Trying to keep to a $12,000 budget...aaarggghhh!!!

Welcome and congrats!!!

We're in south fl and are paying about $5k for video/photo and dj with one company, it really depends and varies based on what you want, I'd start calling those around you, start meeting with them to see what they have to offer and what you need, some of them can customize packages base on your needs that way you only pay for what you truly need but you have to call them and compare. Good luck

Welcome to WW. I was about to comment but then I read Florida lol. Im in Texas and Im able to do my wedding withing $12,000 but it took me serious searching I called a lot of vendors and told them I was in a budget. I finally met few vendors that are willing to work with me and their job is of great quality (good reviews too lol). I had to sacrifice some stuff like favors, expensive shoes or accesories, honeymoon has to wait for a few months; buffet style dinner and limited hosted bar. My best advice is to search search and search! lol and dont be afraid of telling them you're in a budget. I think your budget is totally doable there is some ladies here doing it for under $5,000. Good luck to you! And Congrats!! =D

I am in Texas and doing mine for $15k. I am having uplighting. My DJ is doing it for about $600. I am paying him total $1700 but that includes the DJing, uplighting, and two hi tech programmable spotlights! We decided to not have a videographer, bc honestly I know we will never watch the video, maybe once. I am having a regular home video camera located on a tripod at the back of the church and then hired a photographer for the day.

Before you drive yourself insane... check out www.costofwedding.com. Get an idea of what you want and see where it falls in relation to your $12k wedding budget.

For us, we usually quote an average price of about $25/light when we do uplighting. More if it's DMX controlled.

As far as videographers... it could vary greatly and I can't really comment on it as it's not my area of expertise.

Good luck!

Welcome. There is a bride here who did her own uplighting. I will keep looking for you but google uplighting. There are a lot of packages out there and when we were going to have our original wedding I seriously looked into DIY by purchasing the cans and flims and I talked to a DJ that did it as an extra package and he said it is really easy. As far as the videographer, look at your local art school. Sometimes there are students that want to make an extra buck but are a lot cheaper than a professional.

Welcome to WW and best of luck in your planning. I was going to suggest that you reach out to a local college and see if any of the video/journalism students would be interested in doing your filming.

I've posted on here that I'm looking at hiring out either H.S. students or college students to do my ceremony music at a discounted rate. I'm sure you could do something similar. Since it's video, and you want a good product, I would definitely look at college level, and depending on their level they could even do editing to make it more personal. It would allow you to get a good product at a discounted rate, and them a tangible product to add to their resume and portfolio.

So you have a $12k budget, how many guests are you looking at? How much did your venue cost? What amount of that budget is still available? These are all valuable things to know. My videographer in Orlando is $1,300 and that was about the going rate (we paid an extra $100 for some extra time with her).

I would suggest going to every bridal expo you can, I've found that a lot of vendors offer pretty good deals for show attendees.

In fact, I found one vendor that was going to offer free room uplighting if you purchased a DJ+Videographer package which was $1495... He said they didn't video the ENTIRE wedding, just the "important" parts like the ceremony, the special dances, cake cutting, etc... Which in my opinion was enough for me. They way he put it was, do you really want to watch a three+ hour video of your wedding or just relive the most memorable moments?

Anyway, considering most places I looked into were charging around $50 per uplighting fixture and it was going to cost me around $1300 for that alone, I thought this was a pretty good deal

http://showcasedjs.com/index2.php#/home/

I agree with what Patricia J. said. The only way to really get a good idea of price range in the skill level you're looking for is to call several companies that fit your idea of what a good vendor should offer, and get them to give you quotes specific to what you're looking for. Who knows, what you want may end up being cheaper than the "average" wedding and you can spend the money on some frills. You can go to http://www.gatheringguide.com/event_directory/find_event_venues_vendors.html and put in "Tampa, FL" for each vendor category you'd like to check out, and that should give you a list of possibilities to call. Don't be bashful about asking for quotes from a lot of different people. There are very few brides out there who don't have budgets, and vendors are very used to accommodating them. Your budget isn't stingy and should get you a very lovely wedding.