$500 Wedding

I would say do courthouse wedding with ONLY immediate family and then he a small, intimate dinner.

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Oh yeah, elopement packages at resorts/hotels--GREAT idea. I don't know if this can be done for under $1K but I know resorts offer a package deal for small groups of 5-20 people which may even include flowers, officiant, photographer which would save you time putting that together on your own.

Stick with immediate family, grandparents and a few close friends.

Local and state parks are great for a naturally beautiful ceremony that is free or very inexpensive. For the reception you can use park faculties to cater your guests or go out to a nice restaurant. Keeping the guest list low is the best way to save money. If thats not an option you could always elope and do a vow renewal in a couple years when you are more established financially.

View Quoted Comment There’s actually many people on here who are still in college and are planning on getting married before they finish college.

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Our wedding was under $500(not including rings). We got married in a local park, it was free. The officiant we found was $85 and amazing. I wore a pretty but casual lace dress. ( Under $100). My husband wore jeans and a nice button down linen shirt. We had 4 guests. We went to lunch afterwards at my favorite Italian restaurant. We also ordered a small on tier cake. It was absolutely perfect for us.

We actually won a wedding package so we've only had a month to plan our wedding - and we hadn't been saving for it.

The best thing so far has been online invites - we used WithJoy as our wedding website, and have gotten everyone to RSVP there. We actually only printed and posted about 4 invites (for the oldies), but asked them to call or email rather than posting something back. Postage is just too expensive!

We've also decided against bouquets (two brides) and I'm just going to make a posy at home for our flowergirl (we got her dress from target!). I've been making most of the decor using cheap fake flowers that I've been painting/colouring in to match our decor!

It's very much a personal thing, but I do think that with photography, you either go all or nothing - get a great photographer and spend up big, or get a bunch of your friends to "pap" you all day. If you do the second option, just make sure you've got lots of flattering light - warm and soft

My fiancee works at a uni, so we're getting signs and stuff printed REALLY cheaply there - maybe see if a college or highschool will hook you up if you need anything printed?

Lastly, when it comes to decor, buying second hand stuff off other people, bulk-buying market flowers, and just going simple are my top suggestions.

My brother's wedding was gorgeous but super cheap, because they didn't have much to spend. SIL got a bulk roll of organza and used that for table runners, chair sashes and as bows on a marquee. Centrepices were red fake flowers, scattered fake petals, and tealights = gorgeous. We also strung up fairy lights and it was really pretty!

I recommend:

Paperless Post Invitations - Free!

Courthouse ceremony - classic and classy way to save money!

Backyard BBQ party, rent or borrow good speakers and make a fun playlist (you could also go potluck on the food and provide alcohol and cake) if you do a cake, sheet cakes are cheaper than stacked ones.

Limit flowers and extra decor

Hire photography student from a local college

Prepare to go 30%+ over your budget...for some reason this happens to couples in every budget

I think you can absolutely have a wedding for 500 to 1000. You could always get married at a church and invite lots of people! Call around and see what they suggest for you to donate. I explained to my priest that we wanted to get married in a church but had a limited budget. He told us he wanted to marry us and it was free to get married in the church. We will donate a couple hundred dollars anyways. You could do the same. Then after you could have a backyard reception. Make your own food and cake or even get food from Wal-Mart? Borrow speakers or use your own and play music off your phone? Get cheap decorations online or even white dollar tree table cloths? Think outside the box for cheap fun things to do. Even backyard games would be fun.

Good luck!!

Get married at the courthouse or have someone you know get ordained online, then for your reception have it like a potluck. Pick people in you and your fiancé’s life to make a dish and bring it. My fiancé and I have a small budget too, I found a hall for $500, a close friend of mine is a baker so her gift to us is our cake, my coworker is obsessed with make up so she is doing mine, fiancé cousin does hair... what I’m saying is utilize the people in your life.