holy cow!

lkrizek9

Hey guys...I am in the early stages of planning and am freaking out.  It seems that I cannot plan a wedding for 100 pp for under $7,000.  I might be being unrealistic, but has anyone been able to stick to a very tight budget or am I going to have to spend $15,000? (which is what Ive priced out for everything I want, plus tax)Im just being a boo boo baby, cause $15,000 means I have to wait a long time to save before we can have the wedding.

SaraAnnAlvarado2010

I have spent under $3,000 dollars so far and all I have left to buy is food, flowers, drinks, and ceremony accessories. To give you an idea my venue is amazing and only $800, and my dress is amazing and cost 1,500 after alterations. My advice try looking in smaller towns for more affordable venues (I'm getting hitched in Centralia.) Everything from food to flowers is way more affordable than city prices.

karebear219

Another idea is to hold a desert only or appetiser only reception. Do minimal flowers to keep the floral budget down.

niq24601

It depends a lot on what it is you want, and how bad you want it, and how long you want to wait for it. Plenty of people here end up with weddings at or below $70/head -- it's all about deciding what parts of the ceremony and reception are most important to you.

sarack

you can have a gorgeous wedding for $7,000. This might mean having friends be vendors. For example, do you know any photographers? Ask them if they'll do it as your wedding gift or at a low cost and you'll print the pics yourself. Have your aunt sally (or whoever is a great cook in the family) help with allt he food. Buy your wedding cake from a grocery store or have some one make it like your stepmom (a knottie had hers make it and it was gorgeous). Also, you can have your wedding in a public park and hold your reception at a community place. At this point I'm getting married at a community club and they provide tables, chairs, silverware, plates, serving carts, water pitchers, and all sorts of other stuff, including an ice machine. Make sure to rent a place that youc an bring your own alchol and put a bottle of red and white 3 buck chuck on each table and only serve that much alcohol. That should allow every one to have 1-2 glasses. You can use an ipod, usually rented places have a sound system of some sort, if not, you can buy an ipod dock anyway from 29 (that is how much ours cost) to hundreds. Ours is pretty loud. Or you can rent a system. YOu can buy your dress really inexpensively. Look on ebay and other preowned dress sites. YOu can totally find a dress! You will probably want to DIY your paper goods. This could mean just buying kits at Michaels using coupons and printing them on your own printer or going to target or something and buying those invites. Also, for decor you can make tissue pomanders for really in expensive. YOu can buy vases from the dollar tree and walmart. You can buy flameless candles from the dollar tree. Those are just some ideas. There are TONS of ways to save money.also, you can go to pike place for flowers and arrange them yourself. or use sites like fiftyflowers.com and other wholesale flower companies.sorry for the information overload.i totally think you can do it!i wish i would have decided earlier on to have a lower budgeted wedding. Ours isn't much higher than yours but I'm probably going to be over.. and I now know of SO many ways to save!

stephparks

I'm inviting 250, and my budget is around $5000-$6000 it's doable, just takes a lot more work. we're making anything we can, not having a caterer, having a family friend make our cake, and not serving alcohol.

jennyann28

I agree with Nick, it depends on what you want (and how much you're willing to DIY). I know for me personally, I wanted to spend as little as possible on everything, but I've made several concessions because the options that came at the lower cost didn't allow me to have what I really want (my venue, for example, I ended up paying 2x what I intended because it was really important to me to be at a place with a barn, and to be able to have the venue for the WHOLE day).

Ciaram22

My entire wedding which was planned for 125 people was done for under $9500. It can be done.

cupcakepirate

150 guests with the whole thing right around 8k. Granted, I had my wedding on the east side of the state, and the service charges are lower than they are in Seattle. It can be done. I 2nd that it just depends on how badly you want things.

Ciaram22

[URL]http://www.mywedding.com/randallovesciara/photo_249427_14145629.html[/URL] Here is a picture of my wedding cake that my step mom made.

cowgirl_tarr

My wedding is going to cost about $2000 in total but I am super lucky to have a free place for the wedding and reception I also have someone that is doing my cake as a gift and the photos are free for us. Our biggest spend is going to be the DJ next is our stay at the inn the night of the wedding.

Syrenati

Well, before my guest list went up to 250 my wedding was going to come in around $5000, my venue was $350 for ceremony & recep, dress off the rack was around $350ish, photog is a friend so its just cost, the reception also came with linens and a dj so all I had to so was pretty much decorate and have a blast... dont ask what it is now... sigh.

lkrizek9

okay, I feel sorta better.... thanks guys.

KST_

Yup - ditto PPs, it's completely possible, but not if you have to have a TV wedding. Our guest list is around 100 and my budget is approx $5,000. My budget does not include my dress (combined gift from my family) or other accessories (out of my budget), wedding rings, groom's attire (out of his budget), or honeymoon (gift from FI's parents).

jeannigirl

Just take a deep breathe their are alot of us in that same boat and it can be done.. Sara had some great cost cutting ideas. I do agree that you and FI decide what are the most important aspects of your wedding? Cut away the favors and fancy invites because no one gives two hoots on that stuff. Think about cutting down the guest list has this will save you alot. I found a lovely Venue that was 500 to rent with 2000 food minimun, so we have cut the guest list and will be going with a plated dinner meal but doing lunch sized portions instead of a dinner portion. DIY projects are a great cost cutter. The one thing that I don't want to do is to involve any family or friends to do any cooking or baking. Thats just me. Gl and keep us posted on how it goes and we are here to help you keep the cost down. Don't watch all those wedding fancy weddings with all the crap, and read all those bridal mags. You can truly have a beautiful wedding on a budget.