How Can Anyone Afford This!?

To be honest we wouldn’t have been able to afford it without money from both our families. If we didn’t get help we would’ve decided to have a small wedding!

If you can’t afford what you’re planning but still want to get married on that timeline, cut your list to immediate family and closest friends only and do a private room in a restaurant for your reception. If that’s what you’re planning and still can’t afford it, you can always postpone or elope and later plan a vow renewal.

View Quoted Comment Even with cutting people out, we're at 162, not including the DJs food, hair/make up girls... etc.

I am so impressed by people that pay for their own weddings. If my father wasn't paying for ours, we would have eloped. There is no way we could afford it, we just bought a house. I'd just plan a smaller wedding, then tend to be more affordable.

View Quoted Comment I don't have a father. My mom is about to retire and says she'll help but idk what that means exactly and how much

1. Consider talking to family for help.
2. Budget the heck out of your life for every possible money circumstance
3. Choose DIY
4. Look for bargains!
5. Have an intimate ceremony and reception with who is important only
(Is an over the top, massive, exspensive wedding necessary?)

You could always push out the date? Cutting the guest list would lower the cost significantly! We didn't have any help so we have a guest list of 50.

View Quoted Comment 162 people? What is your budget and what part of the country are you getting married in? Hair and makeup people don’t need to be included in your meal count as they don’t usually stay for the wedding or reception. For us vendor meals were significantly cheaper, $30 each compared to $134 each so I wouldn’t get caught up on that.

View Quoted Comment Even with cutting people out, we're at 162, with cousins, aunts and uncles, not including the DJs food, hair/make up girls... etc.

View Quoted Comment I'm in NJ and most places are looking for $150+

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Agree about the vendor meals, ours are $20 compared to like $80 for guests.

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I would just set a realistic budget for what you and your fiance can spend, then maybe ask your mother what she can contribute. I don't think it's rude since she already offered. You need to know your budget for planning too, so I don't think it's rude. I'd look into public parks, state parks, friends houses/yards for the ceremony, then find a friend/family member to officiate, look to catering at BBQ, Italian, or Mexican restaurants, have a small wedding party or none at all, skip favors & save the dates & menus, don't take engagement photos, DIY as much decor as you can and your invites, skip a videographer & professional transportation & professional hair and makeup. I was in a wedding a couple years ago and their total budget was $3,000.

View Quoted Comment What are vendor meals?

After reading this post I am really going to stick to my guest list because we are paying per person.

View Quoted Comment We honestly cut out everyone we haven’t talked to in the last year. We got our list down to 85 invited guests. We excluded so many cousins and family members to stay within our budget.

View Quoted Comment That sounds about right. I live in California and we spent $200 pp on food and alcohol. What are you looking to spend overall? You don’t have to invite all of those people! It’s fine to have a wedding with immediate family (just parents and siblings and maybe grandparents) at a non traditional venue.

View Quoted Comment Do you honestly have 162 family and friends that you would consider to be close with?
I know some people want to invite everyone.
My guest list max is 75 and FH and I can't get our list over 66 purely because we only want people we are close to to be there. Just because they are family or you work with them etc doesnt mean you are obligated to invite them.

View Quoted Comment Reduced meal prices for vendors. We had a plated meal for our guests but vendors ate family style in a back area.

View Quoted Comment Meals for your vendors, such as photographer and dj/band.

View Quoted Comment Any of your vendors (DJ, photographer, etc) who you have to feed are typically less expensive. Your caterer will likely tell you this, ask this if you haven’t booked them yet!