I’m pretty sure a budget wedding is a myth like a unicorn. Unless of course, you actually elope and just go to City Hall one day while on break from lunch at work and your reception is a sandwich from Subway. Hey, they have $5 footlong sandwiches. That will feed at least two people!
Throughout this wedding planning adventure I have come to realize that shit is expensive. Although, I’m pretty sure people are gouging brides and grooms, but I don’t have enough evidence to prove this theory.
You know that stuff you see all over pinterest that looks all shabby chic, vintage, and handmade? None of that is cheap. Even if you are lucky enough to have the talent, time, and patience to create that barn door chalkboard on which to display the wedding agenda, you still need the cash to create it.
Also, those apothecary jars full of light orange jelly beans look really pretty on the tables, but who in the hell will eat them? Unless they are Jelly Belly, yuck. And if they are…spendy! What the heck do you do with them when you’re done? Use them as decor in your house? Hooray for dusty jellybeans.
At my wedding, we are having 25 people, not including me and Paul. I thought I could do the whole thing for under $5,000. Um. No. Maybe if we weren’t getting married in Las Vegas, but it seems at every turn I am getting nickeled and dimed…well, more like ten and twenty dollars.
Photography is insanely expensive. Yes, I know it’s artistic and these people are making a living. It’s just that I am still reeling from the sticker shock. I can’t find a decent photographer for under $1,100 and expect to get digital negatives.
We aren’t even having most of the traditional crap you find at weddings. There will be no cake. There will be no DJ. An ice sculpture of Goldy the Gopher? No. Sorry, Paul. Although, it’s cold enough in Minnesota that we could probably do it tomorrow on our patio.
Ok, I did get some favors, but they were not expensive. I think I paid like $50 for the whole lot including shipping. And I don’t have to shove bags of jordan almonds together.
So, we cut back in places that really don’t matter to us…like the DJ and the cake, but we splurge on things that will last a lifetime…like the photography.
Was anyone else shocked by the price of things when they got married or am I just a cheap ass?
Now that I’ve slept on it, I think the real myth is the budget Las Vegas wedding. Of course, it probably helps to be more flexible on dates. We are getting married on a Friday, but if we got married on a Thursday, it might have been cheaper, but maybe not enough to make a huge difference. I never crunched those numbers because we are set on a specific date…for romantic reasons.
Hey! I just came across this post from the SITS sharefest today- nice to see another Minnesota blogger! I just got married in Minnesota in September, and I agree that wedding can be pretty pricey! One of the major ways I saved money was on flowers- I went to the Farmers Market in Minneapolis and chatted with a couple shop owners, and went through them for flowers. It ended up saving me over $1,000 (which is huge! Especially for flowers that will just die anyways!)
Hi! Thanks for the comment. Luckily, flowers are not one of my big must haves. I worked with the coordinator and figured out a way to keep things within budget. Thanks for the tip though! Someone else had told me to do that same thing.
I got married about 5.5 years ago. We eloped and then a year later, on our anniversary, we had a ceremony and reception for friends and family. So eloping didn’t save us anything. haha! We worked on a very tight budget too though. Our photog was the craziest expense at around $1400. BTW, I did our flowers…using silk ones. I ripped them apart from ones I found at the dollar store. No one cared and they look great in the pictures!
I agree weddings are insanely expensive! We were lucky though, and were able to put ours together for right around $2000 and that included the dress. You just have to see what your friends and family can do. I will say, I wish we had splurged on our photogrpahy. My biggest regret there. But it is possible!
It’s shocking how expensive weddings can be!