Wedding planning 💒
Show your support
It depends on what sort of wedding you want, how many bridesmaids etc. We got married in Canada, Dec 2003 (We live in the UK), it was the best money we've ever spent, although it was only us. I wouldn't pay for a big wedding these days. You can do a wedding on a budget and still have the best day.
My spouse and I got married in 2022. Our wedding cost around $1000 and most of that was because we had to buy the food twice because a tornado damaged powerlines long enough for the food to spoil. We did it in our backyard, borrowed an arch from one person, chairs from another, a table from someone else. Got matching flowy drapery for decoration at a thrift shop, got little candle holders and ribbons at the dollar store and made my decorations myself. My bouquet was made of dollar store plastic flowers but because of that I still have it, and was able to get the exact colours and shapes I wanted, even though neither was in season and would have been very expensive. My dress was a $40 Amazon find and was exactly right for me, size and style. I made my own accessories for the wedding. Carved my own earrings out of bone, and made matching hairpins for my spouse and I out of brass wire and bits of quartz. I worked in catering before hand so I set my own menu, baked my own cake, and did a bunch of the cooking-
@Nise having a micro-wedding might be what I’m gonna aim for. $1,500 for 14 people isn’t bad at all 👏🏾👏🏾. But I agree, it’s so hard being selective with the guest list, his Air Force brothers over the years would take half my guest list alone. 😩😩 all these cheaper venues are asking for $5k at the very least and are so strict with their rules. Like ughhhh! Having an outside wedding would be fine (a lil backyard shindig lol) but I live in Florida so heat and humidity even in the “fall and winter” is torture.
-myself. I had like 4 different kinds of meat I had marinated and my dad barbequed, 3 starches, 4 hot veggie dishes and 3 salads. It was a feast! And we went to a local park and took pictures in their gazebo, and my uncle did our photography as a wedding present. We only had about 30 guests, mostly my family since my spouse's were stuck on the other side of a then closed international border. But such was COVID at the time. But we made it work! It was a ton of work and some compromises had to he made, but we didnt start our life together in massive debt so I'm happy at the end of the day
Cutting the guest list is the easiest way to limit the costs, but even then weddings can cost as much as you let them. We decided what was most important to us and focused on those things. For us it was food/drink, photographers and our outfits. For you it might be different!
We eloped whilst on holiday in the US. Paid just $53 for the marriage license, a couple hundred for a suit and a dress, same again for a photographer. Nice and easy, lovely with just our toddler and already on a month long road trip/honeymoon. Probably cost about $600 all in xx
I feel ya! I’m helping my oldest daughter (22) plan her wedding and they both come from large families and everything is expensive 🫣🫠
Got married in 2022 and had to do it super quickly as had a very sick parent that I wanted to be there and super cheap as had no time to save. I am in the UK but it would translate: - We went to a pick your own flowers farm and picked loads of beautiful flowers for the tables, my bouquet, this wedding arch etc cost us about £100 ($140) and that was the decoration done - I catered for 98 people and it cost $12 a head and did this by getting loads of wicker picnic baskets which we placed down the long tables 1 per 6 guests and loads of friend and family baked made chutneys etc and contributed. It worked so well on the day - Made my sister in law official photographer - Wore a non-traditional dress which didn’t cost the earth. - Roped in musician friends for the music - instead of presents we asked for contributions to a honeymoon fund Basically you just have to be resourceful but it can be done.
@Katie love this, I’m taking notes lol
@Tagmayne Nice, that food looks bomb 🤤 thanks for the advice and omg I never thought about a family member being the officiate. What’s the process for that? Does he have to sign paperwork from the courthouse? Take a class or something? Or just print and read something at the ceremony? I love that.
What we’re doing for our wedding is a courthouse ceremony and then we reserved a private room at this really nice restaurant to celebrate with friends and family.
@Ashley tell her let’s go half on cost and have our wedding like work shifts 😂😂😂
@Sarah Eloping will definitely be our next option to save on money and stress. Outside of our parents wanting us to have a wedding I think I just hold on to that longtime fantasy of ✨wedding✨with all the family, friends and extras. Eloping sounds great tho. Shout out to yall tho 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
@sarah That’s actually a good idea. My man just has so many people 😩😩 I guess courthouse for us, dinner party for close relatives, and house party bbq to celebrate with everyone else. Ha! Girl you just helped me figure this out. Thanks 🙏🏾😊
to connect with women at a similar stage in life.
Trusted by 5M+ women
to connect with women at a similar stage in life.
Trusted by 5M+ women
@Danika my dad already does weddings as part of his job (pastor) so he was already able to, but there are lots of places online that do ordinations, but check your local laws to see if any one specific one is legal in your area. I'm ordained with universal life church, but it's not recognized in Ontario, so I had to do extra paperwork to officiate my best friends wedding
@Danika yeah i have lots of family and friends. we just limited it to 50 people and that’s it. i was planning a fairytale wedding and one day i sat down and was like am i really about to drop 50k on an 8 hour party? Where people will talk crap either way? and i canceled everything right then and there and went down this route. We are having a more elaborate honeymoon though and a vow renewal in 5 years in hawaii. I’m still wearing my wedding dress to the courthouse and getting some nice portraits done at a museum by us!
in total for a 4 course meal for everyone with centerpieces and music we are spending 2500
@Danika I totally get it!! The venues where I live on Long Island are thousands and thousands and it’s insane! It was really hard cutting the friends list that’s why we literally just chose our oldest friends. My bff since 6th grade and his from I want to say 8th grade?! We have sooo many friends but just had to do it this way. Just don’t drain your account, even for my little wedding the day flew by! I wish you luck and that you can do something that is super special to you! 🤍
@sarah we did pictures a few days before hand and I am so happy I did!! They were at the beach and it was a beautiful day! I didn’t do prof pics the day of my wedding because I couldn’t get a photog in time but I’m actually so ok with it because I love the beach pictures soo much!
@Nise we’re getting married next month and i think we have to wait about a year to do our professional pictures 😫 I got pregnant unexpectedly and im already showing at 15 weeks and id just prefer not to look swollen in those pictures
@sarah oh that’s great though, then the baby will be in your pics too!!! I’m so happy our son was in ours 🥰 not all, but a lot! 😊
@Nise our babies will be a year apart on the dot. My daughter was born 3-20-24 and my son will be born 3-20-25 (scheduled c section) and we’re so excited to have them involved in everything!
@sarah sooo exciting!!! 💜🩵
Some ways i saved: Instead of a photographer for the whole night, I paid only for formal pics and the ceremony. For the reception i hired a super amateur photographer for candids and also had disposable and Polaroid on tables . The pics are epic! For decor I found a lot of stuff on FB marketplace and then resold it again Encourage cash gifts by having a very limited registry (or none at all) I’m a financial coach if you have more questions feel free to ask!
It’s insane! I just got married last Saturday, had 14 of us total. I was really hard not including all of our friends and family but we really just wanted to be married! It was us, our son, our parents, husbands 2 brothers and 1 gf and our oldest best friends and their with sig others. It was no more than $1500 and so relaxing and not stressful at all. But like I said, it was so hard not having all of those another people there!