Young Couple Paying for Wedding Themselves

We're paying for about 17k of the 25k ourselves. (Both sets of parents have put in some money.) We both had some money in savings 'cause we lived with parents for 1-2 years after college, though only part of that was with a full-time job. Other than that, we've just tried to cut back everywhere... now that we're living together we're obviously saving a lot more, but before that (and some still), I didn't have cable tv, we both make lunches to bring to work when we can, we basically never go to the movies - we wait for it to be out on dvd to rent or just don't see them anymore, etc.

We also booked about 1.5 years before the wedding so we could get the year before's rates, we're having a Sat 12-5pm reception so we can keep our budget the same but invite some more people, we did cut the guest list (from about 200 to 150) and we shopped around - our DJ and limo are further away but less than things in the immediate area. (The DJ was about 2/3s the cost of the next lowest!)

We got a little screwed with prices 'cause the wedding is in NJ... so everything is expensive, so we really had to plan. We ended up having a 2 year engagement so that we could make sure we'd be able to afford everything. We also have big families... of the 150 person guest list, I think 15-20 are my friends and only about 10 are his! We really cut back on friends and extended family.

Our reception is also an hour away from the ceremony 'cause in the Princeton area, everything was well over $100 pp... this place is still $85 pp, but it saves us $1000s total and includes things other places didn't.

Yeah our budget is about 7,000 or less. One big money saving thing we did was opt to get married on Sunday. That has helped us a lot. I am also doing a lot of research to find the best, yet lowest cost vendor....a LOT of research. And I will also be doing a lot of DIYs as well...

Ours was $10,000--and that included two sets of "bridal" expenses (same-sex wedding) and receptions in two different states. There is a breakdown of our budget at this link, and you can follow the links from that to see all the details of what we did.

I will be having alot of DIY I have been giving alot of stuff as well. Most of the money will going to The ceremony and reception venue, the cake, dress, and honeymoon. Our initial budget is 3,000 but it might be less.

Etsy.com is GREAT but isn't always cheaper. It's basically people selling their DIY stuff. However, you can still browse and get some great ideas about things you can do yourself. If you see something you like, you can try to Google for instructions on how to do it yourself. I keep my own DIY pretty simple b/c I don't have the time (okay, or the confidence in my skill) to do anything too complicated, and in that case it's more than worth ordering from Etsy.

We are paying everything monthly... our budget is about 17k not including the honeymoon...as of right now we are paying monthly for the venue, photographer and caterer. Those are the three main things we want paid off by December-January. Hopefully our income taxes will help finish everything else off!

25K

I had money from getting out of the Army, plus tax returns that helped us out.

We paid everything off monthly as well.

My best advice? Find a venue that speaks for itself, needing minimal decor. If you go to a cheap hall, you may end up spending more to make it how you like, then getting one a little bit more, where you have to do less.

We are having a very small wedding and spending aboaut $2500 total - No honeymoon, open bar for those who want it (we are dong lunch at 11am I doubt many will want to be drinking and several of the people at our reception are in local law enforcement lol), no dj and no professional "hired" photographer. (I am really blessed that 3 of my guests are phenominal with cameras, I even have the work of two of those guests hanging in our home)

I did lots of shopping around, tons of DIY, used Etsy and Ebay along with Oriental Trading and saved a fortune! If you Have Micahel's Crafts near you join their members club and you can get good discounts sent to your inbox.

We are also getting married on a Friday and the restaurant (vs. catering hall) created a special menu just for us that each person can choose anything they want off of it. They also opened just for us for that day - they aren't usually open for lunch but for a small wedding they were happy to accomodate us.

Our budget is a little over $8,000. We set a long engagement (engaged in January, wedding next August), sjut so we could afford any kind of wedding. I figured out how much $$ needed to be set aside every week, so that we would have enough money when the big day rolled around. We know extra money will come in (i.e. taxes) but are trying not to use that money unless necessary.

We're keeping it around $2500 with tons of diy and bargain hunting! Not including the honeymoon, because that is still up in the air!

How are you doing it? A long engagement to save $$! We got engaged last january, so 14 months to put away $15K isnt that bad.

What is your budget? $15K

What exactly are you spending the money on? mostly on the reception since it was a package deal (venue/rentals/catering/cake). We got a better deal on it since we picked an "off season" month, so the package was discounted by about 20%. we are DIY almost everything ourselves, including flowers. I live in LA and am buying all the flowers the day before at the Flower District (which is where all LA florists get their flowers anways!)

Believe it or not $1500.00

venue is $250 and officiant is $275 includes photos =)

Nothing super fancy but I am doing ALL DIY decor got great deals on supplies and I am crafty. My dress was only 40 bucks, i will post pics once i'm done with it. it is a NEW dress, i'm adding the bling. Food is all DIY I have a uncle who loves to cook, and I figure that everyone loves his food why the hell not!

if anyone needs help DIY sites or ideas PM me =) I'd be glad to help!

Like a lot of the brides we are DIY'ers. FH helps when he can and actually gets excited about it.

Our budget is 15K for a DW and that includes everything plus our kids flights, lodging for 5 days and our HM. We put 1k aside each month in a linked savings and if there is something we need we really think about it before I transfer the money to our checking. This helps because we really have to know we are getting the best deal. We both work any extra jobs and OT that is offered.

Diy and a lot of shopping around the wedding budget is $10,000 not including honeymoon.... We set aside a minimum we both MUST save each check and as soon as we find a VEnue we are booking the honeymoon so its easy to pay for instead of coming up with everything at once. we decided on a 7 day cruise to 3 islands... Friday and Sunday weddings are cheaper to do too.. ours is on a Sunday.

We've got a $20k budget that we're paying for ourselves (FH got a big bonus for an overseas assignment). We shopped around alot. About $2k is ceremony & reception venues, $6100 on catering & bar, $2k on rentals, $3600 on photography, $1500 on flowers, $700 on a band/dj, $600 on video, $500 on photobooth, $650 on both cakes, $750 on invitations and save the dates. A lot of our vendors are under $1000, but $50 here and there really ads up. By getting the best deals on our catering, cake, etc we're really saving a ton.

We're also getting married on a Friday so that's saving us $500 with the photographer, $500 with the venue, money with the photobooth, the caterer, and all our other vendors. We worked super hard to get our catering bill as low as possible (For about 100 people, open bar and filet and crabcake entree) so we had extra money for other things. We've also worked to negotiate with a lof of our vendors. You never know when you can get a discount for referrals or asking the vendor to work within your budget.

Looks like we'll be able to contain expenses to $1500-$2000. We're having a small guest list (small like SMALL--20 people), and that makes a huge difference. We're getting married in the small chapel as opposed to the big church with professional musicians, and having a lunchtime reception.

We're not exactly paying for the wedding ourselves, but my parents agreed to pay for the food. and the FIL are giving us $3000. We are trying to get everything in the $3000 except for my dress and the food of course. We just bought a house so things are tight for us. On that note I made my theme reflect my budget. Simple is elegant. So far its working i think. Although i did splurge on my dress. But we did a lot of bargain shopping for sure. We are having the reception and ceremony at the same place. they also do all the catering. all we have to pay is the catering (as long as it totals over 1400, which im sure it will). We also went with a up and coming photographer. She actually did really good on E-photos. We went with a really small florist. FH uncle owns the DJ vendor we booked, and we're getting our invites online. so far all that totals up to $1800 out of the $3000. I am paying for the honeymoon though and we set aside $4000 for that. and finally another Feb 2012 bride!!!!

We're spending $4,000 on a wedding with 40 guests. I'm doing almost everything DIY, no photographer. Music on my iPod so no DJ, no honeymoon...

We are getting married on a Friday, which was less expensive than a Saturday, and I found a venue that doesn't charge a site fee- only the catering fees.