Wedding blues

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Not a sick Yam!! Feel better.

View Quoted Comment Lol you’re welcome hun. The memory’s still fresh from planning my own wedding. It’s 100% do-able don’t worry! For your vendors check out Thumbtack and Gigsalad. It’ll only show you vendors in your budget and you can choose how many hours you need. You only have to contact someone when you’re ready to book! I found my caterer/photographer/band that way. Vendors are willing to work with weekday weddings a lot more so get excited!
Let me know if you need any more help. I’m on the forums a lot since my wedding is this month. ❤️ Good luck!

View Quoted Comment Always a sick Yam lately! Thank you

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Sorry to hear it.

It is definitely do-able but some suggestions for saving money would be skip the DJ and use a playlist, keep the guest list small (50 or under), have the reception early in the day and have a cake and punch reception, Davids Bridal always has sales on dresses...I got my dress for $99! As far as venues, look into local parks or community centers. Keep the decorations to a minimum, DIY what you can. You can do this!

My wedding isn't until next oct. I search ebay and Amazon for deals on random things and save them to my wish lists. Every couple of weeks I use some extra money to order things off the list within the budget of the extra.

Https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/boswell-hall-bowie-md-489569

This place looks really affordable with their smaller package

We are also on an extremely tight budget. We're having the wedding in my parents backyard, and we are literally DIYing EVERYTHING. We made our save the dates and invitations on a photo editing app and had everything printed off at Office Depot for cheap. For music, we're investing in a loud speaker (approx. $300) and playing our own playlist. We've asked my brother to officiate. Food is something we're unsure of at this point. We have plans to talk with a couple of caterers, but we've also considered grilling out or having some sort of potluck. It'll all come together! Try not to stress. You only get to plan this day once!

We’re doing it with a $5k budget. It’s hard to do. We just sat down one weekend and made takes about how much we’re willing to do as far as DYI. Which I watched YouTube (A LOT)!! Flowers we went to different florist and then looked at places like the grocery store, Sam’s Club etc....to see where we got the best price for flowers. Plus I got a lot (okay everything from local Dollar Store some at Michael’s) for decor pieces Y’all can do the same you just have to see what you can or are willing to do yourself.

5k is our budget too. We found an all inclusive party boat, doing 25 guests, ceremony, officiant, dinner, DJ for one dance dedicated to us (public cruise) reserved area for our dinner, cake cutting service, champagne toast, and 3 hour sunset cruise for $1500. We’ll be able to do a mini-moon/family vacay and air bnb, and most of our travel for 5 ppl under our budget. My dress was $80 on Poshmark, his suit pants and vest under $100 at Kohl’s. Doing our own cupcakes as I’m a baker. Hardest budget expense right now is photography but I may have that covered for about $500. Keep the faith - it can be done!

My budget is 5k and our wedding is 22 days is gonna be gorgeous.

no venue. we’re doing a restaurant $42 a head and $20 a head for kids.

cake is the bakery at a grocery store. i sent all my pinterest pics in. they’re doing it. my $180 cake from them was quoted $700 from the bakery down the road.

no flowers except for my bouquet. $90 wegmans

no dj. (spotify)
no photographer

no freaking bridal party.

its really possible. our ceremony venue cost $100. it’s a “public park” aka a castle called Kips Castle on the mountains overlooking new york city.



my wedding is going to be amazing. and its 5k!!!

Look at a destination wedding and bring a small group! You will still have the ceremony and reception with your closest loved ones. New Orleans has a bunch of small wedding packages!

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Sounds amazing!!!

Hey Lorel
I have done events for over 25 years, and worked in restaurants as GM, director etc.currently I am planning a weekend wedding for myself and finance with my daughters help, and around 100 guests. Here’s what I’m doing…
VENUE
Find a nice size home with a nice indoor and outdoor space. Make sure you choose a place that allows events so I searched on VRBO for 25 guests. This gave me locations that could provide the space and accommodations from 800-4000 dollars. Usually when people have thier wedding at hotels the guests that live far will book rooms through the sales department so I will charge them for the rooms myself to help offset cost and give them a cheaper discount. Some of these places had 8-15 bedrooms.works out great for everyone. If you only need it for one night it will be even cheaper. $300-$800 for one night or you may even be able to work out a deal. Tables chairs etc you find someone on marketplace (Facebook) for a couple hundred bucks. Make sure the home has an open concept layout indoors and the outdoor space has a nice garden or patio whatever you prefer. You want to be able to move ppl inside though in case it rains. Next you should pick a date that’s considered off season to get best rate. FOODget some people to work the event from Instawork or a site where you can hire help and order food from a restaurant that does catering by the pan. Have the workers set up the buffet. Suggestion, pasta, marinated meats etc hold best on buffets make sure you don’t pick food that will dry out fast. Workers can also make a hors d’eurve table with easy stuff like bruschetta etc. ask a local bartender if they can work the event that’s abc certified or you can also get this person off Instawork. Make sure they are certified to serve alcohol. ALCOHOL Buy your own and fruits for garnish. You will have the servers and bartenders “batch” drinks or you can set up a serve yourself bar. Look up bar setup for party’s. Purchase all of your serving ware condiments etc way ahead of time. DECORATIONShire someone or you can have bridesmaids do it. Use fake vines and look up clearance decor that fits your theme. Fake flowers will save you a lot and fairy lights etc. string lights should be cheap right now due to the summer ending. BUDGETUse Zolo, the knot, whatever you want or I just made a spreadsheet. OFFICIANTThis can really be anyone if you’re not religious and if you are most churches will help out if you give a small donation.MUSICCreate a playlist and rent some big JBL speakers (2/3 depending on soze of the space for inside and outside. DJs can be found from $200-500 for 4 hours easy. Look for someone local. PHOTOGRAPHY get a student from a nearby college that shows good work on thier social media. Offer the prob broke college student $100/$150. Most kids know how photo shop orGive everyone cheap snap cameras. You can also designate someone to take some nice photos with a camera/ video with camcorder you buy from store then return it after 😊 someone in the family.
Note: there are some venues that offer elopement or micro wedding packages under 5k that will do it all. Including cake. Madsanutten is a cool place in VA that does this and many I see online. All decorations look for clearance items. Hire people from a company (do not choose a person without the backing of a company) if you do you run the risk of them not showing. Dress if you haven’t gotten yet, look up clearance wedding gowns. Rent the tux. I could go on and on but you get the picture. If you start a wedding page on the knot or whatever you also can make a spot where people can donate to the wedding or honeymoon. Hope I helped and congrats