest of the wedding industry in ripping off brides- but for now- they are incredibly reasonable and I’m confident you’ll find something.. hope that helped?

View Quoted Comment Hi Michelle!! Did you rent your decorations/centerpieces locally? Or online? Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Locally! I’m in the Charlotte, nc area & Im renting from a company called Mason Jars & Stars

Hey I had an even smaller budget to work with. Almost $1,000 just on food alone. I went to David’s Bridal for their $99 wedding dresses. Let’s jeut say they definitely didn’t have any that cheap even though it was advertised online. I ended up finding a brand New wedding dress with the tags still attached for $220 at a Consignment shop. Just make sure you look EVERYWHERE and in between on places to save money. I couldn’t even find a venue for that cheap. Finally I found a Baptist Church that only charged $100 for every two hours you spent there. Which is amazing. Even though my husband is Catholic and I am Christian. We had to make it work though because all the venues I tried to find were well over $5,000. It’s crazy. But it gets better and the wedding day will totally be worth it just to the look in your fiancée’s eyes when you walk down the aisle. I have 21 days to go and that’s the only thing that gets me through all the stress of planning this wedding with the worlds smallest budget. Lol. Good luck doll. It will be great for you. ❤️

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Agreed you def. can do it. My budget was 2,000 and I am having my dream wedding. Pull on family and friends that want to help and have special talents. And most of all don't listen to some of the boogie women on here that seem to tear everything down that is not like their wedding or according to their expectations. I have my family cooking, my friend is the photographer, my cousin and my mom and aunt did the centerpieces... There is a lot of talent within our circle most times we just have to ask good luck... You got this

I’m getting married June 24th , my dress was 100 on amazon, where do you live?

I honestly think this depends on your area. It's doable, depending where you are. In my area, prices for EVERYTHING are skyrocketing. I'm in an economy where everyone thinks their stuff is worth more than it is.

We also started out with a $3000 wedding for about 100 guests. We got a lot more than anticipated into that $3000, but I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have people (and ourselves) pitching in "a little here and a little there" for things like decor and so on. We were able to get our ceremony and receptions venues, as well as the dinner, in for that much money. What's left over is probably going to go to an officiant.

Good luck! I know you can do it; it's just figuring out HOW first.

I don’t have a budget, but I’m one of the most frugal ppl. I rarely meet anyone else just as frugal or more. My plan is to not spend more than $1,500. Excluding the honeymoon. I made this work by having a microwedding of 10-15 guests and we plan to go out to eat instead of having catering.

Hey! I'm getting married with a small budget too, we're not catering (potluck/BBQ) and not serving alcohol (people can BYO). Wedding ceremony at the state park for $200 permit and reception at a friend's land we're doing some work on the land in trade. Got my dress for $150 used, worn once in an elopement, gorgeous- I'll need to get it altered but I love it! We're cooking the rehearsal dinner ourselves and fiance's brother will cook brunch the next day. I'm slowly gathering decor for cheap off of facebook and thrift stores, will paint our own signs... We're lucky to have a friend volunteer to video, we'll need to hire a photographer. Our biggest expenses are photos, flowers, and we really want live music so we'll have a band. You can do this! Have fun!

We're working with a smaller budget too because I would rather put money into our house. You can have a nice day on a small budget!

Some ideas-

Venue- We are renting a building through the city parks department. I didn't even know that it existed until I did some research online and it's only about $100 for the whole weekend! Check out your city's park department for parks (pavilions) and municipal buildings available for rent.

Cake- Do cake or cupcakes from Walmart or a grocery store.

Invitations- You can buy an invitation kit from Amazon or Walmart for under $20. You can also look for free invitations to print online. www.weddingchicks.com is one place that I know of or check out Vistaprint and sites like that when they have sales. Even Walmart.com prints wedding invitations, you can find then under the photo tab.

Dress- Buy a dress from DB during a $99 sale or buy a bridesmaid dress is white. I'm probably going to buy my girls their dresses from Burlington Coat Factory. You should check out stores like that too.

Bouquets & Centerpieces- Dollar Tree!

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I second the idea of the VFW hall. Before we found our venue, we checked out the VFW and it was only like $250. Of course, if you wanted food, it's extra, but the space is available for your decor and anything else you wanna put in it On the downside...our VFW is recently renovated and I'm not sure if kids would have been able to get in or access certain parts of the building or after a certain time. Something to look into