How are you saving money?

I saved so much money going with Ling's Moment flowers instead of fresh. I also suggest trying to thrift your decorations. Facebook Marketplace and Poshmark have been helpful for me. I'm against popular opinion on this forum about cash bars-I think they're fine as long as you tell people ahead of time.

I'm actually having an open bar, but I'm fortunate in that my brother in law owns a brewery. I get the sentiment about the wedding industry. My ceremony is in a museum, and I've gotten some pushback because it's not in a church. We have some beautiful churches in the area, but neither of us are religious.

Ling's is mostly foam flowers. If you're interested in wooden flowers, I like Southern Blooms too.

Also, making your own invitations isn't necessarily cheaper than printing from a company online. I'm DIYing mine and have spent a lot of money in materials and in learning how to use my die cutting machine.

Most adult couples pay for their own wedding, not parents. That said, those who invest their own money will always want a say, so I think you should accept your FS wants the big party. If he was raised in the City like my guy, he has either seen the grand NY cocktail hour- heavy wedding or the Park/ City Hall ceremony with restaurant reception. But, you don't have to go to either extreme or NJ to get what you want. Sounds like you cut corners well, and still end very low under average at $27k so you should feel good. If you'd like to reduce costs more, nix the wedding party, rehearsal entirely, decorative "things", and put off your honeymoon until later. The expense of DIY is your time and labor but does not necessarily resut in lower costs. Use the grocery store for cake/dessert and flowers. Perhaps choose non-floral centerpieces, or go with potted plants/fruit. I'd skip the DJ for a curated playlist. I would also consider a dry wedding if it's not important to you. It's better to present all or nothing rather than cover the drinks for you, FS, wedding party, some family (likely request), but not the rest. Guests will always remember you for this type of hosting no matter if they love you. If you do go with alcohol, you can use stores like Total Wine where you can return unopened bottles.

Of course, I add these recommendations blindly becuase you really have to negotiate with your partner on your top priorities together. There's no sense going with low budget on every detail if it's nothing either of you truly want. You have each other, the rest are just Things. Many WW posters will recommend choosing 3 must haves, and making the rest secondary in your budget. I like making a complete list of all decisions on a Splurges vs Steals list to really be intentional money. Good luck.

I would skip the DJ in favour of putting in hosted wine and beer. Consider having the wedding on a Friday or Sunday, those days are usually cheaper. As someone else mentioned, brunch weddings are usually cheaper. You could skip the florist, and use other decor or silk flowers.

Don't do a rehearsal, then you won't have to do a rehearsal dinner. I wouldn't ask people to pay at the rehearsal dinner, since the purpose is to thank them for taking their time to do the rehearsal.

About the flowers, my family member just had a wedding and the bride went to Wegmans and bought the same bunch of flowers for the tables at the event so that they would spend on flowers in the hundreds not thousands for flowers. They also had friends taking pictures, as a gift instead of hiring a wedding photographer.

A cash bar is bad form. Even if every other element of your wedding is beautiful and perfect, the No. 1 thing your guests will talk about afterwards is how you charged them for drinks.

We are also in an expensive city, and we paid for our own smallish wedding. If you can't afford to serve your guests at least beer and wine, you probably can't afford a wedding -- and there's no shame in that!

As an aside, people are right that the florist was probably the wrong choice. It would be better to simply carry a bouquet from Trader Joe's and put the rest of the floral budget toward beverages.

TBH I haven't read all the comments yet, so I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but if you're able to provide your own alcohol (as in your venue/caterer doesn't require you to buy through them, and even if it's just beer and wine), you can buy from stores like Total Wine and return what you don't use - our total alcohol bill was less than $1,000 for 100 people for like 4-5 hours after returns, and that's including liquor too. Total Wine can also help you estimate how much of what to buy and can make suggestions in your price range (like max. $10/bottle of wine, for example).

Otherwise, it sounds like you've already booked most of your vendors, or at least a florist, DJ, and photographer? Our biggest expense, by far, was catering - so if you haven't booked a caterer yet, that's going to be your biggest cost-saver. Having a brunch or lunch wedding will lower the price per person, or have a cake-and-punch reception at a non-meal time. We also did something similar to your Costco cake idea and got a small tiered cake to cut and supplemented with sheet cake - no one will notice nor should they care that their slice isn't from the cake you cut. We also saved a bunch on florals by DIY-ing centerpieces with bud vases and flowers bought from FiftyFlowers.com, but I got everything else (bouquets, corsages, a floral swag for our ceremony arch) from a florist since I didn't want the stress or have the talent to create those myself - so if your floral estimate is over the already-established minimum without centerpieces, you could go that route.

My husband and I paid for our small, simple wedding ourselves, so I would never say, "weddings are always expensive," or, "have your family help pay." We kept the price down by getting married at the courthouse with immediate family only in attendance and then taking everyone out to lunch at a casual restaurant afterwards. It was intimate and lovely and affordable.

Looks like you could cut your rehearsal dinner, after party, wedding party, DJ, and fancy florals to save a lot of money. I hope you can figure out how to compromise and make it work for your wedding within your budget!

Something Borrowed Blooms rental was cheaper than standard floral options ($461 total) and were absolutely beautiful in our wedding. I got a Sams Club cake (that was barely eaten or remembered due to the busyness of the day). I do not regret the cake choice at all. It was $88 total and served 110 guests. My dress was a sale dress ($200), dry cleaning ($100), and tailoring just length ($100). We did $100 rentals from Men's Warehouse, but some of the fittings were a nightmare (FIL's pants were falling off of him all night lol). So idk if I would go the Men's Warehouse route with the groomsmen next time but the colors were perfect.