Low cost budget

Hey girl! I'm having a wedding very similar to your vision. We're inviting 100 people and our venue is a barn on a huge piece of land with lots of greenery and a pond (this is in South Carolina)! We really lucked out on the pricing for our venue. It's family-owned, very relaxed folks, and they've only been renting it out for a few years. It's only $1,400 for the entire day! Obviously that's still a lot of money, but not as far as wedding venues go lol.

Our entire budget is 10k (including rings and dress, so let's say 8k without those). Our photographer is the most costly vendor at $1,775. This includes our engagement shoot, full-day coverage, a second photographer for the wedding day, $100 print credit through their website, a 10x20 canvas of our favorite shot, and the release of all of our files digitally which we can print anywhere.

We're doing a barbecue buffet for dinner and for 100 people, our estimate is at about $1,300. That'll go down with our final headcount since of course not everyone will be able to make it.

Don't have a whole lot of hair & makeup info. I've decided to do my own makeup, so I'll just need my hair done. The few places I've look around range from $100-$300 depending on travel, trial, style, etc.

Hope this helps!

View Quoted Comment This helps tremendously! Congratulations to you! Where in South Carolina are you having it?

I'm in Denver, but this is what I got for quotes and what we paid. We had a higher cost wedding, but I didn't specifically contact vendors that cost more. I had no problem booking someone lower cost if we liked their work!

Photographer - $3,200. The quotes we got were $1,500 - $4,000, this was for 8 hours and an engagement shoot, it would be cheaper if we skipped engagement photos and didn't have them for 8 entire hours. We also looked at very nice photographers with a lot of experience, I'm sure the newer ones would have been cheaper. We also wanted at least 500 digital photos and a print release.

Hair & Makeup - $2,200. I paid for all the bridesmaids & moms to get their hair and makeup done. For just me, it was $240 for bridal hair and makeup. The trial was $80 and travel was $40. We got ready at the venue in the bridal suite. I got quotes from $200-$300 for bridal hair and makeup. Bridesmaids & moms were usually less by $50-$100.

Catering - $13,000. We've had parties catered for as low as $10 per person if we do things like BBQ or Mexican food. We picked a nicer caterer and they provided all the linens, china, glassware, etc. and waitstaff and appetizers & dinner. I think you can budget as low as $1,000 for this if you have 100 guests but you'd have more options if you could budget $2,000-$5,000.

I'm not sure if you only want those 3 vendors, but here is what we paid for the others.

DJ - $1,100

Videographer - $2,500

Florist - $4,000

Venue - $9,900

Photobooth - $500

Bar - $5,500

Desserts - $1,100

View Quoted Comment

Saint Matthews, SC. Our venue is called Holly Oak Farms

My wedding ended up being $16.2k and pretty much 90% of my budget was towards the food and drinks alone aha. Total guest count was 250. I spent pretty much next to nothing for things I didn't care for as much such as centerpieces and decor so my advice is to definitely spend on what you care most about and for me that was good food.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! We haven’t fully decided on a state yet. Considering we have family coming from all over the country. They’ll travel where ever but since we’re paying for the entire wedding I’m trying to be budget friendly

View Quoted Comment Thank you! This was very helpful

View Quoted Comment Where was your ceremony at? State wise

Where in Tennessee? My florist is moving from California to Nashville and she was amazing! She re-uses the flowers throughout the event so you don't have to pay for every single item. For example, she took the flowers from my arch and ceremony and used them to decorate my sweetheart table at dinner and other miscellaneous tables. Here's her website: https://www.calirootsdesigns.com/

Our budget is 4K, but I won’t be surprised if we go over. We have about 100 guests. Our venue is actually in a state park building that looks like a barn on the outside, but it’s not. I opted to do a 4 hour photography package for $850. Food is allowed from outside vendors so we’re doing drop off BBQ catering Buffett style for only $550. Supplying our own alcohol too. I would recommend doing prices checks in your area on everything you’ll need!! Cross reference your price checks with what you’re realistically able to afford. That’s when you’ll find your budget.

View Quoted Comment In regards to the alcohol portion how did you manage that? What alcohol did you buy and how did you factor in quantity

Oh and for hair and makeup I have a friend who is going to do both of mine for $110. She is really experienced too! Some of my family thinks that’s pricey, but i think it’s reasonable.

View Quoted Comment Looking at Chattanooga area I will definitely look into her that sounds amazing

View Quoted Comment I think that’s fairly reasonable. Are you having your wedding party do their own?

View Quoted Comment Oh that’s been fun lol I decided to do beer/wine only to cut cost. If you google “alcohol for party calculator” you can find a ton of useful tools that will tell you how much to buy. Know your crowd though. For example, one calculator told me only 10 cases of beer... but at least 10 men in FHs family can drink a case alone. So I’m doubling it and doing 21 cases of domestic. It’ll be a little over $400 for 21 cases of domestic beer in my area. Then I budgeted an extra $100 for wine. We have some wine drinkers but not many.

View Quoted Comment That’s up to her... I’m only having a MOH and my artist is also offering to do her hair/makeup for the same price. But I told my MOH it’s optional. I trust her to do her own and not look like a bum, so I wasn’t pushy.

View Quoted Comment Yea I would definitely need to do at least double. Majority beer drinkers on both mine and FH side. As for the wine I never know who likes what. I’m a wine drinker but I know people are weird about it. Thanks for the info super helpful

View Quoted Comment That’s helpful then. I’m thinking around 3 but I know at least one isn’t a makeup type person so who knows

I’m in the northeast and I’m coming in at around 18,000. It’s expensive up here so you should be able to do better..

View Quoted Comment Same here! People are going to complain no matter what we do. So I’m doing barefoot wine because it’s actually popular in the bars around here, decent, and affordable. Just a white and red I think will do... you’re very welcome! This site is very useful. I’ve planned everything so far using it.