How to Keep Your Wedding Under Budget

NOTE this blog post is a work in progress, some of the formatting, content and images are not finished:

How come wedding budgets seem to get so pricey so quickly? It seems like just when you think you've come to a decision another option presents itself and you're left with more decisions! During the planning of our wedding I decided to stick by the old adage "Just say No [thank you]".

 

 I read a fantastic Weddings edition of Real Simple that had the Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist that walked me through the entire wedding planning process. I used the check list to create my own list in google docs of monthly things I had to get done in order to stay on track. I'd show my fiancé the list and ask what things he'd like to help with. That way we were both working on wedding things, but not feeling too rushed or stressed about the whole thing. The check list also helped me anticipate a lot of decisions I hadn't thought of. Getting a heads up on some of those things helped me to stick to my guns when just saying "No [thank you]".

Toby and I had 3 separate events for our special day spread over the course of 2 weeks:

A Private Family Only Ceremony

An East Coast Reception (His home)

A West Coast Reception (Her home)

This was awesome for so many reasons:

More flexibility with photos What to Ask Your Wedding Photographer

Spend more 1-on-1 time with guests

I got to wear my wedding dress three times

Decisions that helped reduce cost and stress:

   

No Wedding Party. That's no bridesmaids/grooms outfits to select, no coordinating of people for fittings, and no complaining about the style/color/length you decided upon. I planned my own bachelorette and bridal shower since I didn't have a maid of honor. But luckily I was able to ask family and friends to help me get dressed on the day of, help with decorations, drive us to the venue, helping with hair, etc.

No Fresh Flowers. I went with all dried flowers from Hammelmans for decorations. Not even my bouquet was real flowers, it was handmade by a friend and I with silk flowers from Michael's. Which had an added bonus being that I needed a bouquet at all 3 events and I get to hang on to it... forever!

No Physical Invitations. We decided to do evites instead of physical invites. It cut out a ton of decisions; we didn't need to decide on the paper stock, ink, envelopes, inserts, etc. It cut out a big portion of the budget; printing, paper stock, postage, return envelope amp; postage, etc. When last minute requests for invites came in (or we remembered someone we forgot) it was no problem to shoot off an invitation and immediately get an rsvp. For some of the older generation my Mom actually mailed them a physical card she printed using __________. For our private ceremony I hand made 4 invitations. I used etsy to come up with ideas.

No Live Music. Instead I spent several months sculpting a Pandora Wedding station. Although in retrospect a DJ would have been nice at the West Coast reception which lasted longer than the other two events.

No Lighting. I didn't bring in any additional lighting, which when your talking about out door venues will become a factor after the sun goes down. We avoided needing lights by having the wedding in July, when the sun is out longer, and having afternoon start times. Needing lights can become a slippery slope of; power requirements, which lights, installation, safety, etc.

No Travel fees (for vendors). My photographers, caterers, and cake makers were all local in respects to the venue. This way I didn't have to pay another persons airfare, hotels fees, shipping fees, per diems, etc. I spent a lot of time online vetting candidates early on in the process.

No per person catering. We decided on serve-yourself-buffet for many reasons. It made it easier when planning on the amount of guests. We didn't have to keep track of what guests ordered. We chose B-B-Q because... we love it and visit many establishments in San Diego and therefore felt it reflected on our relationship. We ended up with a cost per head around $30/per person including non-alcoholic beverage. Another perk! It didn't phase me to get last minute invites due to plate count (and I would just send an evite on top of that).

No booze package. Some venues make you buy their alcohol packages. However, if you can manage it hire a bartender and purchase your own wine and beer. We also didn't stock a full liquor bar, we chose one cocktail and served that as the signature drink. East Coast = Sangria West Coast. = Moscow Mules.

No per plate. We both really liked BBQ and decided to do a buffet to easily allow last minutes guests without stressing about adding more plates with the right meat selection. Real simple link What to ask your caterer

Why we did it this way

We had previously discussed where we envisioned saying our vows. We decided that a forest was a perfect place for us because we enjoy the outdoors. We wanted to have a private ceremony to make it more personal, but didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings or exclude them. We also didn't want to have a location that was favored to the East or West coast and making it harder from some friends and family to make it. So we came up with this plan:

A week-day destination wedding and

two awesome parties with all of our friends and family.

Planning a weekday wedding sure makes bookings easy! I never had a single vendor have a schedule conflict. Having a small wedding at a fancy place like Omni Mount Washington resort in Bretton Woods. We were hoping that people who didn't get invited to the ceremony weren't hurt because they weren't going to spend a ton to a weekday wedding, especially since they were invited to a reception near them. 

Saturday July 21st - East Coast Reception

Outdoor venue along the Connecticut River

Side note: Since we were on the East coast, logistically it made sense to fly to the Caribbean after the East coast reception. All the while looking forward to the weekend we would return to San Diego and got to experience the West Coast Reception. 

 

Indoor and Outdoor venue overlooking the _____ lake. We got a killer deal on this private community club house. It could be rented by residents of the community. Having my parents secure this venue kept costs low, and the distance made people commit or opt out early on (helping us make other arrangements, like catering). 

Vendor Links

West Coast

Catering: Bekker's

Bacon Chocolate Cupcakes:
Photographers: Shooting the Dream http://www.shootingthedream.com/

East Coast
Catering:
Photographer: Lindsay Flanagan http://www.lindsayflanagan.com/
Cake: