Doing a wedding with a $10K budget is not impossible, but you need to know that resourcefulness and creativity are absolute key.
I want to highlight some great $10K wedding stories because, from them, I have gained such an understanding of how to be even more resourceful and even more creative! Hopefully, even if you aren’t doing a $10K wedding, you will gain something that you can take to your wedding planning!
“I have gotten really lucky! I live in Orlando, FL (which I am sure helps a ton) I rented the Winter Park Farmers Market.
The space is a historic train station with an amazing brick building with concrete floors and a brick paved parking lot. It was super cheap, $900 for the entire day, including chairs and tables.
Luckily, you get to use whatever vendors you want, so I sent out the menu I wanted to 15 vendors, made them revise their prices a couple times, did some tastings, and found a guy who would do it for half the cost of everyone else. He is providing all the linens, plates, silver, and non-alcoholic bar goods. He is doing all of this including providing the staff, at $33 a head! I only have to buy the booze to complete the food and beverage ticket.
Because I did a huge amount of foot work on the caterer, and saved a ton of money, we were able to up our numbers a lot.
Then I got a friends brother, who does digital art, to recreate an invitation I found online. He only charged me $50. I found a printer who will do offset printing for 150 invites and RSVP postcards for $80. It’s not the highest quality printing, but my borther who had a $100,000 dollar wedding, did the same thing, and NO. ONE. NOTICED! I am printing all the envelopes myself to save money too.
I am using a lot of hay, wheat, barley, rye etc as my “flowers” and luckily my soon-to-be-cousin’s family has bails of all those on their property. Getting that for free is going to be huge!
I have a friend that works in the construction industry, and he is getting me burlap for ridiculously cheap. I am doing a burlap aisle and then some burlap on the tables.
I have a girlfriend that just got married and she is lending me all her mason jars so that’s free.
My fiances family is pitching in to create some stuff and I am planning on buying and then reselling a lot of bottles and mini chalk boards.
My photographer, including engagment shoot, was $2800, and the videographeris $1000 and includes a 3 minute web video like above, and then a longer one of the whole day. By whole day, i mean 10 hours, none of that 4 hours for the reception, and an hour for the ceremony. I get them all day : )
My DJ ended up being from around the block in Long Island New York where I grew up, and knows my brother. He is doing the entire wedding including lighting package and video with live picture feed for $1000. He usually charges $1800.00 and has a time limit.
I found a lady, who is a friend of mines mother, that will make my veil for, ready for this, for $100 dollars. www.lubasews.com It’s a custom veil that will be just longer than my train.
My brother is the officiant, so that saves us. My hair stylist is only charging me $45, and my airbrush makeup is $60.
I bought my dess as a sample, and my shoes off Ninashoes.com DIY for $125.
I am really cutting it super close on the 10k mark, but I think i’m going to make it!
The biggest thing was not giving up on the caterer. I needed to find someone that could do what i needed for a reasonable price and I found a guy in a small town willing to and excited to be a custom caterer and not an over budget big name.
Cutting the cocktail hour was the newest decision for price cuts. I went over my menu a million times and decided that we had sooooo much food that no one would miss the cocktail hour, as long as they could stand up from the ceremony, walk into the reception (since everything is on site) and start eating immediately.
We are doing soup in bread bowls with a custom salad station plus some appetizers on the tables once they enter the reception space. The bridal party wont miss that first hour, and this gives us more time to boogy : )
Anyway, it’s been a ton of work, and I have a million projects to start, and bottles to buy but I think that it’s going to all work out in the budget.
Good Luck!
Bethany Reitzel
© 2013 SmartBride
