Where to start?

sstonge

Hello ladies,
My FI and I are on a budget. We are plannig our wedding for the 18th of August.  I don't even know where to start. I have so many things that I want to do and son't know where to start. PLus I want to be able to DIY as much as possible to cut costs. I  will take any advice that you ladies can give me on where to start... Thanks...

JessiiJ

Most would prob. say venue first, but I say look at your possible guest list size. 

Once you have an estimate on how many people should come, would come, and you would like to have, start looking at venues and see what they have to offer and what you will have to provide. Then decide ceremony. Do you want to get married in a church? Are there any halls that will allow you to have your ceremony and reception in the same location? How much will it cost to have both in one venue versus transportation from one place to another. 

In short, your three priorities at this point should be 

1) size of the event

2) reception venue

3) where is the ceremony going to take place?

sasha213sw

I would say first figure out your budget.

I know you said you are on a budget but know exactly how much you have will help you with everything - your venue, your guest count, your dress, your photographer and so on.

We calculated how much we can save between now and our wedding, factored in how much our parents offered and then got busy on venues. For us, the venue and photographer were the most important things so we made sure to get those booked asap. I think if you prioritize the things that are important to you and your FI, you will figure out what you need to do in what order. Since it's a bit early, now is a great time to figure out things like colors and themes (if any) that you like. Start looking at pictures online for inspiration. That works for me .

I created an Excel file with all the venues we looked at, how much they charged and what was included so I could compare side by side. Once we found our venue we realized that we couldn't afford a Saturday wedding there but we loved our venue so much and the Friday price fit in our budget so we sacrificed the Saturday for our venue.

In regards to the DIY - check out the DIY board. Those girls are awesome and I have gotten TONS of ideas from them. One of the biggest money savers for me was Vista Print. I have done my save the dates, photo share cards, Mr. and Mrs. banner, some bridesmaid gifts and thank you cards from them. All for free, just paying shipping! It's great!!! You just have to sign up for their email alerts and check out the DIY board for links to free products. The girls there are always posting them.

Sorry this was so long and hope this helps!!!!

gymbugmj2k

*gasp* we're date twins!!

My FI and I are trying to be as budget friendly as possible too.  I have quite the large family... so our wedding isn't going to be small.  When we first started planning, we created a list of everything and anything we thought we might need (use google to find some wedding checklists).  We also roughed out the guest list so that we could estimate cost.

We then picked what would be the most important things to us (in our case - food, venue, photographer, music).  Then we identified what wasn't as important (flowers, limo, videographer)  This helped us realize what we would spend money on, and where we would try to cut back.

We also thought about reasonable DIY projects.  We're going to make our own escort cards (unless we find a good package deal with invitations), table numbers, ceremony programs, menus, etc.  I"m also handmaking 1300 custom wedding wine charms as favors (and so far doing them for about 1/2 of the cost to buy!).  We'll probably make our own card box as well.  Also, we're going to try to use as many of the ceremony flowers as we can to bring to the reception.

Take a look at the DIY board and the Budget board.  They have some decent ideas.  Also check out local garage/estate sales and the classified boards to see if you can buy items used.