Did you stick to your budget?

We didn't have an official budget, more of a guideline. However, we came in drastically under average for our region, because we were really clear on what we wanted, and what didn't matter to us.

We prioritized food (so, venue), photography, and the entertainment. Everything after that, we either found a way to save, or skipped.

For instance, a coworker of mine is an up-and-coming filmmaker, who wanted to learn how to do weddings as another source of income. So, she charged us a *super* low rate for videography. I found my dress at a sample sale. We used fake flowers, didn't do favors, and let the view of the river from the venue be our main decoration.

We considered our final numbers really good, given that we got married in NYC.

In the beginning, we didn't want to spend a lot & I was convinced our wedding was going to be as cheap as possible (I also blame some family who told me spending over $3k was expensive), but the more I looked into it the more I saw $$$. The pandemic also didn't help as we were unable to see our first option venues & there was no word on when they'd reopen for us to look at so we were only able to look at one venue & ended up booking it. That's what made us rethink our entire budget, but it's worth it since it did end up costing less than if we had it on a Friday or Saturday (ours is on a Sunday). So as of now, I don't know what our budget is at this point, but I know that our wedding & honeymoon put together will at least be 10k. Our plan is to pay off at least most of these by the end of the year because we don't want to scramble paying anything off & if any problems arise then we'll be okay. We're lucky enough to have family to help pay for some things like the flowers and for the bar.