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We're doing our wedding for 5,000-6,000. At the venue we picked, you only pay for the food..which is great because you do not have to pay a ginormous fee to rent the place. I'd say try looking at country clubs, that's what we did (though I don't know how different it'd be since I'm in RI.) We're having around 100 guests. I also plan on DIY stuff though I haven't gotten around to anything yet. Some of the ladies here have used fake flowers and I honestly couldn't tell the difference! I might do that route as well lol. If not, you could always buy flowers in bulk from an online place (can't remember the names sorry!) and then make the bouquets yourself. We're having a cupcake tier wedding cake with a little tier on the top...so far it seems to be cheaper than a regular cake. My mum might make it for us though which is a money saver. Hmm, depending what you want for centerpieces you can use coupons, go to thrift stores (for vases and whatnot), find sales. Good luck, it can be done beautifully for your budget. Keep us posted! If you have any questions you can message me. :)
I too am having a $5,000 wedding! I think we may end up going over a little (maybe $500?), but I am still so proud of myself for pulling it off! Onto the tips though: Shop around! This is really the key to everything. We looked at many many venues and the biggest price factor in any of them was the catering. One venue had a very low price but you had to use their caterer, who started at around $30 per person (we are inviting 160 people, by the way). We chose a venue, a local vinyard and winery, that didn't have any catering requirements and included chairs and tables for us to use. We booked the winery for a Sunday and saved a ton of money. You can save a lot by having an "iPod reception", but we chose to find a DJ instead. I have used Etsy for nearly every aspect of the wedding that I am not personally doing myself (cake topper, guest book, etc). Another thing that was very important to us for the wedding was photography. We found a young, less experienced photographer who's work we both loved and booked him on the spot. Most of the photographers in our area started at around $2000 but we got Jonathan for $700! I have scoured the internet for wedding stuff so feel free to private-message me for any recs! Good luck and you can do it!!
The only 2 weddings I've been to were paid for entirely by the student couple, and both of their budgets were $5000. It can be done! And they were both really good/beautiful/happy times.
Here are some things that they did to keep costs down, to give you an idea:
Wedding #1:
Grow your own flowers for centrepieces, bouquet, bouts, and altar pieces
Used bookmarks as favours - very cheap printing for these
Hosted an afternoon tea with sandwhiches/snacks from the local grocery store. They also used a grocery store sheet cake, and none of it mattered.
For the alcohol - all the young people who were interested met up at a bar later that night and partied the night away.
Borrowed white table cloths from all friends to use as linens
Enlisted a lot of friends to help with set up and clean up and organizing!
Wedding #2:
Had ceremony on a beach for free
Instead of dinner, served hors d'oevres and had dancing (they went to dinner between the ceremomny and reception with just the family)
StDs and invites were created in adobe illustrator (or something) and sent by email - so totally free!
Favour was a donation - and the little cards that told you so were a DIY project
iPod for dancing - only had to pay to rent the $50 sound system
Enlisted a lot of friends to help with set up and clean up and organizing!
Hope that helps! We are also paying for it ourselves on a small budget, so I feel your pain. Good luck!
You could look into having it at a bed and breakfast or a community garden.
Have you looked at any restaurants? We're having ours at one in their private upstairs area and we're only being charged for food and drinks (we get the tables, chairs, dinnerware, and PA system for free). As far as flowers go, I don't think they're necessary. If you just wanted a bouquet for youself, you could go to the farmer's market the morning of your wedding and pick some up. Hope this helps!
Maybe you could hold a small ceremony in their backyard and then have everyone to the reception at a local bar/restaurant. That way you wouldn't have to worry about renting chairs and whatnot for the ceremony. At the beginning of our planning we looked at this for an option and it was way cheaper to have "family reunion" at a restaurant than to have a catered event at a typical venue. I made sure not to mention "wedding" or "reception" ever because that seemed to make everything overpriced.
Another option is you could save money on cakes by doing single tiers instead of a stacked cake. You can usually get them for cheaper and you could still do something pretty and kind of modern.
Also you can get bulk flowers for pretty cheap from either Samsclub.com (I don't know if they have them in AZ but I think you can still order online) or Flowersandfreshness.com. That way you don't have a ton of fake flowers after the wedding (of course if you do then you could probably sell them to someone on the classifieds).
Hope this helps!
I feel your pain. I'm actually looking for a second job to save money/pay for the wedding. As for venue ideas, search the internet and call, call, call. A lot of places right now are willing to work with you due to the recession. Also some historical sites do not have a site fee and all you have to pay for is the food. I wish you the best of luck. I wish I could help out more, but I'm located in CA :(
We're having a $5000.00 wedding, so I know it is doable!
One of the BIG ways we're saving money is by having a morning wedding with a brunch reception. We chose brunch because my FI and I lovelovelove eggs benedict, pancakes, and all the other lovely brunch foods (focusing more on the breakfast side of brunch). This also keeps our alcohol costs down, as people aren't going to drink nearly as much at a brunch as they would in the evening. We're actually only serving mimosas, and have Baileys and Kahlua on hand for coffee.
We're also going in a direction that seems to be neglected in wedding blogs, but that still happens ALL THE TIME in real life. We're having our reception in the parish hall. Community and church halls seem to have gone out of fashion in blogland, but that's only because they aren't as pretty as a more contemporary venues like art galleries or restored barns. I have never been to a wedding that didn't have a community hall reception, so I don't think it's a big deal. Going this route means we're doing a lot in terms of decor, but I know we can still have the vintage butterfly tea party reception I've been dreaming of.
Barter. Trade. Ask around. Hire a student. Look for vendors that don't normally do weddings. Our wedding is a community event: my MOH designed the invitations, a friend from college is doing photography (she's a fine arts grad looking to build her portfolio), another friend is doing hair and makeup, my sister is baking cookies for favours, my aunt is baking the cake, my mother is creating the centrepieces. Instead of buying bridesmaid dresses we're making them. My dress came from a consignment shop, my jewelry is all borrowed or pieces I already own. I'm not bothering to buy a new dress for my shower or rehearsal dinner, I'm going shopping in my own closet.
However, when you rely on others, you have to give up control. I chose the famous Martha Stewart butterfly cake as inspiration, but I don't know if it's going to look the same, and that's okay. We're borrowing tea cups from all my aunties to use in centrepieces, but my mother's vision and my vision aren't the same. It's not easy to give up control, so depending on your personality it may not be the best idea. I'll admit it, I've shed some tears, but at the end of the day I'm getting married to the man I love, and that's what matters. Don't let yourself lose sight of the big picture. The wedding may not be 100% to my original vision, but I'm involving my family and community in a meaningful way, and that's what matters to me.
DIY is great, but only do it if it's something you enjoy, or involves a skill you want to learn. If you think it's going to be too much stress, forget about it! Also consider that DIY isn't always cheaper than hiring a pro. You have to consider equipment, material, and your own time. I personally have done very few DIY projects, choosing only ones I like, and that I know I already have the skills to do. I made my hair accessories, I cut out hundreds of butterflies from old greeting cards, I sewed flower pompoms, and I made the ring pillow and flower girl basket. That's it for this bride, my sanity is worth much more than a bunch of details that will soon be forgotten anyway.
Pick what is important to you, and budget accordingly. In my case, the dress wasn't a number one priority. I bought a simple dress from a consignment shop and made it mine with accessories. A Princess Lasertron bouquet WAS important to me, so we budgeted accordingly. I knew I wasn't going to be able to afford Princess Lasertron accessories for everyone in the wedding party, so I contacted her to see if we could work something out. Sure enough, we arranged that she would make my bouquet, and I would buy supplies for corsages, boutonnieres, etc. Don't be afraid to talk to vendors to see if there is a way to make your vision happen.
Other options:
-Consider having a Friday or Sunday reception
-Look for non-floral alternative (paper flowers! fabric flowers! no flowers!)
-Get rid of unnecessary details. Favours, programs, menu cards, corsages for every last family members, Save-the-dates, uplighting, etc
One last tip: know when to stop reading wedding blogs. Seriously. They can be a great source of information, but they can also be a great source of heartbreak. With a million gorgeous weddings posted here and there it's all too easy to compare and feel "mine isn't good enough." I sometimes feel like crap because the reception is in the church hall, and I fear that everyone will judge me. Then I remember: I've never been to a wedding that didn't have a community hall reception. We're still going to have a great time. If anyone judges me or my FI because of this, well eff them. Don't let yourself become obsessed with the weddings you see on the internet. Stepping away from wedding blogs is a good idea every once in a while.
It can be done!
Oh, I love brunch weddings. I seriously considered a brunch wedding. MerryMary you are going to have an awesome day!
We ended up going with a wine bar/restaurant as our venue. Their F&B min is $3,000 and there are no rental fees, unless you have your ceremony there which is $300. I can't even get married in our local park for that cheap.
Good luck and my best advice is just to keep connecting with people and don't assume you can't afford a place until you get an actual quote from them. Keep track and compare all of your research on venue options and really go through the budget to make sure you know exactly what it costs for each venue. Hidden costs and small charges add up. We almost went with a different restaurant that seemed comparable in price, but after looking closely their parking fees were higher and would've pushed us over budget.
Ditto the 5000 wedding for me . We are getting married on a Thursday during the day and were having a brunch wedding, but the food was soo good that we decided on a heavier lunch and it comes out to about 24 or so per person. (And that's a choice of ribeye, chicken, or catfish, twice baked potatoes, rolls, and a salad)...
I am also doing all of my own flowers (hello 50 flowers.com!) i found my dress on bravobride.com and it was only $300.00... it can definitely be done with proper research and organization. Also if you see something you like, come here and ask about it a lot of us know how to make it or have seen where and how and/or how to get it done cheaper.
Good luck!!
We're doing a $5k wedding. The biggest thing for me was figuring out what I really want to spend the money on and what I'm seriously willing to let go. Photography and food are the two biggest expenses for us since our venue is free. We're marrying in a local church that does weddings for free and we have chosen to donate about $500 to them as a thank you. Even though my "dream dress" is $1150 I knew I didn't want to spend that much on something I really don't care about all that much. So I'm probably going to buy a much cheaper dress ($499) instead that has the same general style. I was going to cheap out a little on the photography and try to get some budget wiggle room, but I realized that I was willing to spend about what I budgeted to get what I wanted.
Do some research before you drop the backyard idea. I thought seriously about it, and had a tent company come that gave us a free site survey, some great advice about how to do things, and a quote for tents, tables, chairs, and fans. In the end we decided against it because although the money was right, we were worried about space for 150, especially in case of rain or crazy heat. But it was worth investigating! One possibility is to rent long rectangular tables and benches, might be cheaper than round ones and chairs. And if you do your FILs' backyard, they will probably pretty it up for you by planting new flowers and plants, maybe even an arch to get married under, which is a lasting improvement for them and so not really a wedding expense. You might find you don't need a lot of flowers/centerpieces! Good luck
We're doing a wedding for $5,000 for 100-120 people.
We found a church which is letting us use their space for free for our ceremony. Our priest is a friend of my FI's who used to run the church we're getting married at (he now teaches comparative literature at our university).
Our reception hall is a county parks building (its beautiful! Built in the 1920s, french doors, etc.) which is cheap, comes with tables, chairs, a full kitchen, and fans (though no airconditioning).
After nearly a full year of pricing around, we settled on our local food co-op as our caterer. They normally don't do weddings but are interested in branching out into weddings, so we're getting a LOT of food for almost no money AND our money is staying in our neighborhood (seriously, they're 6 blocks away!). For $1,500 we're getting appetizers (fruits, veggies, anti-pasto tray) for an hour and for dinner- choice of BBQ chicken or BBQ vegan ribs, 3 kinds of salad, 2 veggie side dishes, mashed potatoes, rolls, and something else which is slipping my mind at the moment. They also hooked us up with a bakery where we're getting our wedding pies- 10 pies for $100! and we're picking up cupcakes at Sam's Club ($12 for 30 cupcakes!).Our caterers are also providing us with all the tableclothes (though no napkins).
I fell in love with white square plates, so I bought them wholesale online. 120 10.75" dinner plates and 240 6" app/dessert plates for about $120. I found forks and spoons at Sam's Club for $8 for 36 forks or spoons and $11 for butter knives. This could all be done cheaper but i wanted real silverware and square plates. I found my table decor on ebay and ikea, my table runners and cloth napkins at efavormart, and my dress and jewelery on etsy.
I'm doing our flowers. I'll be picking flowers from my friend's parent's farm 2 days before the wedding and adding those beautiful wildflowers to store bought (3 big bundles for $10 at a local store) to make all the bouquets/bouts. I have DIYed all our papergoods (STDS, invites, place cards, etc.). I am putting our favors together for less then $0.43 a favor by using favors boxes found on clearance, cookie cutters found on clearance, and candy found at Sam's Club.
$5000 can be challenging and trying, but keep looking around! Price things out! Website shop! Start off telling caters/photogs/etc. about your small budget and ask how they can work with you.
Wow, after reading all of the lovely and helpful suggestions - I really, really want to go to a brunch wedding!!
If the FI and I were morning people, we totally would have done that.
We are doing a wedding of 100 people for $5,000. I have diligently searched the web, done my research, etc. We are using small, local vendors who are just starting out, so their prices were great! For flowers, depending on your wedding season, we are going to the farmers market. I found centerpieces for $1 and am stuffing the flowers in them. We also did what @rabbit did and DIY'ed our STD's, invites, place cards, etc. Check out craigslist (be careful though) in terms of photographers. Some local college kids who are photography students may be great! The most important lesson I have learned is to not settle for the first price given. If I didn't like a price, I kept looking. It will all work out in the end!
hey were doing a wedding for 5000 it is def. doable- i dont know if you want to have it outside or not- but fi you do it can be done! even renting everything you need. esp. since you have a backyard to do it, that saves money. we are renting out a bed and breakfast for 500 to use their land- we are doing an outdoor wedding tent. btw we have 80 ppl with a fun casual wedding/reception but still elegant
our tent with custom lighting (purple spotlights, yay!) 30 by 60 white wedding tent, with 10 tables 80 chairs, is 1,300.
our food is gonna be around 850 that includes bbq chicken, pulled pork, mashed potatoes, corn bread, rolls, baked beans. that inludes them setting up cleaning up and with plasticwear. (since we did bbq food it was cheaper! and i think its gonna taste awesome!!!)
our photography- were getting a 900 package for free- we bartered it. my Fh is doing work in a photogrpahers home in excahnge for his services.
flowers- doing it ourselves, this will sae you a ton.
dress/assesories- 525
alcohol- luckily were able to bring our own. were doing wine beer and like 3 signature drinks.
dj- my friend is a dj so he is doing it for free- but were gonna rent him a hotel room.
I too am doing my wedding on a $5000 budget. The biggest money saver is our location. We are having the ceremony and reception at a local bar that is owned by friends of ours. This is also saving on entertainment because they are hiring the band for the night. We are having the ceremony early enough (6:00) that we can have privacy but as soon as we are done the bar is open to the public.
I also have found that Ebay is amazing for finding great deals. I have only spent $250 on all my attire (dress, shoes, headpiece, & jewerly).
My big ticket item is my photographer, at $1600 it is steep but we are getting much more bang for our buck by going with someone out of town. We figured the wedding will only be one night but the pics we have will last forever so it was very important to us to have a professional to capture our day.
We are ordering our flowers online at globalrose.com ($160 for 250 roses) and arranging ourselves. A co-worker of mine is making our cake, but if you don't have anyone close who is willing to take this on you should be able to find a decent 2-3 tier cake at a local grocery store for less than $150, just don't expect many options.
you are so right MerryMary. Reading blogs can be heartbreaking but some can leave you with inspiration. I have looked at some wedding pictures that drowned in money and you know what, the bride and groom did not pay for them.. I feel proud to be able to pay for mine and it's been that way all my life. Nothing was given to me. Money does not make the wedding. You and your husband will. I say to hell with all the extras also, it does not make the day. I'm not doing programs now just from reading this.I don't care where people sit. i mean, they are all there for the bride and groom any how, why do you need to tell them where to sit.. you don't do that when you go to church., so skip it. Make your bouquet. There are enough youtube videos to get it done if not, find a good friend that's crafty. I know she's out there. I have gotten upset and felt like my wedding would not be spectacular or not measure up, measure up to who?? it's going to be gorgeous and someone will say so.
I, too, am spending up to $5000 for our wedding. We are only having about 50 people so having more may hike the price up some but I believe it is absolutely doable! My fiance and I decided to pay for our wedding for personal reasons, but my parents paid for my two younger sisters' weddings. One was almost $4000 and the other was just under $6000. The largest cost of my wedding is the venue, at $1400 for four hours, plus 1 1/2 hours before hand to decorate, set up, get dressed, etc. Due to a short decorating time I've chosen to go only with minimal decorations for the tables, plus the venue has such charm by itself that I don't want to overdo it.
I would say the best thing to do is start telling everyone you know that you are getting married and start asking for advice. Once I did this I had so many people telling me that they knew someone who was a photographer/cake maker/decorator/good with flowers...you name it! I found out that a coworker on an opposite shift used to have her own catering company, and she made and decorated cakes. She's charging me $2.25 per slice plus the cost of fresh flowers to put on the cake. I asked her for a cake to feed 50 so i'm also having a groom's cake for anyone who wants seconds or who may not like the flavor of the wedding cake. The one thing we aren't paying for is all of the flowers. My Mother's good friend is making all of the flower arrangements for us as a wedding gift, which is such a blessing!
Here's some other things we have done:
1. Neither one of us wanted alcohol at the wedding so that was a BIG save there.
2. Both of my sisters' weddings were in the afternoon so only finger foods and cakes were served. My ceremony is at noon so we are serving a light lunch. All of the food is "friends and family catering" so that's another low cost idea.
3. I made my own invitations. I am a scrapbooker/cardmaker so I already had everything but the stamps. I used clipart, pretty font, and white cardstock, then matted the base on two different colored cardstock. Each invite was different since I had many different colors of cardstock but who's really going to compare them? I added a little bit of bling to give them a pop. Even my Dad commented on how nice they looked!
4. We didn't want a DJ, only music in the background. We took my radio to the venue to test the sound and it was great. I'm making CD's of music to play and we'll just put someone in charge of changing them around.
5. I knew I would have buyer's remorse for paying $399 for a dress that I wasn't sure about. Instead, I found one online at David's Bridal. I fell in love with it once I put it on and am very happy for have only spent $166!
6. In lieu of a guestbook, I'm going to print up some small note cards for everyone to write their wishes to us. Why have a guestbook when it will jus stay in a box forever? I can use the notecards in our wedding scrapbook.
7. No special cake serving set. Again, it will go in a box. I found a clear plastic cake knife and pie server that will work just fine.
It's all about what you think is really important. The details aren't as important to me as enjoying the moment is. I don't want to look back five years from now and wonder why we spent so much and when we're going to finish paying it off! Good luck!
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My fiance and I are really stuggling to find a place that we can have our wedding for around or under our $5000 budget. We don't make very much, and we have been saving everything that we could while still paying all our bills. It gets so frustrating to find a nice place that is fairly inexpensive without it looking cheap. His parents have offered their backyard, but I'm not sure if that is the best way to go. Yeah, we would save money on the venue, but still having to rent tables/chairs, and everything else. Anyone have any suggestions on how to stretch the budget, or know of any inexpensive places in Arizona to get married? We have our guest list down to 85, and that is only family so I don't want to cut it down anymore then that. I'm planning on doing some stuff myself if I have to: invitations, centerpieces, etc. I've thought about getting fake flowers to save money, but I don't want it to look cheesy... Any input would be great.