Holy crap

A micro-wedding in a state park that does not require a permit with an officiant and take everyone out to lunch / dinner afterwards?

Or backyard?

Yes, weddings are costly even the small ones. Sorry

Weddings are outrageous, i know!

there are cheaper options to doing things like public parks and community halls are a lot cheaper.

Weddings aren't cheap especially if you want it at a hotel. We primarily looked at hotels and all of them had minimums. We got married at a hotel and our food and beverage minimum was $7,000. After everything we spent about $20,000-25,000. If your budget is less than a thousand dollars, I don't think you will be able to find a typical wedding venue for that price. You're going to have to think out of the box like a firehall or park.

Hotel weddings, all inclusive wedding venues, etc, are more expensive. I'd trim your guest list and look into "blank slate" BYOB venues and public parks.

Backyard
Community CenterPublic Park
Masonic LodgeFiremans HallBeach

Depends on where you are, but I found some state park venues at $300 for their conference centers.

Your backyard or the courthouse are free.

Otherwise, like PP's have said, looking into public parks will probably be your cheapest options.

Back yard weddings can be very fun and still elegant! Don't give up, think outside the box and talk with friends and relatives you trust. You've got this ❤

Vendors charge through the nose for weddings because they can and no one will question them because it's such a long-lasting custom to do so.


With a small budget, you will have to think outside the box. Ask a local park or community center what they charge. Is $1000 your budget for just the location or everything: location/food/invites, etc?

The only way to get a hotel wedding for a tiny budget *might* be an elopement or private wedding package which is usually Mon-Thur, fewer than 20 guests, includes ceremony & 1 hour on grounds for photos and maybe include a few vendors like: officiant, bridal bouquet, maybe photographer.

Weddings are just unreasonably priced everywhere. Hotels can be overpriced depending on where you are, too. I think you need to look for a nontraditional/outside venue if you're trying to do a $1000 budget.

Art studios, park meeting spaces like state parks have some decent size meeting spaces indoors, non profit organizations, local churches have meeting rooms as well.

In our area there are two art studios and the rental fee is only 1K, which is more than I want to spend to begin with but everywhere else its over 2k for bare bones. One is flexible with the catering and one is not, we are going to be doing a tour of both to see if we like either of them more. Our third option is a nonprofit meeting space that looks like a meeting room just big enough for about 200 people its 800 but has the tables included and the catering is decent. Last choice is the cheapest rental wise its on a park its and arena and its bare bones, so what we save on a fee we have to pay for to get chairs and tables in. One factor that helped us out is trying to keep the guest list down to under 50 including everyone.

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In that case, get in touch with your local parks dept and ask how much their rentals are for the venue, if they aren't already listed online. Find out what you are allowed to bring in and what the price includes.

Make a list of the most important things (typically food/entertainment/venue since that is what guests remember) and skip the rest.

A local restaurant (think Mexican or bbq) will be much less expensive than a wedding caterer and you get more food that you already know you like.

Ask a photographer you like how you can work them into your budget. Student photographers at local colleges are also an option.

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What's your guest list number?

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It definitely depends on where you are. I’m paying $160 for a park’s community center for reception. And I am paying $200 extra to have the ceremony at the amphitheater (at least as long as the weather looks good).

Location is super important. In rural areas you can find places more affordable, but definitely steer away from businesses listed as event venue/wedding venue. They will be much more expensive.

We found an AirBNB that would allow us to host an intimate ceremony. Of course we can stay there and get ready there too so it’s very cost efficient.

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Vendors charge through the nose because a lot more is expected of them now more so than ever, and they have far more work to prep than just the wedding day. People have to make a living, pay employees and cover their overhead.

I'd recommend checking out a restaurant wedding as an option. I'm not sure if you're including your dress/tuxedos in the $2,000 mark. Guest count is the best way to control cost. A lot of people are referencing parks, but that means you then need to rent tables, chairs, linens, every cup, knife, fork, spoon. It would be better to have a more intimate gathering at a space that already provides these things free of charge...

Where are you located?

If you want to do a wedding for less than $1,000 I would recommended doing it at a park (or state park) where a permit is not required. State parks normally have seating areas available so you wouldn't have to rent many tables and chairs depending on how many guests you have. You could also do your backyard (or a family member/friend's), or you could go to the courthouse and have a reception at someone's home or in a restaurant. You can create and send your invitations online for relatively cheap to save money there. Depending on where you live, the price of weddings vary greatly. My husband and I spent a little over $4,800 on our venue alone (we got married in our venue's off season). That did not include catering, our cake, liquor, our bartender, decor, etc.

Doing a wedding for your budget is possible to do. You just need to sit down and plan out with your fiance what you both want and things you don't care about having. For certain things you may want, you might want to look into DIY-ing it to save the extra cost. For my wedding, I made my bouquets with real-looking fake flowers - I'm not a flower person and didn't want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on flowers that my bridesmaids and I would only hold for a 10 minute ceremony and pictures, lol.