i have a $10,000 wedding budget, i need help!

You will need to have a small guest list. The reception is what will be costly. I suggest you cater in for your reception. Many people cater from latin, italian or bbq restaurants or they do party trays from sam's club. Could you find an event hall that will let you bring in outside food and alcohol? You will need to search hard for a cheap venue but the biggest thing will be the guest list.

I agree with above. Search for venues that are cheap. I think most shelterhouses at parks are very cheap and some can be even free within your neighborhood if it's local. Small guest list, no alcohol (or stick to beer and wine), buffets (not per head).

Maybe having a backyard type wedding at a venue that lets you bring everything in on your own, BBQ and italian type food are the most cost effective. beer and wine reception only is much cheaper than an open bar. cut down your guest list to only close friends and family. shop sales, DIY a lot of stuff. try to find a dress off the rack or online. search facebook marketplace or local sale sites for wedding decor, people always try to sell their stuff. Look into the pros wedding, I think they're located across the country you can get photo and dj packages for under $3k for both. plan for fake flowers over real as theyre much cheaper or try wholesale flower sites and make your own bouquet from real flowers.

So I'm in WV, so I have no clue about venues/vendors in CA, but I may be able to offer some advice, and give examples of how we have saved some money while planning our wedding.

VENUES: Consider looking into free venue options. Public beaches, or parks. Most of the time all you need to have a wedding at such places is a permit through the city.

FLOWERS: If you or anyone you know is crafty in the slightest, opt for faux flowers for bouquets, and centerpieces. They can be done beautifully, and are SO cheap if you buy them in bulk. For my wedding we used silkflowerwarehouse.com , tableclothfactory.com, and Dollar Tree!

MISC DECORATIONS: Two words - Facebook Marketplace!

MUSIC: Spotify! We decided to not use a DJ, but instead my MOH is creating a Spotify playlist for us to play through our venue's sound system during the reception. My uncle will be our "Emcee" making all necessary announcements.

CATERING: Instead of using a pricey high end caterer, we booked a local college to do our catering. They are setting it up buffet style, and providing table linens, china, and glassware. They also have a great reputation for catering weddings in our area. We booked them for $19.95/person!

INVITATIONS: We bought blank invitation kits on Walmart.com, and I designed them myself on Microsoft Word, and we printed them right at home!

WEDDING DRESS: I didn't want to cut any corners here, I knew what dress I wanted and didn't care how much it cost... but if you are wanting to pinch every penny, you could check out David's Bridal Clearance/Sale options. purchase something second hand, or opt for any white dress that isn't marketed as a "wedding gown".

PHOTOGRAPHER: This is also a place where many people dislike cutting corners. I am friends with an excellent professional photographer and she offered me half off her normal price for a full day wedding shoot. If you don't have any connections like this, perhaps seek out photography students who are trying to build a portfolio. Many will welcome the chance to photograph a wedding, and may even do it for free to little cost!

I can't think of anything else at the moment... but hopefully this gave you some ideas to get started with!!

I live in CA and it’s doable but like PPs said you’re going to have to prioritize what’s important to you and have a smaller guest list and maybe consider some outside of the box ideas if you want to try and save e.g photography normally costs a good chunk of a budget so maybe look for photographers who are discounted or free just to expand their portfolio

We have a 10k budget in Florida. We reserved a public park for the ceremony (only $20/hr) and then booked an Elk's Lodge sort of reception venue. I agree that keeping the guest list down will help and order food like BBQ or Italian. I did all fake flowers - 12 bouts, 6 corsages, 6 bridesmaid's bouquets, and my bouquet for $350. You could also find an up and coming photographer that needs to build their portfolio. Having a friend do your hair/makeup or doing it yourself will also help cut costs.

Small guest list and if you want a nicer venue then consider a brunch or weekday evening wedding.

We spent about $15K on our wedding in Napa for 15 guests, and about $15K for a local reception in Temecula (drinks, dinner, live band). We had to work a lot of magic to that it work for those budgets, which didn’t include attire, rings, or mini-moon.

Also, check fbook to see if there is a wedding group in your area because there are various vendors that promote that are not on here and venues that you may not find here. Also, Check this out and there are other on pinterest to help. https://liverichlyspendsimply.com/how-we-had-a-classy-affordable-wedding/

What part of CA are you in? I’m in SoCal, and while there’s definitely some venues around here that’ll keep you at your budget (I can give you a list of venues and cheaper vendors if you’re in the area), you’ll definitely have to do some serious compromises to keep everything on budget.


Like PPs have said, the biggest thing is going to be to cut the guest list to the essential people. If you absolutely can’t do that, you might have to consider forgoing a meal, and doing some sort of afternoon appetizer and punch reception. Of course, that would limit your reception time since you’d have to avoid meal times in order to do that. Or consider a brunch wedding.
Another alternative is finding a private room at a restaurant and holding your wedding and/or reception there. Some restaurants do have separate areas for ceremonies so you can keep it all at one place if you’d like. They tend to charge for the ceremony, but will opt for food minimums instead of a venue fee for the reception.
If you are into the DIY, there’s some super cute parks and city-owned venues that are a great value. Many come with tables and chairs, and some are pretty enough to not need additional decorating.
Some venues allow food trucks, and depending on how many people you have, that can help cut food costs as well. Alternatively, as PP has mentioned, catered Italian, Mexican, or BBQ is going to be your best bet for cheap dinner meals. Some brides have even hired a taco guy and gotten positive responses to it.
BYO alcohol, especially if you are open to cutting the hard alcohol, is key for staying on budget for alcohol. I keep my alcohol costs to a minimum by stocking my bar with Kirkland red and white wine, and a couple of different beers from Costco. I could have also gotten the champagne there, but we went with Wycliffe Brut, which is also pretty cheap. I had no issues with the beer and wine only bar at my wedding.
Cake, either cut it completely, or get a small cutting cake and get sheet cake for the guests. Sam’s Club has excellent tiered cakes that are appropriate for weddings that can feed a ton of people for under $100, plus you can get additional sheet cake or cupcakes if needed. Vons/Pavillions or whatever your local grocery store bakery is can also do tiered cake or the cutting cake plus sheet cakes for cheap as well. I personally did Nothing Bundt Cakes and got a cutting Bundt cake and bundtinis. It would have been cheaper to do Sam’s Club, but I wanted to ensure people would actually eat the cake and have the option to pick flavors, so I chose to spend a little extra money. It was still well under the $1,000s I would have spent on a fancy cake, and I was left with only 4 bundtinis after the wedding.
Flowers, you’ll have to be really flexible on, since pricing of flowers depends on the season and the type of flower you want. Try to find a florist who works out of her home to avoid overhead costs. A big plus would be that she may not charge minimums either. Have her go through what your vision is, and suggest flower substitutions to cut the costs. They could also work with you in terms of making everything not as full/smaller so that you pay for less flowers. If you live near LA, you could go to the LA Flower Mart and either DIY your flowers, or have one of the florists there take care of your flowers for cheap. If you live near Norco, Norco High School’s Agriculture program has floral classes that will take on wedding requests for cheap. I believe the students compete to be selected to assist on those projects. There’s also online flower companies, like Bloominous, that have pretty arrangement collections, and only require you hit their minimum ($500 for the DIY package). You might also want to consider cutting flowers to only the bouquets and boutonnières, and perhaps corsages and opt for non-flower decorations and centerpieces. Or, if you are okay with it, look into fake flowers, paper flower, or wood flowers.
For photography, I personally wouldn’t count on finding people who would photograph your wedding for free for portfolio building, but you certainly can find people willing to charge under average prices to build up their portfolio and reputation. You can use Instagram to search up #yourlocationweddingphotographer to find these up and coming photographers. You can also contact your local college or art school to see if they can recommend some students to cover your wedding for cheap as well.
Avoid renting a dance floor by finding a venue with an empty area that is flat/safe to dance on. This could be as simple as a concrete area, or if you’re indoors, just the wood/tile flooring. People will know where to dance whether there is a dance floor or not. I highly recommend cutting to the chase and just spending money on the DJ, since he will MC, control the reception flow, and make adjustments based on guests for the dance music. I personally have gone to a playlist wedding that was a disaster and resulted in an empty dance floor the whole night due to a poor selection of music, but at the very least if you are insistent on doing this, put a line on the RSVP for guests to request a song to dance to, and appoint someone to keep an eye on the playlist and skip songs if needed. Definitely make sure that the speakers are high quality and are in working condition before the wedding.
For wedding dress, keep an eye out for sample sales. I got my wedding dress for $150 from a liquidation sample sale. Some bridal shops also have some racks dedicated to discounted off the rack options. Lulus (online) has a nice bridal collection that doesn’t break bank, and the free returns makes it easy to exchange sizes or buy multiple options at once. Otherwise, look secondhand at Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and online websites like StillWhite.
If you’re going budget-friendly for bridesmaid dresses, again, highly recommend Lulus. I selected a non-bridesmaid dress that was still appropriate for special occasions and they photographed really well. They also have a specific section for bridesmaid dresses and they tend to do the mismatched bridesmaid look pretty well too. Birdy Grey is also another affordable option.
For the men, again, if you’re in SoCal, I found the best deal for tux/suit rentals through Friar Tux. With the group discount, I was able to select the cheapest black tux they had and get the head-to-toe look for under $100 per guy with the groom’s rental being free. I’ve had cousins use Menguin.com for their weddings and liked their rentals as well. Or, assuming each guy has a black suit, maybe just buy them ties as groomsmen gifts so that they all match.
Favors, just cut them. No one will miss them. I did succulents because my mom grows them, and just had to buy little buckets and dirt for them. They also doubled as place cards for my guests. I’ve also been to weddings where they gave out lotto tickets, or they did a greeting card sized place cards with the guest’s name on one side and a photo of the guest and the bride or groom on the other.
Invitations, if you are open to cutting the physical invitation and RSVP, With Joy is a great wedding website that will allow you to do electronic invitations and RSVPs for free on your wedding website. I cut the save the dates by spreading the date by word of mouth and on my family’s Facebook group.
That’s all I can think of right now, but if you are in the SoCal area, feel free to PM me if you’d like!

Find a basic hall, pick a cheaper food option gather quotes, keep guest list small or whose important, do simple cheap flowers or fake, do a lot of DIY, amazon for cheap things, look at Sams club or Costco for cake. Talk to people. People know people in the business or just got married. Go to bridal shows you can get deals. My venue was 2,500 but because i went to a show and booked by date I got it for $500! You got this!

Im in Ohio but Im trying to plan a wedding with 15k for 250 guest. Everyone has doubted me but so far im doing great!

How important is photography and videography to you? If not that important, 10k is doable and PP had lots of suggestions. If those things are high priority, they might eat up the entire before you get to venue and catering. I’ve looked extensively at photo and video in Bay Area and in SoCal, photography packages start at 4000 and go up from there. Videography is from 3500/4000 and go up from there as well. So if you’re okay with non professional video and photo, you’ll be able to eliminate a huge portion of costs. Or perhaps book a 2 hour portrait or engagement session for professional photos only to limit costs.


For cake and flowers try grocery stores like Whole Foods and I think even Sam’s club has bulk flower purchases. There’s also always the DT flower mart if you’re the person who’s good at DIY. Eliminate any live music, not even for processional at ceremony. But ultimately, those are little things. Big costs are venue, catering, photo, and video. Try to have ceremony and reception in same place to avoid paying 2 venue fees. Consider banquet/event halls that allow you to choose your own catering or restaurants that don’t charge venue fee as long as you meet certain minimum spend.

Look for state park venues.