Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Not at all. My "inexpensive simple wedding" ended up with about a 12k price tag. More than you expect starts to add in. For example, I had red nail polish, which I wear with a base coat all the time, but this time decided to stain my nails. $50 later at the salon to have a series of soak treatments to remove the color so I would still have nails that I was able to do the french tips on that were my nails. If it was not 2 weeks before the wedding, I would not have spent the $50.
...I am planning on 2K lol...I am not cheap its just that we are not having flowers
that removes 200-300 at least
photographer
Removes about $1000
catering
Removes about $2000
, stuff like that...we are truly doing it ourselves LOL...good luck!
Good luck! It can be done, but you will have to be VERY budget diligent.
As a grad student this makes sense for us to do too.
Pictures: we have plenty of friends that are into photography and could just send us all the digital files as a wedding gift.
Flowers: the fiancee is actually quite good at working with flowers and wants to do it all herself.
Food: cook our own. We're both self described foodies and have almost no doubts that we could come up with a menu that would far exceed food you get at most weddings that is frozen and simply heated up anyways. Heck Bbq food would be easy to for en masse
Alcohol: kegs and wine all night, is liquor really necessary?
Actual wedding: going to have to be at the courthouse. I'm not paying a church a few grand cause I simply can't afford it and I don't consider myself catholic anymore after the abuse scandals.
How would you feel getting invited to a DIY wedding? Would you travel far for one? How do you invite people to such a ceremony without a wedding in a church? How many guests are possible on a $6k budget?
We really don't even care that much about getting gifts, just about celebrating the marriage, so if people had concerns about it being DIY and throwing all tradition out the window we really wouldnt care if they gave less or nothing. Just want them to show up, eat good food, and have fun.
One thing is certain, we are simply NOT going to take out a loan and blow a ton of cash on only one day only to regret the debt later.
First what is a DIY?? Yes I would go to one, glad you aren't going into debt for a one time event.
The only thing I would suggest avoiding is all the food preparation. That isn't something I would want to do in the days leading up to my wedding, since there's far too much else to think about and do, let alone cooking. Arrange the menu, but I would enlist others to prepare and serve the food, that can be their wedding gift to you.
^^^Good wedding present; get your parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, to pitch in.
^^^Good wedding present; get your parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, to pitch in.
Yes. I'm all for DIY, to a point. To me, there is a fine line between inexpensive vs. cheap, and also too much DIY which takes away from the specialness of the day.
Even if you aren't spending a lot and having something fancy, it's still your one special day to be the centre of attention and "spoiled". People will want to help you, they'll want to take responsibilities off your hands so you can enjoy your moment.
I would not want to go to a backyard wedding/reception and watch the bride and groom do all the work of serving me on their wedding day, and I think most people would feel the same. I say let people help you, and better, ask them in advance, so the day doesn't turn into chaos with random friends/family trying to be helpful. If everyone is assigned duties/tasks, it will go much more smoothly.
I love the idea. It will not be tacky at all. Anyone who thinks so doesn't understand the nature of hospitality.
However, I urge you to rethink doing all the food yourself. It's a lot of work and you don't want to start out your wedding day being exhausted and worrying about getting food to the reception site. Please consider hiring a caterer or another foodie friend. You'll be glad. It's not worth the small savings to stress yourself out like that.
I don't see anything wrong with a DIY wedding. I think others are smart in suggesting food prep be done by someone else, though. Do you really want to be standing at the grill or over a hot spit on your wedding day?
I think it's very personal. And who says you can't have some traditional things take place? Use your imagination!
Don't think a church will work? My daughter was married outside with a lake in the background. It was beautiful. My sister was married in a small, non-denominational chapel. Her's was beautiful as well.
I would much rather go to this sort of wedding than one where everything is stuffy and snooty.
Sorry for 'waking up' the thread, but I'm curious to know what the OP ended up doing?
My fiance and I are hoping to get married in September. We have decided to only invite immediate family, so the guest list will be 15 people. I am very excited about our 'intimate' wedding, and it allows us to spend a little more in other areas...like getting my hair & makeup done, and doing the vows/after dinner at a B&B or inn (we are setting up tours). NJ is too expensive, but the places we are looking at in PA are much cheaper. Instead of doing the whole dj or band thing, we are just going to have a sit down dinner.
We had friends who would invite us to their Christmas party every year. They would have it the second weekend of December. So year we showed up and they said, "Thank you for coming, just so you know, we got married last week and tonight is our reception. We didn't tell anyone because we didn't want gifts, we just wanted you to come, enjoy the evening and be happy for us." WOW!! It was a totally awesome evening.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
