HOW TO GET YOUR DREAM WEDDING WITH A SMALL BUDGET

HOW TO GET YOUR DREAM WEDDING WITH A SMALL BUDGET

The most exciting time ever! YOUR WEDDING! But, I think spending a fortune is ridiculous. We spent $5,000 including our honeymoon and it was my dream wedding. Everything was perfect. I'll go over about 5 tips to help you get everything you want for a lower budget.

VENUE

Now, I know some venues start at $8,000 or whatever no matter what. I'm telling you there are better options you just have to research. I've found the most expensive ones have an area for you to get ready in separately and have catering in-house. I will talk about the food later but as far as a place to get ready, just get a hotel room! Honestly, the ride over to the venue in my wedding dress was the most hype drive of my life and a fun way to relax because let's face it the whole day you are freaking out. A big way to save at venues is to have them any day but Saturday. It maybe be a little inconvenient for your guest, but that just guaranteed that the people who really care for you will come. We had our wedding on Sunday evening and had the perfect amount of people show up! People pay a lot for two days so they can do the rehearsal the day before. We did ours the morning of, and let me say it was no harm at all. I certainly can say I'm glad we did that instead of paying $700 more. Now that's only really possible with a late wedding, which I will talk about the pros of that later on.

FOOD

This is probably the next most expensive thing. To get around this money gulper we had our wedding at 7 pm. I know that seems really late but it worked perfectly for us, especially with have the sunset in our pictures. We served M&M's, pretzels, and hot tamales. We made that clear on our invitation. This was extremely affordable. People can also spend a fortune on the cake. We had a family member make our 'naked' cake with fruit on it and I thought it was beautiful! They made a sheet cake for everyone else and let me tell you no one complained that they didn't get a fancy piece of cake.

DECOR

Hobby Lobby!!!! Let me tell you, they have a sale on certain items all the time. Just get creative with stuff. Don't feel embarrassed to ask friends/family that had a wedding recently and ask if they have anything you can use. We also found a great place about two hours away that had rentals for all types of events. This is where we got the whiskey barrel for under the trellis (we had a friend construct this super easy trellis and then I wrapped a sheet from Goodwill around it, BOOM). Below you can see a picture of me throwing a bouquet, behind on the wall is a background for behind our table that was super cheap to make! It was just a rope with different colors of sheets ripped up and tied to the rope to hang down. You know where I got those sheets?? Ding ding ding, I got them at Goodwill! In the bottom picture, you'll see the wooden pallets that were put together to make a perfect background for guest pictures! We also added a string light since we had a late wedding. Another thing we did was have an old wooden ladder set out with pictures of us and little knick nacks from Hobby Lobby. There are so many other ideas on Pinterest as well! Make sure to check out my DIY Wedding posts! Mason jars are another wonderful item you can get at Goodwill, or really any jars or vases!

FLOWERS

My bouquet was put together by my sister-in-law! I just ordered some flowers that I thought would be pretty and had some lace/burlap to wrap around it. It is SO expensive to have the stores arrange your flowers for you. The best option is to get special flowers for yourself and then maybe a large amount of basic flower. We just stopped by the side of the road to get look-alike Babys breath. You can see the wildflowers hanging in the mason jars look just like Baby's breath! As for my bridesmaids' bouquets, I got them 50% off at hobby lobby. Yes, they were fake but who in the world cares. You couldn't tell in pictures and we didn't have to worry about storage! This was around $75 for all the fake and real flowers. That is pretty darn good. I think simplicity is very popular right now as well so no need to go overboard.

Wanna know where I spent the most money?? My dress, lol! It was $1500 with alterations, more than the venue we chose. Totally worth it. Another way we saved money was by having the groomsmen wear a simple outfit. They had to have khakis, a white shirt, and boots/dress shoes. The only specific thing was the tie color and we paid for them (using Azazie.com). I also got my bridesmaids skirts from here.

At the end of the day, it was about getting to marry my husband and the people we enjoyed it with. I didn't notice little things here or there. It was one of the best days of my life and honestly, I could've spent less and still had one of the best days of my life. Thanks for reading! Check out my blog here!