Broke College Student Wedding

Wait until you graduate. Unless there are extenuating circumstances like immigration issues or deployment, marriage can wait.

View Quoted Comment The wedding itself will be two months after graduation.

I completely agree with Caytlyn. Since you're already waiting until after you graduate, I'd also recommend waiting until you get started in your career. Not only will it be less stressful, but you'll most likely to be able to afford the wedding you envision for yourself. If you're dead set on having the wedding right after you graduate, my recommendation would be to invite your closest family members (parents and siblings) and get married at the courthouse and then take everyone out to lunch afterward.

I would hold off until you came afford the wedding of your dreams.

Courthouse ceremony then take your immediate families for dinner at a restaurant. Or, a ceremony followed by a cake and punch reception (not over a mealtime).

Why not just wait until after you graduate and can save up more money? I also got engaged in college (well, my now-husband had graduated already but I had 1 semester left) but we planned our wedding for a year after my graduation so we’d have time to save up, and so I’d have time to adjust to work and life after school before I had to worry about a wedding or adjusting to married life as well.

Hi! My fiancé and I are both college students as well and are paying for everything ourselves. After a lot of wedding research we decided we needed save $10,000 for our wedding. We waited until we saved half to get engaged, and we have all of it now 10 months out.


Unfortunately, a budget of $1000 is just not going to give you a wedding, unless you’re interested in eloping/having no reception. Even the cheapest dresses with alterations are going to run you up half of your budget. You may be able to get a venue free, but an officiant will be a few hundred bucks. Even if you don’t serve alcohol and have an intimate ceremony of 50 or less, your catering will be close to $1000. Plus rentals, decor, hair and makeup, his tux, etc.
Coming from a fellow college student, if you want your dream wedding, I would wait to get married until you can save more!! Research pricing for what you want and then set a goal and timeline for saving that much!

View Quoted Comment Fortunately:
I have the venue for free, and the officiant is the groom's dad (ordained minister) so that's also free, we won't be serving alcohol since our families don't drink, and my friend who bakes is only charging me for ingredients for the cake. What's costing the most is the flowers and decorations and I'm very sad about not being able to afford a photographer.

My family can afford to give us a bigger budget, but I think they don't understand how much weddings cost these days and I don't know how to communicate to them that what's so expensive are literally just the basics and I don't want a particularly lavish wedding.

View Quoted Comment

It's not up to your family to fund your wedding. If they've offered $1000, that's already very generous of them. Are you planning on serving food or are you just going to do a non-mealtime ceremony and have cake and punch? I honestly think it would be better to postpone just a bit longer for you and your fiance to save up the rest of the money on your own so you can afford the things you want for your wedding (a photographer, especially!).

I agree with PP, you should wait until you have a career making your own $ to pay for your wedding. It’s nice your family is helping with $1k, and I’m unsure what type of wedding you were imagining/wanting. You could potentially get affordable options for attire, rings, HMU, but then you need to also feed guests and that’s where a bulk of the cost will be. How many guests will you have and do you have a reception place??

I know it’s not what you want to hear but it’s truly gonna be worth it to wait until after you’ve started working.

I would wait until you’ve graduated and started your careers. My fiancé and I are high school sweethearts. We waited through college and a long-distance relationship, will have lived with each other for three years and will have been together for a decade when we get married!
Unless there are religious or legal (visa-related) reasons, I would wait. We are now paying for the majority of our wedding ourselves and it is exactly what I dreamed of!
One grand isn’t enough for the basics-a dress, a suit, a cake, a photographer and hair and makeup [at least from where I live].If you would like to wait for a shorter time, I would consider saving up for a destination elopement. My fiancé and I are having a weekend wedding. In our research we found some destination wedding options that allow ‘complimentary’ weddings with all the basics-with a five to seven day stay at a resort. Another destination option we considered was a city hall wedding. Check out San Francisco City Hall! I used to live in SF and it’s beautiful-and it could turn into a fun weekend of partying in the city! My fiancé and I now live in Los Angeles. The Santa Barbara courthouse is a beautiful place for an city hall ceremony and a relaxing weekend wedding with your immediate family. Good luck!

I COMPLETELY disagree with people telling you to wait to get married. If you're ready to get married, you should get married. A wedding is only one day, the commitment of marriage changes your whole life.


If there's anything I learned during this awful pandemic, it's that there is never any guarantee or your dream wedding--or anything for that matter. My life has been completely flipped upside down, and husband and I had our careers and plans basically shattered by the pandemic. Marrying him last winter in the midst of it all was the best decision I ever made.
What is your vision? I think we can come up with something that fits in your budget.

View Quoted Comment I would search around for photographer estimates, collect them, and show your parents what they go for. Find a range. Find some data about how much the average wedding spends on it. This might at least wake them up to the fact that you won't be able to get pictures with that budget

Would your parents be ok with you taking the $1k and eloping? You could get a dress, go for a few days to a beautiful location with natural beauty and marry there.
If you are ready to get married, you are ready!

Have you thought of doing a backyard wedding? I have seen soo many of them done and look stunning. 1000 might be able to be stretched for that kind of wedding. Do a lot of DIY. Michaels has beautiful flowers that are always 50%. Keep your bridal party small and guest count small. Have family cook and should be able to get by with the 1000.

You said you're both in college. Does your college have a photography program?

You might be able to find a college photo student who would shoot your wedding inexpensively. Understand that you would need to be happy with some compromise - they will probably not have amazing equipment, and they may need more guidance on what you want (this is where a "must have shots" list would come in handy, as they won't have the experience of a seasoned wedding photographer to know what they should get. You can find these kinds of lists very easily.)

But I do have to agree with a previous poster - it isn't your family's responsibility to offer more money for your wedding. You are the one who wants a wedding. They've offered what they want to give you. If you want more money for the wedding than what your family is offering, you need to figure that out yourself - get more hours at work, do freelance work, donate plasma, whatever. It doesn't matter if you "don't want a lavish wedding." They've offered what they wish to offer for this event. Expecting or asking for more is incredibly ungrateful, in my honest opinion.

How many guests are you expecting to invite? With fewer guests (idk, 25?), I can imagine being able to throw a bare bones function: very inexpensive clothing, ordering cheap food for a buffet, no professional photos, no professional makeup and hair, no or very inexpensive alcohol. But there is no way to have a traditional, Pinterest wedding on $1000. So it depends on what you're expecting. If you want a more expensive traditional wedding experience, then you are going to have to wait until you are making money.

ETA: just realized how old this post is haha, what did you end up going with?

View Quoted Comment Hi I’m really struggling with the same type of things she is. I want to get married at our church cathedral- it should be about $700. I would like to do cake for guests. Everyone always brings up “cake and punch” but nobody explains how it is done. We have no family here in the town we live in. I’m in MT from Texas and his parents Have passed away. We are both poor as church mice. Lol help

View Quoted Comment These are usually done simply - the ones I’ve been to have had a church area - usually the basement but nicer - and everyone goes down there, mingles, the couple cuts the cake, eat cake, maybe light refreshments, everyone goes home. It’s probably an hour or so.
Or at the bride or groom’s parents house, same idea.
This was common a few generations ago for lots of people. It also was understood that regular people from the church might also be there, not just invited guests, as church and community were more more entwined as they are now.