Doing it yourself

I'm doing everything myself with the exception of our attire, rings, and probably our stationary package. I'm doing all the flowers for the bouquets and boutonnieres and corsages. All the ceremony and reception decor. All the catering, etc. I have very talented friends and family that are gifting me with their services. My top budget is $5k. I refuse to spend a metric crap ton of money on a party. No offense to those who do, but when the average wedding costs more than a new car or a down payment on a house I just think it's ridiculous to spend that on a few hour party. We'd rather use our money for things that actually matter. I'm just as married at the end of the day if i spend $5k or $50k. And seriously...low budget doesn't have to mean low class. I'm a seriously frugal shopper and have found a lot of great dealson my supplies. So far I'm only at about a quarter of my max budget.

Full disclosure - we are definitely not doing everything ourselves and/or on a tight budget. That being said, I think you can still have a really great wedding without spending a ton. I think the key is planning far ahead, and being smart about what you spend and save money on. I'm also pretty strongly of the opinion that your friends and family shouldn't be working during your wedding. So have them help make décor, and stuff invitations, and shop sale, and maybe even work on flower arrangements, but if at all possible, don't have them do things like provide food or man the dinner stations or take out the trash when it gets full.

We are. I literally have EVERYTHING we need for a wedding and reception, right in my own family.

Caterers, musicians, officiant, decorators(me), stationery designers(me), cake bakers, ect. The only things being purchased outside of my family is the venue and rings. This is our vow renewal, celebrating 10 years!! Our first wedding, because of our amazingly talented families, we only spent $2500. So I would like to stay somewhere between that number and $3500.

Oh man if I had that many family members to help for sure I would of gone to that route! But since I don’t i did hire a lot of vendors 😄

View Quoted Comment

Jodie,

What have you gotten and made so far? Where have you been shopping? Did you find any good deals worth noting.

Thanks,

Dalia

Yes and no? We’re doing a lot of it ourselves but we still hired a caterer&staff and a baker. Decor is 100% us and our venue is a blank canvas so it’s entirely our vision. Weddings don’t have to cost a lot at all but make sure you put your money into things that have an impact. For example I’m putting a good chunk of budget into our cake table because it’s a focal point of the room.

We are doing it all ourselves and our budget was $800 and we are well below it

View Quoted Comment Hi Yam,
i have a friend that does cakes so she’s doing that , a friend is catering with my help so that’s also in house as well our biggest expenses are the hall using a local fire company hall and my dress is 250.00 , and suits 200 for both

View Quoted Comment Sounds like you’re right on track! You can save a lot of money on decor too by waiting for sales and stacking coupons.

I am doing a lot of DIY and have my mom and sister for help so that I can keep it low, but people wont know that it is lower budget.

My sister and I are both getting married next year. We are both DIYing and I can guarantee that besides the fact that her guest list is triple mine people wont know that we spent a lot less.

View Quoted Comment I do use my coupons for A.C. Moore and I also have a teachers discount . Which is another 10-15% off ! I also use a lot from Amazon

View Quoted Comment A.C. Moore 50% off coupons

View Quoted Comment Have you included food and such into your budget ?

View Quoted Comment Yes we are, we are feeding about 100ish people. Our food budget is being helped though because a bunch of people asked if they could make family dishes to bring so we are basically just providing drinks and the main course and the guests are bringing sides and some desserts

Totally doable we have an inexpensive venue, my friend is doing all of my flowers and we aren’t having a dance/reception just dinner.

Ah got ya , yeah I have a friend that’s a DJ doing it for cheap , but everyone’s different and that’s awesome!
We aren’t doing a lot of the normal stuff like the garter toss , cake smashing . We decided to adult lol

We are doing a good portion of it all ourselves, but not all. Our budget is around 4K not including the honeymoon. I got our venue for $750 and it’s a beautiful hall in a park. I have a friend who DJs so we got a great price on that. I hired my photographer per hour and saved there also. My step MIL does cakes so she is gifting us that, and she also has chafing dishes and serving supplies we are using for the Buffett. We’re doing drop off BBQ catering which not only saves us money, but keeps our family from having to make food. So far I’ve found some great deals on decor also, I don’t think anyone will notice that it’s lower budget.

View Quoted Comment Truth! Yes mine will total about 3-3500 with all things involved, the Pastor, marriage license, rings, deco, food, hall rental, dress, suits, dj, make up, hair, nails, everything for reception tables, gifts for wedding party.
Etc

View Quoted Comment They usually don’t !

View Quoted Comment That’s great ! I have most of the favor stuff done already just getting ahead of the game I still have 234 days to go!!!