New plans

I'm also on a budget, we are capped at $9000 so I get where you are coming from!

We are doing a weekday wedding, and because we booked within 90 days of our date we got a 15% discount also. Sundays and weekdays will be cheapest for venues.

We are also doing a cake and punch ceremony so we are not having to worry about the expense of a full meal/alcohol. Instead, we will have cake obviously and appetizer/finger food such as veggies, fruits, mini quiches, etc.

I went to David's Bridal and got a dress, veil, and petticoat for less than $900 total! Shop sales and if you're okay with your wedding jewelry (earrings/necklaces/bracelets) being fake, go to costume jewelers or Icing/Claire's. I went to Sam Moon Trading Company (they have an excellent selection online too!)

We aren't doing favors, I feel they're an unnecessary expense, as well as no videographer. As much as I'd love a video, realistically it's not something that we will display or watch much. We found an excellent photographer by using our network of friends/family and was able to get a photographer and second shooter for 8 hours of coverage for $1400 total.

We are using Amazon and friends who have kids who recently got married to find lots of decorations too.

Please feel free to message me if you'd like! If you're in the Dallas, TX area I am sure I could help you find some excellent deals. Congratulations!

I'm doing almost entirely diy centerpieces made with stuff from dollar tree, where i also got petals and chargers cheaper than i could rent them. I highly recommend cutting the size down to an intimate wedding in order to keep expenses down- we'll have about 50.

Sadly we are in the Los angles, California area. I did choose to downsize from 200 to 50 people. We made this a very intimate wedding. I have a few photographers, caters, and wedding decorations from little to nothing due to family friends. My cake and extra desserts are nothing due to my sister. I’m really just focusing more on a location and dress and tuxes

Im doing a 10k wedding.
I rented a Elks Lodge for $3k, my bff did a firefighters hall for a similar amount. Look for some halls like that for the venue, weekdays and Sundays are cheaper. You could even look into doing an off season (winter) wedding because places tend to price drop even more. A new years wedding in a hall of sorts might be a cool theme and cheaper day to get married.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for the ideas. I’ll have to look into it

View Quoted Comment You can rent suits instead of tux way cheaper. Look to get dress off the rack Amazon has pretty stuff also. Try a fire hall or park for venue.

Renting attire is a good option. Also, trying to DIY as much as you can. Where I live there's a Facebook page that people sell their wedding stuff and it's pretty inexpensive. Sundays and weekdays are always cheaper to have a wedding and also off season dates. Looking into having it in a public place like a park or beach or something like that will also cut costs.

So I planned my whole (previous) wedding, top to bottom, by myself, and did it for around $8000-$9000. The ways I saved money was by planning it myself, doing the decorating, etc. I called around local rental areas, like community buildings and such, and found a fire hall that we could rent for about $600. It came with tables, chairs, and a place to make food. We did the decorating, set up, and clean up. We rented a speaker for about $50 and used a phone with a playlist. We had a friend work it and do announcements. As scary as it was, I got my dress online for less than $200 and it was stunning! I had very few alterations. I had a friend style my hair as a wedding present, painted my own nails, and my bridesmaids either did their own hair or had someone else do it. My bridesmaids and groomsmen also paid for their own stuff. We found a small local tailor who rented tuxes really cheap as well so it wasn't too bad. I also looked at local caterers and found one who worked with me and I got my buffet style supper down to $10 a head. So for 70 people, $700 wasn't bad. It was the most expensive thing we spent money on. We used paper plates in our wedding colors from the dollar tree, did the same with the plastic wear, set up the tables before hand and just made sure we varied the colors. It turned out really gorgeous and pretty cheap. Oh, and for cake I asked around on fb and found someone who did cakes at a really good price and delivered for free bc we were local. We actually did a small cake and a bunch of cupcakes so we didn't have to worry about a cake cutting fee or anything like that. We used fake flowers as well bc they're a lot cheaper

Any questions you have, feel free to msg me

Thank you everyone for the ideas. I’ve taken all the help I can get! We found a hall last night that isn’t so bad for our budget. I’ve also ask around my family and friends we have photography, catering, and a dj ( all for reasonable prices) now all that’s left is decorations, my dress, suits and the minister.

Hi Jasmine! How are you finding your wedding planning?