Wedding November 2020

Your budget depends on a lot of things, and nobody can really tell you what it should be. You and FH need to look at your income(s) and the average wedding costs in your areas before determining a good budget.

I agree with PP. The area you are getting married, your own personal finances, etc. will greatly impact what you can afford. I would start by searching average costs for vendors in your area. WW's vendor search is a great tool to use for this. Then you can compare costs with income to see just how much you can afford. I am in VA, and I thought......so naively thought....before researching vendor costs, that we could totally have a wedding for $5,000. Because, frankly that is a lot of money, and I didn't really see how we would be able to afford more. Well, it's looking more like $10,000 for our wedding, but we are able to make it work. Again, this will depend greatly on your area. Once you have a budget, then you can decide which areas are more important and that you want to spend more/less money on.

Hey Alyssa! Congratulations on your engagement! It’s great that you are thinking about your budget and starting to get your wedding planning ball rolling!!

As Danielle mentioned, there is no set budget that you should aim to spend for your wedding. It’s highly subjective depending on peoples financial situations, the area they live and realistically, what their wedding vision is!

You should definitely have a look at the WeddingWire Cost Guide. It will be able to tell you what the average cost of wedding vendors are nationally, and in your state. You should remember that this is an average so there is no obligation for you to see that as what you have to spend. Realistically, you should work out with your FH what you will be able to afford in the time you have before the wedding and work from there.

Once you have figured that out, the WeddingWire budget tool is great for breaking down your own budget into what percentage of a wedding budget is typically spent on what service/vendor.

I hope this is helpful to you!! Have you thought about any of the fun things yet? Like your wedding colors or your dress?

I really wanted a wedding that would cost less than 10K, but all my affordable ideas aren't really going well with my fiance. Granted I do want a barn venue, with a pizza bar, and to be able to dj our own music... LOL. I am very cheap when it comes to this kind of thing. But he wants it to be a bit more fancy and memorable for everyone and since we are inviting about 150 people it's turning out to be more like $33,000. Catering in AK is the only thing eating up our budget and the fact that most venues don't allow outside catering.... so no pizza bar for this girl.

The wedding wire budget tool is awesome. You can do things two ways, start getting quotes and picking out things you like and figure it out from there too five things 1. venue 2. Catering 3. dress 4. Alcohol 5. Photographer - the rest are small things you can prob DIY or pick and choose. Or you can pick an amount say $10,000 and figure out what works with that (use the budget tool) Also, choose an amount that’s reasonable to put away every month until that day and add that up. How much do you have? I don’t believe starting a marriage in debt is healthy and you have lots of time to be creative and find the best deals. Hope this helps and congrats!

Congrats on your engagement💍🎉

You and your FH need to sit down and discuss whats the most important things that you want for your wedding. Like I knew I wanted both the ceremony and reception at the same venue and a venue that would let us bring in whatever catering we were wanting. We knew that was our 2 big wants.. We then we both asked each other at our wedding do we want a dj or a band - we picked a dj. Then the lists go on. Also research multiple vendors and don't committ till you find one that meets your n your FH's needs and wants. And ask yourselfs can we live or live without it and do it that way.

Also get yourself an wedding planner it helps a lot i got mine off of Amazon. I carry it in my purse n every consultation with our vendors.

https://www.amazon.com/premium-organizer-engagement-organized-sections/dp/b01n34z119/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=2v2q8j7a0ratj&keywords=purpletrail+wedding+planner&qid=1554355136&s=gateway&sprefix=purpletr&sr=8-3-spell

View Quoted Comment Hi there! I have started thinking about everything but the wedding isn’t going to be until November of 2020. I’m struggling with a lack of my family coming due to age and they are out of state. My fiancé’s mom is very active in my life and she has proposed potentionally doing the wedding about an hour away because his family would feel more comfortable going there. We aren’t big extravagance at an expensive cost. We are trying to definitely do everything on a “frugal like “ budget. We want to buy a house and we are footing the total bill for our wedding due to familial relations.

I just wanted to test the waters on others who paid for their wedding by themselves and maybe could offer some ways that you were able to do it without spending what you didn’t have!

View Quoted Comment I have a couple apps but can’t afford a person ...

And thank you everyone !!!!!!!!

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I'm in VA too. I had the SAME thought. $5,000 seemed completely do-able to me. NOPE. Now I'm looking at between $7,500-$10,000 which seems insane but stuff really adds up.

The venue was the biggest cost for me. I feel like once you have a venue, you can decide where you can cut corners, and you can start DIYing things ahead of time or getting things on sales (i bought all my centerpiece decor from hobby lobby on cyber monday last year for $200). But if you don't know where you're getting married, or how many people will be there, you can't really plan anything else. Also come up a VERY tentative guest list, that way you have an idea of how many people/tables/chairs/catering so you can get quotes on that stuff too.

OMG ladies!! I am so sorry for my delay! I have been so busy with work and my dogs, and life that I haven't checked in!

Please let me read everyone(s) comments (which I am so grateful for) and I will respond appropriately

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Same with us! We just moved the date LOL

We want to buy a house too. It's a lot at one time!

Yes absolutely!!!! I am asking him to give me a list of who he wants to invite, etc but anyone knows that’s like pulling teeth. I wanted to keep it t 30-50 but feel it will def be 70-100. So I think I found out Venu 😊😊😊😊😊