Budget vent!

Do what you gotta do to stay sane!

All I can say is FH and I budget was also 5,000. We did the same thing as paying as we go. DIY is going to be your best friend when it comes to centerpieces, bouquets, etc.. I made everything for our wedding almost. Our wedding is 10ish days away, and as tough as it was and as much as I had to compromise it’ll be worth it in the end. Best of luck you to both!!

Hello sister, y'all got this. Hubby and I set a budget or rather I set our budget at 5g too, yes we went over about a thousand, but in the end it went very well. I decided not to diy anything because time still equals money once I realized I'm not a diyer on a large scale...small projects I'm ok but nothing large. Everyone's vision is different but I did surgery so to speak on what we really wanted and important. (We invited 120, 115 attended pre-covid of course.) Weekday wedding (Wednesday evening), no children not even teens( reason for weekday), bridal party was one moh, one bestman of which the couple are married and members of our church. we are older 56/66 at the time and don't stay up too late, plus it being at our church, no dancing or alcohol...lol. (it would have been nice but it wasn't important besides we have the rest of our lives to dance and sip...lol) Where we went over is we hired a decorator or shall I say rented. She decorated the church and reception area and came back to pick up and cleaned up everything (the only things I wanted in my hands upon send off was my bouquet and my freshly minted hubby). The budget busted at that extra thousand but it was the best $$ spent and I was zero stressed. So as I said y'all got this. Be surgical with what's really important. Btw we paid along the way too and owed only tips after our I do's.

Look on Amazon for the childrens outfits, I was able to get our kids, my niece, and my nephews outfits for our minimony from Amazon for REALLY cheap. Now I plan on looking on Amazon for our big wedding in March as well because the quality was good. Are you using real or fake flowers? If you're using real then that's where you may go over budget because flowers can get expensive.

Consider doing DIY. for children's outfits, consider thrifting.

View Quoted Comment Hey Yas!!! Gurl, we been waiting on your minimony pics! Cant wait for the big wedding so exciting!!!!


Yes, I actually found everyone's outfits on Amazon. My 5 year old tux $60, 13 year old tux $80, flower girl dress $40, 16 year old dress $60.
Flowers are fake. Bought at Micheals and Hobby Lobby. I've already put bouquets together but need to finish the stems with ribbon. Wedding arch is done. I need to finish up gold wedding stands.

I am not a diy type of person. We have our budget but I know we’re probably gonna go over. My step mom has a great eye on bouquets & such so I’ve asked her for help with that. I’m fortunate our venue has the centerpieces included in the price. I’m about 5 months out & every once in a while that fear rears it’s ugly head! My fiancé STILL. hasn’t decided on his best man or groomsmen, suit or tux, boutonnières or pocket squares, what color is he going for if he’s wearing a suit! NOTHING-& we’re 5 months out!

We have put down some of the deposits but the Caterer, Photographer, DJ, Wedding coordinator, Officiant have not been paid. I need to get envelopes and start putting money away for each person. And I need to get cake.

View Quoted Comment Gurl, I told FI last week we need to go to suits "u" to pick his tux! We are off this weekend so I'll probably light fire under his butt to get it done then. FI tux is going to be different than the groomsmen which will be classic black tuxes.

And Christmas is so close! I have not bought or saved for any gifts yet!!!!

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Hey girl! And yes Amazon was amazinggg for my minimony, it saved us a bunch of money. I got my fake flowers from there as well! It seems like you got a bunch of stuff done already! What else is left to do?

If you’re afraid of running out of money, definitely pause right now, don’t spend anymore money and make a list to eliminate the unnecessary. Although we don’t think that any of our plans are unnecessary, there are PLENTY especially with such a tight budget. I often read a lot of suggestions to DIY. But the way I see it, even DIY costs money and isn’t really “cost effective” if you have no money to spend.

That's also the time to get creative - for instance if a cake at a bakery is too expensive then maybe consider cookies instead of a cake, etc.

View Quoted Comment Just pay vendors! That's my stress!!

View Quoted Comment Oh, and the special grooms cake.

View Quoted Comment We just have attire and vendors left...oh, and wedding and grooms cake. Big things, not so much little stuff that can be cut such as decor. I splurged on that early on🤦‍♀️ I think you are right 🛑

View Quoted Comment Good idea!

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What kind of cake are you getting him?

View Quoted Comment His nickname is Cadillac and favorite color is red....so I want a candy red Cadillac cake.

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Oh that'll be cute!