My $1500 wedding - budget bride lol

Well I just added up some numbers... and realized we have definitely planned a wedding on a budget!!!

I originally wanted to elope. I don’t like attention on me and I don’t like gifts and stuff like that. My fiancé wanted a wedding, so we decided to have a small wedding. Now that I’ve gotten into the planning I’m so glad we decided to have a wedding!! We have 36 guests.

the breakdown-
venue: $125 an hour. Right now we have reserved it for 4 hours and the venue says we can always add an extra hour if we’d like. So that puts us at $500 for the venue-but my fiancé is a firefighter so we got 10% of!!! So we’re down to $450 for the venue. She includes all tables and chairs as well as table cloths and chair covers. Includes ceremony & reception.

DJ: $100 for the whole night. It’s a family friend who has recently gotten into DJ-ing, but she has all of her own equipment and speakers etc. she will work for $100 and a plate of food lol.

Catering: $280 for 40 people. My uncle owns a bbq restaurant that people call the best bbq in the state. Usually $20pp they are doing it for $7pp!!! Bbq chicken and pulled pork along with 2 sides. Plus delivering and set up etc. amazing!!

Drinks: estimating around $100 for water, sodas, and a couple cases of beer. Our families have a lot of alcoholics and the venue has a no liquor rule unless you get your own liquor license so beer and wine only. Works out better for us anyway!!

Misc. food: budgeting for $30 to get some extra sides and stuff to add variety as well as adding hotdogs, and a big pan of homemade macaroni and cheese that my aunt makes.

Cake: $20! My aunt is a professional cake decorator and offered to make us a cake. She says it will probably be less than $20 for all the stuff.

Table settings: $75. We found table setting for 40pp including dinner plates, salad plates, silverware, and cups as well as napkins on amazon.

Flowers: $30. We are making our own bouquets from supermarket flowers. We’ve had a trial run and they came out amazing!!! We only need 3 bouquets. My grandma is growing the other flowers for decor in her garden!!

mens attire: $200. We are renting tuxes for groom and best man. $100 each including full outfit.

Dress: $50!!!!! I ordered a dress on a cheap china website because I wanted something a few sizes smaller than I am to try to lose weight so I’d have a dress for measurements. Well the dress came and it is absolutely beautiful!! I love it more than I liked dresses in real bridal stores. It is small but I’m hoping to lose a few pounds in the next 4 months. Even if I had to order another in a bigger size, it’s still so much cheaper than bridal stores.

Hotel: $160 for me to stay at the night before and us to stay at on the wedding night.

Invitations: $20- vistaprint. We are using a website for RSVP.

i DIY’d all of our program cards, centerpieces (I guess those cost around $30 for all as well for all materials) placecards, etc. anything paper I did myself besides the invitations.

Hair, makeup & nails is being covered by my mom. Everything else we are paying for.

On a separate note, our honeymoon was $950. We are taking a 5 day cruise to Mexico.