The first thing that caught my eye in this wedding was the color choice- I love how the pink and orange pop against the chocolate brown! Janae was such a beautiful bride- I was beyond ecstatic when she agreed to share her budget breakdown for the blog! Thanks Janae!!!

Couple: Matt and Jenae
Wedding Date: August 29, 2008
Number of Guests: 75
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Initial Budget: $29,000

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony: $950 Rental of the Plaza Del Sol at the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort

Officiant:  $0 Our good friend doubled as groomsman and officiant.  We wrote our ceremony ourselves and printed it into a leather journal for him to read from.  We loved how personal it was to have someone so close to us perform the ceremony and loved adding in personal touches to the ceremony.

Reception: $2,500 Rental of the Plaza Del Sol  (included, cocktail hour at Rotunda, chairs, basic linens, and tables)

Catering/food: $92 per person – $12,000 food minimum.

Rentals: $1,000 Chocolate brown patio chairs, linens, and napkins from Ventura Party Rentals.

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $500 (Mori Lee’s destination bridal line) Alterations were another $100 for it to be taken in and bustled.

Bridal Accessories:  $150 I purchased my necklace, bracelet, and earrings from Target.  For all three items,  it was around $60.  I bought silver metallic wedges from Charlotte Russe for $25 and my veil from David’s Bridal for $20.  I also got a vintage Monet brooch that doubled as a locket (it featured pictures of my late grandfather and my husband’s late grandmother) that I wore on my sash for $40.  We made both of my garters for $5.

Hair/Makeup:  $406

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $150

Groomsmen Attire:  $150 “We purchased colored dress shirts and ties from Kohls for $30 per set.”

Paper: $300 Jenae designed, printed, cut, and assembled all of the paper elements.

Transportation: $0 We opted not to have any special transportation.

Photographer:$4,000 for 9 hours of coverage, 900 4×6 prints, online viewing/ordering, and a leather bound coffee table album.

Videographer: $2,700 Our videographer was Gina Jones with Lola Video. Included 3 DVD copies as well as all of our raw footage.  We love our wedding video and I can’t imagine not having such a beautiful video of our big day!

Ceremony Music: $400 Ceremony music was provided by award winning Spanish guitarist, Anthony Ybarra.  He provided ceremony and cocktail hour music.

Reception Music:  $200 We opted to do an Itunes reception.  We used our own laptop and rented a speaker system through the hotel for $200.

Flowers: $3,700 Our flowers were done by Juniper Designs.  We had 12 tall centerpieces for the reception that also lined the aisle for the ceremony, 2 large urns filled with flowers, 7 small sprays of flowers for the long and sweetheart tables, flowers for the cake,  8 bouts for groom/groomsmen/fathers, 8 bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids, and 4 corsages for the mothers and grandmothers.

Favors: $200 We decided to have a candy buffet to serve as favors for our guests.  We bought all of the glassware and candy at a total of $200.  The table featured 31 different kinds of candy.  It was a huge hit!

Wedding Planner: $750 for day of coordinator

Other décor: $525 Our ceremony columns, “alter”, urns, and sand ceremony items were bought on sale for $250. A wrought iron 2 tiered basket for cards, 6 DIY manzanita branch arrangements were made for $100, and 8 shell and orchid centerpieces were made for $50. The frame and easel for the seating chart was $50. Our cake topper was $25. I embellished clear votives from Michael’s for all of the tables for $100.

Gifts: $200 Our groomsmen and fathers received a hand engraved  glass beer mug featuring their initials, a bottle of hot sauce (groom loves spicy food ad is from the south), their ties/dress shirts, and custom made wedding party t-shirts that were designed by the bride and groom.  The bridesmaids and mothers received hand engraved martini glasses that the bride made, custom made bridal party tanks that were designed by the bride, their jewelry, sashes, and initial pins to pin on their bouquets.

Miscellaneous:  A free night stay in an ocean view room was included for the night of the wedding but we decided to upgrade to a suite for a total cost of $125.

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL:  $30,946

OTHER COSTS

Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: Our rehearsal dinner and post-wedding brunch were also factored into the food minimum for our wedding.  We were hoping to have around 135 guests at our wedding but when our guest list dropped to about 75 guests, our catering manager arranged for us to have the rehearsal dinner and post-wedding brunch included into the minimum so that we could reach it.  It worked out so well!

Honeymoon: $500 We spent another night at the Fess Parker Doubletree and then went to my grandparent’s condo in Carpinteria for almost 2 weeks.

Wedding Bands: $400

FINAL GRAND TOTAL:  $31,846

Congratulations Matt and Janae!!

From the bride….

Best cost-saving advice: Buy things on sale as much as you can.  Also buy things for your wedding that you think you might be able to use again.  All of the glassware that I bought for my candy buffet is used in my home.  The chargers that I purchased on sale, I rent out to other brides and use for my other events.  The ceremony columns, “alter”, and large urns were all purchased on sale at Target and now serve as furniture in our home and backyard.  With every purchase we made, we tried to find way to use it again.

If you can splurge, do it here:  Videography!!!  So many brides seem to cut videography from their budgets or skimp on it.  Pictures are wonderful but a video brings everything to life…it captures the look of your wedding day, what was said, the emotion…and everything in between.  With everything being so rushed and busy on your big day, videos are a great way to be able to re-live it!  One of the best decisions that we ever made was to book Lola Video.  Because of Gina, we have a beautiful video of our wedding that we’ll watch over ad over again.

Don’t bother with:  Favors that you’re guests won’t really enjoy.  I’ve been to so many weddings were the bride and groom had invested money into favors that were left behind by the wedding guests simply because the wedding guests didn’t like them or didn’t see a use for them.  Remember that even the cheapest favors are a waste of money if they are never used/eaten.

Other Advice: Start planning as far in advance as you can.  My husband and I opted for a 2 year engagement and I got to planning right away.  This enabled me to DIY a lot of the stuff for the wedding and pre-wedding festivities.  It also helped me with searching for things and waiting for them to go on sale.  Because I had two years to plan, I was able to purchase things during holiday sales and was able to find different things that matched our colors during the different seasons/holidays.  With stretching everything out, wedding planning was mostly fun for me and didn’t become overwhelming or stressful until the very end of it.

Photographer Credit: Jessica Lewis Photography

Caitlin might just be one of the cutest brides I’ve seen! I absolutely love her dress, and her choice of flowers. I was so excited when she agreed to share some of her budget details for the blog! Thanks Caitlin!!!!

Couple: Caitlin & Josh
Location: Upstate NY
Number of Guests: 115

Reception/Ceremony site: approx. $9,000 “We chose Belhurst in Geneva, NY. It was a gorgeous location, and we had our ceremony outside on their lawn overlooking the lake.”

Officiant: $0 (Josh’s father is a pastor.)

Bridal Gown: $550 (Casablanca style 1816, ordered from Rebecca’s Bridal) “I fell in love with my dress at one store in Syracuse where I tried it on. To begin with, it is a older Casablanca style so they were willing to sell it to me for $700. I shopped around a bit in Syracuse however, and found a smaller shop that was willing to order it for me for $550. Sold!  I highly recommend finding out what your dress designer includes in the price. Casablanca includes a “hollow to hem” service where the dress is actually made to your height. This saved me tons in alteration fees later.”

Bridal Accessories: $147 “I bargain shopped for my earrings (TJMaxx, $12), veil (Rebecca’s Bridal, $100), and shoes (DSW, $35).”

Hair and Make-Up: $0 “My good friend Emily Taylor did my hair and all five of my bridesmaids, and WOW did she do an incredible job. Myself and my bridal party gave her a gift, but she did not charge us anything. I did my own make-up.”

Bridesmaid Dresses and shoes: $140 (dress $120 from David’s Bridal, shoes $20 from Payless)


Tuxes: $125 (Mr. Tux) We used Mr. Tux. My husband used his free tux to discount our groomsmen’s price, so each guy paid $125.
Flowers: $1000 (Sandy’s Floral Gallery) “I love orange and peach roses, and knew that I wanted them for the wedding. While my bouquet and the girls bouquets were of good size (and gorgeous!) each table a very simple centerpiece of 3 roses and some greenery. I bought the vases for each table from a bulk online store for $2 a piece which also helped. I also purchased small candles in from TJMaxx.”

Photography: $2500 (James Peluso from Alexandria Photography) “James offered us the CD, the rights, online viewing at Pictage.com and all our images (all 700!) printed in 4×6 size – all for roughly $2500. Pricey, but worth it to us.”

Ceremony Music: $0 Josh & Caitlin’s friend is a professional singer and performed at the ceremony.

DJ: $800 (Joe Quatella from Q-Music Productions)

Invitations: $150 Josh designed the invitations and programs.

Cake: $230 (Lori Legotti from Bagels and Cakes) . “It had our bakers signature strawberry filling (tasted like strawberry shortcake!)”

Favors: $0 “My Grandmother made our favors. They are called “capias” and are a traditional Spanish tradition at weddings. Traditionally the bride pins one on every guest as she says hello to everyone. We didn’t pin them on everyone, but almost everyone did wear theirs! It was fun, festive and free thanks to my incredible Grandmother.”

Rings: $2000

GRAND TOTAL: approximately $16,400 (not including the tuxes and bridesmaid dresses/shoes)

More tips from the bride:

Our biggest money saver was our location. My husband and I live in the Boston area, but I am originally outside of Syracuse, NY. By having our wedding in Upstate NY we estimate we payed only 1/3 of what we would have in the Boston Area. We also kept our wedding on the smaller side (final count of 115) which saved us a bunch as well.

Lastly, we picked a few non-negotiable and then were pretty flexible with everything else, which in my opinion is more fun and allows for financial flexibility.

We also did some fun free things with our friends/family. The night before our wedding we had everyone who could make it, meet at a nearby pub and to just relax and hangout. We didn’t pay a dime (everyone kept buying US drinks) but it was wonderful to see everyone – especially our out of town guests. I know there is a popular trend to do “out of town” or “hospitality” bags. This night was our “out of town bag” but it was free to us and all allowed us to spend quality time with those people which is a more meaningful gift in our opinion.

My husband and I also took a smaller scale honeymoon. We rented a cabin in the Adirondacks Mountains rather than going somewhere exotic which saved us a lot of money (and was more “us” anyway!)

More from Meg & Matt’s super lovely vintage wedding…. I am so in love with Jenny’s work!!! If you’re in the Seattle area, you gotta check her out!

Wedding Date: 5/16/09
Number of Guests:17
Initial Budget: $2000.00 (not including photography)

Ceremony: $200 “Since we eloped, the resort was much more willing to work with us on the price of the site fee. Realistically, we only used their garden for 15 min, but they were so great about it. They arranged for music to play and chairs for everyone to sit in. They also helped us contact a local officiant, so we didn’t have to pay a travel fee to the location. Just as a comparison, another resort on the island quoted me $2000 for the same thing, but they didn’t want me taking pictures anywhere on the grounds.”

Officiant: $275

Reception: We had the reception in the restaurant of the resort.  We had to pay a 18% service charge, but it only came out to an extra $100, so it seemed worth it. The private room had a balcony overlooking the bay, and they set up an ipod with music for us. They also had some flowers in vases and nice linens. Honestly, it was way more than I expected and I was thrilled with the result. The food was to die for, and we brought our own wine ($20 corking fee, but well worth it, because we had brought some bottles we had been saving from Italy and Sonoma, CA).

Catering/food: $300 “Matt and I had a prime rib dinner to die for – 2 cocktails each and couple glasses of wine. Everyone paid for their own food – so we spent about $300 for our food and site fee.”

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $200 for supplies Meg made her dress so she had no need for alterations.

Bridal Accessories: $180 “I splurged on a lilac colored ribbon to use as a sash – cost $75. I bought the shoes about a year earlier on sale for around $65. I made the birdcage veil (after 3 tries…) and spent about $20 on that and $20 on the hand made ribbon flower I wore in my hair.”

Hair/Makeup: $200 “For the makeup, I went to Sephora and had a professional show me what to do for free and then dropped $200 on the makeup to do it. Some would say that was a lot of money, but I’d say now I get to look good every day. If my make lasts 6 months, I’ve only paid a little over a dollar a day, and the Laura Mercier stuff I bought was well worth it.”

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $500 “Matt didn’t have a suit, so we went to Men’s Warehouse and bought him a dark grey suit that came with 2 pairs of pants. He wore the suit about 3 times before the wedding and since has been a great investment.”  $200 of that for the fur felted hat he wore. “Kind of a splurge, but Matt actually wears a hat every day, so we felt it was a good.”

Transportation: $65 for ferry ride

Flowers: $200 Meg did all of the flowers herself.

Other décor: $0 “I didn’t do any décor, and it worked out great. I picked a beautiful place to get married in, and there wasn’t a need for anything else.”

Cake: $65 “…best cake I’ve ever had. It was carrot with cream cheese frosting, and the local baker decorated it with a fondant ribbon and gum past orchid. I told her to surprise me, and it worked out great.”

Miscellaneous: $500 “We stayed at the resort and paid about $500 for two nights in the off season! We had a king bed, and the room was furnished with antiques. A lot of the pictures are in the room. We also had a claw foot tub that was great to use in the morning before the big day. The balcony looking over the water had a breath taking view – total bargain!”

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL: $2685 (not including photography)

OTHER COSTS

Wedding Bands: $2000

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $4685

Thank you so much for sharing Meg! Congratulations to you and Matt- wishing you all the best and endless happiness!

Advice from the bride:

Best cost-saving advice: Be flexible. Let a wedding image come together to fit the situation. We didn’t intend for our vintage inspired wedding, but it just worked out with the location and the clothes we wanted to wear.

If you can splurge, do it here: Photography. We worked out a separate deal for our photography, which included a travel fee. It was by far the biggest splurge, but I wouldn’t change a think. Jenny is professional and an EXCELLENT and Talented artist. Ya, I had the vision, but it would have only lasted a day if it weren’t for her skills in capturing that vision and really bringing it to life.

Don’t bother with: Expensive cakes, fancy food and drink. No one remembers this stuff after it’s gone. Spend on things that will improve YOUR experience. It’s your wedding, and five years later, you’re the only one who’s going to remember and still going to care. Sure, not everyone can make their own wedding dress, but there’s got to be something that you’re good at that will add to the day and you should take total advantage.

Other Advice: Go online. I also bought flower girls dresses for my nieces for $25 a piece and they look adorable. I bought a couple of paper parasols for about $20 that they carried and they looked great. Do your own flowers. I practiced for months before hand, and I love how they turned out. You might not be a florist, hair stylist, or makeup artist, but with a little practice you might be! Oh, and lots and lots of wedding porn! (hey get your mind out of the gutter!) I’m talking about pictures of other peoples wedding ideas. I’m not very good at coming up with ideas on my own, but I’m good at re-creating what others did. They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and I’d have to agree!

Torey and Kerry are from the DC Metro area but opted to have a destination wedding in order to save on costs-and hello! because it’s gorgeous!

Couple: Torey and Kerry
Wedding Date: June 21, 2008
Location: Sundial Resort in Sanibel, FL
Number of Guests: 88
Initial Budget: $15,000

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony: $1500- included locations, chairs, alter, set-up and takedown

Officiant: $400

Reception/Catering: approx. $5200-$58 per person “We did a ‘Florida Buffet’ and the food included grilled grouper, tomato and cucumber salad, fried plantains with pineapple-jalapeno relish, jerk spiced chicken, grilled pineapple, black beans and rice, jalapeno corn bread, tropical fruit and key lime tarts.”

Rentals: all included. We opted to just use the white chairs, white tablecloths, center pieces, white napkins that the resort provide.

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $120 (dress on eBay for $20, alterations were $100)

Bridal Accessories: $150 (Jewelry was from Sorrelli)

Hair/Makeup: $200

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $79 ( Shirt from Aloha Hut $40 and pants from Martin and Osa $39)

Bridesmaids Attire: $125 (Maid of Honor’s dress)

Groomsmen Attire: $79

Paper: Invites were from MyGatsby.com and price was $257. Everything else- STD, rehearsal party invites and programs I did myself and printed at Kinko’s for less than $50

Transportation: $0 Ceremony and reception were at the same location.

Photographer: $1080 by Kellie Day Photography. “We booked her in August 2007 and her prices have increased since then. Her and her husband were FABULOUS and I would book her again and again!”

Ceremony Music: $0 (friend of family played the violin free of charge)

Reception Music: $800 for a DJ

Flowers: $250 “We ordered 5,000 rose petals and 4 dozen roses from FiftyFlowers.com and made the bridal and MOH bouquet. The rose petals were used along the aisle and on the tables for the reception.”

Other décor: $30 “We had the beach- did not need any decorations. We bought starfish on eBay for the place cards.”

Favors: $0 (Couple elected not to do favors)

Cake: $0 “It ended up being free since they delivered it late and it fell apart. It would have cost about $200.”

Wedding Planner: $0 “the resort provided us with a great, great coordinator but otherwise we did everything ourselves.”

Gifts: $300

Miscellaneous: “We stayed the whole week at the resort before the wedding- since it was off-season our room rate was only $130 per night.”

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL: approx. $13,500

_____________________________

OTHER COSTS

Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: $1050 “We rented the Sanibel Community House for $250.00 and then had Publix cater the party. I think total for food and drink it was around $800.”

Honeymoon: $1500

Wedding Bands: $1000

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $17,000 (includes plane tickets, additional hotel rooms)

Photographer credit: Kellie Day Photography

________________________________________________________________________________________

Best cost-saving advice: we did not get married where we live J we originally looked in DC but everything was so expensive. We wanted a smaller, less formal event and picked Sanibel, Florida. Planning in the off-season saved us and our guests money. The weather was fabulous and we loved our location!

If you can splurge, do it here: Photography!

Don’t bother with: Favors, hand painted aisle runners, candy bars, calligraphy for invitations

Other Advice: Have fun and enjoy the day! Things might go wrong but in the end- being married and being with your family and friends is the most important thing.

Finally! I have a real wedding budget from my area! This wedding took place in Frederick, MD at the Ceresville Mansion. I like this wedding because it has a simplistic elegance and a light and carefree feel. Thank you sharing the details, Tiffany!

Couple: Tiffany & John
Wedding Date: May 17, 2009
Number of Guests: 100
Initial Budget: $20,000

Ceremony: $700 fee- Ceresville Mansion in Frederick, MD

Officiant: $400 for the day, $150 for pre-marriage coaching sessions that the couple elected to do

Reception:  $1,500 Ceresville Mansion in Frederick MD (included: reception rental fee, linens, tables, chairs, place settings)

Catering/food: approx. $11,000 -$85 pp (open bar, three passed appetizers, two displayed, two entrées, chocolate covered strawberries

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $1400

Bridal Accessories: $150 Veil – $35 from Occansey, Shoes – $100 from Grace Shoes, Earrings $12 from Macy’s

Hair/Makeup: $0 – “my mom did my hair (she’s a hairdresser) and my bridesmaids and I did make up!”

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $180

Paper: $150 –”I ordered paper products from MyGatsby.com and did DIY invites. I picked up some DIY kits from Michaels and did the placecards, programs, and various details at the reception. It saved a lot of money!”

Transportation:  $0

Photographer: $2800 – included an engagement session, 9 hours on the day, the rights to our photos, online proofing

Ceremony & Reception Music: $1500 for both the ceremony and the reception.

Flowers: $2000 – “we chose flowers that were in season, did a mixture of high and low centerpieces, and reused our ceremony flowers for the reception.”

Other décor: $70 for pomanders to mark the family rows at the ceremony, birdcage card holder for monetary gifts

Favors: $100 – “we did a Sweets Table and I bought glassware from the Trash to Treasure board on TheKnot, I made some chocolate covered pretzels, and my husband’s grandmother made different kinds of cookies. It was a huge money saver as well!”

Cake: $580

Gifts: $500 total for all the attendants, ushers, and parents

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL:  $23,817
__________________________________________________
OTHER COSTS

Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: $450

Honeymoon: $3000 to Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica

Wedding Bands: $1500

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $28,767

Photographer Credit: JLowe Photos

From the bride:

Best cost-saving advice: DIY as much as possible! There are lots of ways to save money by doing stationary on your own. In my opinion, most people will throw away the invitation and it’s important not to get carried away with it. But there are still ways you can personalize the invitations with fun colors, graphics, belly bands, etc. to set the tone of your day without breaking the bank! Do the research and this can be a big place to save money.
If you can splurge, do it here: Photography – this is what you will have to remember your day by! I would also recommend splurging on food, because this is how your GUESTS will remember your day.
Don’t bother with: Expensive cake toppers, limos (especially if your ceremony and reception are at the same spot like mine), live bands.
Other Advice: Know what your budget is ahead of time and how much you should be spending on things based on your area. TheKnot budgeting tool was very helpful and so was posting on my local board for suggestions of vendors within my budget.

Lauren and Patrick were married late last year in Colorado. The chocolate brown details of this wedding are beautiful. At the top of my list of favorite details are the pine cones, the brides layered dress, and their cake!

First Names: Lauren & Patrick
Wedding Date: October 18, 2008
Number of Guests: 95
Initial Budget: $10,000

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony & Reception:  $2250 “We found an amazing location that was managed by the City of Denver. Because it wasn’t a privately owned property we were able to save quite a bit of money. The ceremony and reception were both held on site. The ceremony was outside on the patio and the reception was inside as the sun went down and the temps dropped.”

Officiant: $0 “In Colorado anyone can perform a marriage ceremony and the bride and groom marry themselves when the Marriage Certificate is signed. My Aunt performed the lovliest most heartfelt ceremony. It was personalized and had lots of laughs and tears.”

Catering/food: $50 per person, this included all tablecloths, napkins, flatware and glassware for tables and the bar. We served family style Italian so our guests could interact at the tables.

Rentals: $300 (wooden chairs)

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $900 After a whirlwind trip to visit my mom, I found the dress (Maggie Sottero: Evita) and was lucky enough to have hit a sale. It was 20% off. Not many alterations were needed.

Bridal Accessories: $50 “I bought my veil from OccanseyDesigns.com for $35 and my earrings were $15 from etsy.”

Hair/Makeup:
Makeup: $50 After three mishaps with make up artists I just decided to go the the MAC counter at Nordstrom after we had our hair done. MAC requires customers to spend a minimum of $50 in product for a makeover. I ended up with gorgeous makeup and lipstick, gloss and eyelashes.
Hair: $75

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $125 “We bought Patrick’s suit at K&G Warehouse for $75 and found his tie at Nordstrom Rack for only $25. He bought a new white shirt and wore shoes he already had. Not only did he look great, but he also has a great black suit to wear now.”

Bridesmaids Attire: $600 “I bought the Bridesmaid dresses (Watters and Watters Style# 1581) from Netbride.com. They were my gift to the Bridesmaids.”

Groomsmen Attire: $300 “We bought the Groomsmen the same suits from K&G and they supplied their own white shirt and shoes. I found the different green ties at TJ Maxx.”

Paper: $150 Lauren has a design degree and designed her paper products.

Transportation: $0 “We originally wanted to rent a limo but it just didn’t fit into the budget. My sister drove all of the bridesmaids and myself to the ceremony and I ended up driving Patrick and I back to our hotel. In the end it was fun to just be in the car alone and we didn’t really miss having a driver.”

Photographer: $1000 “We were really lucky to find such a talented photographer at such an amazing price. Pictures were very important to me but we couldn’t afford to hire the big name photographers in our area. Luckily Sara Lazio was new to Denver and still building her portfolio. We didn’t do engagement pictures or an album. Our package included eight hours of shooting and all of the digital negatives. We were able to create our own album.”

Videographer: $725

Ceremony Music: $200 “We hired a bagpiper to play all of the ceremony music. Patrick’s family is Irish so it was fun to celebrate their heritage.”

Reception Music: $0 “Our good friend is an amazing vocalist and performed a few songs during the reception. We loaded up our iPod and used the speakers built into the lodge for our reception music. It worked great and saved lots of money.”

Flowers: $500 “I have been a florist for years so I was able to buy all of the flowers at wholesale prices. I invited the Bridesmaids to learn and design with me. They created the centerpieces with my supervision and I did everything else.”

Favors: $0 Lauren & Patrick did not have favors.

Cake: $300 (a traditional cake with three different flavors and the Groom’s cake with the snowboarders)

Wedding Planner: $0

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL: $11,500

Thank you, Lauren, for sending over your budget breakdown! You can view Lauren’s complete married bio, here for more pictures.

Photo credit: Sara Lazio Photography

Advice from Lauren _________________________________________________________________

Best cost-saving advice: Decide on your vision early on in planning. Don’t change your mind. This will save you so much work and money. I knew what I wanted and had an entire year to find it and put it together. I was able to buy things 12 months out and didn’t have huge expenses all at once.

Do it yourself. Everything if you can. It means so much more when you have put blood, sweat and tears into it. If you can’t do it yourself, ask someone to help. People love weddings, well most do. I have never had so many offers for help. I had by bridesmaids over to help with flowers and while they weren’t the best floral designers we certainly had fun working on all the flowers together. When they walked in the room and saw the final vision all put together they were proud of their work to.

Leave out the things no one cares about. I wanted to make menus for every seat, I wanted to have favors for every person, we wanted to have a limo. After my Husband lost his job and I lost my second part time job, we had to really look at what was important. Those things weren’t and no one missed them. I love that my little sister drove two of us to the ceremony and we were speeding so we wouldn’t be late. It was one last moment of madness before the ceremony.  We had a blast driving our own car back to the B&B afer the reception. We saved ourselves lots of $$ by just leaving it all out.

If you can splurge, do it here: Photographer: You will look at your pictures for the rest of your life. Your wedding pictures will capture all of the emotion and the beauty of the day forever. It breaks my heart when I hear past Brides say they hate their wedding pictures. Do your research and let your photographer know what you are looking for.

Don’t bother with: Favors or a limo. Guests don’t want things around their house with your wedding date on it. If you do plan on favors give something that is edible or not plastered with your names.

Other Advice: Relax, not everything will be perfect. It shouldn’t be, perfect isn’t normal and what good stories come out of it if everything goes flawlessly. I was so sick. I had to make the best of the day, I had one day. While I had spent countless years planning my perfect wedding, it happened and frankly I felt awful. It was still a beautiful day.

Get a day of wedding coordinator!!! There are so many little details that go into the entire day. The last thing you want to do is worry about all of them while you are getting your hair done and trying to enjoy the moment.
Let go! Let go of all the stress and worry on your wedding day. You have spent so much time planning and looking forward to this day and believe me, stressing about it on the day of is just a waste of your energy. I didn’t let go until the impromptu dance in the middle of our tables. After I finally realized and calmed down I regretted all the time I wasted worrying about every little thing.

I love the wintery elegance of this wedding! Tons of candlelight with black and red details- so romantic! Lindsay and Keith were married near Cincinnati, Ohio. Here’s the breakdown:

Couple: Lindsay & Keith
Wedding Date: January 10, 2009
Number of Guests: 150
Initial Budget: $12,000

Wedding Day Costs
Ceremony: $100 (cost of use of facility and cleanup) Since the bride is a member of the church, no additional fees were incurred.

Officiant: $75 (gift at our own discretion)

Reception: $5,300 ($23.95 per person + 20% service fee + 6% KY sales tax)
“Since the wedding was in January (completely off-peak), the reception facility bumped us up to a much larger room for free! The price included meat, cheese, and fruit appetizers, passed wine upon guests entering the room, an upgraded buffet (at Friday night prices, even for a Saturday event!), free beer and wine, chocolate fountain, ice sculpture, chair covers, choice of napkin color, and cake cutting and plating. Having a January wedding was definitely a good decision!”

Rentals: $1,300 – Custom lighting “Uplighting on the surrounding walls, pin spot lights on each centerpiece, lighting for the cake, and a custom designed gobo on the dance floor. Lighting completely transformed the room into a warm and welcoming atmosphere. If I had to do it over, I would definitely pay the money again for custom lighting!”

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $595 (dress from David’s (475), alterations done at the home of a private seamstress – $120)

Bridal Accessories: $300 “This includes my faux fur jacket, ivory rhinestone peeptoe pumps, red satin peeptoe pumps, garters, hair fascinator, birdcage veil, chapel length veil, necklace, earrings, black crinny and satin sash. Every accessory, except for the jewelry, was purchased online.”

Hair/Makeup: $150 $0 for hair-  One of Lindsay’s bridesmaids was a hair stylist and did her hair as a wedding gift.
$150- Makeup trial and day of application from the fabulous Nancy at Brideface “Worth every penny!”

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $0 Groom got his tux for free since there were more than 4 groomsmen in the party.

Photographer: $0- Gift from the bride’s parents (retails for $2,350)
Engagement session with DVD of all e-pics, 8-10 hours with lead and assistant shooter on the day of, around 450-500 final pics (you receive 4×6 prints of every final pic!), DVD of final shots, rights release.”

Videographer: $1,800 ” We have a masterpiece DVD to watch and memories to last a lifetime! View here.

Paper: $315
$60 – Vistaprint postcards, including postage. Designed by Lindsay & Keith in Photoshop/Illustrator
$175 – 120 invitations and postage – Martha Stewart Collection from Michaels Arts and Crafts. 40% off with a coupon from their e-mail list! Printed at home.
$50 – Custom card box  & Blurb.com photo guestbook
$30 – Programs – paper stock from Staples, printed at home.

DIY save the dates, DIY guestbook pages, DIY program, DIY favor tags

Transportation: $0 The couple used their own cars.

Ceremony Music: $450 Trio of musicians found via the Cincinnati knot boards

Reception Music: $850 total: ($300 for band, $550 for DJ) Keith and I visited an Irish pub in Northern Kentucky about 4 years ago. We were treated to beautiful Irish music by a local group called Dark Moll. I remember saying to Keith, “I would love for them to play when we get married.”  They were a huge hit and one of hub’s uncles even said, “That is the best live music I have heard in 20 years.” Money well spent.

Flowers: $0 Paid for by bride’s parents. (retails for $2,000)

1 bridal bouquet of roses, mini black callas, ranunculus, freesia, fiddlehead fern, and white anemones
5 bridesmaid bouquets – black magic roses, mini black callas, fiddlehead ferns
6 mini calla bouts for the boys
2 Mother of the bride/groom tussy mussy’s
15 centerpieces of roses with scattered rose petals
Rose petals around the cake

Other décor: $300
“About a billion candles for the ceremony, customized napkins and matchbooks for the reception, vintage cake topper, 2 easels which held framed e-pics that were placed by the guestbook”

Favors: $60 - DIY cocoa cones (pictured above).  ”Cheap to make, but they took forever to put together.”

Cake: $600 Four-tiered cake – yellow with chocolate filling, white with strawberry, chocolate with chocolate filling. Grooms cake in the shape of a snare drum (replica from Keith’s set).

Wedding Planner: $600 Day of coordinator

Gifts:$850
$500–Gifts for the bridesmaids (totaled about $100 each) – makeup application by Brideface, ivory pashmina, DIY pearl jewelry, a vintage rhinestone brooch to wear on the back of their dress, and a red satin purse.
$250–Gifts for the groomsmen ranged from drumsticks to gift cards, based on the hobby.
$100–Each parent received a custom sterling silver engraved frame

Day of Grand Total: $13,470 – Amount paid by bride and groom.

*17,820 is the total cost including the gifts of flower & photography from parents. Lindsay & Keith did not include these items in their planning budget.

OTHER COSTS
Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: $0 – Rehearsal was paid for by Keith’s parents

Honeymoon: $1,200 – 7 day trip to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Carefree, Sedona and The Grand Canyon.

Wedding Bands: $4,100- “My wedding bands are a perfect match to my engagement ring, and both are Hearts on Fire so they cost and arm and a leg to get that perfect match!”

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $19,070

All photos by Bluebird Photography.

Thank you so much Lindsay for sharing and congratulation to you and Keith! I’ll leave you with some of her advice, as always.

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Best cost-saving advice: Have you wedding in the off-season! That alone saved us literally THOUSANDS! Our pp cost for food at the reception would have been about $13 more (which would have added $2,500 overall to the reception cost) had we gotten married from between March-October.

If you can splurge, do it here: Brides, for the love of all that is holy, hire a great photographer! None of this “my-cousin-said-he’ll-shoot-the-wedding-for-$500″ deal. Shell out the extra bucks to have an awesome photographer, no matter what your style may be. Yes, even if that means you have to scrap your fantasy of pearl-studded stephanotis or a $5,000 Reem Acra. *Snort* And one more thing! None of these massive “must-have shots” list. If you hire a photographer that you can trust, allow them the creative freedom of coming up with shots on their own. They will appreciate it!

Also, consider hiring a great videographer. Again, it is a decision your will not regret! Simply put, you cannot get those moments back – the first dance with hubs and your father, the way your hubs is looking at you when you walk down the aisle (trust me, you won’t remember unless you have this on film), etc. This is definitely an area where your money will be well spent.

Don’t bother with: Transportation costs, a full bar with liquor (we only had beer and wine only and got no complaints!) and expensive paper products.

Other Advice: Make sure your vendors understand your “vision.” The major communication breakdowns that occurred between me and my vendors is because the vendors could not connect with my vision. Florist and grooms cake are the two that come to mind. In the end, everything worked out, but the added stress of trying to explain your vision to people over and over was unnecessary and stressful. Enjoy the planning process as much as possible and personalize your wedding to suit your and hub’s personalities! Don’t be afraid to take risks!

Lindsay’s Married Bio, here.

Good Morning and Happy Monday! I’m starting off the week with another real budget. This one comes from Devon. She was married in March down in Florida. She met her hubby down in Tallahassee, FL where I lived while I was in school! Her venue was gorgeous!

Couple: Devon & Brandon
Wedding Date: March, 22, 2009
Location: TPC Sawgrass at Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Number of Guests: 85
Initial Budget: $11,000

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony: $1250 ($500 lawn fee + $10 per guest)

Officiant: $0 “Brandon’s mother’s best friend married us. She is a youth minister in Jacksonville, and we really wanted someone significant to marry us.”

Reception: $5500 Devon & Brandon served cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at their reception. (Cost included cake from Classic Cakes, Chavari chairs, Champagne Toast, etc).

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $350 gown, $100 alterations

Bridal Accessories: $275 (Shoes $60, Veil $150, Clip $50, Earrings $14)

Hair/Makeup: Make up: $60, Hair $85

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $150

Paper: $300 (50 invitations, 50 paddle fan programs, wine bottle table numbers, place cards)

Transportation: $150 one-way transfer in a limo after the wedding

Photographer: $1750 (5 hours of photography and discs with full copyright to all photos)

Music: $350 (DJ for ceremony and reception)

Flowers: $800

Other décor: $150

Favors: $200 (cookie favors)

Wedding Planner: $0

Gifts: $400

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL: approx. $13,000

Other Costs
Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: $6000
Honeymoon: $2300
Wedding Bands: $600

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $ 22, 000

Photo Credit: All photos by Camera Craft.

And from Devon~

Best cost-saving advice:
Try booking on a Sunday. A lot of vendors give discounts for non-Saturday weddings. Also, try having a cocktail and hors d’oeuvres reception. It will push your per person cost down significantly. I’m a firm believer in DIY, so I did all over our stationery and paper products myself. It was hard work, but I was extremely pleased with the end product.

If you can splurge, do it here:
Location. I chose our location, TPC Sawgrass, for a reason: it’s stunning. I knew it would be memorable for us as well as our guests. I limited my budget in other areas and let the location’s beauty shine through.

Don’t bother with:
Mass amounts of flowers. They die. And they’re expensive.

Other Advice:
Do what makes you happy. While planning a wedding, you’re bound to get plenty of unsolicited advice and opinions from everyone around you. If you don’t like their ideas, smile, say thank you for the thoughts, then move on. It’s your day, and let your ideas and personality shine through.

I was so excited when Katie from this post told me she would share her budget with me. And I was even more excited when I saw that it was a $10,000 budget! I love this wedding!

Couple: Katie & Matt

Wedding Date: 10-11-2008 (what a great day that must have been, cuz it’s my birthday!)

Number of Guests: 86

Initial Budget: $10,000

Ceremony & Reception Site Fee: $762 – “We had our ceremony and reception at the same place so this is for the ceremony site as well as the reception hall. This saved us a good bit of money and also made it easier since we had quite a few out of town guests.” Price also included chairs and tables.

Officiant: $0 – Matt’s family friend officiated.

Catering/food: $2,454 total (about $24 per person, they estimated 100 people), $250 beer/wine

Rentals: $850 ($600 for linens, $250 plates, glasses, silverware)

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $450 “I purchased a really lovely bridesmaid dress. It was simple but that, again, saved a ton.”

Bridal Accessories: $90

Hair/Makeup: $150 ($90 for the bride, $60 for mom and maid of honor)

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $180

Groomsmen Attire: $140 for ties and pocket squares

Paper: $250 all paper was DIY including my menus, invitations, save the dates, comment/escort cards

Transportation: $50

Photographer: $2,080

Videographer: $0

Ceremony Music: $0

Reception Music: $0 “we downloaded songs onto our mp3 players”

Flowers: $175

Other décor: $400 paper lanterns, skeleton keys, glass pieces from thrift stores, candles

Favors: $0 “we didn’t do favors but some of our guests took our table numbers and the keys attached to their escort cards home with them which was actually really sweet.”

Cake: $270

Wedding Planner: $0

Gifts: $280

Day of Grand Total: $8,831

Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: $500 for casual rehearsal dinner at Matt’s parents’ house.

Honeymoon: $500 “we are so lucky –a family member contributed a beach house for use for our honeymoon as a wedding gift”

Wedding Bands: $400

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $10,231

I am so grateful to my brides from this week that were willing to share. Thank you Katie! Your day was truly gorgeous and obviously a reflection of you and your husband!

Advice from the bride:

Best cost-saving advice: One of the things that saved us the most was finding a good deal on the site that we used for both reception and ceremony. We looked with the local parks department and found a bunch of duds and one beautiful site that was a fraction of what we would have paid for a private venue. It was really worth looking a little harder for our site. I would also say for any DIY brides, to calculate the cost of doing it yourself vs. paying someone to do it and make sure it’s actually worth doing yourself. Buying decorations and DIY items gradually also helped us spread out a lot of the cost. We were also really fortunate to have friends and family who offered different things to help us (a family friend cooked our rehearsal dinner, for example) and not only did it save us money, it added a really special touch to our day.

If you can splurge, do it here: I’d say that’s a personal decision. Matt and I followed the old advice about picking 2 things that are most important to you (in our case food and photography) and prioritize that in your budget. We ended up very happy with how we spent our money.

Don’t bother with: Anything that is not important to you. Do not stress about something that barely matters to you because chances are, most of your guests won’t even notice – your friends and family are just happy to be there to celebrate with you.

Other Advice: Work with vendors that you trust and if you can minimize the number of vendors that you have by letting one vendor take over several tasks, then that is less headache for you! Our vendors were amazing and the way they handled our event totally made our day extra super special. Most importantly I would say – have fun.  When it’s all said and done, it is your special day and you are the one that will remember it most so have the best time of your life and don’t stress about small things. Things are going to go wrong, that’s just the way it is but it’s up to you how much it affects your day.

Photos by Whitney Elizabeth Photography

When I came across this wedding, I was so excited because it has so many great DIY details and lots of cost-saving ideas. And if that wasn’t enough, the bride looked absolutely perfect on her wedding day. What more could a girl want?

Couple: Ashley and Brandon

Wedding Date: 1/03/09

Number of Guests: 50

Budget: $15,000

Ceremony/Reception/food: $3590 (included both the ceremony and reception from 5:00-10:00pm, use of the entire facility, chairs, servers, cake-cutting service, clean-up. We were allowed to start delivering wedding items to the venue on Wednesday, and we were able to start decorating the day before the wedding.)

Officiant: $350

Rentals: $1000 (dishes, glassware, table linens, etc)

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $1000 (dress: Oleg Cassini from David’s Bridal)

Bridal Accessories: $130 Ashley made the bracelet below herself the morning of the wedding. um…talented? YEAH!

Hair/Makeup: $875 Ashley had hair extensions put in that lasted 2 months after the wedding. (Love her hair!)

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $170.00

Transportation: $172.50 Ashley and Brandon did not hire any transportation for themselves, but they did rent a sightseeing trolley to take their guests on a tour to see Christmas lights in between the ceremony and reception. I love this idea!

Photographer: $1730 “included 8 hours of coverage, 4 photographers total- we were very lucky!, and a CD of all the photos with printing rights“

Videographer: $0

Ceremony Music: $150 Guitarist for one hour

Reception Music: $600

Paper: $200 Ashley designed all of her paper elements.

Other décor: $350 (DIY aisle runner, centerpieces, candles, vases, etc)

Favors: $15.00 (Lindt chocolate truffles bought on sale)

Heritage table with DIY tree, table centerpieces

The heritage table is a collection of pictures of family members that have passed. Ashley made the “family tree” from branches. Oh, and I have to mention- Ashley said these tables were only about $12 each to decorate- that’s what I’m talking about! She really achieved the romantic ambience that she wanted, and for a great price.

Flowers: $800

Cake: $420 Ashley is a cake lover like me, so having a large cake was important to her. They had a 4 tier cake with a different flavor for each tier and poured chocolate ganache on the outside.  Their delivery fee was waived because they met the vendor at a bridal show (Did you catch that tip?)

Miscellaneous: $590 “We hired a beverage catering service for the bar which saved us a ton of money! Weddings in St. Augustine aren’t cheap, and it would have easily cost us almost $2000 if we bought one of our caterer’s drink packages so we hired our own bartender instead for $390. The alcohol itself cost about $200, all purchased from our local Total Wine store, so to have an open bar for 4 hours with wine/beer/champagne/liquor, we paid a total of $590.” (TIP!)

Total Cost: Approximately $15,000 (includes some incidental cost not included above such as marriage license, etc)

Some advice from Ashley:

Best cost-saving advice: Have your ceremony and reception in the same location and choose a venue that allows you to bring in your own vendors.  This almost always results in saving a lot of money.  Decide what your priorities are and allocate most of your budget for those things.  Cut out items that aren’t absolutely necessary like limo transportation, etc.  DIY as much as you can without driving yourself crazy, but make sure it’s worth it.  DIYing can actually cost more if you’re not careful.

If you can splurge, do it here:  Photography!!!  I can’t emphasize that enough.  The photos are all you’ll have left after the wedding is over so don’t skimp in this area!  They’re a physical representation of your memories and something you’ll treasure for the rest of your lives.  I’ve heard/read so many horror stories from other brides who hired the cheapest person they could find only to end up with terrible pictures or, in some cases, none at all and it was devastating.  Don’t let that happen to you.  Aside from that, I’d recommend focusing on the food, drinks, and music because those three things tend to be the most important to wedding guests. (Make sure you have enough food and drink for everyone!).

Don’t bother with:  Everyone has a different opinion on this subject and ultimately it comes down to your own budget and priorities, but there are some things that we did not see the point in spending money on such as limos, a live band, chair covers, etc.  We weren’t concerned about any of those, even though they’re all pretty typical of weddings where we live.

Thank you for sharing, Ashley! To see more of Ashley’s beautiful pictures, vendor reviews, and more tips, click here.

Photos by Jaime Smith Photography & Allison Labine Photography.