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Photography was most important to me all else was like eh! haha!
The venue came first for us, then photography. Food is fairly important, so it's pretty high up there - flowers I'm more willing to scrimp on. DJ we're going somewhere middle of the road - good reviews, but we don't care that much! I'm making the cake myself, but I wouldn't call that a low priority, I'd call it me being picky, haha.
for me photography was the MOST important, because 50 years down the road you won't remember most of the details, but you'll still have the pictures.
i'm also willing to scrimp on flowers, because i'm not picky. i plan on going to the farmers market the morning of or something and just buying a premade bouquet for $3.99. easy peasy.
Pick one or two priorities and figure out how to let the rest go. :) We picked food and a little bit venue so I'm letting everything else go. Which doesn't mean bad stuff, but no splurges. But I don't think it had to be that way, we could have prioritized photography and everything would still have worked out, food just happened to be what we picked.
I can 'talk down' any part of the wedding if necessary. :P The truth is that the only truly really important part are the two of you and the people who love you. Everything else is optional and as long as love is in the air it will be a great event. Once you feel comfortable justifying to yourself why a cheaper option for flowers, food, etc. will work just great - you can pick something to splurge on.
Besides, cheaper is often not worse.
i think you can have high priorities on all of those things, you just have to do your research, find good deals, and maybe do some diying. for example, flowers was way high up on my "must have" list but our wedding had a tiny budget, so i did them myself. they were beautiful but not as expensive as they would have been by a pro.
Definately had to invest in a good photographer and videographer, we are excited that we will have a wedding video that we can watch together with our 1 yr old daughter when she gets older, we are skipping flowers for church and centerpieces, just too much money to waste. Our honeymoon was well prioritized too! We are dying for a nice vacation
As you can see, most brides choose to splurge on the photography, and I have to agree :)
In the beginning, because we were on a moderate budget that wouldn't allow us a lavish party, we picked three priorities, and decided to be kind of skimpy on the rest. We picked our venue, photographer and food/top shelf liquor. We found our strong musicians on CL for our ceremony for crazy cheap, my aunt did our centerpieces (branches in a case with tons of candles), we had a $300 floral budget for just bouquets and bouts (it's doable!), no DJ (iPod wedding - no one noticed!), and we could even afford a DOC.
Mind you, we had 73 guests and only four BMs/GMs, so our wedding was small. BUT, we were so happy with the things we did splurge on, we were okay cutting back on other things.
For us we both agreed a great photographer we both liked and a venue that had all the offerings we both want.
From there on anything else that's extra is getting nixed. We wanted Sangria, that's a $1 extra. Gone. Would love a Peking Station, $5 extra. Gone.
We also set a budget and went backwards from there. Anything that was frivolous and extra to us was gone.
And FI has been really great about pulling me back to earth on certain things that I want to have but in the big scheme of things just don't matter.
I have been obsessed with clothing history and construction and fashion since I was a young teen and like few things more than a great dress, and of course, the wedding dress is the dress to end all other dresses, and it will likely be by far the most amazing dress I will ever wear. When I found my dress, I knew it was perfect because it was a) gorgeous and b) its basic design reminded me of all the 19th century early couture dresses I'd lusted after in museums and books. So that was my first priority, and I feel no shame in saying that. It is more expensive than any other purchase in my wedding and is about 1/3 of my budget. I think we will have to sell it afterwards, but ah well, it will be my love for eight good hours.
Next was food. Food dictated venue. I am committed to having a really awesome vegan dinner because I LOVE to eat and cook and also love animals and don't want any being slaughtered for our joyful celebration. I knew I wanted one of NYC's top two vegan restaurants to cater my event, so I had to find a venue that allowed outside catering.
Next was venue. Hello, venue sets the mood more than just about anything else in your wedding. I knew I wanted something gorgeous, stately, elegant, and quintessentially New York--and I found it, and it's not even that expensive (by NYC standards). YAY.
Next was photography. I want my wedding (and that dress!) captured beautifully, and I want it captured just so. As many previous posters said, that's all you'll have to remember your wedding and show your grandkids in 50 years! I think it's so great that we've got this trend of placing much greater importance on photography now than in days past. Having only one or a few photos of parents'/grandparents'/great-grandparents' weddings is kinda sad.
All the rest isn't nearly as important as the details I listed. Some more, some less, but these four are what mattered most.
We haven't set anything in stone just yet, but great food is very important to us. We want everyone to eat well and have a fantastic time. I'm willing to scrimp on the flowers for the centerpieces, get a less expensive dress, and forego transportation if need be. I'm selecting a venue which requires minimal decoration which should also save on the budget.
For my wedding, the FOOD was very important to me. I just did not want to eat the same thing (chicken, sorry!) I had eaten at every other wedding as a guest. I think quality tenderloin steaks, atlantic salmon, and fettucine for my veg friends are wonderful choices- so I found a venue that had what I wanted.
And I wanted a venue that was dressy- nice, classy, elegant. I am an outdoor girl big time, but I wanted my wedding to feel like an elegant dinner party.
After food/ venue came the BAND!!!!!! I love music and wanted a great cover band so that everyone could enjoy themselves. I like live shows and I think a fun band makes it special and ..fun!
Also toward the top of my list was the DRESS! I felt the dress was really important. That being said, I am all about a bargain and had to search for a very long time to find one that was couture AND affordable. And still, it didn't matter to me nearly as much as the food and the band. To me, those are what create a memorable experience for guests.
Nothing matters more to me than having the people I love around- so that really was the first priority. If I had to cancel out something else to have more guests, I really did not hesitate too much.
we had a really close friend early on say "I can't wait for your wedding, knowing you guys it will have the best music and the best food!" (he sings opera and i am a lot of a foodie! That really helped us decide where to focus, we wanted our guests to have a good time so we splurged on things they would appreciate like the food. also we found flexable photographers and we still owe them money, but we didn't have to pay it all upfront so it didn't take away from wedding saving!
Splurge on what matters most to you. also what I did for each decision was picture the cheapest thing possible, if i was ok with it we went for it, if in my imaginary wedding it ws a disaster, we would step up until i could live with it. (except chivari chairs, because i went crazy a week before the wedding and decided I had to have them lol)
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Hi Hive,
I'm having so much trouble deciding how to prioritize our budget. We decided to splurge on our venue because we love it so much. I also want to have great food, an amazing photographer, fabulous music, and gorgeous flowers. But it all adds up so quickly and I have no idea how to prioritize. I know I can't pick the very best of *everything* and stay on budget.
How did you decide?