Comments on: How to Plan a Wedding Without Breaking Your Budget

By: judy

judy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:46:40 +0000

Kelli,

If you click on my name it will automatically take you there, but it is The Green Hanger Shop. I would love and appreciate a visit! Best wishes

By: Keely

Keely — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:29:44 +0000

Thank you very much for your post and your advice; but what is your website as I would be very interested to have a look at that as i’m having trouble finding a great dress for under £1000 at the mo?

By: Judy

Judy — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:48:47 +0000

First, congratulations! Next, I would set a budget and then prioritize what matters most to you. Again, when considering your attire, look at preowned wedding gowns. I have just one of many websites that specialize in beautiful preowned gowns. They are available immediately and you may find a perfect match. Next, your friends are probably more than willing to share their talents, such as music, etc. Both of my daughters were fortunate to have friends who provided that as their gift to them. Since it is December, you will have lots of holiday decor in the stores at your disposal. Check for coupons to save money there. Those are just a few thoughts. Best wishes!

By: Keely

Keely — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:38:29 +0000

Hi, I’ve just been reading through all your posts. I’m planning on getting married this december, only problem is it is a last minute decision and I have no ideas about how or where!
Any advice for a small, family and a few close friends, wedding for as little as possible?
Any ideas very welcome!

By: Judy

Judy — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:57:51 +0000

Buying a used wedding dress (that is made to last a lifetime, but only used a couple of hours) saves so much money. Easily hundreds of dollars for buyer and seller, not to mention the carbon footprint reduction as well.

By: Lars Clausen

Lars Clausen — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:19:48 +0000

I got married in a very nice backyard reception. Music was done by friends and collegues and most of the stuff at the reception was homemade. It ended up costing about $5000 anyway, most of which was for 6 hand-tailored dresses and the photographer. It was a damn good wedding. Don’t be afraid to be unusual in your wedding.

By: shorty

shorty — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:19:35 +0000

My two cents on flowers.

1) no one really cares what is in the middle of your table.
2) dollar store vases
3) buy flowers in season and in bulk. I bought tulips in may and paid 75$ for all the tables.
4) candles make a room very lovely and tea lites are cheap.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:38:20 +0000

We got engaged in December 2008, and will be married in December 2009. Thankfully, most of the big money items have been decided upon / paid for.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:35:48 +0000

@Bryan I agree: If you can afford your wedding celebration without going into debt, it can be fantastic as you have a lot of freedom with choice.

We’re all just sharing tips and stories on our weddings, no one should be feeling bad about that.

How about you? How long have you’ve been planning for this wedding?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:06:19 +0000

Our wedding is going to be over the average listed here, but who cares? We are able to afford it without going into debt, and I shouldn’t feel ashamed for putting on a heck of a party for all of my friends and family. It is the only time of you life that you will have this group of people all together at once. If you can afford it, you shouldn’t feel bad about spending the money!

By: Jen-After the Alter

Jen-After the Alter — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:49:59 +0000

Great post! I got married almost a year ago and was very budget concious. I think the most importnat thing like you said is talk about your budget. There should be no secrets…who is paying, who is contributing, and how much? This way you can go into everything being realistic. Also, pick the part that is most important for you. For me it was the reception location so really most of my budget went towards that…but because i knew that I was able to give a lot on flowers and other things that were not as important to me…

By: Angelsong

Angelsong — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:07:49 +0000

Forgot to mention: We did hire a photographer, but a friend did the videotape for us for free as a gift.

By: Angelsong

Angelsong — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:01:17 +0000

We planned our wedding very carefully over a nine month span, and had no outstanding bills by the day of the wedding. We spent around $5,000 on everything we wanted. I bought my wedding gown and accessories at a consignment shop, and everything I wore (brand new) cost less than $650. We used a neighborhood florist who paid attention to our budget and had good suggestions that helped us save money. Our reception was in the church fellowship hall, which was very reasonable because we are members of the church. We chose barbecue catered, again very reasonable. We married on a Wednesday evening in November, but the date was special to us because it was the anniversary of the day we met.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:48:13 +0000

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and wedding stories. It’s amazing to see how unique and fun you can build a wedding celebration with out going into debt.

For those that saved before the wedding, my question is how soon did you start? For us, we started the day we got engaged. Before then, all my money was going towards paying off my credit card debt.

By: H Lee D

H Lee D — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:38:07 +0000

A couple of other things: my brother just got married and was able to get a discount on most services by paying in cash. What he wasn’t able to get a discount on, he put on his rewards card, and they paid for their honeymoon with rewards.

Also, I got married in June and got discounts for it – I live in Phoenix and summer is *not* wedding season here – we would have paid a lot more to get married in March. Make sure you know your area!

By: No Debt Plan

No Debt Plan — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:08:03 +0000

We had a small wedding… 75-100 people… for roughly $8k. Looks like we saved $20k. Good grief. Not sure how else we could have spent another $20,000…

By: bas

bas — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:26:38 +0000

I got married later in life (35), and our friends and families were spread out all across the country. Rather than saddle ourselves with expenses for a wedding and our guests with transportation and hotel costs, we went to Vegas. The small chapel had a live web feed for anyone that wanted to “attend” by watching. Total cost of the wedding, our flights, and 3 days in Vegas: $1,000.00. Besides the actual choosing of my husband, it was the best decision we ever made.

By: Baker @ ManVsDebt

Baker @ ManVsDebt — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:48:28 +0000

Thanks for the mention, Laura!

I would also like to add that we took the money we saved by not serving a full course dinner and provided open bar.

We got married when we were 22 & 23 and had over 300 (mostly younger) guests. This was an amazingly great decision. Everyone was safe, but had an absolute blast. There was no problem getting people onto the dance floor!

We still have people mention how cool our wedding was. If you like that formal, proper type of reception, go for it. But we found success just being ourselves and treating it more like a celebration!

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:47:30 +0000

Very solid advice . . . my wife and I laugh at the wasted money we see at weddings, because we know it doesn’t have to be that way.

By: Kev

Kev — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:40:02 +0000

I’m getting married in three weeks, so this topic is extremely relevant for me. My fiancee and I are paying for everything ourselves and have tried to maintain a tight budget. We also have the money saved so that none of it will be financed.

We opted for a destination wedding – a simple beach wedding in the Carolinas. Only our immediate family and a few close friends will be there. The total cost of the beach ceremony is around 650.00 and half of that is for a photographer. The casual beach theme has allowed us to save a lot of money on everything from decorations to clothes. We are staying in the Carolinas for our honeymoon as well and got a discount on our resort stay since we are getting married there.

We are also having a back-home reception for our extended friends and family. We decided to have it on a Friday night b/c the rental rates for event hall are cheaper on the weekdays. We are also having wedding cup-cakes, rather than an actual cake. The cup cakes are cheaper (I think they taste better) and you also get out of the ’serving’ fee that comes along with having a cake. They are arranged on a tower, so they are shaped like a cake and there is an actual small cake at the top for the bride and groom. We are keeping our food choices down as well. The price per plate for both food and drink should be around 15.00 per person. My sister – who is very artistically inclined – is making our centerpieces and what not.

The total bill for just the ceremony and reception (not counting the honeymoon) should be around 5,000.00 dollars – relatively cheap for a wedding.

By: Nickel

Nickel — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:28:32 +0000

Here’s a great way to save on your wedding reception: Hire a DJ who won’t actually bring music to your reception. That’s what happened to us.

We booked the DJ way in advance, but we later found out that he subsequently booked a second wedding shortly before ours. He wasn’t worried because his son was going to handle the second wedding, and they had plenty of equipment. Unfortunately, they only had one music collection, so…

He showed up with everything that he needed — except music. His son had almost all of their CDs at the other wedding. Not surprisingly, the music selection (if you could call it that) at our reception *sucked*. He had almost nothing that we had requested. In fact, he didn’t even have our requested first song. He actually had to leave during the reception and rush to the record store to get it. Thankfully, our photographer rocked and was able to sort of coordinate things in the DJ’s absence.

Needless to say, the DJ didn’t get paid. The bad thing about something like this happening (beyond the wedding day stress and disappointment) is that it jeopardizes far more than the cost of that one service. Oh, and for the record, this guy came highly recommended. In fact, he had done my sister-in-laws wedding and he got rave reviews.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:54:56 +0000

@Wise Money Matters: Thanks for sharing some practical tips from your wedding. I agree that photos are something you may want to spend a bit more on for the memories.

By: Wise Money Matters

Wise Money Matters — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:43:37 +0000

Great advice. My wife and I did a lot of this for our wedding. We were actually able to keep everything right around $5,000.

We had the wedding just after Christmas so we could send out extra invitations (and thus not offend anyone) but not expect all of them to show up due to Christmas stuff.

We served hot apple cider and cookies because the wedding was at 2 and the reception around 3pm so nobody was expecting dinner.

We also made most of the decorations, party favors and even flower bouquets ourselves.

The most important area I believe that you should spend extra money is on photography and videography. Luckily we had some friends who were professional photographers so we got a great deal, but the wedding is such a fast paced blur that you are going to want to have stuff to remember it.