Budget Recap: $23K | Ceremony: Lands End | Reception: The Royale for 70 guests
We had planned a big wedding for the following year but realized we couldn't afford it (~$80-100k) and decided to pull the plug and do something smaller and sooner. We landed on a 20k budget (surprise surprise, we went a lil over). I used a lot of tips in this group and wanted to give back to this sub since the breakdowns here helped us so much.
We started with an intimate ceremony for 20 at Eagle's Point Landing (Lands End). My husband and I walk our dog their most mornings so its a meaningful place for us. We then did a family only lunch at Little Original Joes for 12. This allowed our bridal party friends to have time to get lunch themselves and then setup the reception decor etc at The Royale. The Royale was our final destination and reception spot for our close friends + all the ceremony guests. One thing is - we had the wedding on a Monday bc of the availability of my MOH who was flying in from Australia after a separate trip. At first I thought it would be lame to get married on a monday, but most people ended up loving it bc it didn't really conflict with existing weekend travel plans so almost everyone we loved was able to make it! People flying in for reception from out of state were able to work remotely and then come for the wedding reception in the evening too so they didn't need to take time off work (if they had remote work as an option).
Here's where all the $$$ went:
- Photographer — Jackson Grant Weddings @ jacksongrantweddings: $8,800. Our photographer - our one true splurge - He was honestly my only choice. I am very unphotogenic when im trying hard to look nice and Jackson's style allows me to be who I really am - a silly goose. He's based in Australia, and we got lucky: he was already in the US shooting a few other summer weddings, so we had to cover his flight home, accommodation, and Ubers while he was here. But it was still $8,800 USD all-in. It's billed as an 8-hour wedding-day package, but he gave us so much more. 8 hours of location scouting with us two days before, plus a full day on his own the day before scouting and mapping out specific shots. For that level of creativity and care it was worth every single cent!! I'm thrilled with our sneak peaks and dying to see more to come in the full album.
- Reception venue — The Royale [Incl. venue buy out, open bar and unlimited PhotoBooth]: $5,500. Hubby and I LOVE a good open bar, so this was impt for us to offer, we chose The Royale bc they have been recommended on this sub for weddings before. They didn't fail. Drinks were amazing, service awesome, space perfect size for our party size, they let us decorate etc. Just all around awesome people and experience. Because we partied on a Monday the bar closed at 12 due to noise. I think fri/sat/sun they can stay open till 2am. They also recommended our DJ to us! Shoutout to Will, Nikki, Matt
- Taco truck — El Fuego @ elfuego.sf (incl. tip): ~$1,600 for 2 hrs of service and setup time. Omg the food was fire, we went to treasure island to test them out at Off The Grid first. Ohlea was awesome to work with. My hubby wisely ordered extra to take home so we had late night drunk food hehe.
- Taco truck street permit (SFMTA temporary no-parking signage): ~$280
- Wedding Dance Lessons, @ ad3laide: Gifted by Addie Jasica who is a dance teacher at ODC & also a friend of mine. She was AMAZING and I honestly could not recommend her more. She taught us our dance in 3 x 1 hr lessons at the ODC studios in Mission (we covered studio rental which was like $80 total for all 3 sessions i think and her normal rate is $100/hr.) She does classical first dance private lessons or custom choreography for couples/parent dances/ wedding parties. Her POV is that your wedding dance should be a moment of connection for the couple during a very busy day. We took that to heart and we had a moment of downtime in our wedding day when our photog was setting up a big group shot and we practiced our dance. It just centered us both and made us feel so in love. I can't recommend the experience of doing dance lessons enough - it was fun and brought us closer before the event. My hubby wants to do more dance lessons in bachata together now!!
- Groom's outfit — custom suit from Suitsupply (where Zohran Mamdani gets his suits from lol) + custom-order shoes (he's blanking on the shoe vendor... lol): $1,800
- Bride's outfit — $1,020 total:
- Jenny Yoo dress: $650 from Anthro in Walnut Creek
- Veil (From Vintage bridal seller and Master Tailor London Musgrave, Atelier Ver, NYC) + custom silk flowers from M&S Schmalberg (NYC) to personalize the dress: $225 (I happened to be on a trip to NYC 3 weeks before the wedding)
- Betsey Johnson shoes, scored new on Poshmark: $95
- Hemming the skirt: $50
- It's not lost on me that my hubby's outfit was more than mine... but it was a nice custom blue suit and he plans to wear it again to a few more weddings we have this year and next - so cost per wear is better for him.
- DJ Danny Boi (incl. tip): $900 — fun, easy, took requests all night and he's from the bay so had some deeper cut bay area songs he played which my hubby loved. (DJ BlackPanda - Eddy was also a top pick but came in over our budget)
- Reception bouquet — @ Forma.Floral: $600 - Seriously i was floored by the florals arrangement she put together!!! It was featured on of the barrels at the bar near our guest book so everyone knew where to go for that activity. It was also the first thing people saw when they walked in, which when having a wedding in a bar setting I think helped elevate the space into something more wedding-esque without trying to make a bar a wedding venue... iykwim.
- HMUA — @ chelseykay.hmua: $420, she was awesome and just made me feel calm and pretty. Originally i was going to do my own HMU, but because I planned everything and constantly had people asking me questions etc. I really just wanted to relieve myself of the stress of doing another task. Absolutely worth it.
- Bar decor: $310 - we printed out ugly pictures of ourselves to cover the bathrooms entirely. I saw this on pinterest. Honestly, if i wanted to save on money anywhere i'd probs drop this, but it was very fun and funny to have people come and tell me their fave embarrassing pics of me.
- Ceremony florals from Sol Ambience: $180 - My local florist and they were BEAUTIFUL. I got them last minute bc my bestie was thinking we'd need something to frame us at the ceremony. But it was SO windy we ended up just sitting them on the benches. I really didn't need them - it was def an impulse purchase lol.
- DIY decor supplies: ~$200 (covered by an Amazon gift card my hubby got from work for a spot bonus thing, so $0 out of pocket) — masking tape, jewels + stickers, envelopes & paper for handwritten letters, streamers & ribbons, signage, bubbles for ceremony, felt, pens
- Guest book: $30
- Family lunch for 12 — Little Original Joe's: $490 (my sister + BIL gifted the other half)
- Ceremony venue — Eagle's Point Landing (Lands End): FREE — we didn't get a permit since we had no music or installations; florals were carried in by hand and set on a bench and carried out. We used bubbles instead of confetti for "leave no trace" of being in a public space. They have 3 long benches there which was great for seating for grandparents.
- Officiant & MC — my sister: FREE (she got ordained for ~$75, gifted)
- Golf round and carts for the boys: FREE Gifted by best man, i think 100-200$ but i'm not 100% sure
- Partiful for invites: FREE and was great to send updates about timing details and RSVPs etc
- I made my own bouquet in french beading technique. I didn't incorporate this into costs bc i do this as my hobby, not just for the wedding so I buy materials in bulk.
Total: ~$22,925 all-in (~$22,010 out of pocket after gifts)
Honestly? I loved every single one of my vendors, not one miss in the whole bunch. I got lots of recs from this sub and from friends/ other vendors so thats probably why! Happy to answer questions on any of them or the overall wedding too.