How did you afford your wedding?

[tari]

We got married two years ago, and it all ended up costing about $10,000. We had about 120 people at the wedding. His parents paid for half of it, my parents paid for my clothes, and we paid for the rest. Keep in mind that we're in Chicago, which is a really expensive place to get married, so our wedding was really modest by Chicago standards.

His parents contributed $5,000, which pretty much covered the food bill at the banquet hall. We had a full dinner and dance. We looked into renting a VFW hall or someplace and catering it in, but it was WAY less expensive to go with a package at the banquet hall. We thoroughly researched all the halls in the area to find one that was nice, but was also reasonably priced. We also had our wedding on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, so we were able to negotiate for the less expensive Sunday rates. The package included all the food and drinks, the cake, and silk centerpieces for the tables.

The ceremony was in a gorgeous garden in our local park district. It cost $500 to rent (which included chairs and a tent), and was worth every penny.

We splurged a bit on a few things...a harpist to play at the ceremony ($250), a really great DJ for the reception ($800), a trolley to take the wedding party from the park to the reception ($700).

To offset the stuff we splurged on we did a lot of stuff ourselves, and took advantage whenever we could of talented family and friends. I chose a less expensive dress ($600) and made my own veil ($25...it's really easy and cheap to make one...they really rip you off on that at the bridal stores).

His brother is a photographer, so he took the pictures for us.

My sister and I ordered the flowers online and then made all the bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres ourselves. We also had roses for the ushers to give to each woman as they were seated. The flowers only ended up costing about $300.

We also made most of our own decorations, shopped around and online for the odds and ends, and pounced on anything we could find on a clearance table.

 

[cyberkitten]

I think my folks would have had a heart attack if I'd had a wedding that cist that much, lol (They did not mind paying for tuition but not for weddings! It is all priorities I guess

)

 

[ccoccocats]

I afforded it by never marrying!

 

[leli]

You guys have some good tips. I see that many of you did a lot of the work yourself. That must have added some stress, but it's a good way to save money. I'm not getting married any time soon, but I'll try to remember your ideas when the time comes, lol. Hopefully, my parents will be willing to pitch in.....probably they will, but my mom has a case of what my dad calls "short arms and deep pockets" (aka she's cheap lol).

 

[valanhb]

I'm one of those that did a lot myself. It does add to the "to-do list", but it also makes it a little more personal than if everything was off the shelf. I forgot to say that I made my veil too, and I know that no one will have one quite like mine (I hand-beaded the trim with white seed beads, and snowflakes that were actually mini-tree ornaments). Same with the bouquets. We had a blast making them, and all of them were unique. Nothing cookie-cutter about it!

 

[sooz123]

It was actually a lot of fun doing a lot ourselves, although it was a LOT of work and for the crowd we ended up with (25), we would've been better served to elope! We spent less than $2000... including wardrobe, and it was a formal wedding!

We got off cheap because we held it at a beach house my sister owns, cost was just $300 (the cleaning fee... to rent it for the week would've been several thousand- it was a huge house). Free accommodations for the wedding party, and a built-in honeymoon! We held a very casual & relaxed rehearsal dinner there the night before too... chili on plastic table clothed card tables, ice cream dessert, and margaritas. We just rented 75 white folding chairs to accommodate both the dining room and the ceremony area.

You can get off cheap by being thrifty about wardrobe. I got my dress at a consignment shop (yes, it had been worn once, but would have been close to $1000 new and I got it for $200). I made the accessories myself with beads leftover from gluing some to the veil. We bought my husband's suit for about the same price that we paid for my entire getup, shoes and all... and no one had the slightest idea that I hadn't bought it all at an expensive bridal shop! I did splurge with a trip to the day spa to have my hair done, though.

We held it at sunset, so most of the decorations were candles (we held it indoors in the winter)... So I bought up about $50 in candles, where ever they were on sale or cheap, I bought them, including ebay. I bought cheap christmas candle holders from the dollar store and painted them silver so we'd have enough to hold all those candles, and used plain white saucers from a casual dining set to hold pilar candles. What of the decor wasn't candles were decorations I got on sale after Christmas... piles of white mini-lights on white strands, silver wired ribbon, etc.

I bought the cake from a local bakery for just over $100. She also had a floral connection and got my flowers at wholesale pricing for me... (enough lillies, roses, and irises to make the bouquets, boutinirs, and floral arrangements all for less than $200) but if you don't get married near a major flower-giving holiday, you can order them direct from the growers online far cheaper than you could buy at a florist shop... just find an artistically inclined friend (you'll be too busy!) to assemble them the night before in simple but elegant bouquets.

Also ordered the invitations online... did a lot of shopping and found the cheapest place. That came out to $150 for 75 with accessories and they turned out to be exactly what I would've picked out at any price. For the guestbook, we just bought a big frame on sale, had a matte cut to hold an invitation in the corner and left the rest open for people to sign... then propped it up on an eisel at the entrance. Much cheaper than a guest book and instant wall art!

Other than that, I had my sister play piano during the ceremony (but you can get an instrumentalist of your choice from a local school for cheap), my new sister-in-law/amateur photographer brought her nice camera and took the photos, and my matron-of-honor's husband played DJ with a laptop, hooked up to my PC speakers, loaded with my favorite songs that I downloaded. My sister catered dinner for us (they also own a restaurant), but if you just serve finger food, which is all that is "required", most people can get friends to do it and come out with just the cost of food.

Hope that gives you some ideas!

 

[bren.1]

I'm glad I'm not the only bargain bride.

We got married last summer and it was less than $3500. It was small, about 60 people.

We had the ceremony outside at a nice park, it cost $40 to rent the place for the morning, plus about $120 to rent chairs and a nice bridal arch. I did my own flower arrangements.

We had a luncheon reception, sandwiches, fruit, cold salads. Friends did the catering. We bought most of the food ourselves, they only had to put it out on trays and keep the buffet line supplied. Some of our friends and family brought other food--cookies, deviled eggs, baked beans. We only served beer and wine.

A friend did my hair, and took pictures. They turned out great, very professional. My dress was on sale half-off, so I only paid $300 for it.

It was very simple, but fun. We still get comments about what a nice wedding it was. More important to us is life after the ceremony, not the ceremony itself.

The best piece of advice I can give is not to get caught up in the details too much. If you accept that something won't go as you expect, you will be fine. Also, enlist your friends and family for some of the stuff if they have talents like photography or flower arranging, or anything else you need.