Wedding

I’m currently hiring!! You can work part time or full time, work from home, and all you need is access to WiFi and a cell phone or computer which I’m assuming you do! ☺️ I’d love to help! Feel free to message me or find me on Instagram at @aksurholt

View Quoted Comment I dont think she was making fun of it. I could never do waitressing dealing with people (mainly the rude ones), trying to remember orders for so many different people, carrying heavy trays, and some do work crazy hours.

My FH and I are also paying for the entire wedding ourselves.

Some things that help with saving:

- having a longer engagement, so that you have more time to accumulate funds

- asking vendors for a payment plan to help avoid a ton of huge bills right around the wedding itself

- sticking to a budget day-to-day, if you don't have one already, and cutting out some unnecessary expenses. FH and I had a bad habit of eating out a lot for dates, so we swapped that out for hiking instead.

As PPs mentioned, there's also a lot you can do to keep the actual wedding costs down:

- Sunday or Friday weddings instead of Saturdays, and off-season dates help (though it looks like you've set one, and it's a Friday!)

- type of venue, food, alcohol, etc. can have a big impact on price. For example, I'm paying $30 pp for a buffet dinner at my venue, and had to use their food/staff. My friend is getting married at a brewery and could bring in an outside caterer, who's doing a similar buffet dinner for $11 pp. You always have options.

We can always help if you're looking to cut costs in certain areas!

I created a savings account that acts like a vacation club account through my credit union. So they take a specified amount every two weeks when my direct deposit goes in and put it into this higher interest account. I can’t withdraw from it for a year (without being fined), and when the year is up it’ll deposit the money into my regular account. This has helped because I can’t spend the money no matter what, and honestly I don’t miss it.

Push it out for as long as you can, start a savings just for the wedding so any extra money you have goes in there. We recycle and all our recycling money has gone into the savings for the last year and a half. FH and I have also worked a lot of overtime. We are also having our wedding on a Sunday which is saving us a TON! I'm talking like a few thousand. We've done a lot of DIY stuff and are ordering our flowers from Raley's, not a florist. My friend who has her own little baking company is doing all of our desserts. Those are just some ways we've saved for the wedding. Hope that helps!

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much

View Quoted Comment I saw a post that said a wedding costs $36,000 and I just laughed

View Quoted Comment Oh I’m not making fun of it at al I promise you that. It’s just not something I want to do or don’t think I could do honestly. I give props to waitresses

And for those saying things about getting jobs, the hard part is I don’t have a car and my bf works 2nd shift so it makes things a little complicated. but I just applied for a job that’s right down the road so fingers crossed I get it

We each put money into a joint checking account for 15 months. That was the core of our wedding budget.

But honestly, don’t go into debt over a wedding. It’s totally ok to have a church or courthouse ceremony then serve a cake & punch reception at a non meal-time (like 2 pm).

To save money instead of a caterer go through from a favorite restaurant. Instead of real flowers make your own for the girls and other decor. If you have friends that bake well see if they will do the cake for a small fee. Anyone with a nice camera can take pictures. If your having a snake wedding get married at a park lodge. If in toledo oak openings. It's a good price. Start planning early and maybe make payments to the bigger items. If in toledo the entertainment network dj is the best price for the length of time. Priced are outrageous. Good luck

View Quoted Comment Tosha dont even believe that! 95% of the images on pinterest are styled shoots. They aren't even real weddings! It's not that they have a bigger budget than you, it's a smoke and mirrors photo shoot!

Look for discounts. Photographers who are just starting maybe a food truck or just appetizers or brunch. Pick a week day or sunday instead of Saturday or maybe a winter wedding. Discount dress sites like cocomelody. There are lots of ways to cut your budget. I'm making my own invitations i found some tutorials on YouTube and free templates online. Shop around on pricing. We are paying ourselves as well it can be done

Have the wedding you can afford or save and have the wedding of your dreams.
We are also paying for our wedding ourselves. We will end up right around we thought give or take maybe $1000 so i think we are doing pretty good. But we also are in our 30’s and already own a house. My fiancé is in his career job (I am too but I make a fraction of what he makes) so keep all that in mind. It sounds like you are a lot younger than us seeing that you are babysitting now. Think about your future. How much do you really want to spend on a wedding kneeling that you will need to also come up with a down payment for house. Everyone definitely has their own priorities, and I am hesitant to spend as much as we are on the wedding knowing I want kids immediately. So before you think about how much you can save and how long it’s going to take really really think about your 5 year/ 10 year plan instead of just a wedding day plan. Good luck!

View Quoted Comment 100% agreed! Pintrist is awesome for inspiration! Especially color palettes, you can literally type in “navy, greenery and silver wedding” (or whatever colors) and you can find a million photos of inspiration. Same with cakes, dresses, rings...NOT looking on pintrist because you think you can’t afford the weddings they are depicting is a mistake. First off, there are millions of dyi and inexpensive ideas and second, take the expensive ones as examples of what you want. It’s like buying a designer anything. You can pay full price for the high end version or find something very very similar that fits your budget.

View Quoted Comment I don’t know if she’s ragging on waitressing either but 100% agree. I made more waitressing and bartending than I do in my career. Easy $500 nights (Chicago suburbs will do that)
If we needed the money, I would definitely serve Friday and Saturday nights. If you’re good at it, it’s amazing money.
So to the poster, if you’re not working nights why not pick up a weekend shift at a good restaurant? Granted you do need the experience to get a good job. Serving is not comparable to fast food at all.