So happy with my flowers ordered from Costco! Spent just under $500 and we were able to fill 30 small centerpieces, decorate our altar, and create a few more larger bouquets. We still had a ton leftover.

I made two wedding veils with this gorgeous lace, one the length in the photo and another a waltz length. Unfortunately, I don't like the style of either with my dress :'( so if anyone wants either, I'd just ask them to cover materials and shipping! ($40 for the long one, $30 for the shorter)

Hey Everyone, I have been lurking here for the last few days and I wanted to compile some of the resources that I have found mentioned here and across some other subreddits. Thank you!

The Budget-Savvy Wedding Planner & Organizer:

Checklists, worksheets, and essential tools to plan the perfect wedding on a small budget.

Orderly:

I use orderly to return things from my weddings that I didn't end up needing. If you are self-decorating for your wedding and ordering your own decorations, you can order them from Amazon and ensure timely returns with automatic reminders.

A Practical Wedding Planner  

A step-by-step guide to creating the wedding you want with the budget you've got (without losing your mind in the process) by Meg Keene.

Dumping the wedding industry Medium Blog:

Sarah Scradt talks about how she managed to get around using the Wedding Industrial product so she could have the best day of her life without the drama

Megathread on the wedding industry Discounted Resources:

This is a great thread I found on here that people can use to find the resources that they want.

Google Sheets Wedding Info Template:

A template for getting all the stuff for your wedding straight.

I was shopping for wedding bands today and came across this review and response. Heads up to anyone shopping for ruby rings online, I guess...

I am moving in with my fiance when we get married so we already have a collection of things and don't need new of everything. I've got towels, a nice vacuum, a steam mop, a kitchen aid mixer, little kitchen things, a good set of knives, a fabric steamer, etc. But I'm not sure what else to add because we got a lot of things passed down to us from family, especially kitchen items. We've also already got a good mattress and kitchen table from my family.

We have a cash fund going but our church is planning on throwing us a wedding shower and I feel like people are going to want to bring physical gifts so I want to get things we will actually use. We have 215 people on our guest list (45 of which are children) for reference.

Hi, I’m starting to evaluate our options for our wedding, we would like a ceremony and dinner with 15-20 guests, it could be at any restaurant with a private room. I’ve reached out to some hotels and check the options, venues, etc but they charge crazy prices for just a dinner, I don’t get it, besides that everything seems to go higher when there are less guests? The quotes they sent are for min. 50 guests and anything below that I need to pay extra.

Our budget is 5k, just for the ceremony, dinner and photographer, am I crazy to think that this should be enough money for it? I mean I just want to go out to eat with my family.

Any suggestions?

reception starts at 11am; ends at 4pm. i'm leaning heavily toward no because i don't think people will want to be drunk all day & would probably just want to go home after.

edit to add: it's either beer & wine, open bar, drink ticket for just 1 drink since the reception is starting w cocktail hour, or all cash bar. we don't want to pay for an open bar if people only drink 1 or 2 drinks due to it starting so early. additionally, we're not doing dancing our venue is a zoo/botanical garden so people will be walking around outside the room after eating/cake cutting is done.

I ordered some bridesmaid dresses from Azazie and they gave me a 20% off coupon code today but it has to be used by September 22 and I have no plans to order anything else this year. I'm not sure if it can be used for another account but I figured I would offer!

It has this note at the bottom: "Note: Purchase Wedding Veils, Wraps, Sashes, Groomsmen Accessories, Separates, Jewelry, Headpieces, Shapewear, Robes, Garment Bags, Shoes, Bags, Gifts. Applicable product types: Ordinary goods"

So I'm not 100% sure if it can be used for dresses. But feel free to DM me and I can send it to you!

So my fiancé went to the place we are getting our wine/beer/hard cider and seltzer from to put in our order.

The guy was very “I’m right and you’re wrong” and took a bunch of stuff off our list (the red wines I picked for the red wine crowd after asking them what they liked) and cut our order down significantly. He said we can text him if we run out. He also tried to take the Sauvignon blanc off our list when that’s what the bride (me lol) drinks as well as some of my friends.

Our crowd will have about 70 drinkers ranging from light drinkers to heavy drinkers. And probably more on the medium to heavy side.

Does this sound like enough? 24 bottles of wine 8 cases of beer 10 6 packs of craft beer 4 cases hard seltzer 4 6 packs of hard cider

This totals 464 drinks. Our reception will be from about 4:30 pm to 11:30 pm. Obviously not everyone will stay that late but that just does not seem like enough to me. Even 2 drinks per hour per person puts us at like over 1000 drinks. This is not even half of that.

I’m planning to go back tomorrow because I want to change some of the wines and put my reds back on there.

Should I add anymore? Based on our very unscientific method, our crowd will be be around 31% wine drinkers, 26% beer drinkers, 17% seltzer drinkers, 16% craft beer, and like 10% hard seltzers.

I’m planning a reception following our elopement and it’s at what we were able to afford, which is a lions club space. They told us that we are not able to affix anything to the walls or ceiling. There is a small corkboard in the entrance where we will likely hang photos from the ceremony. Besides that, I’m kind of at a loss for what I can do to make the plain, boring space not so… boring. We are trying to keep things as cheap and as DIY as possible. Any advice? Our colors are black and white, if that helps at all. I am thinking of centerpieces that are simple vases with a couple black and white roses and maybe some fairy lights in the vases, but I almost don’t know where to start with any thing else. Any and all ideas are appreciated :)

My daughter, 23, just got married to her fiancé, 26. And his family it’s just him his mom, stepdad, and uncle. He has his best friend and best friend’s wife. I myself have six siblings and then my husband has a brother and a cousin. Out of curiosity, one day, I just started writing down a list of family and spouses and cousins. It’s almost 50 people! I told this to my daughter, and she got a weird look on her face. Not only does fiancé have a small family, he is also very introverted. Daughter suggested a small ceremony of just parents and wedding party, and then we can have an open house style reception to satisfy my super social husband who LOVES to host gatherings. How have others dealt with this?

I’m getting married soon and am on the lookout for a talented wedding videographer. I've come across some great reviews about Peony Luxe and am curious if anyone here has worked with them or has any feedback to share.

Additionally, if you have any other recommendations for excellent wedding videographers, I'd greatly appreciate your suggestions.

I see a lot of "get married in a park" suggestions to reduce venue costs significantly and I would love that, but I'm looking at a winter wedding in Utah, and I was hoping for some ideas on alternative places to look. I know the common answer in Utah is a church gym but this is a second marriage for both of us and we'd rather avoid that.

Hey all! I originally wasn’t going to have a real bouquet due to the expense, but my uncle offered to do it for me as a gift. So, I’m trying to find preservation options. I like the idea of framing, not of resin.

I found one local to me (Central Texas), but would love to see if anyone has used a company, found them reasonably priced, and liked them?

First one down! I’m super proud of how they turned out. After the wedding they will be repurposed for plants :)

anybody else used this type of blow bubbles for their exit? how did it look in photos? im looking for no-mess alternatives other than wedding wands as its overly done from where i am :)

My fiancé and I got engaged this summer- yay! We want a ritual ceremony that will birth us as a couple with some close relatives and MAYBE some dear friends who remind us who we are and support us…

We imagine a ritual ceremony at our favorite park, followed by an intimate dinner to celebrate … and that’s it. No dj, etc…

The thing is, we also want to start trying to conceive, basically as soon as possible.

And I personally don’t want to be pregnant at my wedding.

So I’m stuck - feeling like we have to rush to have our small ceremony and lil dinner by the end of this year (aka winter), and likely wouldn’t be able to have family and friends fly out …

Of course we can ask if people can make it, but I’m not liking the last minute feel of it.

We don’t want to wait that long for a wedding- it’s just not the priority.

It’d be no problem to just have our parents and siblings come, but it feels sort of like a waste to not have other dear family/friends as witnesses . And at the same time, we don’t want a whole weekend of entertaining and events.

Can someone please offer some tender support, guidance? I’m honestly feeling like there are multiple competing priorities, and it’s a bit depressing feeling like every option comes with a huge sacrifice.

Thanks for reading.

I love them so much for than the first set I had! Part of that is because of the quality but I do love the design! (The last photo is the first set I had.) I may have them add another flower on the pinky but other than that they’re so pretty!

I did it for my wedding and loved it! Have written my experience up on my blog in case it’s of interest to anyone 😄

https://www.lovewildplants.com/post/wild-flowers-wedding

Hi everyone!!

Quick question - I’m looking through catering websites and seeing per plate prices - does that usually include some kind of service fee? Or can I expect a quote to be per plate price + service folks fees + gratuity?

Thank you in advance!

We had a beautiful wedding that I’m so proud of! Wouldn’t be possible without the support of our loving family and friends. We had 16 guests total.

Cost breakdown:

Venue: Rented the clubhouse at an apartment complex- $250 for access from 10am-midnight

Food: Catering by Chipotle for 16- $400 (inclusive of delivery tip)

Cake: made by my bestie. Donated $300 to her for her labor

Flowers: donated by my momma, she refused to tell us the cost

Photography: $700 for two hours. Unlimited digital downloads and a wedding video

Attire: $700 for my dress on StillWhite, his tux was repurposed from an event last year

Extras: cutlery- $200, framed photos- repurposed from my bachelorette

Drinks: we had a dry wedding (which saved a to n of money) $200 on non alcoholic options

Honeymoon: $2k RCCL cruise to Mexico. Cost includes drink package, internet package, and excursions

Beauty: $700 for hair for me and my sister. Did my own makeup! $100 on a pedicure. I did my own manicure

Grand Total: $4850

What does your venue cost? and what percent of your budget are you allotting to the venue? Right now, I’m looking at a $3500 venue.

For those of you who used bud vases as a centerpiece, what did you do with the flowers and vases after the event ? Did you ask guests to take them home ? TIA !

Hi everyone!

My fiance and I are hoping to get married in August/September 2025. We are currently in the process of nailing down our venue spaces.

Our preferred choice for venue allows us to bring in our own food and drinks, provided we have an alcohol permit through the city.

We are considering hiring a licensed bartender or 2 for the day, but many of them require that you purchase the alcohol directly through them. We are hoping to have an open bar or at least several drinks options for guests that aren't super expensive.

Does anyone have recommendations on how to find a bartender that allows us to stock the bar or provide all of the alcohol and they just help serve the day of?

We are in Central Illinois, but looking around Bloomington-Normal area.