$5000 and under wedding/reception people

Budget of 6k total (1k of "wiggle room" for last minute issues or unexpected expenses. budget is 5k - inclusive of dress, rings and HM)

Location: Gretna Green Wedding Village, UK (Ceremony is in a separate site in the village. Wedding breakfast/meal is at the same place as the evening reception.)

8 in the wedding party (3 GMs/BM, 3 BMs/MOH, 2 ushers) plus 32 guests & us.

It's an all inclusive package somewhere that all they do is weddings so we'll be letting them deal with logistics.

Skipped trying to find a "flashy" or formal venue, skipped having it super close to where we live, skipped a pro photog (one is included in the package) skipped outsourced flowers or cake. Basically, we were willing to compromise anywhere aside from space - it had to fit our guestlist, we weren't about to trim it.

Found the best deal by speaking to other local brides on local forums/OBB as the vast majority of us were working on tight budgets (some under 1k)

Package: ceremony venue rental, 3 course meal, reception with dj, piper, double tier cake, bouquets and button holes, good drinks package (bottle of wine per person for the meal, cash bar as per national normal for reception), reception buffet of bacon rolls and sausage rolls, accommodation for us and 12 extra double rooms, photographer - 3k inc legal fees

We'll be assigning £500 for rings, £600 for my dress, £100 for FH's suit, £90 for the girls dresses, £700 for a caravan long weekend as a honeymoon.

I'm a little over that, can I still play?

Our budget is $7000. I decided to splurge on an amazing photographer, or we'd be closer to $5000. Also I went overboard on my dress budget.

Our wedding/reception/festivities are all at a cute little outdoor venue. It has a little gazebo for the ceremony, a covered area for the food, and grass for fun times.

Our wedding party is 4 BMs, 6 GM and 4 ring bearers. Our guest list got madly out of control, it started at 100 and is now closer to 200.

My plan is a casual fun affair, similar to a giant family bbq. Speaking of bbq, that's what our menu is

I don't think we've actually "skipped" anything major, but cut down on a lot of things.

I think one of my good deals is the wine we chose to buy. We aren't having beer/liquor (maybe a mixed drink), but instead are getting a bunch of boxed wine. Our other good deals are having friends that want to do stuff for free Our caterer, cupcake maker, DJ and officiant are all friends of ours.

ETA: We skipped having a florist. We just ordered flowers in bulk from Costco and are going to make our own "arrangements." (It's just baby's breath, nothing to arrange).

My goal was $4,000, but people keep getting added to my list so it will probably be closer to $6,000 in the end. I am being very frugal though, so I'll add my info.

Budget: Under $6,000.

Location: A banquet hall at a golf course, both ceremony and reception. It might have been a tad cheaper if we did things ourself, but this was worth the cost because for $4,000, we will feed 50 people (including appetizers), have the tables set up for us including chair covers and colored sashes. The $4,000 also includes: DJ, unlimited non-alcoholic drinks for guests, cider toast, a popcorn bar, a coordinator, centerpieces, and taxes/tip for everything. They will set it up and take it down for us. The cost also includes the ceremony fee.

# of guests: 40-50

How I saved money: Being a short term bride helped a lot because the venue was giving a discount of $10 off per person (for food) when booking within 3 months. The cost to cater will be under $700. We're vegetarians too, so the food will be vegetarian (which saves money). The cake will be done by a coworker (who works at a bakery) for cheaper than the venue offered. The photographer is a family friend who has been doing it for over 30 years. I'm going to ask a friend to be our officiant (you can get "certified" online for FREE).

Im in Mn and am having 37 people including my 1 MOH, 1 BM, and 1 GM. Getting married at a Lutheran church and having a restaurant reception at a steak house in a private room. . Trying to have all the things a big wedding has on a smaller scale, within our bidget of $3000 -$3500 (not including hm). Having small cutting cake and coursages/bouts from Cub foods grocerystore. Using dollarstore off white roses for bouquets (and they look pretty darn good!). We have a wedding consigment shop here called Bride to be that has great deals. I got my table runners (which are actually chair sashes, but my tables are narrow). For .49 piece. Got my guestbook signing plate for 5 bucks. Borrowing the cake stand from my Mom for the cutting cake. Bought my attire from Craiglist. Hubby wearing clothes he has. Having place card/favors of chocolate coins and heraheys gold and silver nuggets (as a nod to his occupation) and found the round tuelle things and business cards at the dollartree. i also found these blue crystals there. Im using the venues mirrors, their normal table candles, and putting a few of the navy blue crystals around it. No flowers there to save money. Still have invitations to figure out. I bought some printable ones at the dollartree, too, but with no printer I dont know if I will use them. I gave up champagne for a toast, a $500 dress that would have needed alterations, tuxs, traditional wedding cake for everyone (sheet cake included in meal), and a dance. Although our restaurant is attached to a public bar so we will dance to their free band after our dinner with anyone who stays. My budget finds came mostly from the dollartree and borrowing.

Skipping favors that no one really cares for saves money. I was thinking the popcorn bar can be like our favor, as there will be bags where they can take it home. I'm skipping buying expensive jewelry, not buying my hair accessories at David's Bridal (marked up INSANE), I'll probably just wear my ballet flats under my dress.

OH! And I ordered my invites on Zazzle for SUPER cheap. I got to customize them and using a promo code (saved me 60%) brought the total down to $48 WITH shipping. I got 30 invites, 4 customized "Will you be my bridesmaid" cards, and they all have envelopes.

@dk - really? 30 for $48? Thats an awesome deal! Every site i go on you have to buy 100 invites to get them cheap. Where did you find the promo code?

My wedding is a month away with everything paid off and it cost around $6000 total. We live in socal so it was horrible trying to find anything within our budget but we worked our butts off and pulled it off. Our venue is a ballroom that includes chairs and tables and has a garden outside that we'll use for the ceremony. It cost $1700 with a $200 return deposit. We have it all day so I will decorate with my family and then get ready there. Our caterer is doing a buffet style and Mexican food. We found her through family friends and she is only charging $700. Our photographer was supposed to be my uncle but he can't make it now so we found a good photographer last minute for $1000. We bought chair covers and sashes on Craigslist and plan to resell them after, I found nice looking plastic plates, plastic silverware that looks like silver, and plastic whine glasses/cups on amazon for a good price. Our cake vendor hasn't done too many wedding cakes yet and since we're doing a simple design for our cake we didn't mind so that was $400. My dress I found on preowned wedding dresses for $108, its actually new and made to my measurements (it was just a new person trying to get her work out there). And my favors and decorations are diy. And I'll be doing my own hair and makeup....I don't trust anyone else. Oh and we're having about 100 ppl

My budget is $5,000 but I have $2,000 for wiggle room. We have a guest of about 100. It's on a Thursday evening which is way cheaper than a Saturday! Skipping favors as well. As I posted in my other thread since we're starting late we might do passed appetizers instead of a sit down meal. Our venue is venue only and costing us $2550 for 16 hours to set up.

Whats your budget? - $4,000 but my super saving skills may give us some extra cash so may end up being $5,000.

Where are you having your wedding and reception? Where is the festivities? - Same place. Outdoor clearing in the woods. The venue is very new so they're loaning us a ton of freebies like 5 decorative tables, lots of rustic decor (I really really like the cake stand), and we get the venue for the whole day plus 2 hours the night before. $1K spent there. In case of rain plan is same location, as they have a small barn we can use and plenty of space for us to pitch one of those huge tents.

How many guests and wedding party are you having? Including everyone, 100 people max. WP has 3 BMs and 3 GM. We're pretty far from most of our family so odds are we'll end up with 70-80 people altogether.

Whats your vision on how it will work logistically? - Either organized chaos or nice relaxed time. We're shooting for a semi-formal on the verge of casual family and friends get-together with food, fun, and lots of laughs. We'll have a short but sweet ceremony (some good friends of ours will be playing the music for that as a gift to us) followed by a brief photo session (30 minutes max as we'll do most pics prior to ceremony and these will be just the ones that require the bride & groom together). Then reception begins. Food, cake, dancing, and home again.

What did you skip for budget sake? - A photographer. Kinda burned to lose that one but FH and I agreed that we'd rather feed our family and friends well than try and stretch things to include a photographer. Especially when both of our families are full of photographers who plan on bringing their cameras regardless of what we do. So not that many pics for the album but we had to cut somewhere.

Where did you find your good deals? - My dress was $100 on clearance at a sale at DB. Knew which one I wanted and waited for them to put it on sale. Table clothes - $60 for 20 (various types) on sale at linentablecloth.com. 40+ strands of Christmas lights, Walmart on sale following Christmas for 50 cents apiece. Invites, $30 vista print sale. Everything else has been found bit by bit going up and down clearance aisles whenever we go out shopping.

I'm more in the $6-7 range but I could of went cheaper if I had too. I splurged on the photographer and cake! We are getting married in my home church with the reception in the church gym. It isnt pretty but its cheap. The tables are provided and I'm using the ugly metal chairs they also provide. My guest list is currently 170 adults and 40 children but could end up being closet to 250 total. I'm doing plastic table cloths and disposable dishes. I've not paid full price for a single decoration. I've borrowed what I can and also bought things at goodwill and yard-sales. I found a caterer that lets me buy the food myself so I can shop sales and clip coupons for the food. I bought my dress off the rack with minimal alterations needed. I'm borrowing a veil.

My out of pocket budget is $1000. Yea, I know I'm crazy. I have some wiggle room, my mom like to buy me stuff and I don't keep track of the money she spends, but I would never let her spend more than me. So to put it an an estimate we'll go with $2000. I got unbelievably lucky in all my planning. My dress is my moms so it's free (+$50 for alterations) my cousin is a professional caterer and offered to cater as a gift, FHs cousin is a professional photographer and offered to do that as a gift, my great aunt owns a beautiful farm and is letting us use her property for the wedding and reception. Guest list including BP is roughly 100 people (still waiting on a lot of RSVPs!) I found a great deal on artificial flowers at Hobby Lobby and made my own bouquets & bouts for under $100. We're going for a very laid back wedding and since my great aunt is possibly the best gardener in the world we'll have very minimal decor as her plants will be in full bloom. For STDs I designed my own and had my sister print them using her print credits at her school (so free) for invites I stalked vistaprint until they had a 40% off sale. Most of what I did buy I bought wholesale using my moms business account (I paid for it all, but if you sign in with a legitimate business account the discounts are better) that's all I can think of right now. Obviously not everyone can get as lucky as me, but you can hunt down deals like I did. ETA instead of renting chairs or tables we're borrowing them from the local fire department and school, my great aunt has lived there her whole life and has some crazy connections.

I'm hoping we can keep it to $5k.

It's the catering, even for less than 50 people and the photos that are pushing it.

Keeping it simple is a big part of where I think we'll save, or not spend as much.

We're getting married at home so there is no venue cost.

I'm planning to wear a nice dress, not a wedding dress so that will help too.

I'll be watching here for more ideas!

Mrs Cheapskate - It's on the top of the page right now. I put in the code out of curiosity and it cut my total in half. I didn't think it would apply to invites, but it did. Zazzle lets you pick your number. They do get cheaper the more you buy, but they're a reasonable price if you don't need different envelopes, lace, and all that fancy stuff. My invites are perfect for me and my fiancé, they're double sided with no RSVP cards (the RSVP information is on the back to my WW page and my cell phone number).

Zazzle also has a TON of designs to choose from. (I swear I don't work for them!) You can pick your text, colors, invite shape, etc.

We planned for a $5 k budger but looking more like $7 k now we're just having a best man and maid of honor ceremony is gonna be short n sweet venu is $600 bar package is $1000 for beer n soda $500 for food doing a pasta bar said no to dress we're wearing Bears jerseys customized with our name and wedding date $300 friend is doing flowers for free niece is doing photography $400 haven't looked at rings yet,inites $600 cupcakes $250 niece is wedding planner $300 and who knows what else im missing still lol oh and our wedding will be close to 300 people just having family for ceremony which is almost half that then having friends come later for drinks dancing and finger foods

We're trying to not exceed $5,000 and we're in NYC! But I think we'll be closer to $6,000

1. We went with a party hall that had a wedding package where they decorate with draping and uplighting. Banquet halls were just too expensive for us and honestly their decor are so dated. $3,000

2. We're skipping: limos, rehearsal dinner, bridal shower, bachelorette/bachelor parties, honeymoon

3. We're ordering food from a catering restaurant and we're having a buffet. $1,000

4. I"m DIY'ing bouquets, centerpieces (no real flowers) $200

5. BJ's cake, it's yummy, NYC wedding cakes are ridiculous, I refuse to spend 100's on cake

6. Beer & Wine only

7. Our cousin will be the photographer (her gift to us) and we won't have video taken besides guests phones.

8. FH friend is DJing for $500

My budget is similar.... Invited 85, planning for about 75 (I know for a fact at least ten that cannot make it).. 2 BM, 2 GM, flower girl and ring bearer.

Since we are getting married on a Sunday afternoon, and having no dancing or full sit-down meal, we were able to get the venue for $1,480... It is a gorgeous historic building with two floors (upstairs for the ceremony, downstairs for the reception).. This price includes setup/clean up, chiavari chairs, all the tables, table linens, 3 vases per table, and candelabras for the ceremony if we decide to use them. Also a nice sound system that they let you hook up your ipod to (which we will be doing), but they also have the ad-free Pandora account if you want to use that.

Reception will be catered from Hyvee.. 3-tier cake and appetizers.. We are having fruit, veggie, meat/cheese trays, which they will set up all fancy.... Food is $665 including setup... Cake is under $200. We got 5% discount on each for doing them both there...

Invitations I got from inviteshop.com (who I HIGHLY recommend!!)... I got 50 invitations with envelopes for $42 + shipping (that's without discounts! This is their regular price..). That includes FULL customization and color on both sides. And they were done VERY well. If I have extra cash I will get programs from there as well.

I did my own flowers for under $200 total, using Hobby Lobby's 50% sale, Joanns, and Aliexpress (though those have been difficult to get the smell out of). That includes my bouquet, 2 BM bouquets, FG flower, 5 corsages and 7 bouts. I found tips on Youtube and afloral.com, got some hot glue, tape, and matching ribbons...

I bought my dress during DB's online Black Friday sale, so it is normally 600 but I got it for $150! Alterations cost $240 unfortunately, for an 8-point underbustle and a hem (I'm really short and it has beading at the bottom, which made the hem more expensive..oops!)

I bought my shoes [barely] used on ebay for $25, and I am making my own veil from tulle I got for $2 at Hobby Lobby, Swarovski hotfix Crystals, and lace from a shirt that represents my heritage. Total cost ~$20 (comb and crystals)

I am doing my own makeup and hair, and will be using my Walgreens rewards points to buy any extra makeup stuff.

Pro photographer was very important to me... I am the one in the family that always takes pictures, so there are rarely any pictures of me.... Also, my parents had a friend do theirs, and they didn't end up great, and my mom still wishes she could have had higher-quality photos to show us. So that is $2500, including two photographers for 5 hours, and 200-300 copyright-released digital images with basic editing done. She is a sort-of relative that I completely trust, and I have loved her work since I was a teen and first saw it (first I met her was at her wedding!)

Our officiant is our pastor, who is doing it for free.. He is also letting us use the church for free for our rehearsal. For the rehearsal dinner we are going to FH's neighborhood clubhouse ($10/hr) to have pizza and wings. Planning for around $350 for that (30 people).

Favors will be expensive but my parents are paying for them, and my mom fell in love with the idea so was willing to splurge on them... They are locally-made designer chocolates (each one is handpainted!) Each guest will get a cute little box with the 2 flavors we chose.

My parents are also paying for the venue, food, cake, photographer (which was extra, since I was able to cut the costs so much on the other stuff they planned to pay for!)

Total, my parents are paying around $5k, and we are paying around $1k...

That does not include rings or HM (rings were $1600, but it was important to us to get real gold), and HM will only be a few hundred, since we plan to stay in the state and basically just find a nice place to stay.. We really just want to spend our time together and enjoy finally being married, so we don't need a bunch of activities or anything. Plus I just got mono and too much physical activity at this point could cause permanent organ damage (yikes!)

Whats your budget?

$5,000

Where are you having your wedding and reception? Where is the festivities?

Both in the same place. Rooftop venue of a historic building downtown. It has a luxury loft apartment attached which we get for free the night of the wedding and a a big discount the day before for the rehearsal dinner.

How many guests and wedding party are you having?

50 guests invited. Wedding party is just BM, MOH and 1 FG

Whats your vision on how it will work logistically?

I have a DOC and expect zero problems. We are doing a first look and all the photos before the ceremony. MUAH people are coming to me at the venue. I chose silk flowers and they are shipping out this week so no need for a florist to deliver them, and all my other items are packed and labeled in Rubbermaid totes and ready to be unpacked the day of-I am hiring two people to help with set-up and take-down.

Where did you find your good deals?

- Found my dress on sale at DB for under $300.

- I bought my gorgeous silver heels online for under $25

- I bought my jewelry set on eBay for under $25

- Got a great deal on catering through my best friend's mother's catering company.

- Bought the majority of my decor from other brides on FB or 40-50% off at Hobby Lobby.

- Have a great person on FB who looks out for me and messages me with great DIY deals-like my two vintage ladders that I scored for less than $20/each.

- We bought FH's entire outfit (suit, shirt, tie, etc) for under $200 at JCPenny during their big menswear sale.

- I also just found him a pair of brand new leather dress shoes on FB for $20 shipped.

- I USE EBATES ALL THE TIME! (just posted a thread about this)

My budget is between 5000 & 5500, im having my wedding & reception in the same building so I don't have to look for 2 spaces. I found a building that is 400$ cheaper than the building I was gonna reserve originally, & I'm debating whether or not to have a brunch weddingccause that REALLY will cut cost. Hopefully I will find a dress from db during their sales they have often, & I don't wanna spend no more than 500$ on that. Prayfully I can stay within my budget.

Keep your guest list small and have a fabulous, intimate party for your immediate family and friends as opposed to bargain h uniting, DIY'ing, and making finding cheap stuff your second full time job.