Pre-Wedding HELP!!

Kellie Clay

We will be engaged any day now. We are getting married NEXT JUNE. (its the only time in our schedule to do it) My family lives in Georgia. His family lives in Washington state, Idaho, and Wyoming. We live in San Diego, CA. Where the hell do we get married on a LESS than $10,000 budget??? PLEASE HELP! Any ideas??

s-aries8990

My advice: wait until you are ACTUALLY engaged.

If you go to your local board as well as the budget board, you can get a lot of help.

You just need to evaluate your guest list and keep reality in check. Figure out your non-negotiables and figure it from there. Check out local parks, restaurants who can cater, look into some DIY (even though it isn't always cost-efficient), and try to save money like mad in the upcoming months.

misshart00

Only you can decide where to get married. Getting married where you currently live might be easier though. And if you're planning a wedding together, you're already engaged. Congrats!

MrsGandthebeag

I vote for getting married where you live.  That way you don't have to choose between the two families and it'll be easier for you to plan.  

Ajuliana

Is the 10K including travel costs for you?  Can you both afford to and get the time approved off work?  In a spread out family, I would just say that you should get married where you are, especially if the travel costs are included in that budget.  It shouldn't necessarily matter which side you think can afford to travel more.  If people have enough time to plan, and you're important to them, they will make their best effort, and you have to live with whatever the outcome is of that.  Frankly...planning a wedding only an hour away is killing me, so I'd recommend just doing it in SD, and I'm sure everyone will LOVE getting a weekend at the beach instead of going somewhere less exciting (no offense to the states you listed...)

Kellie Clay

THANKS SO MUCH for everyone's suggestions!!!

FizzySips

Congratulations!!

Make your list of guests (your first draft of THE LIST) and then plug your $10,000 budget into one of the many wedding budget calculators online. From there, start to tweak the budget spreadsheet and decide which things are important and rise to the top of your priority list and which things are less important. 

The most important thing that I wish I had known at the very beginning (and yes, I'm still very much in the thick of planning!) is that all of this work you will be doing now is a draft and can be adjusted until you share the date with people and send out Save the Dates. I've got 200 on my list (all of whom got save the dates) and I wish I'd done a little more planning prior to sending them out. I'd feel much more comfortable with our guest list being closer to 150. But oh well, I'm doing the best that I can.   

Good luck!!

Kellie Clay

Thanks Rachel...that is definately some good advise!

MuppetFan

Where you get married is ultimately your decision. Where would you both be happied marrying?

I personally would either have a small local wedding with closest family and friends invited (when I lived in CA, if I had married there, I had a connection to Club 33 at Disney and would've had it there for about 20 people)

-or- I would consider having it where the majority off guests are located....

For me, planning from a distance isn't too much different than planning locally. I did it to an extent for my first wedding and I have helped a family member do it from out ot state before as well. She narrowed down most of her vendors over the internet and by referral and flew over here to meet with the photographer, cake decorator and venue all in the same week. She tried on dresses with her bridesmaids that week too and ultimately ordered her own dress where she was living because of the ease of having it altered locally. They got their rings and invitations locally... Aside from the initial help we gave her to find venues, we didn't have that much involvement in the planning, though we were available...and there wasn't that much for her to think about until they flew here for the event except that her dad picked up the groom's tux.

It may not be for everyone but just wanted to show that it's possible to have a positive experience planning from a distance.

edited for clarity

mrsjoesmith

I am getting married in Idaho and our budget it 7000. We have had no problem maintaining under it, but also not sacrificing.