What is/was worth it to splurge vs save on to you?

Save: Dress, flowers

Splurge: Flaming donut bar, photobooth, DOC (wasn't originally planning on getting one, but so far so glad I have)

We splurged on our venue and our DJ - We managed to save on our photographer since she is a headshot photographer we used before who is trying to drum up wedding business and she gave us a great price (she also did our engagement photos which we LOVED).

The thing we are mostly saving on is flowers - I don't feel the need to super decorate my venue as its gorgeous on its own and the only ceremony decorations we will need will be for the arch. So we are keeping our floral very minimal!

Splurge: booze, venue

Save: dress, DJ

Most other things pretty much in line with averages

Splurge: most things, especially the venue and dress (it was really hard for me to spend that much for a dress for one day!)

Save: veil -$9 from EBay and gorgeous, florals - hired a professional for bouquets but will probably do simple centerpieces through Whole Foods at cost. Invites - combined two different kit styles to make a suite that is a design and print your own. Videographer - got a really good deal on someone newer to the industry. As it wasn't a priority item for me and I get to keep the raw video files I was okay with this.

Splurge: Photography, videography, and photobooth. (Videography was also sort of a save because I won half-off in her contest and I wouldn't have done it otherwise.)

Save- venue. It's a beautiful and popular location, but it's the most reasonable in the area and so much is included. Also, I'm not doing chair covers because I can't see spending hundreds of dollars on something ugly for people to sit on.

I'm saving by inviting a VERY small number of guests, saving on the venue because of that (it only sits 30 for the ceremony, and we're only having 24), saving on the photographer by only needing them for an hour, but splurging on food and drinks and absolutely splurging on our honeymoon!

ETA- I also wanted to add that we saved or will save on a lot of stuff (cake, flowers, alcohol, invites, even honeymoon) by using Costco. FH works there and they just can't be beat on prices.

Splurge: It feels like everything, but I definitely splurged on the dress (when all is said and done it will probably be $3000 after alterations). I didn't end up being one of those girls who goes to the bridal store and just looks good in everything, lol, so I ended up spending more to get a dress that I really felt confident in. I would also say photography and videography, even though I don't think we're paying much above average for those.

Save: Weirdly, the rings. Neither of us are ring-wearers in our regular lives, so it wasn't super important for us to get gorgeous decked out rings. Ours will be simple and relatively inexpensive. We also saved by not getting upgraded linens, tableware, and chairs -- we're using the basic set the venue provides. Chiavari chairs look lovely but at least the ones available at our venue were fairly uncomfortable, and I didn't want to put our elderly guests through that. Also, we got a really good deal on a DJ, because he gives discounts for Sunday weddings and for paying upfront.

I am with @S&J, the whole wedding is a splurge!! Just when you think you have it under control, you see something that would make your wedding better.

Of course food and drinks can be splurges. There are people here who are doing $250 pp and there are people who are doing $10 pp. Top shelf vs. beer and wine. Very different experience, both meet the minimum (have enough, safe food, open bar).

We are definitely splurging on the alcohol. We decided to upgrade from just beer and wine, to mixed drinks. We also splurged on the ceremony venue, which was $1100 for our beach permit.

We splurged on the venue and our photographer. I thought our dream caterer was going to be a splurge but they were totally reasonable.

Splurge: food/venue/bar and live band instead of dj.

save: dress (can't justify spending a ton on a dress for one day), no welcome bags/favors, no videographer, no shuttles/limos

@jenny we are also saving on the photographer. our photographer is fantastic, but she was solidly in the middle of the price points we looked at. i get bored quickly posing for photos at events and probably won't look at them much after, so i can't justify paying her to be there for all kinds of "getting ready" shots and other thing i don't care about.

We splurged on food, drinks, cake, and photography. we saved on invitations and not having a videographer (although I'm reconsidering it! )

Splurged on a really great month of coordinator-worth every penny. Also ceremony musician-ended up being one of the highlights.

For save-I didn't end up buying one, but I will say I spent a LOT of time and stress looking for the perfect card box. Ultimately my coordinator said to just drop it and she had one. I didn't like the look, but I needed to check it off my list. It wasn't until after my wedding that I realized I never even saw/noticed the box. I definitely wish I had spent less time stressing over that.

I saved on invites (print at home kit $12). Also saved on my dress by getting same dress at small salon rather than designers store. Dress and alterations saved about $600.

Splurged on photographer and alcohol. Venue was inclusive so there was no choice in food packages. However there was a ton of excellent food.

Splurge: Custom wedding bands, photobooth, photography, videography, photography, decor

Save: Invitations, cake- doing cupcakes cause its cheaper than 3 tiered

Definitely splurging on food and alcohol. It's important to me to have amazing food, and it's to die for! We're putting a significant amount of money into alcohol. My dress was 72 bucks, my bouquet was made from micheals, and Our photographer is added in as part of our ceremony package. Those are the only things important to me, hosting the guests with food and booze and having a grand old time!

We are having parties for no reason at our house like every two weeks because I bought so much beer, wine and signature drink stuff. If you are in the neighborhood, let me know.

Splurge on photography, save on dress (sample).

Considered splurging on a dj because he was awesome, but we don't really know how dancey our crowd will be so we're going to put that money towards food. and get a less expensive dj. 1500 was kind of hard to justify.