Budget Bride Here!

I order our invitations from Ann's Bridal Bargain's. FH created the RSVP card and wedding insert.

We are having a brunch wedding.

Neither FH or myself drink, so we are not doing open bar. Would only have brunch drinks like Sangria, Mimosa - that's all of the alcohol we're having.

We are having the ceremony and reception at the same location.

We are having a 3hr wedding as opposed to the 5-6hr wedding.

I got my wedding dress during a sample sale.

We are using a venue that has catering, chairs, etc - the cost of having to rent/buy plates, chairs, etc can really add up.

We are having a small and intimate wedding. (70 guest)

Flowers: Not going to a florist. Live in NYC and there are tons of other ways to get good flowers, that are way cheaper. I do not see sense in spending so much money on flowers for the day. But if you use flowers for center pieces, guest can take it home as favors.

No favors. My friend had cake as favor and she had so many guest who didn't even take it. Initially was going to do that, but now I'm not going to.

@Shamika has GREAT advice! I second all that she said.

We're having 200 people; the cost is almost directly tied to amount of guests. However, I worked my butt off to find a venue that included everything and didn't have a rental cost, only a food/beverage minimum.

We are having free beer (can't do full open bar) and my dress is a bridesmaid dress in ivory. Sheet cakes, DIY floral bouquets, I designed my own invites on Vistaprint and waited for lots of sales, and everyone I know is fine with the "keep it simple" type of attitude and vibe.

Kept the decorations to an absolute minimum - I'd rather enjoy the evening by feeding my guests and having everyone attend who we're close to instead of spending on draping, tablecloths, etc.

ALSO! Don't look at anything you can't have. If you need to use a low budget, newer photographer - don't look at the photos of the $3,000 - $7,000 photographers. If you can't buy a dress over $500, don't look at any over $500. Just cut it off, go with what you can do, and move on.

It'll be great!

I'm also a budget brides , thanks for the ideas keep them coming !

Our decorations are going to be used. My mom is buying the decorations for the event, and I want white string lights and such, and those are the kinds of things my mom can reuse in her backyard.

I found cheap wedding invites on peartreegreetings.com - about $0.80 apiece and everyone loved them!

@ ELFie Thanks! :-)

Also in regards to makeup, I'm having my cousin do it. She's a MUA. Was initially opposed to it, but we did a makeup trial last week and I actually liked her makeup trail better than the two I did with the more experienced makeup artists.

Focus on what's important bc the expense add up quickly. FH has to remind me that we're on a budget. Bc sometimes you can see an item on sale that wasn't on your initial list, but these small items can add up quickly.

Little things here and there. What helps is a lot of networking, having a reasonable/realistic design, and finding good sales and deals!

Our photographer happens to my the cousin of my FH's best friend and we didn't even know until 2 months ago. Good thing we asked him!! She's giving us an incredible deal just because she's very close with my FH's best friend. It includes photos AND makeup/hair so I didn't have to spend an extra $200 on makeup on hair. We are lucky with our flowers too. We didn't know my mother in law has connections with so many florists and we just went with one that offered us the lowest price and it just so happens that HE IS AMAZING at what he does and that his "simple" is crazy good.

I designed, customized and printed my own invitations (I always did it for other friends getting married and other special events) so I didn't spend a lot of money on outsourcing those kinds of things. Since I'm already all artsy fartsy with that kind of stuff I also designed my own wedding programs, place cards, all other stationary and maybe only spent $50-$100 on supplies and materials and still have lots and lots left over in case there is anything else I want to design.

I had to be realistic on my centerpieces and stuff too. I wanted to DIY everything but when it came right down to it, it costed me more to to DIY everything and with the time ticking, I realized I had NO TIME to finish everything on time and I was worried I was going to half-ass everything. Luckily our florist is only charging us $10 per centerpiece because I bought the vases for $7 so I saved a lot of money there.

Things add up very quickly and you don't realize it until something crucial comes. Budget everything out, but price everything out as well and compare it to what it would cost if you didn't have to DIY it. Some things might be worth not DIYing. I had to find that out the hard way.

Thank you for all the great tips..

I'm having a budget wedding too. My strategy is to spend the most on the things that are important to me and buy the highest quality I can afford. So I'm doing a lot of research and networking to get things I need at below market price.

My budget items:

Centerpieces and flowers are not high priority for me, so I'm budgeting there. I'm using real flowers and rose petals, but the only bouquet is mine. The BM's will each get a single oversized flower to carry. Still haven't decided on centerpieces but one flower per table at best with some candles and rose petals.

There's no way in hell I can afford a videographer so I'm not even going there. But my brother may be able to work something out with his video camera so at least we have some footage. If not, so be it.

I'm also working out the BEST deal I can find for a photographer. If need be, I'd go with someone with a good eye and a decent camera. I have a co-worker who takes such great pics with her iPhone they look like professional shots. She just has a knack for making an ordinary moment look like art.

We're having a 4 hour wedding/cocktail hour and reception from 2p-6p so we don't have to serve a full meal (just heavy hor'ds and cake).

My Priority Items/"Splurges": I splurged on my venue and it's totally worth it! I'm getting married outside and overlooking the water like I've always wanted to. All the venue provides are the tables and chairs, but we're free to use any outside vendors we want which gives us flexibility to negotiate price.

Good food, drink and music are super important to us so, we're providing beer and wine and have a great professional caterer (who just happens to be one of FH's close friends).

My DJ is my line dance instructor (who also a DJ) so he gave us a great deal ($300 for 4 hours PLUS he's gonna lead a few simple line dances).

My mom (whose cakes are THE BOMB!) is making our wedding cake.

At first I was worried about being able to pull off a wedding for $3,000 (60 people), but once we thought about our network and available resources, things just fell into place. I was still able to negotiate great deals on our important items, so I'm super excited about that! Table linens are also expensive but the ladies on here shared some discount online vendors where I could get quality polyester table cloths instead of linen for $3-$5 each. At the end of the day, we're gonna be closer to $4,000, but I'm ok with that.

Regina,

I started a fb group of girls that are selling things from their weddings who are girls from wedding wire here. We're helping people out with this. Many people are selling things and at great prices. Join us and at least take a look.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/295453930605471/

Good Luck!!

I'm a super budget bride!! We are doing everything for around $2500. We decided this budget for a couple reasons. #1 I'm cheap..lol #2 We want simple #3 We would rather put the money into our house.

I love estate sale shopping!! There is a local shop that I like to go to monthly anyway, but I have been in there nearly every weekend! I got all of glassware for my centerpieces and cupcake stand there. And I also found all the of pieces for my sand ceremony at the dollar Tree!! So in total, I've spend just under $30 for centerpieces (for 17 tables), cupcake stand and sand ceremony!!

I good bargain gets me all excited!!!

I got my invites from an Etsy.com vendor for $15 and had them printed at office max for another $15. My dress came from an another Etsy vendor for $120 (shipping included), my MOH is my daughter and her dress was $30. Another Etsy vendor for my flower girl for $45.

Worked out a deal with an up and coming photographer for $400

Catering is the biggest expensive and it's coming in at $1100, but that does include dinner service and the cupcakes

We picked a GORGEOUS off the beaten path park for the venue, so that was $290 for ceremony and reception. And the best part is it's so naturally beautiful that no decor is needed for the ceremony!

My biggest piece of advice is to remember it's about marrying the man you love, not about the party. And you won't be starting your lives together in mounds of debt from the wedding. And that is priceless!

Www.save-on-crafts.com Make sure you put the dashes.

Smarty had a party we got cheap linens there.

Vista print I used a promo code they had for 40% off and had someone help me create my invites they cost me 35 dollars and that included menus.

We kept the guest list small (we had a total of 40 came and 66 total were invited).

We skipped favors

Did a dessert bar instead of a cake this gave us far more dessert for less and we loved it as our guests.

A friend gave me candle holders I could use and so I did

I bought records form a guy on craigslist for 20 bucks and used them as chargers

our catering we went with a regular restaurant (on the border mexican food) and it was cheap but came with alot of food!)

I splurged on the things I wanted the most.

We had people we knew do things for us or found people on discount.

Like our DJ was free because we knew the guy but you don't even have to have a DJ People have done great things with Ipods.

Our photographer is a friend who does photographer but mostly does babies and families so she was cheaper than a wedding photographer and so far I am loving our pictures as we get sneak peeks.

There are tons of ways to go cheap you just have to look outside the box and accept some things you just may not have unless you have some major connections and help.

I actually bought my dress from a consignment shop. I absolutely LOVE it!!! It had already been altered and fits me perfectly and had a $400 bustle put it in already. Best part I only paid $400 for it!

Get on mailing list for hobbylobby.com, Michaels and Joann Farbics and watch for coupons. Also watch your local craigslist closely. Ebay is a great place to get ribbon and yummi candles website sells cheap votive holders with candles. They have sale for 72 candles and glass holders for $20 plus shipping. Also check out local thrift stores for vases and candle holders if you don't want all matching.

Craigslist had been my friend. I've gotten most of my decorations there and will have spent less than $10/centerpiece. No flowers. My dress was a consignment dress (biggest splurge) and is designer for $450 off new price. I found my photographer on snapknot.com, love his pics and couldn't beat his price. Found a great caterer with amazing reviews for $13 per person for 2 meats, 2 sides, rolls and drinks. Having a friend make cupcakes (she's a pastry chef). Got all my string lights at after Xmas sales. And used Groupon's for Vistaprint to get my invites (wedding & e-party), STD's, thank you cards and return address labels for under $100. You can do it! It just takes lots of research

Hey Ladie budget bride and less than 4 months to plan here lol so i feel the struggle.

I ordered 2 dresses which were really pageant dresses (GORGEOUS!!) Shipping was fast! I paid $124 for both including shipping and I promise everyone will be pleasantly surprised they aren't the average flower girl and jr. bride dresses. The website is

www.prettyflowergirl.com

I also ordered my wedding dress from

www.dressilyme.com which i tried on in the store for $1200 I paid $345 for a customized dress with a detachable bottom you can find dresses they have in stock for less than $200. My wedding is 9/5/14 so im patiently waiting on it to arrive. I've checked a bunch of blogs and everyone has great reviews!

www.printableinvitationkits.com Has FREE Invitation kits you can download and enter your own text and print at home or your local print shop for cheap. If you don't like the colors she has she'll customize it for only $25 I actually paid her $40 for a completely custom invite, program, thank you card, && RSVP.

www.papersupplyplus.com Has the best deal on card-stock. I'm using beautiful Metallic Linen paper it made my invites look so professional.

I've searched EVERYWHERE online for cheaper flowers for my DIY bouquets and Costco is still the cheapest per stem. I'm going to order in store so I won't be pressed to be home when they deliver.

Hope this helps!!!!

Lol- is there anyone who isn't a budget bride? Craigslist is your friend. I bought pretty much all of my decor from craigslist- this is the third wedding that stuff will be in, and it certainly won't be the last. I got our favors from eBay, without packaging, which is what I wanted, and 1/6 the price. Most of my flowers are greenery with some wildflowers- I priced it out, and getting that stuff from our florist is just as cheap as the grocery store. Friends are doing the videography, wedding day coordination, emceeing, and playlist, and our venue comes with a sound system and sound guy. We are using a hawaiian caterer, who costs 1/4 or less than any other caterer we met with, and their food is to-die-for good. We splurged on: photographer, dress (although 1k- not too bad), venue, linens, and plate rentals (mismatched China).

I'm having my wedding and reception at the same place. Its a catering company. We don't have to pay to rent the place we are just have to pay for the food. Which is about $810. All of my linen and napkins are included. The place is gorgeous already so we are going with her fall theme. It matches my wedding. I got my invitations from the ups store. 100 for 30 bucks. I posted an invitation to Facebook and tagged some family ans friends in it. I also made a page for my family only and posted one there. That saves on postage. I have a niece that's does nails, one that does makeup and a nephew that does hair. They own a spa to gather. My dress came off the sale rack at Davids bridal I paid 100 bucks for it. My shoes were on sale also I paid 20 bucks for them. My friend is doing my cakes. Another friend is doing my pictures for about 200 bucks. My aunt is making my veil and I found my tiara at wall mart for $10. We are using an iPod for music. My step dad and mom are performing the ceremony they are pastors. I found my tickets for my honeymoon on southwest. Com for 200 bucks apiece. My fh boss is letting us use his home in Florida so we have no hotel expense