We set out to have a small, economical wedding...well that didn't exactly happen. I think we had a nice wedding which wasn't a fancy, black-tie soiree but also not cheap, it was mid-range. Simple but nice. I did several DIY projects which saved us a lot of money, we looked for deals where we could find them and negotiated where we could.
We had two splurge items. The first was our venue, which was a little pricier than we'd originally planned on but also in some ways a good value because we could use the venue for the ceremony and reception, included with our catering costs. The catering wasn't cheap but it also wasn't expensive and they were overall very flexible with our budget. The venue was also wired for sound so we skipped a DJ, which saved us around $800 based on the few quotes I got.
The second was our photographer. Not only did we choose a full-time photographer who was really a professional (part-time semi-pro photographers seem to abound!) but we also booked one of his more expensive packages; there were actually 2 photographers for our ceremony. We wanted nice photos! So we paid for them.
The big savings for us were flowers and cake. We met with a florist early on and I realized how little I cared about flowers. She asked us questions and basically my answer to every one was that I did not care. Before that meeting, I had already looked at the wood sola flowers some online and so I decided to go that route. It was a big DIY project (and I burnt the bejeezes out of my finger) but it saved us over $1,000, maybe more plus we had more flowers that we would have otherwise. If you like the look but can't DIY you can order them assembled from Etsy but the cost is almost the same as fresh flowers.
The other place we saved a lot was on our wedding cake. You'll notice how small the line item is for that! My mom has been making wedding cakes most of my life, so she made our cake. It was beautiful, served 300 and she paid for most of the ingredients so it was very economical for us. Most of all it was delicious. Seriously, mom pulled out all the stops and people raved about the cake for weeks! Go mom!
I never priced cakes in our area but would have expected to spend 600-800 for a cake that served about 150, so much smaller than ours!
We also strategically spent to get as much back as possible by credit card hacking, read my detailed post on that here. We gave ourselves a $3,000+ wedding gift!
So here it is, what we spent on our wedding. We got married in Raleigh, NC in 2017 and had 100 guests with dinner and a full open bar.
We had two splurge items. The first was our venue, which was a little pricier than we'd originally planned on but also in some ways a good value because we could use the venue for the ceremony and reception, included with our catering costs. The catering wasn't cheap but it also wasn't expensive and they were overall very flexible with our budget. The venue was also wired for sound so we skipped a DJ, which saved us around $800 based on the few quotes I got.
The second was our photographer. Not only did we choose a full-time photographer who was really a professional (part-time semi-pro photographers seem to abound!) but we also booked one of his more expensive packages; there were actually 2 photographers for our ceremony. We wanted nice photos! So we paid for them.
The big savings for us were flowers and cake. We met with a florist early on and I realized how little I cared about flowers. She asked us questions and basically my answer to every one was that I did not care. Before that meeting, I had already looked at the wood sola flowers some online and so I decided to go that route. It was a big DIY project (and I burnt the bejeezes out of my finger) but it saved us over $1,000, maybe more plus we had more flowers that we would have otherwise. If you like the look but can't DIY you can order them assembled from Etsy but the cost is almost the same as fresh flowers.
The other place we saved a lot was on our wedding cake. You'll notice how small the line item is for that! My mom has been making wedding cakes most of my life, so she made our cake. It was beautiful, served 300 and she paid for most of the ingredients so it was very economical for us. Most of all it was delicious. Seriously, mom pulled out all the stops and people raved about the cake for weeks! Go mom!
I never priced cakes in our area but would have expected to spend 600-800 for a cake that served about 150, so much smaller than ours!
We also strategically spent to get as much back as possible by credit card hacking, read my detailed post on that here. We gave ourselves a $3,000+ wedding gift!
So here it is, what we spent on our wedding. We got married in Raleigh, NC in 2017 and had 100 guests with dinner and a full open bar.
When I look at that final number I almost have a heart attack! But it was a memorable day and now that it's over, we're glad we did it. Though leading up to the wedding there were some conversations about what else we could have spent the money on! Probably the only time we will invite 100 friends and family for dinner :-)
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