Any brides planning an inexpensive wedding??

Ours was a total of $10,000, including the rings and dresses. That included two receptions. (Since we live in Maryland but had to have the wedding in Massachusetts, we wanted a second reception at home.) It also included renting a place where all our Massachusetts guests could stay for the night before the wedding and the wedding night.

Our budget is $6,000 not including my ring and honeymoon. I don't know how much my ring was and the honeymoon shouldn't be more then $2,000.

I'm not doing programs, favors, decorations other then simple flower centerpieces provided by the venue, cocktail hour, or flowers other then making my own bouquet. My dress was off the sale rack. I'm doing my own makeup. And we're not doing a bridal party so no gifts. Oh and my father is our officiant so no fee.

Our budget is mainly for the venue (off season so way cheaper), seated meal, photographer, DJ, and open bar. Our friends all having a good time enoying the food and music is most important to us, other then the actual ceremony of course.

I agree! Low budget for us. FH is chef. So he is catering but having another chef serve it. Tissue paper centerpieces, most likely silk flower boquets. Going to salon at Walmart for hair and doing my own makeup. Weekend hotel honeymoon.

Well, I don't know how much help I will be, but I do have a low budget...my total budget is to come in at less than 3000. Currently we will likely be around 2500, but I wanted to plan for anything extra. This does not include the e-ring (i told him less than 500 should be his budget, and he said he stuck to that. It does include our wedding rings) and if we can't find the extra money to go to Florida for the honeymoon by the wedding, we are just going to wait until we do. We live on the east coast, so we would just drive there.

So, the bulk of our money is going to food. Having a small guest list helps any budget: we only have 13 guests. We are having a short wedding (4 hours), so we were able to get a huge discount with the photographer. We are doing video ourselves. I got my dress on sale at Davids Bridal. We don't have an official bridal party or groomsmen. But we will likely do small gifts if there is anything left over. We are not going to do overkill on decor. I am making handmade flowers for all the centerpieces, bouquet, etc. Our venue includes linens, tables, chairs, etc. I am doing my own makeup. I am making the cake myself. FHs dad is officiating. And just in general we don't plan to have lots and lots of extras. And anything we are getting we are staying as low as possible.

Don't know if that helps, but good luck!

Currently, our wedding is costing us (my mom): $1350.

This includes:

My ring

FH's ring

My dress (and veil, and petticoat)

Custom Doctor Who Converse

Dress flats

Food

Disposable utensils, plates, cups (no glass at the park)

Renting the park for the day,

FH's suspenders/tie

BM gifts

GM gifts

Scrapbooking supplies for the guest book

We haven't figured in alcohol yet, because we aren't sure what or how much we're getting, and we also haven't figured in the generator for our sound equipment, because we have to decide on 2 or 3 days. It will either be $120 or $180.

ETA: Added my photography cost. Completely forgot about him for a moment. lol

The easiest way to keep your budget low is to cut the guest list and the bridal party. There are so many ways to get married; the most economical one is to think of this as a sacred (even if it's non religious) celebration of a milestone in your lives. Invite your immediate family, stop thinking Broadway extravaganza. Your budget will go from insane expensive to "oh wow! We can afford this!" in minutes. And it'll still be classy and stylish, and your relatives won't have to work.

Going this route, in my area, you could absolutely do a great little party with a great officiant, a bouquet and bout, flowers and a little bit of photography for under 4000.

My original budget was $8000, but got bumped up to $10,000. I saved majorly on the dress because my mother is making it. For jewelry I am borrowing pieces from my mother and aunt. My mother is also making me a veil.

We will have around 180-200 guests so we chose the second cheapest meal option offered by our venue. I received some unpopular votes on here because that choice is a pork, but we will have a vegetarian option and lots of appetizers so I'm not too worried. Least expensive was a shepherd's pie which FH vetoed.

I should add that our venue has everything so we don't need to worry about renting chairs, tables, utensils, etc.

We didn't choose our date to save money, but because we are getting married at a down time we got a lot of great deals.

We are providing wine, but not a full open bar. A cash bar will be available if anyone wants something else. I know a lot of people find that very tacky, but in my area open bars are rare.

The only flowers we are having are for bouquets and bouts. I am making the centerpieces myself.

The church we are getting married in will be decorated for Christmas so we are just leaving their decorations up and making a few pew markers.

I am having professional hair and makeup, but only because one of my BMs said she wanted to give me a gift and asked if I would prefer that over a physical gift. I was so touched and accepted.

Not sure if those experiences are useful or not, but that is how we have been doing things.

ETA I should add that weddings are much cheaper in my area than most. If that wasn't the case, I probably would have had to really really cut the guest list.

Our budget is $7000 and so far a little over $6000 is allocated. And that is including everything: venue, bride & groom attire, our kids attire, rings, food, DJ, photographer, centerpieces, cake. We haven't added in the honeymoon expenses or day of transportation expenses yet because we haven't narrowed them down yet. I'm doing a lot of DIY and we're keeping everything as simple as possible.

We ware also getting extras not included in our budget as gifts from family members.

Godparents are actually chipping in on the wine.

FILs are paying for photography - although my plan had been to have my uncle do it as his gift to us. He has done so for a few of my cousins.

Two aunts are paying for flowers as their gift (the flowers mentioned above).

We didn't ask for any of this. Everyone offered when they heard that we were trying to stick to a budget. It has been a great help.

Basically we are paying for food, some decorations, limo, music, and rings of course (FH is wearing his father's old band so that was free). We aren't doing a honeymoon until February so hoping we can save some money to put towards that over the next few months.

Our reception (including all food, alcohol, decor, DJ, etc) is $6k. Our total wedding budget is $20k but that includes Everything! Ceremony/reception, rings, his suit, our flights to the wedding and hotel there, our honeymoon, photographer/videographer, rehearsal dinner, welcome happy hour, attendants gifts, etc. it's a destination wedding so a lot of components factored in. Our biggest money saving factor was having the wedding in Mexico. Huge savings on everything. For example, photographer and 2 videographers are $1800 and they are fantastic. I'm doing my own hair and makeup. Our food is traditional Mexican food and will be buffet which was significantly less expensive than a plated meal. We are also savings on all the wedding stationery by purchasing coupons for Weddingpaperdivas on Gilt City. Our save the dates were inexpensive with Vistaprint. My dress isn't budgeted in because it was paid for by my sister as a wedding gift.

Right now with everything in my WW budget tool I'm at just under $5,000 but I have $7k total for anything unexpected. My mother bought my dress and is also paying for the venue since it is cheaper for township residents ($450 instead of $500) but my biggest expense are our caterers (two food trucks) and my photographer. We just bought our wedding rings from Two Birch the other day; they are very affordable and I liked being able to get white sapphires to match my engagement ring. My DJ will be our neighbor; he DJ'd my graduation party in high school forever ago but he is really great and about $500 less than any other DJ we've had. While he is technically a "friendor" he actually approached my mom about our wedding and was really excited about it, plus I've worked with him before and it was smooth sailing. If we have room in the budget I'm also thinking that my FH's friend (one who has worked on numerous short films with my FH - they've submitted several to local contests) if he would be our videographer; he had originally offered to photograph but I went with someone who had a wedding portfolio already. We are booked for a honeymoon cruise right now but the balance isn't due until August since we aren't going until Nov 2016; I think after we see how tax refunds turn out we will then decide whether to keep it or not but it should be fine with our savings/budget. Basically the wedding budget is safely sitting in savings already, but the honeymoon is currently being saved for and if we can't afford it by August, we can cancel.

Edit - basically my current budget includes everything though besides the honeymoon because even though my mother paid for the dress, I still entered it into the budget tool. I want to know exactly how much this is costing everyone involved.

Realistically is it going to end up costing us $10K - and I am not including the cost of rings or all the décor I bought. The décor was more "stuff for me" and it was absolutely not essential for the wedding but it was something I wanted to do. We got grocery flowers, our catering was only about $2k, I got a discount dress, we are doing kegs instead of a full bar, I only have two BM's. There are lots of ways to save money and still have a nice wedding.

We are spending 13,000 INCLUDING honeymoons, rings, etc. Everything.

For just wedding day related stuff, rings, dress, food, bar, etc it's about 10,000. How we saved...

- we made a lot of things, all the signs and borrowed or used 8 x 10 frames we already had to display them [photobooth sign, bar sign, gift table sign etc].

- We did Red and white roses and spent $400 total on flowers, Including bridal party, and flowers for 1/2 the centerpieces. Still looked beautiful!

-we made our "altar arch" out of PVC pipe and sheer curtains from target. Cost about $40 total and then rented two columns for $11 each to display two altar flower arrangements of red and white roses

-got rose petals off amazon

-asked around and borrowed as much decor for reception as we could. Many people have clear vases they are willing to loan, we found someone who had 4 matching red vases from christmas decor, etc.

Our budget is around $3K. We cut our guest list to under 20 people. Because it's so small, we can get away with a lot of cuts that would make larger weddings significantly less fun and more stressful, including:

- there's just no need for a DJ or a DOC

- We're having the whole thing in our caterer's restaurant, and they're only charging us for food (which is *amazing*) and corkage -- the space, setup, cleanup, china, linens, flatware, glassware, tables, chairs etc. are included. They're also letting us use their wifi to livestream the ceremony, and we're using a webcam and tripod FW has for work anyway.

- We really don't need or have space for much decor. We're going to repurpose the bouquets from the chuppah as centerpieces, and that and the chuppah itself is all we're going to need -- even our aisle will be so short it just wouldn't be worth it.

- I'm growing the flowers for the chuppah decor (with help from the UV bulbs we have for the bird anyway and instructions from various universities on how to force bulbs for indoor bloom). If it works, I have four bouquets of pink ranunculus (and possibly also some of the free seeds the seller sent me to make up for the first shipment falling under the truck at the airport) for under $100 total, and if it doesn't, oh well, we'll go to Trader Joe's or the SF flower market a couple of days before, I'm sure there'll still be lots of pink flowers there too.

You could probably get away with these at a larger wedding, too, if you keep in mind that you're not going to get the same product or service you'd get from someone who does weddings for a living:

- We asked around and found that one of our pro artist friends offered to do our photos for free as a wedding gift (we originally asked what she'd charge to do our photos, and she'll be getting like... a nice bottle of wine or something from us as a thank you).

- Same artist friend agreed to do our ketubah for $100 -- I couldn't find any ketubahs we liked as much as we like her art, the $400 ones were too busy, the $60 ones were too simple, and both categories were too impersonal.

- Our officiant is a congregational rabbi who lets the couple decide what they're comfortable paying.

And then there's things we already had, or just never wanted/judged to be not worth the cost to us:

- FW never wanted a traditional dress -- she did pay a couple hundred bucks for the corset she's planning on wearing, but that's still not nearly what a traditional dress she might possibly have liked would have cost. FW doesn't want a bouquet either.

- I already have a suit, and if it doesn't fit come November/December (ah, the vagaries of T), oh well, Men's Wearhouse it is!

- Guestbooks and favors and little things like that just don't appeal to us. I suppose you could say the yarmulkes I'm making are favors, but I'm crocheting them in my spare time out of yarn we already have lying around anyway.

- The closest thing we want to a wedding party is chuppah bearers, and we don't care what they wear.

- We're not buying separate wedding bands -- instead, we're transitioning our engagement rings to wedding bands by getting them engraved by the jeweler we got FW's ring from. They do it with a computerized laser thing that apparently can work with PDF files from the client, so we can even get the Biblical Hebrew we want without worrying about finding someone who can read and write it!

- No wedding cake! Dessert is included with dinner, there's no way we're shelling out several hundred bucks for a cake sufficiently pretty to be worth it, and neither of us really cares whether we have one.

- Entertainment will be dancing (I'm curating my playlists carefully), or games we already own -- e.g. Dixit, Forbidden Desert, Pandemic, Gloom, things that either are cooperative or where the point system is mostly there to make sure the game doesn't go on forever and nobody actually cares who wins.

Our budget is $10k not including honeymoon. These are some things that we have done to cut costs:

- We're getting married on a Sunday. Rates are way cheaper on Sundays pretty much across the vendor board

- Attended bridal shows; I know, I know, they're madhouses, but we actually got our venue rental fee waived because we found them at a show

- Go All-Inclusive! Speaking of that venue, the one we selected not only waived our rental fee but is also all-inclusive. So we're only paying for the cost of food, but that cost also includes the facility, all table, chair, linen, and dinnerware rentals, centerpieces, outside ceremony arches and decorations, a day of coordinator, a banquet manager, a bartender, a champagne toast, and a honeymoon suite for the wedding night. All of this only cost us $4700, and that's for a full plated meal for 130 people

- FH also got a fantastic deal on tuxes from a bridal show, so we're saving quite a bit there

- Find dresses off the rack or during sales. Mine is new, but I wandered into that store when they were having a sale (that I didn't even know about) and ended up saving over $800 on my dress and veil

- We're not doing programs or favors

- We're doing a smaller wedding cake (probably only two tiers) and then having an additional sheet cake for extra servings

- We're having a mutual mentor officiate for us, since we wanted someone who knew both FH and I well and we don't have a home church

- We're mixing in comic book roses with our bouquets to cut down on the costs of actual flowers, and we're also using those for the guys

- The personalized decor for the reception is based on things FH and I like to do together, so it's mostly things that we already have

- Getting ready/Ceremony/Reception are all at the same location, so no transportation costs between locations

- Our venue has a fully operational pub on site, so we're doing drink tickets for our guests and paying those out at the end of the night, rather than pre-paying for alcohol that may or may not get used. We're also only paying for one drink ticket per person - after that, they are welcome to continue purchasing it on their own

- I did splurge some on our photographer, but we went with a cheaper package initially, and will be paying for photo rights after the wedding, once we have an idea of how much money we have left over/have gotten our tax returns

That's pretty much what we've done as of now!

We have spent about $8,000 total on ours.

Our budget is between $3k & $4k. Our venue is FH's Grandfathers farm so we just needed to get a tent/chairs/ tables/lights/ porta potties etc. After tons of research & searching I found & amazing company who have worked with all my needs & gave a great price of around $1600 with delivery two days before the wedding so we had time to set up & rearrange everything. I have found my dress at a resale shop for $125. I found most of our ceremony decorations through wedding resale pages on Facebook. Extra folding tables through free cycle. Getting my own fabric and making table cloths that way. The food is being catered by a family member with his food truck. He offered so we accepted (he would rather be doing something he loves to contribute as a wedding present). GM gifts are something that is dear to FH's heart (Cigars) so he splurged a little on them. BM. I am making them necklaces. Parents gifts were handmade hankies and patches for there ties. A lot of little accents are either being made or bought when on sale or with coupons over time. Our photographer we found on groupon and used her for our engagement photos first to see how she did & if we liked her style (loved it). Our DJ is FH's uncle who has his own band and can also play music from his laptop. We have a friend of mine singing as we go down the aisle as well. Most of these people offered to do these things. We will be making them homemade gifts or giving them a check for being so kind.

Our wedding ( not including wedding bands and honeymoon) will be about 4500, we are getting married on a boat that holds 135people. We will be having 75 guests. gourmet food that is provided by the boat company, cake, guitarist, 1 bridesmaid, I groomsman, not hosting drinks, 4 hour cruising the river.

Honeymoon Maine, should cost around 3000 for a week. But we are asking for money as gifts, for our honeymoon.

Does anyone have any cheaper food options?

We are spending about 16k including honeymoon and everything else =]