…Stealing Their Name!!
How we got married and stuck to a budget.
There are many ways that one can stay on budget while planning life events, but I’m here to talk about the three that helped us. The cost of a wedding can quickly get out of control if you’re not paying attention and being very purposeful every step of the way. At the same time, even though this particular post is about taking every step to stick to a small budget, I don’t want you to forget about making it fun for you and the people involved. It’s supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event and I would hate to see it ruined if you go all “bridezilla” on your family and friends by pinching pennies.
1. Hire a friend when you can!
When considering your wedding on a budget, you can start by asking yourself, “Who do you know?” Who are you friends with and what are their talents?
Do you know someone that is an aspiring photographer? Or do you know someone just starting a photography business that could use some practice and free social media advertising?
Do you know someone who enjoys cooking or baking and is great at it? Or do you know someone that knows someone that has a small baking company?
Are you friends with someone that works at or owns a floral shop? If they did a spectacular job, the word-of-mouth praise and social media advertising could do great things for their shop.
Do you know anyone with a house or barn that happens to be in a beautiful location? Could you ask them if you could use their place to get married? Some would think of it as an honor.
How about a DJ? Do you know someone that runs a karaoke show as their side hustle? Or do you have a friend with a massive library of songs in their iTunes Library that wants to go to your wedding? There’s got to be a way to play music at your event without costing an arm and a leg. However, if it’s the personality you’re looking for, you may consider putting some money aside in the budget for a professional.
For those of us that need to keep the wedding so small and inexpensive that you can only invite family, could you put your friends to work? Would two friends be willing to bartend in order to be at the wedding? What about that meticulous, party-planning friend? Maybe they could be the Day Of Coordinator.
These are all questions you must ask yourself when you’re getting ready to plan your big day.
2. Shop Discount
Let’s talk about the dress, one of the most important things to consider while planning your wedding on a budget. Ladies, some of us have been dreaming about how we would look walking down the isle since we were kids. The trick is to find that perfect dress at a reasonable price. It’s fun to set up a date with the girls and go to David’s Bridal for a dress fitting (and it doesn’t cost anything). But you don’t have to buy one of David’s dresses.
Take what you’ve learned from that fitting and go elsewhere. I learned that all of those high end dress stores have a basement version where all of the “tried on” dresses go to die. Brand name dresses that have a slight tear or buttons ripped off can easily be fixed by your seamstress and they’re being sold for a fraction of the price.
I also learned during this process of several Facebook groups that are wedding related. Even if you’re not on Facebook on a regular basis, it can still be a useful resource to find decorations that have been used in a previous wedding and then are being sold.
You can get everything, including the chiffon, flowers, candles and pillars. You can also build your own things, like signs and arbors.
You could then use the flowers that you found on marketplace to have your wedding party make their own bouquets and the center pieces.
A day or two before the event, ask for volunteers to do the decorating of the venue. You don’t have to hire people to do that for you. Serve wine or let them bring their own and turn it into a fun event. Odds are that your friends and family will be thrilled to help.
3. Compare Prices
Lastly, even when planning a wedding on a budget, there are some things that you’ll always want to have done professionally and it’s ok to allow yourself the luxury. But get quotes for everything.
Compare quotes for flowers, photography, DJ, venues, catering… even portable toilets. Quote out everything that you want to have done professionally. You should also put them all in your preferred budgeting resource. The Knot is a quite popular resource. There are also budgeting aids on Wedding Wire and Nerd Wallet.
You can have your dream wedding without going into debt for years to come. Nobody needs to start a marriage with that looming over their heads.
The key is to save for the event. Don’t put things on a credit card unless you can pay them off immediately and don’t use the money from your emergency fund. This is NOT an emergency. Save up and stay on budget!
This post has been in the works for quite some time, since we have been married for almost a year. We want to personally thank all of our friends and family that gathered to help keep our dream wedding affordable. We could not have done any of it without you, and we love you all so much.
