I’m finally getting around to answering reader requests. Hurrays up in here!
Melissa wrote in and asked:
I just discovered your blog and I’m loving it! I’m getting married in March 2013 with a $5,000 budget, so any tips on budgeting would be great.
Budgeting for a wedding can be a horrible, insane-person-making process.
Seriously, horrible.
You will be fighting against the wedding industry, your family’s wants, your own wants, and the opinions/expectations of what a wedding needs to have. It’s an uphill battle, to say the least.
But here is another way to look at it. $5,000 is plenty of money to get married. So is $50,000. So is $50 (or however much it will cost you to have a city hall wedding). Budgeting can be frustrating but it’s possible to have a perfect-for-you wedding on exactly the budget you have.
I’m no expert but the following is my experience and tips for working on a smallish (for a wedding) budget.
Tips On Budgeting For Your Wedding
- Plan to overspend. Unless you are an amazing person who can track every cent spent at all times even the day of your wedding…. you are probably going to spend over your budget. There are going to be things that pop up last minute that might only be able to be fixed by spending extra. If you have a strict budget for $5,000 I would set your actual wedding budget at $4,500 or so and then save that extra $500 for any expenses you forget or come up at the last minute. Plan to overspend and you really won’t!
- Spend on what matters and skimp on what doesn’t. This is pretty common advice for any kind of budgeting. Your wedding is special so you should spend as much as you can on the things that really matter to you. Before the wedding sit down and pick 2-3 items/services that mean the most to you and plan to spend more on these. For us we wanted good food and great photography so these two things took almost half our entire budget. For the rest you can work with the money you have left over and find ways to make it work.
- Utilize the people you know. When you get married you can use a lot of friends and family to help save money. If you are close enough and feel comfortable asking this can save you a ton of money. You can ask friends to help out before or at the wedding instead of giving you a wedding gift. This way you can cut down on the costs associated with paying other people to do things for you (generally people overcharge for wedding related services).
- Look outside traditional wedding vendors. The wedding industry is slightly crazy. Okay, it’s super crazy. Vendors mark up EVERYTHING the minute you mention that it’s for a wedding. If you are working with a smaller budget I recommend you go outside the traditional wedding vendor circle. You can get a better price for food at a local restaurant rather than a traditional wedding caterer (and it might taste better). You can get a cheaper deal for a reception location if you avoid the most popular venues in your community. If you think outside the box and look around you can most definitely find deals and save money on your wedding vendors.
- Research everything online. The internet is a magical, magical thing. You can research ways to save money on your wedding on thousands of sites. You can find a better deal for the wedding dress that already caught your eye or find a discount for favors that you want. You can find an amazing photographer who is starting out or offering a deal. Basically the internet is your friend when it comes to researching wedding purchases and saving money.
Those are my best tips for planning a budget wedding! It’s definitely possible and worth it for some of us. Good luck in your planning!
by Mary on April 25, 2012
I was planning to do vendor reviews as separate posts but I’ve found after losing my drafts, notes, and all things related I’m really over blogging about the wedding. Just over it. So, I will include all the vendor reviews here and make it easy!
CENTRAL BBQ
Central BBQ - I love Central BBQ. It’s my favorite in Memphis and they did not disappoint with the catering. We did have a mishap with communication during the planning process but they went out of their way to make it up to me. All in all the food was amazing and everyone loved it. Ribs and bbq made so many people happy that day, especially the ones from out of town. People are still asking me about the chips and dip they provided because it was just so good. I might have to bring some back to NZ with me.
Muddy’s BakeShop
Muddy’s BakeShop – Another of my favorites in Memphis. And again, my favorites did not disappoint! We ordered one cake and a couple dozen cupcakes for the wedding and picked them up the morning of the wedding. The only problem we had was that the cupcakes weren’t labeled (I think?) so they ended up being put on plates without labels and no one knew what was what. It was cupcake roulette which is a pretty tasty game to play at least! I highly recommend Muddy’s both because they have a great product and are an awesome local business in Memphis that I want to succeed.
ah! Amy Hutchinson Photography
Amy Hutchinson - Memphis brides (and elsewhere) take note – Amy is awesome. I was lucky to book Amy for our wedding when she starting out so I got a great deal which is lucky for us as a super low budget wedding couple. The services she provided were amazing and honestly she could probably double her current price and would still be worth it. I really lucked out when I found her website after viewing hundreds of other photographers who made me want to claw my eyes out. She has a great eye and her work is phenomenal. Her and her husband shot our engagement photos and wedding photos and we highly recommend them to all Memphis couples. I think we might have even got her some new clients because we are always talking about her and how great she was working with us. We love our wedding photos!
Smarty Had A Party (plates)
Smarty Had A Party – I ordered plates from here for the wedding reception. They were nicer plastic made to look like they weren’t plastic. I liked them and they held up well, but I feel like they are a bit overpriced. I probably could have gotten something similar from another source for less money but for some reason at the time I wanted to try out this company. I honestly don’t even remember why. There isn’t anything wrong with them or there service but I probably wouldn’t recommend them often.
LinenTablecloth
LinenTablecloth – We bought the tablecloths for our tables at the wedding from this company via Amazon. I knew I wanted pretty colored tablecloths and actually thought about getting fabric and making my own but that became too much work. I originally looked into renting but they didn’t have a ton of choices in color or size. Also renting tablecloths from local companies ranged from $10–$15 a tablecloth just to rent them. The ones I bought from LinenTablecloths were around $8 each to buy and came in almost every color you can imagine and sizes to fit most tables. The company has pretty much 5 stars on every product so it seemed worth trying for $8 each. Now that’s a great deal especially if you plan to use them again (I gave ours to a friend who does events often). I worried they would look cheap but they actually were nice quality and received a bunch of compliments on them both at the wedding and after thanks to photographs. I would highly recommend buying from here if you need tablecloths and don’t want to spend so much to rent them.
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Overall I really loved everything we chose for the wedding. It made for a wonderful day and everyone who was involved was great. Thanks to all our awesome vendors for making our day great!
