Wedding budget $10,000 or less

Wow these are great tips! I'm definitely and gonna try to use them for my traditional wedding which we want to keep under $3000.

Man, you guys are impressive! I just started planning on an 11k budget and am already coming up over when I run my numbers. How in the world are you guys gettinvg vendors to do stuff cheaper/additions for free? Every vendor we've talked to so far has been firm on their packages

I'm shocked at the photography prices you guys are getting! Here in OK, I can't find a decent one for under 2k.

Has anyone used the wedding resell sites with much luck?

I'm with Jenn-- be ready to cut out lots of stuff that are touted as 'necessary'. What *is* necessary is you, your spouse, and officiant, and a wedding license, and that'll run you about $300. Everything (and I mean *everything*) else is icing on the cake. You can easily skip:

Save The Dates

Centerpieces

Favors

Flowers

A fancy dress

A fancy venue

Welcome Bags

Table runners

Aisle runners

Chair decorations

None of them will make you any more married. If you serve your guests soda and Costco pizza you're just as married as the couple who has a 5 course plated reception. Just keep that in mind, and you can do it, no problem.

Our budget is 10k. We are still in the early stages but so far we found a venue for a really good deal, and we have to go through them for catering (which will be our biggest expense, but still decently priced). Our photographer we were able to negotiate. Don't be afraid to negotiate prices! They will try and work with you and compromise if they can. For our DJ I spent time finding different quotes until I found someone who was able to do it for the price I needed.

Love information here I just got engaged and our budget om saying is 8k, 10 if we must. So I'm looking for the best ways possible to pull this off.

Congratulations! We also have a 10K or less budget and are doing well so far. Here's how we saved:

-We cut the guest list and are targeting around 50 people. As you know, food and venue are the most expensive and we saved thousands cutting the guest list.

-We picked a non traditional day, Thursday, which saved us $2000 on the venue making it $2500

-I found a caterer that did not add the herendous 18% service charge via recommendation from the venue

-Our photographer, who we found at a bridal expo, knocked off $300 from our total and our engagement shoot was included!

-We used Vistaprint for our invitations and they always have deals so we wound up spending less than $50 for invites

-The DJ was running a Black Friday sale and it was almost 2 years in advance but they allowed us to book and we saved about & 600.

-We are skipping the wedding favors

Going to bridal expos, I went to one and got what I needed, puts you on the list of ALOT of vendors offering deals and discounts. Research will be key and don't be shy to ask for deals or specials. Booking early will also lock in rates before they go up.

We are going to handle flowers ourselves and going the Sam's Club route as someone else mentioned. But just to make sure, I am going to meet with a couple florists to make sure it is the cheapest route. Good luck!

Our budget is 5K, because that is all I am willing to spend. (However, that does not include my dress or our wedding rings-which we have already purchased.) Only 50 guests. We found a fabulous venue where we can hold both the ceremony and the reception and all the tables and chairs are included as well as an apartment for then night before the ceremony and the night of. I got my linens and several other things SO cheap during Black Friday. I have bought all my decor either from other Brides locally on a FB sale site, or 40-50% off at places like Hobby Lobby. I am DIY my centerpieces and our favors, and we are having a buffet style dinner.

We are staying under 10k but we are also getting married back home in a small town in western NY so prices are not too crazy like in a big city might be, we are inviting about 125 ppl so have our catering and stuff based off that so far. Our catering with top shelf open bar and desserts and buffett dinner is about $37 a person and our caterer is amazing!. I am DIYing what i can as well as keeping some things simple. STDs and invites I ordered custom rubber stamps off etsy with our info im stamping onto blank cards..flowers I am keeping simple..a mix of white daisies..carnations..babys breath. Pinterest can be sooo great for ideas, but also sometimes the stuff isnt as cheap to replicate as u think(for example i showed my florist a brides bouquet pic i liked, and she said it was like a $350 bouquet! ahah!!) I am actually only spending about 350 total on flowers to include bridal party and reception flowers. my reception site(a hotel) is only 400 and the ceremony site is 150. Photog for 4 hrs is 600.Iour dj we are splurging but hes the grooms good friend and hes AMAZING and traveling from baltimore so ya hes higher end pricewise but we cut costs in other spots so it will be a blast having him! my dress was 600 and that was way more than i kinda hoped to spend in my mind..but i ADORE it!!! got a sash on etsy for it for like 30 bucks and a veil on ebay for 20 and its super pretty and not cheap looking at all. I've picked up a lot of little reception odds n ends at walmart and oriental trading. I guess it just depends on what sort of things are reaally important to ya and what u are ok with splurging on and where u can compromise. Im also doing the whole sort of rustic feel with burlap, lace, mason jars( i know its been done mannny times but ive alwaysss loved anything and everything burlap and mason jar related!)

We are having our wedding at an American Legion post that has a huge property with a lake and a pavilion. We are having the ceremony by the lake and the reception under the pavilion. Having our event at a place that is typically open to the public saved us a ton of money. The venue is $2500, which is WAY more expensive than I was looking for. But because of the type of venue we have, we can provide our own food and alcohol. We are serving pulled pork and fried chicken. We have been stocking up on pork butts. I have several in my freezer right now. The day before the wedding, my grandpa (who is a BBQ master) is going to smoke and shred them all. Both my grandparents garden, so we are serving home-grown green beans. Other than the time and effort put into the garden, those are free. Mashed potatoes are cheap. We're also serving cole slaw, which is cheap as well. We're buying a few kegs from a liqueur store for $120 each, which is a lot cheaper than ordering them through a wedding venue. I am decorating with mason jars (I know, I know, a lot of you hate that). But we have literally hundreds of them. So there is no way I would pay to use anything else. I've asked grandparents, aunts, parents, etc to borrow their white christmas lights. My FMIL works at Michael's. She typically gets 10% off, but they have an employee appreciation week where employees get 40% off. So we picked out a bunch of flowers that were on clearance, 60-75 % off. Then her discount was applied on top of that. We got about $1000 worth of flowers for about $200. Really nice flowers too. We got enough for all bouquets, bouts, aisle decor, archway decor, centerpieces, and a few other little accents. I got my dress for $180 online from China without trying it on and it is gorgeous and well made. I DIYed the invites. Being in a laid-back informal area helps. Our guests will be getting a good home cooked meal, plenty of drinks, a free place to camp for the night, entertainment by one of our favorite local bands. We're spending less than 10k. Our venue and photographer together were $5000. But everything else together didn't cost that much. You just have to put work into finding the best deals. Research on DIYs before you do them. I figured buying fabric and sewing my own table linens would be cheaper than buying them. Nope! Make sure you're smart about it and you'll be fine. I don't know how well this would work in a hoity toity part of the country though. Good luck!

@elle, you "cut" costs to 20K? I'm having a 20K wedding with having what I want pretty much. Trying to get it down if we can......would be awesome to come in at 19k..

Anyways, for us Our Venue and Caterer are our most expensive costs. So, if you want to budget, then choose a venue that is not as expensive.

Also, consider a wedding at a odd time and just do appetizers/dessert if you want the drinks. It does depend on where your wedding will be.

Los Angeles wedding here, around 130 guests... about $20K (it really depends on our guest list though). Found a florist for under $1500 (including centerpieces/reception decor and the travel time..not to mention the bouquets..)

DIY does not always mean cheaper, as many brides have stated on here, and I've discovered myself. Unless you are experienced with making stuff, I would advise keeping the DIY down to a min.

I got 85 favors (we're doing one per couple) on the Knot black friday sale for about $37 total. I got photo coasters, so we will use them as place cards as well

Thinking of not doing programs, and do a program board instead... save the dates were free, sent them online! spent less than $200 on invitations/rsvp's

Is it cheaper to buy linens or rent them? I'm talking just the basic table linens, no frills. Is there a good site to buy them? I've looked on a few but they seemed high.

My budget it $4000 for about 150. Our biggest $$ saver is DIY on somethings (like invites) & a our venue was a huge $$$ Saver, as we opted to go with a state park.

Our budget is $4,000 for 100 guests and so far we're on our way to actually staying under it. The most expensive part has been the venue which we found a really beautiful outdoor woodsy venue nearby for only $1,000 (for the whole day so we're using it for both reception and ceremony). I know that's a quarter of the budget but the venue has such natural beauty that tons of flowers and decorations are not necessary. Probably a dozen or strands of Christmas lights (we plan to clean out a store or two with the after Christmas clearance on Christmas lights ;3) and everything else has been buy it while its on sale. Just a long list of everything we need and if it goes on sale, we pick it up cheap. Honestly, the best thing I can say is just plan things out and start early. Our wedding is in September and we have a bin in the closet slowly filling up with everything we'll need.

Our budget is >$4000 for about 60 people. Stressful, yes. Do-able? We're doing great! It's a TON of work though. Luckily, my whole family and myself are all crafty, artsy people, and good pulling this stuff together. I've designed my own invitations, printing them off myself. We got out venue for reception and ceremony free and I'm so amazed by that still! I got a family discount deal with a florist, I took a chance on a new student photographer for our engagement photos, and I'm amazed and so glad I did because she's our wedding photographer now. We bought and paid fully for the engagement and wedding rings already, and didn't count that into the budget.

It's so much work, but I am actually really enjoying it. VERY glad I'm able to work inside our tiny budget though.

I've realized that costs of wedding vary drastically by state, down south you tend to get the same for a much lesser of a cost.

#1 - Prioritize, know what you want and what you can live without.

We are keeping our guest list small, expecting about 70 guests, our rule of thumb was, if we didn't see them in the last two years, they weren't invited (with the exception of OOT guests, but even then, those guests had to be people we spoke to often).

DIYing as much as possible, flowers, brooch bouquet, centerpieces, stationary, favors. We are saving over 50% on one of our favors by DIY and we'll actually have a nicer product in the long run.

Keep the wedding party small, the less bridesmaids/groomsmen, the less flowers and gifts.

In central Jersey we found it best to go with an all inclusive venue; we're having our ceremony and reception at one place as well which cuts out transportation costs as well (no limos/fancy cars); the venue comes with the catering, alcohol, wait staff, chairs, tables, linens, china, servewear, basically we don't have to pay for any 'typical' rentals/purchases.

Do tons of research for the best prices and take advantage of coupons and sales. Bought my gown during a trunk sale, saved $700, purchased FH's wedding band on Black Friday, saved $200, snagged a promotion my photographer was having, saved $2K. Do you use a lot of toner or work at a place that doesn't recycle theirs? I return the maximum number of toner cartridges a month to Staples and get store credits, I have used the credits to buy things for or out of town bags and plan to purchase stuff for the bathroom baskets as well as candy for our candy table, basically we're getting this stuff for free.

If you haven't already, join groupon, you can find vendors having sales on photobooths and great savings on companies like Vistaprint.com, we ended up getting our STD magnets for less than $.50 a piece.

Our wedding is costing us around 6k...And it's for 150 people. We live in North Alabama. Here are the specific details incase you're curious or want to compare costs!

We are cutting costs in certain areas such as doing fake flowers at the reception and "dollar store" centerpieces that I'm sure will turn out perfect!

Church/Music $700

Reception Venue/supplies (dinnerware/decorations) $1500

Food (pasta, chicken, salad) $1500

Cakes $400

DJ $400

Dress $900

Tux rental $200

Invitations (we aren't doing reception or RSVP cards) $100

Photography for the full day $200 (she's just starting out doing weddings so she's giving us a deal)

Beware of "gratuity fees." My caterer added a gratuity of 19%. I made the cost of our $25/head dinner go to $35/head dinner.

@Tania Lynn

What venue are you going with? I'm planning a vow renewal and that sends like it would dir in my budget

Our wedding budget is way under 10,000. We're having quite a bit of help in that, my aunt is our photographer (she's really good) and my godfather is the DJ. Photographers and DJ's are HUGEEE expenses and to not have to pay anything (though I'm getting them both a nice gift) is extremely helpful. The venue can be another major expense. We have booked a community center ballroom for $1600. Includes staff, set up and tear down, kitchen, bar facilities, all tables and chairs. Has two beautiful fireplaces, private washroom facilities. Alcohol license, etc. All from 5 PM - 1 Am. I think we snagged a pretty good deal on that. In terms of catering (which tends to be another major expense) we're getting plenty of trays from our local Chinese restaurant. The food is good and the prices are even better. My mom, aunt and my sis's godmother have offered to band together and bring other food items, which I thoroughly appreciate. I was going to omit the wedding cake, but my mom insisted I have one and has offered to pay for it. So we're having that as well. We will be getting our favours prepared by my grandmother (mini rum cakes in pretty boxes) which was a fantastic thing. Because favours can be another expensive thing. We're getting nice disposable serve ware and cups, utensils, etc. No sense in renting China. We simply can't justify it. Since the venue is pretty DIY, we have to bring everything ourselves and set up. So, in that case, that saves a ton of money but it'll be slightly more work. I'm trying to source a very cheap decorator willing to do this for us. We're having a pretty limited bar, at least by our standards. (Rum, vodka, beer kegs and 1 champagne bottle on each table) My FMIL is buying all the beverages including alcohol, water, juices, ice, things like that. So once again, a huge help and expense taken off of our backs. Our attire will be rather on the "thrifty" side, as I cannot fathom spending thousands for a wedding dress. My wedding dress will mostly likely be "non-traditional" , most likely a nice silver, simple gown. That saves a ton of money. Same with bridesmaids dresses and groomsmen attire. They'll probably skip the full suits and wear vests and ties instead. Only my fiance will wear an actual full suit. MMM... what else have we done? Oh, we're going on a mini moon to Niagara Falls to save up for the big trip we really want to go on, and we're totally fine with that. There's lots of ways to save money. I should mention we are having around 116 guests. I expect that number to go down, but by how much, is truly uncertain at this time! So it can work. The only true way to REALLY save is to cut down on that guest list!!!! I hope everything worked out for you