Some of you may know, that my husband (*gitty I get to say this now*) and I are recently married. Some of you may also know my mother. If you don't let's just say she taught me from a very young age that "it wasn't for sale unless it was on sale." David and I got married at the end of August and are loving life as newlyweds. When we decided to get married, we wanted the big wedding until we saw the price tag and then we were like "whatever we'll be just as married if we get married at the courthouse and have a big party after." Which if that's your dream, DO IT, I think it would be amazing. After talking to our parents, they suggested that we still do the wedding we wanted but just pick the most important things and that's what we did.
When I envisioned my wedding day, I imagined a stress free day. I've been in my fair share of weddings so I feel like I've experienced it all. I've helped the stressed out budget bride who did everything herself all the way over to the calm bride who didn't have to worry about money and didn't have to do a single thing. To each their own but I fall in the middle of these. I knew I didn't want to be spreading chicken salad on croissants on my wedding day (no shade if that's what you did - because those sandwiches were probably bomb but my personality isn't cute when I'm stressed and my goal was to enjoy my wedding day) but also knew I would have to figure out how to make that happen on my budget. So I've compiled a list of what we skipped on and what we splurged on when it came to our wedding in hopes that it could help or inspire you as you plan your big day.
Our Skips
Skip a Saturday night wedding. Get married on a weekday, Friday night or Sunday.
This probably isn't for everyone but David and I got married on a Thursday night. That left us with a long weekend for a mini-moon (more on that later) as well as cut our venue cost in half or more. We knew that with getting married on a Thursday any family far away would probably have to miss (..just saying less people.. less money.. even though almost all of our invited guests that lived nearby still came!) but we also knew that anyone that really wanted to be there would be there no matter what day we decided to marry. And that's true for all weddings. If your guests want to be there, they will be there no matter what day, time or if it's outside in the middle of July. So go on, get married on a non-traditional day, you'll still be just as married and you'll have just as much fun!
Skip the florist and use Costco, Sams or Trader Joes.
Florists are expensive. No shade, they just are and I totally understand why when I see their works of art but for us, we didn't want/need all that. We needed some bouquets and some floral arrangements on the tables. We contacted Trader Joe's and ordered what we wanted and ended up spending about $70 that we used for all the tables and cake. At just $4-$5 a bunch it was a much more affordable way to get exactly what I wanted without ordering $2k-$3k from a florist. My mom ended up making fake bouquets for me and my bridesmaids (I was so against this until I saw what she came up with) and everyone LOVED them and so did I!
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| gorgeous bouquets |
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| fake floral bouquet my mom put together that I feel in LOVE with |
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| ferns from the farmers market that are now hanging on my front porch <3 |
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| Borrowed these lanterns and my mom added a easy swag |
Skip champagne toast + favors.
As we sat down with the owner of the venue we chose from the beginning, he told us that often times these two things are looked over at every event he has. He said that more times than not, the champagne and favors get left on tables and thrown away at the end of the night because they are not as important as you think they are. This cost saves you quite a bit without much effect on your big day. That being said, if you have a cute cheap idea that you've dreamed of doing for years - You do you, boo boo! I'm just telling you from experience what our venue shared with us and that our wedding went off without a hitch and we did not have champagne or a favor for guests.
Skip expensive shops - shop on Facebook Marketplace for second hand wedding decorations.
Luckily David's sister in law knows someone who owns an event company so we were able to score free use of lots of pieces of wedding decor (oh yeah, don't forget to ask your friends who they know- this can really help you out a lot!) but facebook marketplace is filled with brides selling their wedding decor. We were able to score some gorgeous mercury glass vases for very cheap that we used during the reception on tables.
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| All of these for around $50 bucks. Totally worth it when they cost about $25 each. |
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| Flowers and moss from Trader Joes, borrowed terrarium from someone we knew |
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| Flowers and moss from Trader Joes, borrowed terrarium from someone we knew |
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| Mercury glass from Facebook Marketplace. |
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| These clear bottles were simple yet turned out super elegant. |
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| The eucalyptus made me swoon. |
Videography (this was hard for me.)
I love wedding videos but photography was just more important to us. I wish our budget would've allowed videography but at the end of the day, we couldn't do both so we chose photography and are happy with our choice! We also chose to do an unplugged ceremony so that our guests kept their phones away but some of our friends and family still snuck videos throughout the day that we cherish very much.
Delayed honeymoon.
We still took a shorter trip (we refer to it as our "mini-moon") to Charleston but we have a cruise planned for November. Delaying our honeymoon a couple months helped us budget and put away money so that we could still enjoy something really nice on a budget as well as not be as tired. Because I'm telling you right now, you'll be really tired but you'll also be really happy.
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| Charleston Mini Moon |
Our splurges
Professional Photography
I didn't want to regret having subpar wedding photos but quickly learned that wedding photography could range from $2k-$8k depending on who you used. For us, getting married on a weekday made it more affordable for us from the start. (PRO TIP: Sundays and Friday nights are still probably more affordable than Saturday afternoon) Also, we also made a schedule so that we only had to have the photographer for 6 hours to get everything we wanted. So we did a first look so we could do most of our photos before and was able to have the photographer for longer during the reception. Smart scheduling really helped when it came to photography. I had a list of photos I wanted and I made time for them in the schedule to make sure we didn't miss any of them or get off schedule. My photographer also checked in on the schedule so we could be on the same page. She was amazing. (Check her out @michellerojasphotography- she travels!) Photos below are from our first look.
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| His first look face was priceless <3 |
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| We were both so happy and nervous. |
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| priceless moments. |
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| family photos. |
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| This picture was able to happen as my grandmother arrived, worked out great. |
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| detail shots. |
Venue with included food
We chose a venue that did all the food there because we didn't want food stress. That being said, we cut our costs by getting married on a Thursday so choosing a wedding that we did on a Saturday would have been double maybe triple the cost because that's the industry you're dealing with.
DJ
We almost went with a family friend DJ and I'm so glad we didn't. We decided to spend the $600 for getting a DJ to play during the ceremony and reception and I'm so glad we did. He wasn't the best DJ around (because some of those go for like $2k+) but he was better than some I've seen recently that had old equipment or didn't come with a plan at all. But our party was so much fun because the DJ was able to get the crowd going with the music choices.
Obviously each person has their own preferences and wants for their own big day but for us, these splurges and skips helped keep us on budget but have a wonderful event. By choosing 3-4 things you don't mind skipping without taking away from the day as a whole you can save thousands of dollars. As always, never skimp out on what you want, but you can totally do what you want on a budget if you're mindful of keeping it about you and your wants.
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