Wedding for 2000 dollar budget?

Please do not ask your friends and family to cook. Please do not use thumbtack to find a photographer.

These are the kind of decisions that will keep you up nights for three weeks before the deal.

We had to push ours back a year. It was heartbreaking and frustrating. But it made the most sense and good things have come of it. Of you haven't put down any deposits there really is rarely any big disadvantages to waiting other than disappointment and frustration in a personal level.

Choosing an off date really does make a difference. We just got married on Tuesday and several of our vendors gave us cut rates.

For how to choose a date we didn't have much choice, but I will tell you what we did. We got engaged March 1st, 2015. DH was moving to the US to do his medical residency in June so we decided it would be too rushed to have the wedding before he moved. We found out his vacation weeks, chose the first one (Christmas vacation) and ran it by our VIPs (parents and siblings). Once we knew the VIPs could make it we set the date.

You can do this!

We are doing an outdoor wedding (budget 3k)

The typical biggest expenses are venue, food/drink & professionals (photography/music/makeup hair)

So if you pick and choose what is important to you and be resource with the rest :3

Congrats!

Allow your choice of venue to set the date, especially if you are on a budget. My wedding is a Wednesday, and it's going to save me a lot of money! My venue gave me a short list of dates (4) to choose from that offered the lowest rates, and we chose one.

It's great that some people gave you a full break down of what they are doing (Though some of those things are super questionable). However I'm going to assume that those people live in the States. I don't care how expensive it is to live in America, it's more expensive to live in Canada. Meaning yes they may be able to pull off a $2000 full wedding there, but buying the same things here will cost you $3000 or more.

Your guest list is small, which is good, but for your budget I would suggest trying to cut it even smaller.

To illustrate here is our rough budget (I don't remember every detail now):

Venue w/ linens and wine: $800 (Community type center for venue)

Caterer: $2800 (21pp plus late night food trays)

Cake and cupcakes: $400

Photographer: $500 (no reception shots)

Officiant: $350

Rings: $250

Dress: $250

DIY: $500 plus

...etc.

Wow thanks for the advice I did not ask for. Celia I have seen you act incredibly rude and unprofessional in a thread about open bars so I think you might want to slow your roll.

My photographer is ALSO on WW. Amazing.

I haven't asked anyone to cook, they volunteered because........that's what we do for a living. Sorry your friends and family can't cook and don't want to participate in your wedding day. Our rib guy used to cook at La Bernadin. I've been both a caterer and a private chef. But yeah, better spend 5k on dry chicken and salmon.

But nobody asked any of you. Well, the OP did. And how did you respond? Not with helpful info, but a bunch of date shaming. Good job!

@MonkeysMama- I am going to say this as politely as possible. OP asked for advice on how to handle a small budget. She was given some great advice, some of which was to not follow your advice. No one was "date shaming", merely offering that a change of date would be beneficial to staying within budget.

You'll find the the women (and the few men) on this forum are extremely helpful, if you are open to their advice. We give you answers you may not want to hear - some more bluntly than others- in order to help you and your wedding. Celia is a well respected poster on these forums and we appreciate her comments and concerns as a professional in the wedding business. She has seen and heard it all and is here to offer her viewpoint. She may be blunt at times, but she only wants what is best for brides, grooms, and their guests.

Self catering is a hot topic around here and is generally seen as a very bad idea. If you wish to continue going that route (although I encourage you not to), you may find that other forums better suit your wedding style.

Best of Luck with your planning!

LOL! Suggesting that the OP either move back her date to save more money or choose an off-peak date is "date shaming"?? That's a new one. Hilarious. And I highly doubt the OP is a chef or professional caterer, so no, your self-catering recommendation was not helpful at all, monkeysmamma.

I would push the date back further and cut the guest list. Do immediate family only. We had 45 guests and still spent 15k on our wedding. $2,000 won't cover much since that's prime wedding season. You could still marry in May/June if you went to the JOC or the court and had a nice dinner with music and a photographer afterwards with immediate family.

Suggesting she change her date is helpful advice. If you haven't been around wedding planning, it may not occur to you that date influences price as drastically as it does.

Date shaming though, that's a good one. "Your date is a fat date!" is what keeps running through my head.

I'm at a 2500 budget for 70 (Was originally 2000 for 50), so I know it's a struggle. Something that was helpful for me was finding a venue in a public park. It's a lodge, and we will have the entire place to ourselves, but since it's technically on public park land, it's rented out by the government here and it was fairly cheap. My dress is a Mori Lee bridesmaids dress in soft white with a bridal sash on it. With a cheap petticoat from eBay under it and a veil off of etsy, it really does look like a simple bridal gown. For liquor, we aren't doing it. FI and I both do not like alcohol and our crowd does not really drink. Our venue also did not allow alcohol. We chose to forgo alcohol all together. For food. We are doing pizza. I've gotten tons of flack about it on here, but I don't care what people behind their computers think, I care about my guests. It was what my FI and I actually wanted. I asked a majority of my guests and they had no problem with it (and I also checked for food allergies). My crowd is the type that is simple and will be gracious no matter what we put in front of them. It's being delivered after the ceremony, so it will be fresh and hot when guests get it. We're having two types of salad, fruit salad (from Sam's), cheesecake (frozen, but we've both tasted it and it's pretty good), and cake from a local bakery. Food ended up being a little over 500 for us. For invitations, I did vistaprint on sale. Online or phone RSVPs. I got an amazing deal with a local photographer who was growing her photographer business with weddings. We're using a justice of the peace. Flowers from Sam's (baby's breath and some white roses! Krogers is putting together my bouquet!) My venue provided tables and chairs. I bought tablecloths from linentablecloth.com for half off. I have not purchased anything from micheals or hobby lobby without a coupon. I am couponing salad dressings, cheesecake syrups and toppings. I've tried my best not to buy things off sale or without a coupon unless it was necessary. I'm in the united states, so I know the money and conversion rate is a little different, but It can be done. It may not be easy, and you'll have to let go of the idea of the "perfect" wedding, but you can do it. Remember, at the end of the day, the cake, flowers, even the dress, they're all lagniappe. What matters is that you get to marry your wonderful future spouse. The people who truly care and that you mean the world to will be happy for you no matter what.

Thank you so much for putting me in my place Monkey. That will last about five minutes.

You can save your hostility for someone else because it has zero effect on me.

Thanks I really do appreciate all the advice. I'm just thinking though what's wrong with self catering if it's just our immediate family? My boyfriend has 17 on his side and I have 7. If we have Christmas dinners and make our own food what's the difference if we all chip in? I'll make meats and rest of the family bring sides or desert.

I am looking at all my options though just so I don't miss on good oportunit. I would really like to stay in 2000 dollar budget.

My dress is going to be 300 max. Flowers are only 100. Decorations my sister in law has most of them, I can rent some linen which is not expensive at all since only be decorating 2 -3tables. I got it so far to 1,900.

The honeymoon will probably have to wait unless we can find somewhere cheap even if it's still in Canada, I wouldn't mind going somewhere for at least a week. Any honeymoon ideas that's not to expensive ?

Lol I sound cheap but I always been the person to save if I can and always regret after I buy myself anything

Thanks MisdEtoMrsB good point I definitely have some thinking to do. Ugh who knew a small wedding would be this stressful so far it's not really that fun, it's more stressful then fun at the moment. I think once I have reception and ceremony booked then it will be more fun...I hope anyways.

What are your guys thoughts on a stag and doe? My mom mentioned that so we could raise money for our wedding. I said be tacky but my mom said no its not a lot of people do it, as long as your upfront on your intentions it's fine.

What type of stuff do you do at a stag and doe? Do you charge for tickets? (I was invited to one last year and I think they charged for tickets)

I'm thinking about stag and doe I just don't know how we will throw one with no money lol any ideas?

Do you invite only people you have invited to your wedding? Or can it be anyone that wants to come and willing to donate money to bride and groom?

Omg this thread keeps getting worse! From inadequate budget, to potlucks and now to a stag and doe. OP - please don't throw a fundraiser for your wedding. Fundraisers are for charities and important causes. It isn't other people's responsibility to pay for your wedding. Have the wedding you can afford.

Also, consider having it on a weekday. We are having a DW and are saving a TON of money because we're getting married on a Thursday. If you do a Friday/Sunday wedding, you will save loads of money too, compared to a Saturday wedding.

Also, if you do a little here and a little there, you may be able to spend more, like you said in your post.

Emily S. I know it's probably tacky where you are but I actually came across quite few stag and does just to raise money where i live. I'm just trying to think of ways to have a wedding and save where as we don't have family that can give us money for our wedding. I have half of our budget I just would like **** to throw more half decent wedding for just us and immediate family. Unless we sell some things we don't need anymore that's another option.

Never mind. I got posters mixed up.

Move along! Ignore this!