r/Weddingsunder10k

I am broke as a joke looking at photographers and holy hell they are not cheap. What did you do to cut down on this cost for your wedding?

Our budget for everything for the whole ceremony & reception is 3k. The photographers I’ve talked to so far charge more than our entire budget, even if just hired to do the ceremony. Any recommendations?

Letting go of my idea of a big/fancy wedding. We don’t have the money and it’s just not practical.
Trying to find ideas
How did you make your courthouse weddings fun/nice?

Look I never where makeup and keep my hair natural but am really having trouble spending $500+ on hair and makeup.

I’ve don’t the math and I can get all good quality products I need for about $300 and then have my bridesmaid who is a makeup expert help with application. (She’s fine with this and has done my makeup before).

So that leaves hair and all I want is a simple half up half down style with my natural hair and my veil.

So if you were me what would you do? Pay the extra couple hundred dollars for a professional or just do it yourself with some help from your bridal party?

When sending out wedding invitations, did you use digital invitations or paper ones? What were some pros/cons? Feeling conflicted. I don't want to spend too much $$ either..

Ideally we would have our immediate families and a few close friends (includes a few children if that matters) and would love to stay around $10K for EVERYTHING. Slight wiggle room on the budget but would really love to do it for less!

Could do international but also would love ideas within the US. If any of you have experience with this (pictures too!) please help 😭

Hello all:

I am looking for advice for the Friday night before my Saturday wedding (this October!!!).

My fiance is from the state we are having the wedding in and all his guests are local, but I have about 25 guests flying in from around the country.

Originally, we invited everyone to come to the bar that we had our first date at, for cocktails.

But we can’t afford to reserve the bar and it has limited capacity. We are thinking now that we will just let folks know that we are hopping from bar to bar and stop by if they want to…. And just hope that not too many people come at once? We can uninvite some local friends from the small bar that we know won’t be offended, and then end at a much larger bar that would be able to handle a crowd.

I don’t know what else to do.
Thoughts? Thank you!

Hello everyone!

Looking for my dream dress under 1K id maybeee go up to 1500 if it's PERFECT.

Anyone have experiences ordering from the sites below:

Bridelily
Cocomelody
Junebridals
Kissbridal

I've heard good things about Etsy shops and if anyone has a specific shop that made a custom dress would love to hear.

I also found a really cute one on stillwhite but waist is about 2 waist inches small and even if I loose the weight it might still be uncomfortable. Anyone have experiences with adding fabric to a tighter dress?

Other recommendations or thoughts welcome thanks!

Our wedding is October 17th, and while we know what we're doing for the grooms cake, we're having trouble deciding on what cake flavors we should go with, even for testing - help please! I'm allergic to blueberries, but anything else is open game - what are y'all doing? All ideas appreciated!!

I saw a post recently on this thread about how smaller guest lists don't automatically equate to a cheaper wedding because of the cost to host things and so forth. I don't remember all the details but i'm trying to reference it again and can't find it. Does anyone know what i'm talking about and can help guide me to it please!!

can I get the wisdom of the crowd? Is $2,050.00 total too much for a MUA (not including hair) for my bridal party of 9 (8 bridesmaids + myself) the day of the wedding? It’s $300 for me, and $150 for bridesmaids + a $550 travel fee (it’s a little over 3 hour drive). I found more affordable options ($75/bridesmaid ; $85/bride). I am willing to splurge on myself but I don’t know if this is asking too much of my bridesmaids to pay (for hair it will be $100.00 per person I already have that booked). I know the quality will be better with the more expensive option, I just want to get your opinions if you wish you had spent less or splurged more on makeup on your wedding day because you weren’t happy with the result. Thank you!

Hi ! Looking for a day of wedding planner who charges under $1200. Happy for any suggestions. Located in Queens NYC but wedding will be in NJ. We are trying to do a small and intimate wedding but also want additional assistance.

Hi! We are looking for ways to cut down prices on wedding cake. I’d love to have a traditional looking three tier cake. However, I can’t begin to swallow the price that would cost. What are your experiences using Costco or Sam’s? Do you have other alternatives?

I am a bride on a budget, my fiancé and I are hoping to get married next june but I’m at a loss with the venue options here in Northern Utah. Everything seems to be super expensive or doesn’t allow for the number of guests (only 38) air bnb doesn’t allow parties and I’m at my wits end to figure out vrbo. If anyone has ANY advice I would take it gladly, not just for venue but for decore caroling/food options and perchance a photographer 🥹 (we are also not LDS so churches are a nonstarter)

So I fell in love with this outdoor garden/museum and knew that was where I wanted to get married. The price tag smacked me in the face when they said reception minimum was $25k. Thankfully they do ceremony only packages for $4k regardless of guest count or $1,500 for under 20 guests. Regardless of whichever I chose the reception following the ceremony is at a restaurant 50mins away. Guest list for the reception is a bit bigger - 35.

Was debating just having 8 people at the ceremony, keeping it very intimate that way I dont have to worry about 30 people driving all around. Or should I just have everyone come to the ceremony?

Is that too far to make people drive? I was thinking of having some sort of transportation available but need advice/input.

Was thinking potentially a party bus that would pick everyone up from the ceremony & drop at the reception- cost was $200-$250 after gas/gratuity. I was thinking I would also include a QR code for Uber so people could uber to the ceremony & home at the end of the night (or to the hotel) at no cost to them.

I would include all of this information on the invite.

We are only inviting 30 guests so realistically it will probably only be 20-25 in attendance.

What would be the best option for the smoothest transition between the two?

My fiance and I are looking for wedding venues in California, not too picky on where in California. We want an outdoor wedding & would love if we could do one where there is some kind of body of water in view. We would also be open to a garden or some kind of nature. We are looking to get married in March of 2028, but are open to May of 2028 as well pending the location of the wedding. We are on our own in terms of funding the wedding so we are hoping for something 10k or under in total (including food, drinks, rentals, etc.). Also, we are thinking of 80-100 guests. Not 100% sure if this is possible. Please comment with venues & if you have gotten married there, how did you like the venue!

I also am not a huge fan of wedding food, so we would also like to maybe get food trucks or something so we dont have to spend so much money on wedding food catering.

The most useful thing I've learned pricing venues this year, and the thing I most wish someone had sat me down and explained in month one.

Cutting your guest list saves far less than it feels like it should.

I have a catering quote in front of me for 150 guests. The food is under $30 a head. Staffing is around $4,600. Rentals are around $3,300. Those last two barely move if you drop to 50 people, because you still need roughly the same bartenders, the same setup crew, the same delivery, the same minimum order.

So a caterer who's around $115 a head at 150 can be closer to $180 a head at 50, for the identical menu. Your total goes down. Your per person cost goes up. Every venue with a minimum works the same way, which is why a $6,000 minimum feels manageable at 100 and impossible at 30.

I think this is why so many posts in here get the same reply, that the budget seems low for the guest count, when actually the guest count is what's making the per head number look bad. If you're getting quotes back that feel wildly high for a small wedding, this is usually why, and it isn't you being unrealistic.

Practically what it means. If you're at 60 and panicking about money, cutting to 45 is one of the least efficient moves available to you. It takes a modest slice off your food line and costs you fifteen people.

Change the day instead. Sunday against Saturday in the same room was consistently the biggest number I could move all year, and it costs you nothing aesthetically. Afternoon instead of evening is the other one, and it's bigger than most people expect.

And if you're genuinely small, under about 40, stop looking at wedding venues altogether. You're paying a small wedding premium at exactly the places built for weddings. Restaurant private rooms, historic house museums, park district buildings, community halls, anywhere that already has the room and only wants you to spend on food and drink. A lot of them have no rental fee at all.

Cutting people is the thing that hurts the most and delivers the least. I really wish that were more widely known.