Super small and cheap wedding

I'm doing a 35 guest wedding for 3-4k.

Some tips:

Food & Booze are #1. If you cannot do this, you cannot afford the wedding you want. We're having a local restaurant cater and we're supplying our own booze (4 liquors, mixers, and beer, no wine) buying a bottle here and a bottle there until the big day. (That same restaurant was willing to shut down completely for us including booze but it would have been 5k.)

Your outfit... doesn't have to cost thousands. I'm wearing a modest necklace, an off the rack non-wedding wedding dress, and some kick ass boots all totaling $600. (And the majority of that is the boots, but goddamn are they cool.)

Your Officiant... can be a friend who can be ordained online for free.

I live 2 miles from NYC and my venue is costing $1600 for 2 rooms, a loft area with gaming consoles and tables and chairs. If you DIY a lot you might be able to get it done, but I would seriously consider cutting the guest list. Quality not quantity.

According to that website, a wedding my size in my area normally runs for 8-13k.

ETA: Monies: My dress cost $89, my STD, invites and rsvps could possibly be free (an art school friend is using me as an excuse to have an art project this summer) or $160 total.

Decorations so far (honeycomb balls and paper confetti from shopsweetlulu.com) have run me $280 and I got a crate full of coffee filters for $8 for poof balls and flowers.

Magganios do great receptions but you may need to make some cuts.

OMG @Kisha I had dinner there Saturday night (Long Island). It was deeeeelicious!

@mrsjohnson wrote:

"Also consider the posts from vendors who have a monetary stake in the game. You might also consider excluding them from commenting on future posts. I know I certainly will. "

This coming from the woman who said she's going into the event rental business AND is trying to solicit information from brides on this site who self-cater?

No, no, no, to friendoring an officiant. This really is no better than self catering. Your officiant serves a legal function and, in conjunction with your license, is the only requirement for you become married Your officiant needs to be someone who knows what they are doing, and who can be professionally relied upon to follow through. Countless weddings plans have been ruined when friendor officiants fail to follow through. If you have a friend or family member who is legitimately an officiant, that's fine. Otherwise, do not try this at home.

Your officiant is not the place to try to pinch pennies. I don't understand why people continually try to skimp on the cheapest part of their wedding plans. (Actually, I do know, because economic and psychology theory explains it well. It's a blending of loss aversion and zero risk biases. When something is (relatively) negligible in cost we tend to be excited by the hope of reducing the cost as close to zero as possible. When something is (relatively) high cost, we tend to become ambivalent to a great deal on it.) Many officiants will often have elopement or civil ceremony packages which are very reasonably priced, which can be great options for a small weekday ceremony. If you can't find that option available, then there's always the courthouse which will cost you about $25-$50. Go to a judge before you try to enlist a friend who has no idea what they are doing.

My officiant did not become an officiant to marry us. He's married other couples and is a close friend of over 20 years to both FH and myself. Choosing him to marry us has zero to do with money.

Mrs Johnson, the post child for self-catering emerges. I thank you personally for excluding vendors because (even though you're striving to be one, which you clearly stated when you started your marketing research post on self catering success) it saves us from wasting our time answering your dumb ass questions. Because, like most askholes, you listen to the two people who support your idea and ignore the hundred who don't.

You realize, dontcha, that vendors who bother to come here do so, largely, because they love the business, have seen more (and more varied) weddings in April than you'll go to in a lifetime, and would genuinely like to help couples create their weddings in ways that are celebratory, realistic, and non-tacky. We generally love weddings, and love to talk about them, and trust me, our friends get just as sick of hearing about them as yours do. (And we love to procrastinate as much as anyone else here....)

And oddly enough? Our opinions are never that different than other brides and grooms here.

And by all means, have one of your friends get ordained to do your ceremony.

And maybe your cupcakes too.

I'd cut your guest list even more. I had 15 guests and spent under 5k for everything besides our rings.

Must be the gin speaking @Richard.....best served with ice, right outta the dog bowl.

@matt - the venue doesn't allow alcohol, and some of FH's family has serious religious objections to drinking.

We figured it was safe on a Sunday at 11am to do without.

But!! We are renting a house for the non-objecting family and friends and providing a cookout dinner and booze as an after-party. Eta: my parents are paying for that, which is why it's not included in my budget.

@celia

God forbid anyone do shit not mainstream.

I would also consider cutting the guest list even further. We are spending around 5k for 16 people. ETA: That's without alcohol. The only guests at our wedding are our immediate families and none of them drink. But if you do have guests that drink, it would be polite to offer alcohol. Sadly, I imagine a 2500 budget would not cover that for 50 people.

Courthouse ceremony and then a super fancy, nice dinner w/ your nearest and dearest. It can be beautiful and just as meaningful as a larger scale event.

Friends of mine got married right on the street on Whiskey Row in Prescott AZ w/ a total of five people. Then went to a nice dinner and spent the night going to all the bars on Whiskey Row. The bride wore a black gown (and looked stunning) and the groom wore a black suit. They absolutely had the best time and the photos were beautiful.

Hey Emily,

Keep this in mind-- all you need to get married is an officiant, a license, and two people who want to get married. *Nothing* you add after that makes you any more married-- the fancy cake, the fancy dress, the venue-- it's all just icing on the cake. Have a friend get ordained and get married at your local pizza parlor-- BAM-- there you go!

When you say super small wedding, I think like 10-20. 50 people is a lot and most of your budget will end up in catering.

@Emily... I live in Renton. You CAN find venues in your budget. City of Seattle parks can host you for about $250. And there are BEAUTIFUL venues at the parks here... Alki beach?? C'mon. A bargain! I will agree, if you're tying for downtown Tacoma or downtown Seattle, yeah,... pricey and out of the $2500 range. But Volunteer Park, Alki, Japanese Gardens... those are so, so reasonable and gorgeous. Keep looking outside of your 'typical' venues.

I second Tia's post. $2500 (or less) could buy an awesome night out on the town for a much smaller group.

Kisha had an awesome idea... Maggianos is a terrific idea and oh so tasty. Famous Daves caters and will do your BBQ within your budget. So many good restaurants that have banquet rooms, I would look hard at your guest list. Centerpiece was right on point with her post.