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Larissa
Savvy February 2022

Saving $

Larissa, on March 12, 2019 at 10:41 PM

Posted in Planning 57

My fiancé and I are staring to budget for a wedding of 50 people. We are just graduating college with a good amount of debt, so we don’t want to take out more loans. What are some ways we can save some money? Also what are some real costs of weddings? Googling the average is not very helpful...
My fiancé and I are staring to budget for a wedding of 50 people. We are just graduating college with a good amount of debt, so we don’t want to take out more loans. What are some ways we can save some money? Also what are some real costs of weddings? Googling the average is not very helpful...

57 Comments

  • M
    September 2019
    Megan ·
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    My niece ordered all of her wedding bouquets and centerpieces from

    https://e-silkflowerdepot.com/. They have designer silk flowers and sell wholesale. She did use fresh flowers for her bouquet.

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  • Larissa
    Savvy February 2022
    Larissa ·
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    The Sherwood Inn is pretty high on my list and I also though about getting my flowers from Wegmans lol. We want to get married in December so it will be the off season. Friday wedding is a good idea... save some money plus it weeds out some people who don’t care enough to take off work so it could also potentially cut down the guest list. Ideally we would like to stay under $20,000.
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  • Larissa
    Savvy February 2022
    Larissa ·
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    14 people seems like a dream! I just know there would be a lot of push back from both sides on my end... We are trying to stay under $20,000 (rings, dress, and tux will not be in the shared wedding budget) I’m sure it can be done but when looking for average prices it doesn’t seem realistic...
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  • K
    Just Said Yes October 2019
    Katie ·
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    I'm having a small wedding/get together as well! Nothing fancy. We plan on it being like a cookout or normal get together. My dad is ordering chicken from a local county market and we're doing mashed potatoes and a vegetable! Cheap and easy! Try doing most of it on your own and it'll save quite a bit! Hope this helps and congratulations ❤️

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  • A
    Savvy March 2019
    Alyssa ·
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    Honestly, plan for a wedding around income tax time. As cheesy as that is. My fiancé and I too were finishing college and now that our wedding is 16 days away, having a wedding around income tax time is ideal. Total, it’s costing us 13,000$. Our ceremony space was 1,000$ and it’s 100$ per person food wise. We’re getting married in Daytona beach, in Florida in this gorgeous terrace and the reception is in this beautiful hall. For 5,500$ we have a 5 hour open bar, butler passed hors d’oeuvres, etc. and we have a photo booth within budget. Etsy will be your best friend. You can do it!!!
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  • MOB So Cal
    January 2019
    MOB So Cal ·
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    How cool -- The Sherwood Inn is beautiful and the staff was so sweet! I'm nearly certain their budget for the wedding & reception was well under $20,000 with 50 guests (not including rings, dress or honeymoon). It was lovely in October, I can only imagine how pretty it is decorated for Christmas! Good luck!

    PS -- the food was to die for.... SOOOOOOOO good! Smiley winking

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  • Katelyn
    Devoted May 2017
    Katelyn ·
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    I got married in upstate NY! In Sodus Point, in between Rochester and Syracuse. We spent $9500 for 75 ppl and had most of the bells and whistles (i.e. caterer, venue, dress, photographer). I didn't have a florist, although we did corsages and boutineers for family. If you have rough number, start with venue, food and alcohol. Those tend to be the most expensive, if you want all three, and then once you get a feel for how much those will cost, you can know how much more you want to spend. DIY saves money BUT the biggest places to save are the major vendors and if you can, cut them out completely. A DJ for example, is not 100% necessary (although i found one for $500). Same with florist and MUA (although I found one for $30 per person) or hair stylist; also cut or have a very small BP.

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  • Megan
    Savvy December 2023
    Megan ·
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    I’m in college and so is my SO. I’m getting married at the courthouse. Then when in a few years we will have a bigger ceremony.
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  • Kellie Martinez
    Super October 2019
    Kellie Martinez ·
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    This really depends on where you live. Nice wedding venues where I live (central valley in california) are about 3,000-6,000. Alternative locations such as convention centers are anywhere from $800- $2,000. Flowers are pretty flexible. 2 florists both asked me what my budget was so they could make my flowers accordingly. Most people I know spent $1,000-2,000 but you can spend way less if you talk toy our florist about your budget. and if you don't mind fake flowers I have heard they are really affordable! DJS are $800-1000 here unless you add other services to their regular DJ services. For example, local DJS have photo booths and uplighting you can add on but whe you bundle, you save. My photo booth was $500. They can cost more but I didn't want the photobooth for longer than 3 hours. Catering is one of those things that varies. I see people saying they spent $50-100 per plate and that's so crazy to me. I spent $32 a plate. The food is to die for, just not overpriced lol. There are so many costs that are unnecessary so I won't say every single thing I've done especially if you want to keep the cost down because decorating for example, was way more expensive to have someone else do that it would have been to rent things and set them up myself. I do recommend that if you have some ladies in your life who love you & are good at that kind of a thing. You'll save hundreds of dollars if not more than a thousand. I didn't but kind of wish I did but too late now it's paid for. Smiley tongue

    Not everyone wants to spend $20,000 on a wedding and i totally get that. my best friend spent 5000. totally possible but you have to be openminded, open to DIY, and do a LOT of research. Having a wedding at a zoo (sound weird but it was so cute) isn't popular so she only paid $800. a food truck was hired to bring the meals for her 55 guests and that was only $8 per person. She rented decor herself as well.

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  • A
    VIP December 2020
    Amanda ·
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    Honestly with the amount of time you have until your wedding, you could open a savings app together and put money away weekly. Skip Starbucks and put that $20 each into the account and if you do this, you will have almost $5k saved up in 2 years. That would give you a nice budget for the type of wedding you are looking at having.

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  • Iva
    Super September 2019
    Iva ·
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    You can definitely do it at your location for 50 people for just under $20,000 without dress, rings & tux! We are in NYC where prices are absurd & one of the highest in the country. We are having 75 people in a very high-end (pricey) venue & we’re at $35,000 without attire & rings.

    If you can (depending on your guests & what their jobs are like) do a weekday wedding, like Thursday - you will save way more than for Fri-Sun wedding for venue but also for all other vendors, as they are usually free on weekdays. December in NY is a popular month. November or January are less expensive.

    Ask every vendor if they offer a discount, I got between 10% & 50% discount on everything so far, by just asking!

    Skip:
    - invitations & all stationary - it’s a waste of money & paper, they end up in trash, so just make your own & send them digitally
    - favors - usually nobody cares unless it’s something edible
    - wedding planner
    - expensive & elaborate flower arrangements - make your own, consider real touch artificial flowers, buy in bulk from local store, make centerpieces that include other things like picture frame, candles etc.
    - DJ - if having a dance party is not very important for you, just make your own playlists for different parts of the wedding: ceremony, dinner, dancing etc. There are apps that mix your playlists to make good transitions with fade between the songs etc. Or hire a DJ for just dancing part of the reception for 1-2 hours only after dinner
    - alcohol - It’s very pricey & you won’t have any drunk guests haha. Or do beer & wine only, it’s very affordable!
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  • Laura
    Master October 2019
    Laura ·
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    My fiancee and I are inviting around the same amount. We've set a budget of $3,000. May sound small to many, but i'm very frugal. Walmart and Dollar Tree for most of what I need

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  • B
    Beginner November 2019
    beverly ·
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    Larissa,

    We have decreased our wedding expense by doing a lot of the things ourselves. I have created all of the bouquets for my Maid of Honor, the Bridesmaids and myself. I have created the boutonniere for the groom, the best man, and the groomsmen. We have created the centerpieces for the table, and created the wedding favors. The cost of everything is roughly $400 for everything. We also looked for vendors that are pretty new with a good history because they have better pricing. For example we are having 100 guests and the caterer we found is charging us $345 total. This includes 110 pieces of baked chicken, 110 pieces of fried chicken, 4 pans of collard greens and 4 pans of yellow rice. As of right now I have spent a total of about $5000 for everything (the venue, the cake, caterer, DJ, photographer and event "day of" planner.

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  • Lenaya
    Dedicated January 2020
    Lenaya ·
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    Put your money towards things you both feel are important! if you want really good pictures save to make sure you can afford a great one. if you can keep it small that is a great way to keep costs down and make sure you include only the people you absolutely can't imagine not being there when you get married. don't get overwhelmed with small things. keep in mind the things you both agree are important and go from there! we're planning our wedding to be under $10,000 and we're paying for it all ourselves. its do-able!

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  • T
    Savvy April 2019
    Tania ·
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    I have a few recommendations. First, there are some bridal stores that sell the sample dresses sometimes at 1/3 of original price. Second I purchased my fiancè’s whole outfit for around $370 that is including brand name shoes, I purchased the items during the sales on holiday weekends. The same with the wrappings for favors. I used promo codes for almost everything. I don’t like fondant, so when I ordered my cake I discovered the price was almost half of a fondant covered cake; I purchased a nice stand and the cake will ve decorated with fresh flowers. You have time, so every month you can probably purchase and item, without the need of going into debt.
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  • AlCattermole
    Just Said Yes July 2014
    AlCattermole ·
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    How did it go?

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  • AlCattermole
    Just Said Yes July 2014
    AlCattermole ·
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    I've been there. In my case, I needed financial assistance. I had a job but didn't have enough money to pay for the wedding. Even people with unstable income - freelancers, temporarily unemployed, seasonal workers can get a loan. These people can not take money from the bank. Personal Money Service helped me to get the necessary amount from direct lenders almost instantly. Any person can apply for a loan online in order to receive financial support.

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