How to Save SO much Money on Your Wedding

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How to Save SO much Money on Your Wedding

May 29, 2021

Planning a Wedding on a Budget: How we got married for less than $3,000

and planned our wedding in under 3 weeks

One of the biggest difficulties newly engaged couples face is: planning a wedding on a budget.

If you’re wondering how you can have a wedding for less than $3,000, I have one word for you: ELOPE.

Weddings are f*cking expensive. When Jay and I first got engaged, we knew we wanted to have a small wedding for a couple of reasons:

Budget
An intimate setting

This is my second marriage. My first wedding cost nearly $15,000 and would have been much more if it was in a big city instead of the small town I grew up in. There were close to 200 people invited, 165 people attended. My dress alone cost almost as much as my entire wedding with Jay.

So, if you’re reading this in 2021, use the pandemic as an excuse for as long as you can and just elope!

But you can also use what I’ve done to seriously cut down on the overblown budgets of a regular wedding.

Planning a wedding on a budget is hard work, but if you really prioritize what YOU want vs what you think will impress your guests, it can be a lot easier to stick to a budget and even come in under budget.

Saving money is one of my favorite things, so I’m super excited to share this with you!

On a quiet Friday night in early May, Jay and I were discussing whether we should take a trip to NY for Memorial Day weekend. Our anniversary is May 27th and I said, “wouldn’t it be fun to go to the courthouse the day before we leave to get married on our anniversary and then surprise my parents with the news when we arrive in Oswego?!” And so our wedding date was set.

But our plans were short lived. Jay is a DJ and within 2 hours of saying those words, he got a request to DJ a party on Memorial Day. Considering he hasn’t worked much throughout the pandemic, it was stupid to say no.

We were so set on getting married on our anniversary, we decided to move forward with it and surprise everyone anyway!

So, two days later we asked his brother and sister-in-law to be our witnesses and the next day I hit the ground running with making plans!

The Venue

The first thing I did was check when we could get married at the courthouse and I quickly learned that they only do weddings on Mondays and Fridays. Since our anniversary fell on a Thursday, that was out. We were not willing to bend on the date – it was the whole point!

So, the next thing I did was scout venues!

Holy shit are venues expensive!

We had a $3000 budget and a venue would eat all of that up. I was not willing to blow our budget or compromise on the other things we needed just for the 2 of us to exchange vows in a fancy setting. So, after some hunting online, I found a beautiful park in uptown Charlotte that didn’t require reserving a spot or getting a permit.

Say it with me… FREE!

You’ll see in the breakdown at the end, I actually removed the projected amount for the location from my budget so I could allocate more to other things.

Venue – check!

The Officiant

Next we needed someone to marry us. Weddingwire.com became my best friend. So many great officiants to choose from! After looking through the reviews, we set up meetings (via Zoom) with two of our favorites. After meeting Pastor Dave, we knew he was the one and ended up canceling the 2nd meeting. One of the most amazing things about him is that he doesn’t charge a set fee. He asks for a “donation of love” which he puts back into the community.

So since we budgeted $200 for an officiant, that’s exactly what we gave him.

Officiant – check!

The Photographer

Now we all know it’s not a wedding without a photographer, or at least that’s how I felt! I reached out to some photographers from weddingwire.com, but they were all blowing my budget. Rightly so! A great photographer is definitely the thing I planned to spend the most on, but I was determined to stay under $3k.

We spent a couple of days brainstorming how we could afford this and then I remembered my fabulous coworker Miranda is a photographer!

I hit her up and she was totally in. She and her husband work as a team, so I actually got two photographers for only $550 (plus tip – don’t forget tips in your budget)!

Photographer – check!

The Wedding Day Attire

OK so we have the location, the officiant, the witnesses, and the photographer… but what are we going to wear?!

As I mentioned, Jay is a DJ, he already has some pretty sweet suits, so he just needed a new shirt and tie. We decided on blue and orange/coral as our colors, so after a little bit of hunting (why is it so hard to find a tie in May?) we got him a blue shirt and matching tie at Belk on sale! It cost us around $40 for both.

My dress came from David’s Bridal. I knew going there I’d be able to find something off the rack, which was super important since we only had a couple of weeks to go! I found a few dresses on their website that they had in the store, but there was one that I absolutely loved and was listed as online only. When I got to the store, I showed the consultant the dresses I had saved. When I showed her the online only dress, she said, “I’m pretty sure I just saw that earlier today. Let me see what size it is.” It was my size!!

Of course I tried on several dresses, but as soon as I put that one on, I knew it was the one! And here’s the real kicker – it was only $160!! Alterations were $140 (because obviously I had to have it shortened), so in total my dress was $300.

If you’re planning a wedding on a budget, I highly recommend a place like David’s Bridal!

Wedding day attire – check!

The Rings

The last really important thing we needed was the rings! We agreed that we didn’t want to spend a lot and wanted something very unique, so we ended up with silicone rings from Enso.

I had budgeted $200 for rings and they ended up costing us under $70! Now THAT’S how you save some money, amiright?

Rings – check!

Get my exact ring here

Get Jay’s ring here

The Reception

So, we had everything for the ceremony, but the people have a right to eat!

Since it was just going to be the four of us for dinner, we could afford to splurge a bit.

There are a number of fancy restaurants in uptown Charlotte, but Italian food is by far our favorite. So we chose the upscale Italian restaurant Luce and I cannot tell you how insanely impressed we were!

The food, the service, the atmosphere… absolutely everything we were hoping for! Our meal including tip was $325.

Followed by drinks at the swanky Sophia’s Lounge which my new brother-in-law paid for.

Dinner/reception – check!

Everything Else!

Those were all the really important things that we wanted, but here’s the rest of what we did (full breakdown at the end):

I made my own bouquet from a combination of flowers from a friend and a $12 bouquet from the grocery store. I saved the bottom of what was trimmed off of my dress to wrap around the stems and used an antique brooch that was my grandma’s to hold it together (plus a couple of pins).

We booked a hotel room at The Grand Bohemian, which was right next to the park, to get ready at (and of course for our wedding night) which was under $300.

I had my hair and makeup done by my regular stylist and the makeup artist at their salon. Including tip, this cost me $130.

Our marriage license was $60. A pet sitter cost us $120 (plus tip) for the entire weekend (we left for Savannah the next day). Lingerie, robe and special underwear was around $160. And a gift for my new sister-in-law was $45.

In the end, we saved over $550 and planned almost everything in just 5 days, but took the full 3 weeks for finishing touches.

So, you can see, planning a wedding on a budget isn’t that hard after all!

In retrospect, we wouldn’t change a damn thing! This was everything we wanted and more! We called our family and close friends on our way to Savannah the next morning and the excitement on the other end of the phone was so worth keeping everything a secret.