Weddingbee boards

First of all, planning a wedding in NYC for less than $40,000 is tough. With that being said, you need to focus on what is important to you and your fiancé.

Flowers weren’t a big deal for me, so the day before the wedding I went down to the flower district and bought $250 worth of flowers. This made 5 BM bouquets, one toss bouquet and 6 boutonnieres.  I made my bouquet out of brooches that I had found at various stores.

Photography was a huge deal to both me and my now husband. We actually hired an acquaintance of ours who does photography as a hobby, and he just wanted to grow his portfolio.  So the cost of our photographer w/o prints ended up being $600 (which was a gift from my MIL). I would suggest going with a college student from School of Visual Arts. They are incredibly talented over there. Make sure you check their work and draw up a contract!!! Do NOTHING without a contract. http://www.vintodphotography.com/p702738345

The transportation was the most frustrating thing to book! There was no way around it. It costs us $1200 on 1 limo and 1 Mercedes. I have no suggestions here, and our limo company was awful!!! Don’t use astrechout.com

Hair and Make-up cost me $80. I had my make-up done by my best friend who is a make-up artist (for free), and I got my hair done by Destiny at Dramatics on 23rd and Lex. She came to my house and did it. I would suggest asking friends to do make-up and hair, and if not go to Lord and Taylor or Macys and let a girl do your make up and discreetly ask her if she can do your make-up for your wedding, obviously you would pay her, but not $500 like most NYC based make-up artists do! If you want my best friend’s number to do yours, just let me know and we can set you up to go see her at Lord and Taylor to do a test. J

I got delicious red velvet cupcakes with a small cutting cake from Black Forest Bakery. They were so great and the staff was so helpful! I highly recommend them. It cost $300 for 100 cupcakes and a cutting cake.

The venue that we chose was Katwalk Lounge. The colors were perfect for us (black and red). It cost $5000 for the space, 2 bartenders, 2 bus boys, 1 security guard for 5 hours. This also included open bar for 100 people (beer, wine, rail). The manager Charlie, could not be more accommodating! Our wedding venue was at the Conservatory gardens. The cost was $500 and the views were breath taking. One thing that you have to remember though is having a back-up plan incase it rains. So venues were $5,500.

We had two sets of musicians at our wedding. At the ceremony we had a violinist and a cellist play, which cost $300. At the reception we had a fun, funky 3-piece jazz band play, which cost us $1,000. All in all it was $1,300 for music. These were all recommended to us though friends of friends. And I suggest that you go listen to them play for yourself too.

We had a friend officiate which I highly recommend. It was very personal. So this costs us $0, but we did get him a $100 gift.

My dress I got lucky with. It was $800 and I (my grandma) bought it new from Maggie Sottero. I would suggest going outside of NYC to find a dress. Because any store you find in Littletown, USA will ship and will be less expensive than in NYC. My husbands suit came free from Men’s Warehouse since the groomsmen bought their suits there.

Alterations cost me (my MIL) $250, this included a slip and the alteration to make the dress shorter at the reception (forget what it’s called!).  That part broke, so I will not be recommending my alterations place. –it was out in Long Island anyway.

Shoes I found at DSW for $20, they were Pour la Victoira. I was going to spend $200+ dollars on shoes, but then I realized that no one freaking sees them! I am truly happy with my decision, and they were super comfortable and moderately pretty. Veil was $60 via David’s bridal. All my jewelry was a gift or borrowed. Purse was given to me. My garter was $40. All in all my accessories were $120.

Guestbook was really personal made by Iphoto. It was $60 and the pens/highlighters were $10. No fancy pens for me! $70

Toasting Flutes were a gift.

We did not have a videographer.

Gifts. We went a little over board on gifts. I got my girls aprons from Anthropologie and personalized cookbooks from Tastbook.com. This equaled to $300 for 5 BMs. My husband got his guys fancy shaving cream and aftershave and lotion or something. This was $400! Parents gifts were $125 from etsy. $825

Food.  On our invitation we said join us for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. So we had plates of food from fruit with sugar glaze, to cheese and meat, little pasta bowls, pretzles, etc. Being passed around by a server. Our “caterer” was a friend who used to do this for a living and her daughter was our server. This was only cost us (my MIL) $700.

Favors. We got everyone white stick umbrellas. This would also work to our advantage incase there was a light drizzle on the day of. We attached cute stamped “thank you” paper with ribbon on each one. $325 Umbrella Tec

Stationary was $2 a pop for 100 of them and they were incredibly elegant. $200 for an invite, response card, and 3 envelopes. http://www.invitationsbydawn.com/Wedding-Invitations/Heart-Wedding-Invitations/2657-DWF12015-Heartstrings--Invitation.pro

Stamps cost $88 to get invites there, and get a response back.

Overall cost of wedding: $12,708. Family helped, and I paid $10,058 of it. Good luck!

@RayRayFurious:  You can see more pics here: http://www.vintodphotography.com/p702738345/h47087fb#h47087fb WE are pics 1-35

Katwalk is a sports lounge, so they had all sorts of TVs. So on the big projectors we had Casablanca playing (without sound), it was the first movie that we saw together. And on the smaller TVs we had a 10 minute silde show on loop of us when we were kids/growing up/and then together pictures.

@creativeplannertobee:  Thank you so much! It's nice to start off a marriage with zero debt. :)