fabulousmrsklein's Pink wedding

Hi Mrs Fabolous Constance! Read all your comments on my blog and decided to have a peak at your side. :o)
I don't think talking about money is bad as this is going to be the single biggest purchase of your life apart from buying your house or a car. And if you think about it that you're spending so much money on a 'party' that will only last a few hours...well...
Anyway. I may not be of huge help here as I don't live in the States. But I can tell you that our budget right now stands around £7,500, which is around $15,000. That may not seem an awful lot, but when you take it into consideration that we decided to have the wedding in Hungary to SAVE money, then it's an awful lot. Then again, in the UK weddings cost a minimum of £10,000 ($20,000) so I guess we ARE saving money. I think doing a lot of things yourself will definitely keep your budget down. You can DIY your invitation, if your guests live near you, you can hand-deliver them saving on stamps. You can source your dress online, make your own flower arrangements, buy your decoration on Ebay, etc.
Oops this comment grew a bit long. What I wanted to say basically is that although you really can save a lot by DIY-ing, I think a $2000 budget will need a huge miracle to pay for a wedding.

I really think weddings under 5K are only possible if you don't have many guests and if you use a small town church or community center. I am getting married in Dallas and I could save 2K by getting married in outskirts but then I think we'd need a party bus to shuttle people because our friends drink alot. The biggest way to save is find a venue that will let you bring your own food and not require a licensed and insured caterer. Then you can stay up the night before with your bridesmaids and the women in your  family cutting the crusts off of little sandwiches and baking cookies. Two of my sister's did that and it was actually kind of fun (esp. if you bring wine) plus a great time for bonding.

ah yes the big budget question. I also was bewildered to find out people doing weddings for under 10K 5K even 3K. I'm not going to say it can't be done, a lot of people are doing things themselves which cuts costs big time and are not getting things that are expensive. I've read posts about $100 gowns, Family doing pictures, DIY flowers, invites, decor, even bridesmaid gifts. So I'm sure it's possible to accomplish.

My fiance and I are paying for our own wedding. The help we're getting from our families is covering the rehersal dinner and some of the honeymoon. Our reception bill will be over 13K (200 guests). This includes food, premium open bar the entire reception, chairs linens etc sweet table and cake.  With everything else including the gown I'v been looking at (1500-2000) our budget is close to 40K. This also includes a week in Maui staying at Sheraton or Westin.

With that said we are having a wedding we can afford. We are buying a house this year and a second car so I am working to get the budget down to ideally 35K.

I DO NOT recommend paying for a wedding you can't afford (i.e. pay off relatively fast after the wedding) You don't want to start your life together in debt.

If you have the money, go for it, its one of the most important days of your life. But in the end all that matters is that you're married. I'm sure if I needed to I would have a much cheaper wedding.

Work with what you got and it will be amazing either way. Doing things yourself or paying for someone else to do them doesn't make it any more or less special. It's all about living within your means.

I do think this question may turn into a bit of a trouble maker.  I don't want to get on my soapbox so i'll try to keep it short.  You do not have to be a DIY bride to have a cheap wedding.  I am having a cheap wedding when compared to most brides on this site but not as cheap as other brides and even still I feel guilty about spending hundreds of dollars on a dress I will wear for ONE day.  Whether I spend 20,000 on a wedding or 2,000, the only thing that matters is that I am beginning a life with the man I love.  You don't have to spend the money to have a beautiful wedding that people will remember.

My wedding needs to stay under $4,000... Which seems really small to some people, but I think the MAX I personally would go would only be around 7K. I don't want to be spending all my hard earned money (I am a nurse for crying out loud :-) )going to one day - even though it is so very special and I will remember it always.  I want my money to be spent on buying a house, getting that car I want/need, saving for kids....
But there are so many ways to save money - it is just the motivation and time to do it. We are getting a top photographer in the Seattle area to do our pictures for $200. Because we only want him for an hour to get the real good pictures in and our wedding is on a weekday so he wants the extra cash! (not to mention he is extremely nice). Then for the reception there will be a friend, who conveniently is a photographer, taking pictures of the other details. And since me or the groom don't drink - there will be no alcohol. So, people understand that and will just have to deal. I like clean and simple wedding cakes, so I went to a local bakery: ordered 3 different size round chocolate cakes and I will be placing and decorating them on tiers myself. I love to do DIY projects and since I have a big family and tons of people wanting to help - everything (should) go fine! :) I understand what you mean though - it is hard, but still very fun. Hope that helps?

I'm in agreement with alybrand.  Some of us just don't have what some brides & grooms have financially to offer to one day.  And, Im not saying that if I did have lots more to add to my budget that it would even happen, because I would want to have something left over & not worry about it later.  So...I guess to answer your concerns, it's like the old saying goes...sometimes it's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know.  Every element of a wedding on a budget does not have to be a DIY effort.  For me personally, I am one of those brides who happens to be in the less than $5k budget range.  I am not well off.  But, I am very fortunate to know people in places who can do the work of vendors.  These are not family members, although if they were, that is not a problem because it dosent qualify them any less than any other professional.  I know people in the hotel business who can give discount room rates for my block of guests, I know someone who is an event planner, someone who is a caterer, my FI knows people.  By all means it's not freebies, but it's asking around & even extending my wedding date. My dress was on sale.  And on top of that I'm actually PLEASED with my choice because it is beautiful to me.  

Yes a wedding can be extremely expensive, but it dosent have to be.  It's all in what you want.

Yes I agree. Initially I thought that our wedding would be small and simple $10k but it has grown TREMENDOUSLY!!!!. 10k is just for the wedding ceremony and reception ALONE. At this point we don't have a budget because everytime we get one it changes LOL.

However, my fiance's is saying that $15,000 is the LIMIT. So i'm working hard to stay within that budget; maybe changing the date (get married on a Friday (thanksgiving weekend) who knows; its cheaper. Also we are moving into our new house in September, both are important but getting our first home is HUGE, so go figure!!!!

We just graduated from college, have big loans to pay off, and we plan on building a house in the next 5 years.  So, needless to say, our budget is about $5,000.  My parents haven't given us the official number of what they will be giving us, but I am hoping it's right around $5,000.

We're having the ceremony and reception at his parents' place (A beautiful 300+acre farm), and we're doing a pot luck dinner instead of hiring a caterer.  A friend of a friend is a photographer on the side, so he's cheap, and we're going to hire him for only about 2 hours - before, during, and right after the ceremony.  The rest of the pictures will be taken by the guests, who will have a disposable camera on each table.  I have lots of DIY projects, but because we have about 16 months left, there's plenty of time to shop around for affordable things, and do long projects without feeling rushed.

So far, I've found it possible to have an affordable wedding.  At this time in our lives, we aren't willing to throw down thousands and thousands of dollars for our wedding.  We want a house, and kids soon.  I'm a teacher, and he's in the psychology field about to start working on his Masters, so we don't have a ton of disposable income.

My  fiance and I are both attorneys and are planning our wedding and its LESS than $10,000. I saved ALOT of money, wise decision. Our focus is on our future and LOOKING pass our wedding day.

1.I found a vera wang gown on Craiglist for  only $160 including Alternations
2. Ceremony/Reception Site-$1500
3. Caterer @2104
4. Service Charge $300
5.  Bridal Accessories $90
6. Groom's Attire-$320
7. Stationery/Postage -$150 (DIY invites)
8. Photography $1700
9. Ceremony Music $400
10. Flowers-$456
11. Favors $47 (handmade)
12. Cake $50-family friend is making it ($50 is a thank card gift)
13. Officiant-Free my uncle
14. Coordinator $150 Family Friend
15. Hair/Makeup $500 (bride and bridesmaids)
16. Wedding Party Gifts $500
17. Transportation $0
18. Hotel $400
19. Misc $1645 (including rentals, alcohol. lanterns,and sparklers

Non Wedding Day Expense

Rehearsal Dinner $500
Honeymoon $ 4000

Just because someone is having a 4K wedding doesn't mean that their day has to be any less special than couples who spend a small fortune on their wedding day. Let's get a few things into perspective. Your wedding day will not be the most important day of your life. Getting married is about a marriage that should last a lifetime not about one day that brings you officially together as a couple.
The important thing here is that you are getting married to the person you love and to whom you are committing the rest of your life. What your wedding day costs is not important compared to the events that are likely to happen throughout the rest of your life.
Some married couples can end up spending $40,000 on their wedding because they lost sight of what their wedding was all about and end up in the divorce courts just a few short years later. If you had that kind of money to spend, would you spend it on your wedding or as the deposit on a new home?!?!?!

Here's how I'm pulling it off (but first, thanks to Ashley for mentioning this could be a trouble maker and to Brenna for mentioning that college loans, buying a house and planning for children are also in the budget of life! And to soon2bmarried for mentioning the real importance of a wedding and marriage).

Also, I'm sick of brides making me (and my friends) feel like just because we're not spending a lot on our weddings, we shouldn't have a wedding at all.

Right now, we're at $1,324 and we don't want to spend any more than 2 thousand. (Not including my engagement ring, I don't know how much he spent and I don't care to know. All I know is he paid for it for from July through December. And we're not including the cost of our wedding bands--which is $720).

Some of our costs:
Officiant donation: $50
Location: $175 (paid by my brother-in-law, thus free to us)
Wedding dress: $99
My accessories: $104
Invitations: $28.86
Favors: $39
Cake: free to us
Food: free to us
Suit (everything included): $140
Photography: $162

I'm a full time college student and I'll be graduating in May and looking for a teaching job. I don't know where you're from, but pretty much nationwide and especially in Maine, teachers don't get paid much. My fiance is a master plumber and an oil burning technician. He gets paid almost double what my first years salary will be. We're more concerned with saving and building our house, saving to have our babies and making sure we're healthy.

Sorry, but no, you don't have to spend more than $2,000 to have a beautiful wedding. And, really, does having a beautiful wedding guarantee you'll have a beautiful marriage---no.

budget! yuck! hehe I don't even want to think about that, since we just moved out here I heard things are much cheaper and so maybe I can have everything I want for half the price.
I see you are in Aurora, I know its very expensive there, I just moved here with my fiance from Naperville (IL), we were neighbors!

I went to college in NC... its like we swapped, naperville in just a town away lol... but yes it is MUCH cheaper in NC, many of my friends from college have tied the knot there and it was SO much cheaper then what i am going to have to pay!

My wedding wont be 5k but it will be around 7k. What I did to cut a huge cost is that instead having a sit down dinner which was going to cost me around 4k I decided just to have appetizers. We are having a nacho bar with other little fun appetizers. We cut the sit down dinner in half and now we are only paying 2k for food!!!
(and we are also having 200 guests)

Another way that I cut cost is that I origanally wanted my reception to be at a hotel since it would be convienent and that hopefully no one would drink and drive!!! So I call the local non-profit organizations like the Elks Club which helps families in need and they have a facility that they rented out to me for 500 where as the hotel was 2k and I had to get the food from them!!!

The last big way that I have saved money is by making the little things on my own. I dont know how crafty you are but I made my ring bear pillow and flower girl basket both for 5 dollars and they look just like the ones you can buy online for $40. I made my own centerpieces for 25 tables for less then 30 dollars. Really it is the little things that add up the most!!!

I would really like to know how you are cutting costs in your wedding???

I am cutting costs by not having a sit down dinner (although we were not going to have one anyways, my fiance is strongly against such things and he RARELY cares so he gets his way!!)
I am having trouble cutting costs elsewhere... we are having a 4 hour premium OPEN bar which is $$$$ but then I am going some DIY's.!!

OOOPs and we are changing the centerpiece flowers from roses to carnations (keeping roses for the bouquets also)... that made the flower bill go down HUNDREDS!!! I am making the programs myself.

I am a member on this site and a lot of you would recognize my name, but since this topic is a little touchy I'd just staying secretive!
One point I'd like to mention is that I personally think that the AGE of the couple likely has a lot to do with the budget, maybe I'm wrong?  But that's my opinion...
At the time of our wedding I will be 32 and FH will be 30.  We are both established, own a home, and have very little debt.  We also both have families that are middle - upper class and they are excited to contribute.
All that being said, our wedding will be coming in somewhere around 40 - 45K.
It's sort of strange, I really thought this number was pretty normal but after reading all these posts I'm blown away!  2K, 4K, 6K... I am very impressed and think that the brides working with these budgets should be very proud of their resourcefulness!
Happy planning to all...
: )

I don't know how anyone plans a wedding for less then $5000... crazy but cool