Young Couple Paying for Wedding Themselves

To answer your questions, I have no idea!!!!!! lol

We are paying for EVERYTHING and our budget is roughly $5000, but if I can get any lower than that I will be happy!!

We are paying for things one at a time.. this month, we are paying our venue for rental feels, next we'll be making our deposit for our photographer and dj, then we will save up for our food and finish the deposits. We don't have anything else on our budget per-say other than getting a marraige license and what not, but everything else is just spare change if I have it and most of it is art and craft supplies for DIY decor (I've made pom garlands, lamps, mason jar centerpeieces and invitations so far). I plan to make as much as I can and sell most of it off after the wedding to help pay for a honeymoon. We probably won't be going on that right away, we'll probably wait until winter when the rates are lower.

For our vendors, we try to find the best value rather than just whatever is cheap.. yelp.com helps with that!

The easiest way to cut the budget is to cut the guest list, because then everything you do is less; less invites, less favors (do away with them anyway), less flowers, less catering. Have a smaller wedding party and find other ways to include your friends in the wedding (less flowers, gifts.....)

Don't do a formal rehearsal dinner; have a potluck or a BBQ with no rehearsal.

Decide what is really, really important to you (great music, a fantastic photographer) and spend you money there, rather than just going with 'okay' vendors all around.

Make what you can, but not to the point where you are totally stressed about it....

And remember; the most important thing is that you're marrying the guy you love.

I didn't catch up on the last 2 pages of stuff- but some ideas. Price shop everything! I got my veiland tiara used on eBay for $30 each instead of paying $150+ at the bridal salon. In retrospect, I wish I had bought a used dress! I also bought my slip on it as well. I got my shoes on clearance from a bridal salon for $20.

I did a daytime wedding instead of an evening. We used a place that required minimal decoration and let me bring in my own vendors.

Just plan the wedding you CAN afford, without using loans or hurting your financial future.

Don't skimp on the photographer, or the DJ. These will make or break your wedding! The pictures are all you have left, and a good photog will be worth every penny and then some. A good DJ will make the event memorable for your guests. These will be your big ticket items- so budget for it! At least $2000 for a good photog, and $1000 for a good DJ.

We are paying for nearly everything our selves except food FILS got that for us. but our budget is 5000 which is noting in southern cali. Im DIYing everything basically. Ive been really smart about looking for the best deals while not settling Ive also lucked out by my DJ only charging me half of what he normally charged . Im really proud of us. WE can afford more but we do have two kids and dont need to be going broke and we dont want to skip on the rest of our day to day life because we are getting married. good luck its not easy but do able

We are spending about 20k and that is for evetything including honeymoon. We are paying for everything ourselves and putting money to thr side each month but I probably will save some money because something I am doing myself

The number 1 way to save money is keep the guest list low..do NOT let people pressure you into adding people, whatever you do..i wanted my guest list to be 100, but it got to be 150..some of that is my fault too, I should have been more cut throat in making it..our budget is 9000, I wanted it 7000 but we can afford it..i'm paying for it except for 500.

We're paying for everything except the alcohol and the cake (some family members are helping out with these as their wedding gifts). But with a guest list of 110 it is going to be roughly about 6k. And thats before we figure out how much to tip everyone and how much the official will want. Sigh. And a great way to save is get as much stuff from the dollar store as you can - even things like the dollar section in target. You'll be surprised what you'll be able to find! And Save-on-crafts.com really helped me figure out my centerpieces for really cheap!

We are paying a little bit at a time. Thanks to my searching abilities I've been able to find us a beautiful venue that is only $100 an hour w/a 2 hour minimum. Our budget is $7500 or less for about 75 guests. I am also DIY a lot of things myself to help cut costs. In all honesty I think for the wedding I am wanting I can spend at around $5500.

The majority of the money is actually being spent on venue, food & drinks, photography, and dress.

We are spending around for soup to nuts ( the entire wedding for it all...) around 11 k and we are getting, church,dress,shoes, makeup, hair, tux rentals, accessories, photos, reception at a banquet facility, limo, photos, videography, and TONS of DIY things like unity set, invites, stds,etc...... =] DIY really saves money BIG TIME!

Ok first off...Thank you for posting this! Great question! And you got some great responses! I am now trying to figure out what all can I do myself? I wasnt really going to do to much DIY only bacuse im not very crafty...but with some things its just assembly and thats not so hard....and is right Mrs. Peacock, that site is super helpful!