Budget

My budget was $10,000 and in the end it's going to end up being $12,000.

The thing that helped kinda stay in budget is that our venue is $6,250 but that comes with DJ, Food, Venue, Chairs, Tables, Decor, Set up & clean up, Plates, Forks, Spoons, Tea and Water.

I'm over my budget slightly but not much....some things I just didn't consider when I initially created the budget....but a few DIY projects can help you cut cost and you can save on the cake by ordering a Faux cake to display and serving Sams Club or Costco sheet cake.

I went over too. Its so common to. Not that that's a good thing but wedding things tend to cost more than ya think or you end up wanting different things. My budget was 15k but ended up at 16.2k total. Some things I did was ask people for things so I didn't have to buy it aha

I’m still under budget. My total budget is 5k we have 50 something days until our wedding and we are 3k in right now and will probably end up near 4k when its all said and done.

One thing I kept in mind is that a wedding is one day. You could buy tons of new stuff but the reality of it is that it will be used at maximum, just a few hours. So rather than buying everything new, search for used decor online. I got so much stuff from facebook marketplace and craigslist at super discounted prices. Some things other brides bought and never used, some things were used for just a few hours. Thrift stores and flea markets were also great for finding things.

I love DIY, so I decided to DIY all of the florals using fake flowers that I bought on sale and with coupons from Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, Wish, Craigslist etc. If you are creative, DIY what you can for big savings. Personalized card boxes for weddings are quite expensive (I saw some for $100) but I made my own for around $8.

The Dollar Tree is your friend when it comes to candles, candle holders, vases, tons of centerpiece supplies and you can order in bulk from their website.

My budget is currently $2000 but I’ve managed to get A LOT of my resources for free including the venue, chairs, tables, table clothes, and some decor. I also used my own money to pay for my dress so I didn’t have to dip into our budget. I’m going to be DIY-ing or renting most of the decor so.

Our budget was $20k- that seems like a lot but weddings aren't cheap here in MD haha- and we're probably going to land somewhere in between $18-20k.

I'm not going to have flowers or decor really.
But overall my venue is overlooking the ocean so I figure that's pleanty enough!
I am a little bummed about the flowers but my godmother said she'd see what she could do, and I'll see if she surprises me.

DIY is great, but not the best way to try to save money. The best way to really cut down costs is to reduce your guest list, have a wedding during non-peak season for a venue, or have your wedding on a weekday. Things to splurge on: Wedding attire, food and alcohol, photographer. Major places to save: Flowers (doing Sams or costco, sola wood flowers, or putting together your own bouquets of silk flowers).

Only DIY if you know you can do it and if you will have enough time. Some DIYs end up costing more in supplies and time than just buying the item. Also a rushed DIY job that looks off will end up hurting your overall look than helping.

I stayed on budget by looking for deals, using coupons and putting everything on my high reward credit card (and paid it off every month). With the cash back I was able to buy my guestbook and fancy pen, labels for invites, favor boxes, and more basically for free.

Decide what is important to you. If it’s not important, don’t do it or not spend a lot of money on it.

I ended up being under budget overall for my wedding (it is next week, but I only need to purchase a couple small things). One thing that really helped me was that I tried to do a “worst case scenario” budget for all of the big things like food, dress etc. i also built in extra money for surprise expenses (which I ended up not needing so it became honeymoon money!)
one thing that helped me a lot was looking at areas I went over like my dress and then making sure I was under on something else like accessories to even it out. I also used a lot of coupons and shopped based on sales. I also did a lot of comparison pricing to make sure I didn’t rip myself off!

We kept things on the simpler side. We rented a lot of our decor, used fake flowers we ordered from an Etsy seller, were very careful about the cost of our dresses, did a lot of research for everything, and the only thing that was "personalized" was our guestbook. We got our alcohol and cake for guests from Costco, food was catered BBQ, and we didn't include things like favors, a bridal party, a DJ, or anything else that wasn't important to us. As a graphic designer, we also handled all the invitations ourselves and kept those simple as well.

The best advice I have is to pick the top 3 things that are important to you. Mine was photography, bar, DJ in that order. I used to plan weddings and I know that most people don't remember the little details. We also aren't having our photographer take pictures of things like the tables, venue without people in it, etc. since we only have him 6 hours. So that easily cut down our budget. Once you get your main things booked (venue, photographer, food, etc.) and you've worked out the final costs (don't forget to tip and include that in your budget!) if you have leftover $, that can help you decide what to spend it on.

Our budget is $9000 and so far we are under budget!
venue $1400
photographer $1400
dinner for 250 $1300
dress $500
alterations $150
shoes $150 (cowboy boots)
cake $200 (not ordered yet)
flowers less than $150 (Trader Joe’s diy bouquets)
DJ $0!! (Spotify premium)
gettin ready robes $45 total (6 BM robes 1 bride robe)

it takes a lot of looking around but it’s possible!

I am still in the process of planning my wedding but I went over budget with 16,400 when we only wanted to spend 13,000 or so. But our venue is handling most of the vendors, setup/tear down, letting us bring our own booze. The only thing we have to take care of is Officiant and Photographer but we have friends who do professional Photography and they are giving us a deal. Our officiant Anthony Montana is letting us do 15 payments instead of 12. I did not include my dress in the budget since my mom paid for it. We have 1,000 to pay off our rings.