Low budget weddings

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Minnesota bride here as well!!! Skol Vikings! For a wedding in St Paul during wedding season your wedding sounds very reasonable! Congratulations.

@Kaye - Guests lists are HARD and we did not have two sets of parents chiming in!!! But I have a ton of friends and a ton of relatives and it was very hard to trim it. There are some great flowcharts out there and then you can always ask yourself: "If this person got married/remarried would I want/appreciate an invite to be there?" That helped a lot.

View Quoted Comment Wow this looks gorgeous ! Question where will you host your wedding ?

Ugh, I'm over budget from what my original idea was when I started but from what I'm contributing, I am under budget!

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Sorry about the bar comment, I confused you with another poster who said she was going to a bar afterwards!

My buffet was similar, and so good, so I'm sure yours will be too!

My low budget wedding is probably going to be closer to 10k than the 5k I was hoping for 30-70 guests. We are having it in a CCC lodge in a state park. Love the rough hand hewn logs. It's about 1/3 the price of other venues and has a full catering kitchen and very nice wood chairs and tables. Having it on a Sunday brought the cost down to 1200. We have it for the day. I'm not doing any decorating beyond tablecloths and flowers on the tables. The tables are small and I am buying a dozen or so mint julep cups ($60/doz) to use as vases from a restaurant supply store. I love that I can keep six and pass the rest on to a friend. I'm doing DIY flowers with hydrangeas. The total should be $200 from Costco. For dessert, I am buying 2 plain white cakes with fluted icing and a small birthday cake for my friend who turns 50 that day. I'm also getting a variety of pies. I'm still waiting on the quote from the caterer but have roughly $100 pp budgeted. I'm restricting myself to 5k for food and alcohol. I already know my Bloody Mary bar and mimosas are only $7 per guest. If my budget allows, I will be closer to 70 guests, but I am willing to go down to 30 if that means hosting everyone better. We are doing a brunch because it is less expensive. My biggest budget item beyond food/ alcohol is the photographer at 2k. I would be heartbroken if something happened to my sweetheart and I skimped on capturing this very happy day.

Our budget is $5000, but I'm shooting for $3500! We're having our wedding at the amphitheater of a state park and our reception in one of the lodges- all for less than $400. Our catering is gourmet pizza and is approximately $800 to feed 120 guests pizza, breadsticks, and Caesar salad. Since I hate cake I'm doing cheesecake bites which will be $100. We are also only serving wine and beers- around $500 cost

Chairs and tables were included in both venues so no rentals needed. We found plates that look wooden (made of palm leaves) on Amazon and compostable cups that look very realsitic and fit our rustic minimalist theme. Overall less than $200 for 120 people. Our decor is simplistic- we're making our own tablecloths out of bulk organza, designing our own wedding archway using tulle, Dollar Tree for vases, and a plethora of burlap and lace for bows and decor. We're debating on if flowers are necessary. Our photographer will charge $400 as she is a student, our videographer $85/hr- we'll only use him for the wedding and 2 hrs of the reception.

My dress and veil was 67% off at $300, my groom has his suit from a summer of groomsmanning for all of his friends, and our officiant is a family friend willing to do it for free. Our rings are from Etsy- about $350 for the two of them. And they have our fingerprints engraved on the outside!

View Quoted Comment I definitely realize that nothing is ever free. They are going to earn their money one way or another. I imagine my venue is hoping to earn additional money from hotel stays from the guests. They aren’t charging a venue fee to rent the space. The cost per person for food covers the tables, chairs, linens, cake cutting, and honeymoon suite.

View Quoted Comment Thank you and thanks for bringing to my attention the mistake I made with "buffet" and " 7 course buffet"

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Gorgeous!!! Not a lot of decorating needed - what a plus!

Dang, where do y'all live?! The cheapest venue I can find in the Chicago suburbs near our church is ~$62/person (the one I love is $88pp) for food/bar/room/decorations before tax and service charge, and we're expecting about 120 adults and 30 kids! (FH is Hispanic, god forbid we dont invite EVERYONE). We're not looking for a park or trying to rent everything and set up ourselves and I don't want to settle, but how the heck else am I supposed to do this??

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Samantha, you are in Chicago, one of the higher priced cities for weddings, I assume. I am in the Twin Cities and our reception was the event room (beautiful, btw) at our favorite restaurant, and the cost to reserve and use was $0, as it was noon-3pm. That saved a couple thousand right there. Sounds like you have your date set, if you are willing to change I would recommend an off peak time like November, January or March. Or have it on a Sunday afternoon, or move it to brunch or lunch.

Good luck!!

View Quoted Comment That’s one venue we were looking at in California at a golf course. Now that I think of all the venues we looked at are at golf courses.

We had a budget of 4000. We are having approximately 125 people . food cost is 1400. Hall for reception 450. Ceremony spot 200. Cake free invites 15.00 flowers 50. My dress 30. Had shoes and jewelry. No fees for dj or photographer.

I couldn't imagine working on my wedding day. I get exhausted cooking for family events. I'm leaving my wedding up to the professionals. I understand wanting to save money and everything. I think most people invite way more guest than they could afford and have to cut important things. I think your guest list determines your budget. I will not have a videographer, no printed menu/program. I am using fake flowers for my bouquets.

DIY...not too traditional because it's my second time getting married!

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This is outrageously low. Ours is 49pp for buffet of 2 meats, 2 sides, salad, bread and a open beer, wine and soft drinks bar.

We are planning on having a small wedding about 50 people max. So we are planning to spend aroung 15.000 to 20.000 for everything. we live in Ny so everything here is way overpriced..we still have a while to go so hopefully this budget will work for us

One of the biggest things we did too save cost for our wedding was using an uncommon venue. The regular venues around us in Montana we're at least $2000 so we decided to rent a pavilion at a campground near the lake for the weekend and it's cost us about $400 it was totally worth it even if it isn't classy and maybe seems a little back woods to some. It fits us.

Our budget is about 6000. My aunt is an event planner so she has many connections. The dj and caterer she works with offered me a very low price. I don't have to pay for decorations because my aunt has hundreds of items already. my cousin is making our cake and giving me the great family discount.. our honeymoon is in Canada at Niagra falls which is driving distance (saves hundreds of dollars) since we are in Detroit area. im feeling really thankful and on track

Mine isn't exactly low, but I'll be under $11,000 with 180 people!