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So I just got engaged and I am SO excited. After about a week of celebration, reality came crashing down... we have a wedding to pay for! FI and I are paying for the bulk of the wedding ourselves and after sitting down last night, we decided the absolute MAX we can spend without going into debt is $10,000. And that means no honeymoon.
At first that number sounded totally do-able. I am a DIY queen and super thrifty, and 10K is a LOT of money. Then we started looking at venue prices. Holy freakin cow. I had NO idea how expensive catering is. It seems insane to me!
We are getting married in the winter so an outdoor event is out of the question (we live in Ohio), and we don't know of any place big enough to get married indoors for free... we will have about 100 people (almost all family. Lots of cousins).
The best place we've found so far is $1500 for the venue, probably 3500 for food, and 1000 for alcohol. That is 3/5 of our budget before we've even decorated or gotten dressed! I know so many people do weddings on 10,000 and less... but how? How hive, do I throw a respectable wedding for 100 people on 10,000??
Edit: I didn't even think about wedding bands or rehearsal dinner... oy.
((HUGS)) sit back and breathe dearie your virtual girl has you down. If you choose a place that is stunning and beautiful decor can be minimal. are you thinking of fresh florals or silks? check the local boards or classifieds and have items sent to you. what do you envision for your day? let's start there and we can figure everything else out.
Did you find those prices online or did you speak to someone? Usually winter weddings are more negotiable for venue/catering costs because they aren't in as high demand. And for the food and alcohol... see what is included, tell them how much you want to spend per person, and see if they're able to come up with something within your budget. Cutting down on the number of passed appetizers and having only one or two entree options will help. How about having water, soda, juices, beer, wine, and a signature drink or two for the bar to keep costs down? DIY flowers are a great way to keep decorating costs down as well. Have a friend video the wedding and find a photographer off craigslist who is just starting out. Shop sample sales or nonbridal shops for you dress. If you can get the venue, food, and alchol down to about half of your budget, then I think you'll be able to pull it off. Good luck!
Have you posted on a local board? People may have some thrifty ideas there. Also although I love weddingbee go on every local board you can find to see if you can find the thrifty find
I know how hard this is, I'm sorry! Isn't it insane how expensive the little things are?
I agree with crebre... there are lots of ways you can cut down on costs that you don't think of. I think your venue really sets the tone for this, although I know that might be hard with a winter wedding. Can you post pics of your venue? I bet we'd all have a lot of ideas for you.
Check out the knot's budget thing-y! Some of it helps me on a daily basis. We only have 4k, and about 275 people. But we get an outdoors thing, so that helps. Good luck!
I dont know the area but Im sure your wedding will be beautiful and perfect no matter what your budget is. $3500 for food for 100 is a great deal and catering/venue normally does eat up about 1/2 of your budget. You said you are DIY girl, so start looking around on the boards for inspiration and Im sure you can do alot of stuff for cheap, including decor. If its a pretty venue you wont need much decor and you can always do a cheaper alternative to flowers. Are his parents able to help out with the rehearsal dinner?
you can do this, but i totally understand the shock of it all (on same budget). this feeling will pass! look and look on everything until a great deal comes along, especially if you have some time.
as far as alcohol, one way we've found to cut the cost is serve beer and wine, maybe margaritas (maybe not!) and then tea and other drinks, but no open bar and mixed drinks! this will save QUITE A BIT while still being generous to your guests.
and while it sounds like you've "spent" so much already on just a few things, remember those are pretty much the biggest things! (besdies attire, in which you can find sales or sample sales, etc)
decorations- you know you can purchase most of it (on here even!) and then resell most of it, actually spending less than renting by the time its all said and done.
good luck, keep us posted! 
@crebre- i was originally think silk bc i don't care and i'd only use them for boquets... who would notice? when i told my mom she just about jumped through the phone and strangled me and told me that there was no way in hell i was doing fake flowers. it just doesn't seem worth the fight... so i guess i'll order them in bulk online.. prob single variety and do it myself. as for what i envision... the two things that are most important to me (other than getting married) are having a pretty venue and having good photography. my FI would love to get married outside but we can't do that unless we wait an extra 6 mo which is why we are looking at getting married in the rainforest at the local zoo. we also looked at some local greenhouses but they were wayyyy more expensive.
@bostonbee- we spoke to someone. that is with a 50% discount my dad is getting for being a former employee. i didn't realize you could bargain for food though... i thought it just "is what it is"... good tip! That price is just for a dinner buffet... no passed appetizers and no liquor at the bar. I'm planning on hitting up davids bridal and running of the brides for my gown. unfortunately i probably can't get a sample gown because i'm a size 14/16 and samples are too small. :(
Here is what we came up with for a 10,000 budget.. which does not even include our rings or honeymoon or rehearsal dinner:
venue: 1500
Food/service/rentals: 3000
beverage: 1000
cake: 150
gown/alterations: 550
hair piece or veil: 20
bridal jewelry/shoes: 50
hair appt: 80
groom's attire: 150
flowers for bouquets/bouts: 150
reception decorations: 300
ceremony decorations: 100
music: 200
photography: 2200 (i know this is a splurge i might have to let go but the idea of not having nice photos makes me want to cry)
invites: 150
all other paper (STDs, escort cards, etc): 50
hotel room for night of wedding: 120
attendant gifts: 200
favors: 30
grand total: 10,000
oh and to clarify... we have not booked this venue yet... but it is our hope to do so. we love it, its totally unique and 'us', and it seems to be the same or less money than other places we've looked at. It is the Rainforest at the cleveland metroparks zoo. basically a 2acre greenhouse with animals. It is usually more expensive but my dad worked there for 35 years so this is with big discounts. Here is a pic of the outside:
P.S. for those of you with a 10K budget... how much did you spend on venue/food/alcohol??
rainforest.jpg (78.9 KB, 8 downloads) 2 weeks old
Okay it's a gorgeous venue! do they allow candles? also do you have a whole foods there? they have beautiful flowers that you can order for a reasonable price. i honestly understand where you are going with your budget but i really don't care for it. if photography is most important to you, take from another place. if you used candles or some non-floral centerpiece (perhaps even cute animals or something like that) you could put more towards your photographer. the dress can easily be done, definitely check classifieds everywhere, try on dresses that you love and then go back around christmas (usually they go on sale to get ready for the spring lines). are you getting married on a holiday weekend? if not, definitely forgo the save the dates... i honestly won't be having them. also for favors why not do animal crackers? it would be so fun and quirky and cheap! bring a lot of feathers in, which can be expensive, except michael's, hobby lobby, etc has them and they have specials where you can get discounts.
if you are thinking florals, these would be cute interspersed between candles
this look can be achieved with faux orchids (they have them at hobby lobby).. do you have a dollar tree? they have these pillar vases for a dollar, the floating candles you can get from hobby lobby or michaels and the votives can come from hobby lobby or michaels.
@crebre- i am TOTALLY open to suggestions. everything is totally guestimates. where do you think i can do things cheaper?
wow that is so pretty! i would love to do something just like that... maybe i'm just overestimating how much stuff costs. which would be amazing :)
@Corgi - we're on the same budget and in the same climate!
I know it's not the big dream wedding, but have you considered appetizers? or just doing a cake and champagne reception? We've also found soups/sandwiches to be a cost effective alternative, but that's definitely going the more casual route.
We also cut alcohol all together, which is okay because we're probably having a lunch reception.
Hard choices, but IMO worth the savings/not going into debt!
You should contact someplace like the Cleveland Institute of Art. They have a photography program and you might be able to score some up-and-coming wedding photog!
And your venue is gorgeous, I know, having been there in 4th grade for a field trip. ;)
@corgs: it's hard doing a budget when you don't know the true cost of items and you aren't immersed in it. let me know if you need help and maybe i could purchase things from the dollar tree here and ship them to you? or you can have the dollar tree ship items to you if you have it? those flowers are at michael's and hobby lobby for sure, they usually come 6-9 on a strand and they usually give 40% off coupons so you could get them for little of nothing. go on line and register at michael's.com to get their coupons, same for hobby lobby. also both places have invitations. the first thing i think you should do is decide what is most important to you. if photography is most important then you should definitely do whatever you need to do to make sure you have great photography. it would be really cool if you could do these but stack them on a great silver platter
heh... thanks all. its not quite **ours** yet but it is our top choice if we can swing it. My dad worked at the zoo for 35 years and I worked there for about 4 years so it would really mean a lot to have it there... its been a huge part of our lives! Plus my FI LOVES the idea of getting married in an indoor space that looks like it is outdoors!
@jenirae- good tip about the Cle Inst of Art... I forgot about that!
@daydreamwanderer- you can only use the venue at night because the zoo is open during the day. I did think about maybe doing heavy appetizers and cake though since it will be late in the evening... my family wouldn't be thrilled but it might be necessary.
@crebre- that is too cute!! i was thinking of doing homemade chocolate covered pretzels bc i love them and they're cheap... but I might just have to do animal crackers!
love the chocolate covered pretzels as well! now you're thinking!! fun exciting cute and sweet.
One quick thing....is your FI having groomsmen? If so, if you have them all order through Men's Wearhouse the groom's tux is free (I think it's a 4 GM minimum though)....but if this is the case then that's an extra $150 you can use for something else.
I am also a bride on a budget and I have fallen IN LOVE with thrift stores. Two weeks ago I bought 36 vases for less than 50 cents each (some were even 13 cents each). I guess though too it depends on if you want everything to completely match, or if you are okay with variety. I personally think variety looks just as good as everything matching because it's just different and unique.
To cut costs for us, I am using the vases I bought, river rocks from Dollar Tree, and then putting a candle in each one. When it comes down to it, each center piece is costing me less than $5/each. Plus I found votive holders for 33 cents each and will have multiples on the tables to add more light and decor.
I LOVE the animal cracker favor idea that was mentioned (they were my favorite snack growing up) and could be really cute.
Do you have any friends that are DJs or know a DJ? I got a hook up through a girl at my current job and so my DJ is costing me a lot less than it would have. The main thing I have learned is to find connections!
Best of luck!
Sister, I was in the same boat! Here is what I learned as I have been planning our $8,000 wedding for 120 people.
We live in a small-ish city in Western NY and had orignially been looking at venues in the city area. Prices were typically $60 per/person or higher. And with a guest list of 120 people, we were already over budget.
So we started looking in the suburbs. We found a small, private country club with a slightly dated interior, amazing food and beautiful landscaping. Even better.. they were SO reasonable! I grew up about 10-minutes down the road from this place but I had no idea it was there.
A small country club might work well for you since winter is VERY SLOW for them and they are looking to generate revenue anyway they can. And don't worry about sponsors, they always have people willing to help.
Another plus you have with winter is the early nights. Don't worry about the decor too much and just fill the room with candles! The glow will make the entire room a dream. And they are crazy cheap!!
We are cutting the bar down to 2-hours and having wine service during dinner. This is a huge savings and no one needs to get drunk.
There are a lot of dress options but I called ahead to different shops to ensure they carried dresses under X-dollars (mine budget was $800). I know I am much mroe brave over the phone.
My flowers are through Wegman's grocery store. It's an upscale chain in our area. If you have a Publix or Whole Foods, test them out!
Scout around for your cake. At least it will be fun research! And do the butter cream and sheets in the back trick. It drives the price down.
We also have asked our parents to pay for any friends they would like to invite. My FI and I have not seen most of our parents' friends in 10+ years and could not justify us paying for them. So if our parents would like them to attend, they have to pay. So we are paying for 120 people but there will be 150 invited.
Our photographer I found through a friend, who knew a person, who knew our photographer. She is just starting out but will do anything to get the perfect shot. She did our e-pics and we couldn't be happier!
For wedding bands, we are just getting me a simple band for the wedding and then for our 1-year we will get my matching band.
We are doing a honeymoon (thank you air miles and hotel points!) but I wouldn't object to a mini-moon and I think you will deserve it!
I hope this was helpful! Keep us updated and let us know if you learn any budget tricks!
@jrswiggly- He is having either 2 or 3 groomsman, we are doing small wedding parties. we're not 100% sure we're doing tuxes though. He has a nice charcoal suit and we're thinking about him just wearing that... problem is then that his groomsmen would have to have similar suits so we'll see. I do know someone who used to be a dj. We were thinking of doing an ipod reception but asking this guy to be the dj/keep things moving and give him $250 for it. Not sure if he'll accept it but we're hoping!
First question: Is anyone making any contribution at all? Are your FILs hosting the rehearsal dinner? Would your parents make any contribution? My ILs paid for the rehearsal dinner (about $300 hosted at my parents' house) and contributed $1000 towards our honeymoon. My parents paid for our tent rental, venue cost and insurance for the weekend (city park required this). Their total cost was around $1100.
Our wedding had 120 guests. We managed to pay for everything else and it cost us $9,029.47! It would be a little more of a squeeze for you if you have no one helping, but I still think its doable!
Our reception cost: $5,919.54 (including our parents' contributions)
This included:Rehearsal Dinner, Venue fee, Tent rentals (large tent and small catering tent), Insurance, Dance floor, Tables, chairs, dishes (real china), cutlery, wine and champagne glasses, linens, catering rentals (chafing dishes, etc), appetizers, main meal, servers, servers' tips, cake, liquor, beer, wine, champagne, non-alc beverages, music (iPod + jukebox), and favors. This includes ALL taxes (which can be substantial).
second question: more of a statement I guess. You don't need to spend $2200 to get good pictures. We paid $500 and got outstanding pictures. We had no post-production editing, no prints included, no album, nothing but the raw images on two DVDs. We basically only paid for the photographer's time on the day of and some time uploading to the DVD's. She was there for 7 hours.
You can do an outstanding wedding on $10k, just need to be creative. We did our Wedding plus honeymoon to Bermuda for $9,185.78 after the contributions from our parents. If you disreguard any contributions from famiy, the wedding plus honeymoon cost $13,006.78
We had 110 peopleat our wedding, and we did it for a little bit under $10,000.
You can definitely do it!
Check out www.dollartree.com for vases and such.
We ordered all of our flowers through Costco, and did themourselves. It ended up being about $600 for 15 tables, 12 bouts, 12 nosegays, 6 bm bouquets, and my bouquet. So I would definitely recommend them!
If you have any questions don't hesitate to pm me! I loved planning my wedding on a budget, and it turned out exactly how I dreamed it would!
Does your venue let you bring alcohol in? We're saving a LOT by bringing our own alcohol, and only doing beer, wine, and a few signature cocktails.
my parents have said they will contribute some but haven't given me a number yet. I would be surprised if it was more than $2,000... they just don't really have the money to help more. I am not really counting this because I figure it will go for places where I go overbudget, or a rehearsal or something. FI's parents are not paying anything at all.
I'm so impressed that you got a wedding and honeymoon on that budget! i think i really need to buckle down.
@lilyfaith- no, we have to use their alcohol and catering. I'm estimating on alcohol. We can do a per-person cost which is like $20/person or we can do a per-drink cost (paid by us after the fact). We are doing per-drink because only about half of our guests drink and only maybe 1/3 are heavy drinkers. Average price of a drink is $4 so we figure that is 250 drinks for 100 people (once again, half of whom don't drink).
Ooooh honey! This is totally doable! (hi, BTW, I've been away from the boards for like, 36 hours and I feel so out of the loop!) Lexington is only a hop, skip, and jump away- don't make me come up there and calm you down with cupcakes! 
@kmsull- don't tempt me. i'm also in denial about the diet i need to start asap hehe!
Hi Corgi! I know how you're feeling - I'm working with about that same budget and had a near meltdown the other day on here about our venue and catering. The food is the absolute least important thing to me, and yet it's the most expensive thing on the list. Makes no sense to me!!! LOL
I think you've done a great job with your budget. Maybe you could cut a little bit from the food though? Is that number for a sit down meal? We are just going to be doing heavy hors doeurves. Maybe you know someone who could gift a wedding cake to you? I have a friend who makes them just for fun, and we are also friends with the pastry chef at the restaurant FI works at. The chef will be doing ours, but if not the other friend has offered. What kind of music were you planning on? Maybe you could do the ipod reception? And what about making attendant gifts, or doing something a little less expensive? Are you having liquor? Maybe you could do just beer and wine?
I'm just trying to think of places we are saving, as well as other advice I've gotten for myself on here!
Ugh, me too! I'm trying to be good... really... I'm quasi counting WW points but I can't seem to make myself get up and MOVE my butt!
If you can get away with 250 drinks at $4, I think you will be doing fine. We provided our own alcohol and that cost us almost $900. That was all alcohol. Does your $4 average iclude all drinks, wine, beer, liquor?
@honeybun- for some reason the cost is the same for buffet or served. It is like $28/person and that isn't counting tax or gratuity. I don't really know anyone with baking skills unfortunately. For music we were going to have FI make up an ipod playlist and then pay a friend to "dj"... basically to keep things moving, announce dances, make sure everything is happening when it needs to. For attendant gifts, I was thinking I might want to buy a necklace for each of the girls or something so they would match... but I guess I could make something. I just feel so cheap spending all this money and asking them to spend money and not gifting them something nice! And we were thinking of just doing beer/wine. I have no need for liquor at my wedding. :)
All the BM gifts I've ever received have been personal and thoughtful and cost hardly anything! One girl gave us blank journal books, and to each one of us she wrote a letter on the first page about our friendship, why it was important to her to have us in the wedding, etc. I thought that one was really neat.
My budget was $15K, and I was very strict with it. I started w/ the Knot budget, moved it into Excel, then made tradeoffs. For example, if I wanted to spend an extra $100 on my dress, then I had to cut something else out. I even put stamps and a new printer cartridge on there, for my home-printed invites. Try to make your top priorities, then only let yourself go over budget on those and cut back on your lower budget items...it's way too easy to cheat, but don't let yourself do it. ;)
There are plenty of other people who have made it work by being creative and DIY'ing. Also, don't be afraid to borrow decor, buy used decor, stalk craft store sales ads and buy used/off the rack for your gown.
Good luck!
I'm with you on this one! Super frustrating! I'm a $10k budget bride too and my one piece of advice is this: Don't take the venues & caterers list prices at face value. For example, when I was first looking at the wedding prices of my venue months ago I thought there was absolutely no way we could afford it! The cheapest they offered was $3k for the venue and $100/head for a no-frills buffet. WELL after I sat down with the venue salesperson and chatted for a while, I learned that because of the economy they were hurting really badly... SO the prices in their wedding packet were pretty much null. I ended up getting both my ceremony & reception site for $1,500 and my dinner is $60/head including one hour of open bar, a champagin toast, a full plated 3 course dinner, a custom decorated cake, all of our sound equipment for both ceremony & reception, a dance floor, our hotel room on the night of the wedding and a ton more....! I'm getting married at a 5 star resort and am getting away with the whole thing for a smidge over $10k... so have no fear - it can be done! Be sure and negotiate with the venues. Hotels and resorts are being hit really hard by the economy so as bad as it may sound, take advantage of the situation and do some negotiating! Good luck!
Phew! My wedding will probably be around 10k if we keep it in May, and I'll share some ways I've saved money:
1. Sample dress! I'm plus size, so if I was able to find one, you might be able to find one too. And if you'd be ok with a sample dress, you might consider a used dress--i mean, at least that one only had ONE person in it! My dress was $350, normally $1200.
2. Catering! I know "custom" sounds expensive, but a custom designed menu where you can choose cheaper alternatives (ex: Chicken with some sort of cream sauce is more filling than a tiny steak, and can be prettier with vegetables on top).
3. Decor/theme! This sounds so simple, but pick a theme and stick with it. My theme is vintage seaside, b/c my wedding will be on the water. If you get the zoo, incorporate it into your wedding! If it looks cohesive, it looks expensive.
4. Invites! I'm doing my own invites; granted, I've done invites for about a year now for other people so I guess I'm a little experienced. If you need help, I'm here! I know what it's like to be on a strict budget, but good graphics and design really can make your DIY invites look like a million bucks :)
5. Centerpieces... there are always cheaper centerpieces. I look on the knot and weddingsbycolor and the DIY section here and get ideas all the time!
6. Venue: we are still shopping around (we've got one, but may be looking for another). It sucks how expensive they are! We found plenty of out of the way venues though--art galleries and new places renting for under $500! Look around your city for some ideas.
7. Favors: we're doing a dessert bar that guests can pack up in glassine bags and take home with them. Since my sister and I know how to bake, 4 or 5 days before the wedding we're whipping up all these confections! The bags cost me $11 on ebay, the labels cost me $3 on ebay and the cooking stuff is all from scratch, so baking stuff will be about $100, if that. You could probably try making your own animal crackers and do something similar! Do flavors to make them gourmet: choco, lemon, strawberry, vanilla, almond, glazes, etc!
8. BM gifts: my girls are getting necklaces i'm making that go with my theme. (I'd spill where I got the beads, but I haven't bought them yet--so i don't want them to be sold out!) Other ideas--there are a lot of instructables about making your own liqueurs like limoncello, coffee, chocolate, etc. Those would make cute gifts (and darn tasty)!
9. Rentals--Don't automatically go for the chiavari, try the slatted chairs (which are about 4 times cheaper). Instead of renting premium linens, get premium table squares/make your own amazing runners--it ends up cheaper sometimes. I saw on here someone found buying their own flatware was cheaper than renting. Just explore ALL the options!
Good luck corgi!
I believe you can do it Corgi!
You're getting some amazing ideas.
I have some pics on my blog of flowers believe it or not that I found at my local grocery store in their floral dept! their florist said he could order anything I needed.
Have you thought of that route? Seriously!
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