What are you doing to cut back wedding expenses?

We're skipping a lot of that too! We saved money by skipping favors, paying our photographer by the hour, and finding vendors giving good deals through Facebook bridal groups. We're also skipping anything extraneous, such as a photobooth, dessert bar, welcome gifts, etc.

Our guests just like to drink, so top shelf wouldn't be appreciated as much as just a full open bar. We skipped table side wine. We skipped DJ lighting. We didn't have a ton of decor, our venue had a lot of pretty features and flowers so they weren't needed. We did a dessert table instead of cake. We did a plated salad then buffet dinner vs. a full plated dinner!

1.) We kept our guest list to close family and friends and their dates.

2.) We're also doing a small cutting cake and cupcakes for guests.

3.) We're semi-DIYing our florals. A florist in our area has an option where you can select your flowers like you typically would with a full service florist, but they host a DIY "party" for you and 5 friends to put together all of the arrangements. They have an instructor there to teach you and you can bring food, drinks, music, etc.

4.) We're DIYing other decor like signs, our card box, and our guest book.

5.) Buffet/station dinner instead of a plated meal.

Very similar!

- Our date! Friday November 1st was exactly half the price of Saturday, October 26th. For 3.8k we get ceremony/reception venue, set up/break down, chiavari chairs, tables, tablecloths, DJ, DOC.

-No champagne toast (especially since we have an open bar)

-No favors (Unless you count photobooth and late night snack)

-No videographer

-BM/MOH only (Didn't do this for budget reasons, but it does help)

- Dress was $1200 with less than $100 in alterations

-Gourmet cupcakes instead of tiered wedding cake

- Limiting guestlist to 175 which I still think is way too many. We are hoping for declines since 50-60% of guests live 2+ hours away.

-Unnecessary signs

We skipped a videographer, a DJ, and also went with cupcakes along with a one tier cake. My dress was $100 so I saved a lot there. We did decide to have champagne and are currently debating between two types of low cost bubbly we really like. We also decided to provide beer and wine along with a signature drink, but skipped the liquor.

We are skipping flowers all together. My aunt is making brooch bouquets for us. My other aunt is doing all of the baked goods for free as a wedding present.

Also we extended the DJ's contract so he will be providing ceremony music for us instead of us hiring others to provide the ceremony music, this turned out to be a much cheaper option. The photographer is from smaller town, and even with her travel fee she is much for reasonably priced compared to the photographers where we live.

We are also doing a plated salad for dinner followed by a buffet to keep costs low. Also signing up for emails from places to know when sales are going on helps, annoying but helps. Our ceremony and reception are in the same place so less money going towards ceremony rentals. We are having a limited bar with 2-3 types of beer and a white and red wine. Any mixed drinks the guests will have to pay for, this is also the norm where I am.

We skipped uplighting, a videographer, H wearing a suit he already owned, small 2 tier cake and sheet cakes for the rest, no save the dates, no favors, no photobooth, I bought my dress the same day as my appointment which saved me 20%, and we shopped around a lot for cake/flowers.

We're getting married 10 minutes from FH's hometown in a very small town so our venue and vendors are a lot less expensive than most everything around here (and we get to rent our venue for Thursday-Saturday). We won't be having alcohol because our venue is in a dry county, but it's not a huge deal for people in our circles. We bought nice plastic utensils, plates, and cups and paper napkins instead of renting "real" tableware. I bought our centerpieces and most decorations from other brides on Facebook. I, also, got my wedding dress off Facebook Marketplace for a lot cheaper than online (it was brand new without any alterations).

1. Opting to do a buffet instead of a plated meal

2. No videographer

3. Beer, wine, and two signature drinks instead of an open bar

4. For favors we have koozies (I know it sounds super hick but we live in Texas and this has become a big thing at most wedding I've been to recently) and we'll be baking cookies to put into these adorable personalized bakery bags I found on etsy

5. Limited dress budget to $1200 tops

6. Hoping to do a small cake and dessert table

7. DIYing my flowers from Fifty Flowers

Gotta cut corners to stay in budget