Three years ago, we got married. We budgeted $10,000 for the wedding, but only spent about $8,000! Here’s how:
1. By growing my savings account.
I was a school teacher at a private school, which didn’t leave much of a margin for savings. But when I graduated from college, I sat down with a mentor, and we worked out a budget. In five years, my car and school loans were both paid off, which meant I started a more general savings fund.
I also found other ways to grow my savings because of the hospitality of close friends who allowed me to rent, very cheaply, a room in their home.
When we got engaged, I had the budgeted $10,000 already saved up.
To make the most of that budget since the wedding was about a year away, I put about 80% of that into a 6-month CD, just to earn a little more without the risk of stocks; I actually had the account with an online company which offered a much higher rate than the local banks. I still had enough for down-payments on the photographer, DJ and event site.
2. By networking and finding the best deals on everything wedding.
Our photographer, videographer, event site, DJ, hairstylist, make-up artist, calligrapher, instrumentalists and wedding-day coordinator were somehow related to my circle of friends or colleagues. They gave me discounted rates or even provided free services.
Don’t be afraid to ask around – a former student’s mother had made decorations for the chapel we were to be married at, and she allowed me to borrow those and even came to help us decorate.
3. Decide what you’ll splurge on and what can be saved.
We splurged on the venue and its catering – I didn’t want to deal with $0.25 for each piece of silverware or renting chairs. But I made my own boutonnieres, flower girl pomades and bridesmaid bouquets from silk flowers.
I also bought my gown off the rack and found my own seamstress to take the size 10 to a size 1, for $300. I bought invitations and programs to print our own, and a friend with a nicer printer did those for us.
The final results were still a classy and chic wedding that reflected who we were, down to the final penny!
Esther, along with her husband and one-year-old, continue to be good stewards, consistently deciding how to save & splurge! She also is a new blogger at Discovering the Me in Mommy, documenting her growth now as a mom.
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
Staci says
Here’s how I saved money on my wedding.
http://designingandmotherhood.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-have-been-married-10-years-plus-some.html
Staci
Samantha says
We are getting married in November and our budget is about $300. I got my gown for free from my Aunt in law’s friend from church. I can’t believe it was free but oh is it pretty! We bought my sister (maid of honor) dress at deb for $20 due to Homecoming coming up. Then all of the invitations were hand made, food is just basics, we are making the cake.. The most expensive thing was the invitations for $50 (including ink for the printer!) We just didn’t have a lot of time and we are trying to stick with our regular budget and not spend way too much money.
ck on the air says
We were engaged for 6 weeks. We had known each other for years. He liked me, I liked him, but we had never dated. He asked me to marry him. That was the beginning of the dating. I wanted a church wedding. We asked our church to save the date. Our church works on a donation basis, not a set fee, so I think we paid about 200.00. My dress was ordered through a catalog for 50.00, not a wedding dress, but a nice white suit dress. my hairdresser (for years) did my hair as a gift. I ordered flowers through my local grocery store = 200.00, my mom contacted the cake lady = 100.00. 2 of the ladies at the church rented the reception hall as a gift = not much, probably 200.00. The rest of the ladies pitched in with a dish to pass for the reception. One of the men from church dj’d = free. Hubby had a suit for church and his sister bought him a new shirt and tie as a gift. I did my own makeup. Mom paid for the photographer, my ex-brother in law = 200.00. Hubbys parents paid for 2 nights at a very nice hotel about an hour away for their gift. 1 wedding under 1000.00. 6 weeks planning, 12 years together, 2 boys (5 and 2.5) PRICELESS.
Laura says
Great post! I do like the idea of not spending such a significant amount on a wedding. While it’s certainly a special and important day and celebration, it’s hard to justify weddings that cost the amount of a car or a year’s salary. There are so many great ideas listed in your post and above, I can see that you’re right, a beautiful wedding doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg! Enjoy your one year old – children are so precious!
Tammy says
I guess to each his own on how much to spend for a wedding.We had a nice wedding back in 1985 but since we had a buffet not a sit down 3 course meal my mother in law thought it was tacky and cheap!
Dela Prado says
@Tammy,
I don’t think that it was tacky…… or too cheap! Besides, it was your wedding… not hers 😉
sara says
I also had a lower cost wedding. It took work but it is worth it to not go into a marriage with debt, if you can avoid it. At these bridal fairs, people make you think you need to spend high dollar on these things. Do not let them think that you have to pay an outrageous price. Shop around. Most photographers wanted 2,000 to take pictures. I found a lady who did it for $700 and the pictures turned out well. She was not the first person I spoke to. Sadly, I hardly look at the pictures and they just sit in a box collecting dust somewhere. Also – check references with friends/ bbb/ the knot.
cat says
what a great story. tfs! 🙂
Susie Michelle says
This is great advice – especially #3. In almost anything, when I can prioritize what is really important to me – without just going along with what I think *should* be important to me, I spend less (and i’m happier, too.)
For my wedding, the venue was the most important thing, so that’s where most of the dollars went. And – in the rest of my life, too., when I can prioritize my spending alongside my values, things tend to fall into place. I have discovered that I like my simple little house, for example. And that leaves more money (and time) to do other things i like to do.
Darrell says
My sister was recently married and did many of these things to save money. We looked at lots of pictures of cakes online and I made the cake as her present.
She only had about 6 weeks until the wedding so finding a dress was a little hard (she is a size 0 and it is nearly impossible to find smaller sizes off the rack-you’re just expected to have it altered). But she actually found a nice shop that sells resale, off the rack, and dresses to order. She was lucky to find a dress that was already taken down to fit her perfectly for less than $100. Having it cleaned cost another $100 I think.
As a suggestion, look at smaller boutiques to see what their prices are. I was surprised that this store’s off the rack dresses were really good deals and their order dresses shipment time was only 4-6 weeks (which I think is better than David’s Bridal).
Using coupons at Michael’s bought printable invites and favors. It was a beautiful wedding and I love hearing how others have pulled it off while staying in budget! Thanks for sharing your story:)
The Prudent Homemaker says
We paid cash for ours too, with a little help from my parents for part of it.
Both the location of our ceremony and the location of our reception were free, which included tables, chairs, and tablecloths. We used the grocery store for our flowers. We shopped around for a photographer and got a great one who really wasn’t too much. My husband didn’t have the money to rent a tux, but he has very dark suit and rented a shirt, vest, and bow tie to go with his suit.
We saved more money by not having any bridesmaids or groomsmen. Wehn people would ask us what our “colors” were, my husband said, “She’s wearing white and I’m wearing black!” That one thing really surprised people, but it worked out fine for us.
We didn’t have a dj; we made up two cds ahead of time of all the songs we wanted to play that day, in the order we wanted them, and played those.
My necklace and earrings for the day had been given to my by my parents when I graduated from college, with the intent that I would wear them when I got married, which I did.
We were engaged for less than 2 1/2 months before getting married, and still pulled off a great wedding!
Megan says
@The Prudent Homemaker, We had a two month engagement too! And also managed to pull off a nice wedding for little money and all in cash. I think that suits can actually be classier than tuxes; my husband bought a nice black suit (got a deal – it was less than his tux rental for a friend’s wedding) and has gotten good use out of it since.
Lynette says
Great job! But I must confess……..you lost me after “size 1”, lol.
Jen says
Paid cash for mine too! It was not that hard really – we paid way less that 8000 and I still had everything I wanted. I am amazed that people even pay that much!
Sarah says
I agree that weddings can be cheap without being tacky! My huge size 18 wedding dress with even bigger puffy sleeves was $50 at Goodwill. My mom, the seamstress, saw the potential and turned it into a work of art. We asked certain ladies of the church if they’d be willing to have their wedding gifts be part of the meal (i.e. rolls, meatballs, etc.) or help in the kitchen. By using the church fellowship hall for the reception, we were able to rent nice table service and decorations to really dress it up.
And just FYI- my mom did NOT get that size 18 dress down to a 1!!
Sarah says
Great post! When planning for my wedding a couple of years ago I too found some cheap shortcuts to achieve a sophisticated wedding.
I bought my dress off the rack at David’s Bridal for $500. Since I was pregnant at the time of our wedding, I had my mom alter it for me by taking it out so that was free. I purchased my invitations online at a discounted price and sent them out myself. I also put together all of the guests’ gift boxes by using supplies at Michael’s (confetti, bubbles, gourmet jelly beans, ribbon).
I also bought several straight vases and packages of votive candles at Michael’s for extremely cheap. Wait until they have a good sale!
I bought a whole mess of fresh roses and calla lilies online at fiftyflowers.com, along with filler, and had my mom and aunt arrange them all. Every table had a unique vase of flowers. Also purchased two big plastic stone-look urns from Big Lots and filled them to the brim with flowers, which sat right next to the gazebo we were married in front of. They really made the wedding memorable.
I bought a cake from a local baker unbelievably cheap at around $200 for a cake to feed 100 guests and it was delicious and beautiful — we actually had flowers left over, so we put the petals on the cake and it looked fabulous.
I used a professional photographer that was also a friend, so the photos were relatively ‘cheap’ by comparison.
The only things I ‘splurged’ on were the venue, food and DJ, all of which were great. Overall these money saving techniques truly made for a memorable wedding…the only downside being that I was exhausted on our special day!
Sarah says
how amazing! good job! 🙂
tc says
We did the same thing! Our wedding cost less than $3000. (My dress was $1000 of that-Splurge!) I designed, drew and printed our own invitations(just $20 for the blank ones at Michaels). Hall-free,Live band-free(friend of a friend) photographer-free(friend of a friend), food-free(friends cooked a certain item and brought before event started and it was served to each table),bouquets(100- friend of a friend), bm dresses(jcp.com clearance & promo codes), reception hall-500. My mom made itailian cookie centerpieces which was so pretty! It was an amazing experience b/c it was everyone’s efforts coming together. We felt the love and it saved us from debt!
Esther says
@tc, and you had such a great perspective too, with everyone’s help! Weddings (hopefully) are a celebration, not just of a marriage, but of all love share by family and friends.
Alison says
Fabulous, Esther!
We also did a budget-friendly wedding four years ago, even though both sets of parents gave us some money for the celebration. And I got many compliments about it—some saying it was the nicest wedding they’ve ever gone to. I agree that brides should splurge on a few details they really want to make their days special. We splurged on an antique car and a harpist at the reception, which we loved, but we got a discount on the church, had our reception in a restaurant (saved so much over a hotel or wedding venue!), had a friend do the wedding coordinating as a gift, and had another friend video-tape the wedding as a gift. We also bought our flowers from the local prison (the inmates are learning how to be productive members of society), and they were beautiful. All in all it was a great day that was the stuff of my little-girl wedding dreams—and it didn’t cost a fortune!
Esther says
@Alison, It’s amazing what we can accomplish with relatively little! =)
How’d you ever find out that you could get flowers from the prison?!?
sarah says
size 1? wow, that must be just as nice as paying cash for your wedding! ha ha
Esther says
@sarah, thanks sarah…am no longer a size 1, thanks to baby weight! =(
Rebecca (Craving Simplicity) says
That’s wonderful!