Wanting to have a dream wedding but not going over the budget

My tips would be to make a list of your 'must haves' and your 'nice to haves' and focus your money on the 'must haves'. For me, a must have was a good photographer - because - a good photographer can make an ugly venue look amazing, but a bad photographer can make the most beautiful place look like trash - and after the day is done, all you'll have are your memories and photos!

Also there are lots of things that you might think you NEED to have, but actually - you totally don't if you have a small budget. You don't need favours. You don't need super expensive invitations with multiple inserts. You don't need loads of expensive decor or flowers if you pick your venue well. Your shoes are likely to be covered by your dress (if you're wearing a dress of course) so there's no need to go crazy there unless you want to. You don't need a 7 piece band. You don't need to do a sit-down rehearsal dinner with 50 people. You don't need matching pjs for your bridesmaids or expensive cars to drive you to and from the venue.

Have a think about what YOU really want, what matters most to you, and focus your money there. If it's not important to you, do away with it or do it cheap!

Also - the quickest and easiest way to reduce your budget is guests. Cutting back on guests saves a ton!

View Quoted Comment First I like to thank you for responding back to me I appreciate it very much and thank you so much for the different ideals on the want we really want vs. what we really don’t want , the information you have provided gave me insight on the main things I have been stress over. You gave some great tips on how to plan an amazing memorable wedding and not go over our budget. Thanks again this information is going to be very helpful now with my planning

Agree with Rosie. We cut out all of the things on your list as needing to have but really don’t.

Another thing is bridal parties. Many feel larger parties are needed, but the expenses quickly rack up with dresses, hair, makeup and gifts. They create stress too with all of the personalities to wrangle. It’s okay not to have any attendants. We are having an MOH and BM only to keep it simple.

View Quoted Comment I definitely agree with both of you I have so much to think about and to cut out because it is getting and becoming not only over our budget we set but becoming stressful and overwhelming too. So I’m going to have to sit down and have a conversation with my fiancé about everything

First off congrats!!!! 🎉❤️ Second breathe & take your time do a little at a time so you don’t overwhelm yourself! Start with setting a budget talk to your fiancé & see what you’re willing to spend. Then break things down into categories. As Rosie mentioned make a list of must haves & wants. Also I highly recommend watching wedding planner videos especially DIY. There’s one in particular I like to watch her name is Jamie Wolfer she’s where I got all of these tips! Hopefully some of this helpful 😊

View Quoted Comment Aww thank you. And yes I totally agree we are taking time out this weekend to go and sit and talk about everything. I know he wants to do whatever it takes to create my dream wedding but some of the things he thinks I want and I don’t care to have at the wedding. He believes I’m just saying I don’t want it because of our budget. So definitely I am going to have a conversation with him. However, thanks again for the wedding tips list it’s really have a lot of stuff on the list that I know will help me and that I need to take in consideration.

Hi and congrats! The best way to manage the budget is to keep the guest list low. There are great tips here, welcome!

View Quoted Comment Aww thank you and I totally agree that is what we are working on making changes to our guest list and cutting out some of the stuff we don’t really need. But thanks and I’m happy to be here getting help with planning my dream wedding

View Quoted Comment I second Jamie Wolfer’s YouTube channel! She’s fantastic!

View Quoted Comment Ok great thanks, I am going to go and watch her YouTube video

View Quoted Comment That’s awesome I’m so glad he’s being supportive as well! 👏🏽 Definitely have that conversation & make sure you’re using the tools in this app & I also recommend using this it’s helped me a lot to lay everything out for me. Yes please watch her channel you’ll love it! Helped me so much now I have about 5 months left & pretty much everything is done just minor details & still need to send out invites of course but I’m feeling relaxed I feel on track 😌 https://planning.wedding/

View Quoted Comment She really is!!! I haven’t had to hire an a wedding planner because her channel has been so helpful & I’m able to manage it & stay on track 🙌🏽 I’ll have a month/day of coordinator for sure but I haven’t had to worry about a planner.

I'd add to price out all-inclusive venues (that include catering, bar service, tables, chairs, etc) vs "blank slate" venues where you have to book your own caterers, rent tables, etc. The place we're having our reception at is all-inclusive, and it seemed REALLY expensive at first, but when we looked at the prices to have a separate caterer, bar tender, etc. plus all the travel fees on top, we're actually saving a fair amount of money. Of course, that's not the case for everywhere, so make sure you check it out.

Not sure if you're religious or not, but churches are SUPER cost-effective options for ceremonies since you don't have to find an officiant, ceremony music, etc.

All I can see is plan to go over budget but you can minimize it by buying a lot of weddinf related things on Facebook marketplace.

DIY is not always cost-effective, particularly if you put in a lot of labor and assembling hours. Why not go alternative? For example, instead of fresh floral centerpieces or DIY wooden flower centerpieces, you can opt for lanterns, candles, sentimental objects, or individual table cakes. Flower walls are out of fashion anyway.

Also look at bridal swap, buy nothing, 0 waste bridal groups on social media. There are a lot of brides out there who just have a bunch of decor that they are trying to get rid of because of DIY or buying them in bulk was cheaper

View Quoted Comment I totally agree with you. I like flowers but I’m not a big flower person so I don’t need big bouquets of flowers on every table I really love the candle idea the floating candles that is really pretty to me. And the huge glass piece they are putting on the table, I don’t care about that either. So That’s what I was telling many of the venues we are looking at. Thanks for the advice i’m really going to consider changing it up.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for all your help everything seem to be getting easier and easier and less stressful as I’m getting advice from everyone and changing up a lot of things. Plus my fiancé and I talked about a lot and that help too thanks again 😊

View Quoted Comment Yes I have been watching her videos from time to time now since being told about her and she is amazing she giving great advice ideas on how to plan a wedding her videos are very helpful 😊 thank you!!

View Quoted Comment The main problem now that my fiancé and I are having with our guest list is the number of kids and teenagers that are guests have some have more than two kids that we were requiring and the main ones are the people who are in our wedding. Trying to figure out how to cut out some of the kids.