Brides on a Budget!!

Sorry it won't let me edit. In the food section I recommended DIY apps (premade food trays or DIY easy things) + hot dinner delivered (from local restaurant- Mexican, BBQ, etc). They can provide chafing situation usually or make recommendations to keep food warm.

Also by DIY cooking- all food will be made by the day before and put at the venue night before. We are doing NOTHING day of. Our staff will reheat or cook what needs to be done/set stuff out/clean.

My mom is doing the flowers. She’s getting them from sams club in bulk. Costco works too.


My step mom is doing our cake
My wedding party and I are decorating the day before

My tropical centerpieces I made

We had an extreme budget wedding with a max of $1,500. Here's how we pulled it off for 30 people. I hope this is helpful for someone.

1. We negotiated with our vendors. I made a lot of phone calls and straight up told them "We have x amount to spend on this item, is it possible. If not no harm no foul." And moved on from there.

2. We didn't have things just to have things. Our choices were intentional and made to accent/ complete the space vs. cover up the space or "transform" it.

3. Our church typically charges a fee to get married there due to clean up on decorations and needing church staff to let us in. We got married on a Friday when staff was already there and didn't decorate. We ended up getting the church without a fee.

4. Before we knew we were for sure approved to get married at our church, we scoped out a few other free venues for the ceremony at parks and stuff like that for a backup. Just for the ceremony, places we could crash quickly with seats/ benches then leave. There were multiple parks that worked for this as well as the rose garden of one of the parks they specifically have set aside for weddings. This is the rose garden at Metro Parks in Columbus, Ohio if anyone is looking in that area.

5. We had a restaurant style reception with a chosen menu (quiche Loraine, club sandwiches, fruit salad, regular salad, rolls, jam). This was the bulk of our budget. We used their centerpieces, their décor. It turned out great. They do single stemmed roses in a vase. It's very effective. We obviously called the restaurant prior to doing this and made arrangements for our party, etc. Restaurant receptions are great because restaurants typically already have their own ambiance going. So you don't really need to do anything. Plus, no clean up! No set up! Now our venue offered us one of their private dining rooms for free, which they do if they have space and time to do so. Many restaurants do this for large parties because it's easier for them. Some have fees for their private rooms, which for our venue on a "peak" day still would have only been about $500. Our total at our venue was $912, food and cake included.

6. We ended up doing fake flowers from Michael's for bouquets and boutainaires. Michael's already has pre-made bouquets so I didn't do much with them. I made the boutainaires from the same color scheme and then wrapped the bouquets in ribbon. I went during their fall sale and ended up spending MAYBE $50 total. Were they fantastic? No. Did it give the effectual pop of color I wanted? Yes.

7. We hired a semi professional photographer for our photos and only had photo coverage for about an hour and a half instead of the whole event. So just the ceremony and family photos after.

8. We had an "off" timed wedding. Ceremony at 2pm with a high tea style reception at 4. It gave us a chance to not have heavy food and save money that way. We also did not have dancing. My mom brought her blue tooth speaker and played music for us during dinner with an opportunity for a first dance. I'm really glad of this though. We know our crowd and a ruckus party at 4pm on a Friday wasn't going to be a thing. Due to religious convictions it was dry with the option for guests to purchase their own alcohol if they wished. So no dancing, no alcohol, short but effective party. And for smaller weddings I feel this works. We recently attended a smaller wedding that had the traditional DJ thing going on... it didn't work.

9. We didn't have traditional wedding cake. Our venue bakes their own pastries so we ordered two tortes and an apple tart to serve as desert. It was so good my husband ordered the same torte for my birthday party tomorrow.

10. I had a matron of honor and my husband had a best man. We let them pick out what they wanted to wear. Our clothes were probably the smallest part of our budget. My husband wore a nice suit. I wore a dress from wish.com. I had a back up dress of just a white dress from the thrift store. My son wore a suit. My daughter also wore a dress from wish.com. We were going for "we look nice." My cousin actually wore my wedding dress when she got married recently and I'm tickled to this day how nice that $15 dress is.

11. Hair and makeup- My hair and my daughter's hair was done at great clips. I did my own makeup.

View Quoted Comment I'm an old woman (61) and all I can say is 'Think of what you could do with all that money?' Downpayment towards a house, paying off a mortgage, future or current kid's education. I'm very happu for you. I'm on here as a mother of the bride and I keep telling my daughter the same thing I'm telling you.

View Quoted Comment We already each own a home and have savings which were using to pay for the wedding. We already have a financial plan to sell our houses, are in the process of buying 5 acres to build our new house on. I appreciate the advice, but we're good.

Our budget is 10K, we are inviting 150 people and working on cutting out a lot of fluff from the wedding ceremony and reception. This day is about us and I want people to enjoy the food and good company. Decoration are overrated and cost a lot of money. I have been married before, this will be my second wedding, so I know where to cut back and what to invest more in of this time around. The rings, the food, the place we are getting married in and the people who come are the most important elements to this day. I feel by selecting important elements of the wedding will help keep cost down and with in our budget.

We're just starting to plan. He has ordered a ring, but hasn't formally proposed yet. We plan on an October 2022 wedding, so we wanted to get started. We're keeping it really small, and pretty casual. We're DIY-ing a lot. We're using friends and family as resources for hair/make up, cake, officient. This is neither of our first marriages and we don't want anything big and fancy.

Budget bride here!! We’re trying for a $5k wedding but might end up being slightly more. We’re trying to keep the guest list down but will end up with just under 100 invites. Perks of being from a large family…I’m one of 7 kids. 😬
Some of the things we are doing to save: Our venue gives a military discount so that’s saving us 10%. We’re having an outdoor ceremony and they charge extra for the outdoor chairs but will waive the fee since we’re paying cash.
We’re skipping favors. Doing electronic Save The Dates and I’ll be designing and printing the invitations (most people don’t care and they end up in the trash). I think I’m going to grow my flowers in my own garden and use those instead of hiring a florist. I garden anyway so it’s not an additional cost. Just have to get florist tape and ribbons or however I decide to hold them together. My dress is going to be green 🤞🏻 so I plan on ordering one online. Prom dresses are so much less expensive than wedding dresses. Or I’ve found some online that are inexpensive. Also not getting a veil. If I decide not to do a green dress and just go traditional, I have a dress available to me for free just have to pay for alterations. Our venue is pretty gorgeous as is so we aren’t doing much to decorate it. My sister is going to do my hair and makeup for me. My son already has a suit that matches our color scheme so I won’t need to buy him another one. Just shoes. Skipping hiring a limo or someone to drive us. Not hiring a DJ/band. We have sound systems already and are just going to make our own playlists. Thought about hiring our favorite food trucks but from other brides on here…that might not be our best option. Our big ticket items are the venue, food, and photography.

I'm with you. We are very non-traditional, want a super small outdoor ceremony and a very casual reception. Goal is under 2K.

Honestly, some of the most fun weddings I've been to were under 15k. My budget was 10k and we did it all under 9K! This included overnight stays at a hotel nearby from Friday to Sunday. I love to find deals and find coupons. It really helped to keep the guest list down and buy our own linens. Tablecloths factory was a great site for linens. I also had a "flower-less" wedding. I didn't buy real flowers and focused on working with the venue. It was a beautiful outdoor space so honestly minimal decor was needed. I also kept spreadsheets, a notebook and receipts. I alloted myself an amount for every category with the total amount not exceeding 10k. My tables were all under $10! Guest food was $10 per plate. We had a taco truck. I DIY'd my bouqets, boutenniers, flower girl crown and basket, and decor. It's very much doable with 10k or under. Everyone thought we had spent WAY more and were absolutely shocked we didn't lol.

View Quoted Comment What’s the cricut?

View Quoted Comment It is a cutting machine that allows you to create and customize things

We are at $8000 for 130 guests. I have used Amazon for a lot of my things. I have made center pieces myself. I made the bouquets, Got my gown on www.stillwhite.com for $165, the bridesmaid and flower girl dresses on amazon. Bridesmaids were $60 and Flower girls $20. The venue we got lucky and it is $1850, they supply chairs and tables we supply everything else. The food we are doing BBQ and the best man is a caterer and he is Charging us $2100 for pit beef, pit ham, mac n cheese green beans with bacon and onions and a pasta salad. BJ's and Sams Club for plates, cups, forks etc, also doing our own cocktail hour snacks. Pickle Bar and cheese and meat bar with crackers. We have one bottle of wine per table and will have a keg of beer. Iced tea water and lemonade..

We have a budget of approx $3500-4,000 for 20-25 people, including the 2 of us. The venue we chose is $450 for 8 hours, food will cost about $300 (including the up charge for China and glasses, as well as all linens and napkins). Our photographer is only charging $125/hour, which we should be able to keep to 2 hours. Officiant is $140. Flowers, I was quoted at max costing $250 for my bouquet, my moh’s bouquet, 5 boutonnières, and 2 corsages. I splurged a bit on my dress and spent $1100 between the dress and veil. My invitations and response cards cost me $40 on Shutterfly during a sale/free shipping promo they had, my shoes I found on Amazon for $25. Cake is costing about $300, which we could have obviously had cost a lot less, but it’s the part of the wedding we’re both looking forward to. I’m making my own centerpieces, supplies have cost me approx $40. Hair and makeup will be costing $175. Only things we have left to get are the tux, rings and marriage license.


We found our venue after the traditional venues were outside of our pricing. We looked outside the box and found a beautiful cottage at a nearby college, secluded from the school and surrounded by gardens, a gazebo, and has a beautiful intimate room inside. It’s typically used for alumni meetings, but charge a little extra for others to utilize