I got married a few weeks ago and wanted to share my experience and a few pictures (sorry there's no face pictures, slightly paranoid since posts aren't deletable). The biggest thing we did to help with our budget was make sure that our guest list was limited. We let guests bring plus ones and children but still managed to keep it around fifty (didn't invite any co-workers if I didn't see them outside of work, no old friends if I hadn't kept in touch with them, etc.) A few guests that brought kids had to leave early, but I was way happier with that than excluding anyone (also, the venue said kids under five eat free so it wasn't any additional costs for them to be there). We also opted not to have bridal parties so that saved a lot of money on bridal party gifts/events. My brother and his wife got their officiant license online to marry us. Our ceremony was a brief eight minutes but it felt very personal to be married by another couple who knew us very well. Husband was too shy to do personal vows, but we emailed our officiants some stories and moments from our relationship to include in the ceremony. Our venue was a newer restaurant that had never done a wedding before. They didn't charge any ceremony or setup fees as long as we met their food/beverage minimum so it's worth it to check out venues that don't advertise themselves as "wedding" venues. Our food was buffet style so people could choose what they wanted (main dishes were chicken and short rib). Cocktail appetizers were hamachi/meatballs/brussel sprouts and cheese puffs. We opted to do a consumption bar so that we paid per drink rather than a blanket price and asked the manager to update us on the tab just so we didn't have sticker shock later on (ended up being 2k, which was a little more than we expected but we were glad people enjoyed it). We had three signature drinks of hibiscus cosmos, lavender champagne and raspberry sangria as well as offering beer/wine/well drinks. We asked bartenders not to serve shots/expensive specialty alcohols. We had the bar open before the ceremony so that people could get a drink as they mingled before we started. I also chose not to hide out before the wedding and we greeted everyone as they came (husband and I also set up together so we didn't have any formal first look). We opted not to have a professional photographer or videographer. My husband set his tripod up in the back so we had a ceremony video and then had one of his friends take a few family shots for us. A lot of people took pictures with cellphones that they shared with us so being a plugged-in wedding gave us lots of photos of moments from the wedding. We chose to do online invitations which was nice because people could just click yes and how many people were attending and not worry about mailing back the rsvp form. Instead of a large cake we chose to have the restaurant make mini-versions of their regular desserts for a dessert table. We found our florist through instagram and she gave us a a good deal so that she could use photos to build up her portfolio. We didn't have a dj or any dancing. My husband played a playlist through his iPhone and we played games after dinner for entertainment. Our original budget was 5k, we ended up spending closer to 8k so we cut the honeymoon and instead had a stay-at-home-moon where we just spent a few days relaxing after the wedding around the house. I found wedding wire forum recaps and bams helpful and hope you do too. Happy planning!
Ceremony Space Converted into Reception Space
Ceremony Flowers
Cocktail Hour Apps- Cheese puffs and deep fried Brussel sprouts
Dessert Table--Carrot cakes were the biggest hit
