Weddings under $5000 : All the Style Details : Forums : Brides

All the Style Details

Weddings under $5000

Online Users: 503 guest(s), 0 user(s). Replies: 262

PrincessJ Posts : 2 Registered: 8/5/07

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Jun 25, 2008 7:58 PM Go to message in response to: delete2010; Today was my day off and I spent it going through all 16 pages of this thread! Great ideas, I'm so excited!
I'm all for craigslist! I got my gown (Liancarlo couture) at $2500 for $400 with tags still on! Most of my centerpiece items from Craigslist as well.

Happy planning!

I can't wait

email friend | report thread

MrsRicecake Posts : 701 Registered: 2/2/08

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Jun 27, 2008 8:35 PM Go to message in response to: Guest; I have a $5000 budget and thats even pushing it for me! I am paying for most my wedding, my fiance is in the Marines so he makes crap for money, my parents have 3 girls so they cant afford to help more than $1000. So I have two jobs, looking for another.
My mom is a hair dresser so shes doing my hair, my sister is doing my makeup. We are having a sit down dinner, but it will be ham...a good family meal...that I am ordering from Fred Myer. I am making my favors, having silk flowers, making my own invites. Everything is DIY, except photography! That is what I am willing to bust the budget for! Im so excited! It will be ten times better than any platinum wedding I have seen!!

Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married! December 27, 2008!
http://alaireandclayton.weddings.com

email friend | report thread

JasmineF Posts : 12 Registered: 2/6/09

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: May 18, 2009 2:34 PM Go to message in response to: MrsRicecake; I know this is old but just thought I would share what I'm doing to stick to my budget.

Making small centerpiences using square vases and short stems and wrapping ribbon around the vase.

Dollar Trees in Philly have awesome small square vases for $1 that Target is currently seling for $4.

north_carolina

email friend | report thread

KShelor Posts : 1 Registered: 10/27/10

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Oct 27, 2010 2:09 PM Go to message in response to: Guest; I'm planning my wedding now and am determined not to go into debt! Here are some of the things that have helped me save so far.

My cousin has a historic house in my mom's hometown in the blue ridge mountains of virginia. I looked up nearby vacation rentals and found a great cabin with lots land. And the guy who owns it will let us use it for 3 days for less than $1000. That means we can all set things up for days ahead of time. We can all pitch in and lower the stress level.

My cousin and her husband are going to cook up a big southern dinner at their house for our rehearsal dinner.

My mom has been picking hydrangeas for months and has been drying them in her house. We are going to use my grandmother's crochet linens, and the dried flowers in mason jars. You can order a pack of 30 for 12 bucks on amazon.com and use them to put candles in, flowers, you can hang them from trees with candles. endless uses.

We are not having a wedding cake but family members are baking lots of cakes, pies, and cookies for a serve yourself dessert table. I'm also going to add some jars of colorful candies.

A great idea is to go to a trader joe's (or bevmo online) and find your favorite wines under 5 dollars a bottle. They have so many at that price point! have some friends over, take off the labels and do a blind tasting to decide the fan favorites.

We will have a bar set up with bottles of beer in ice and wine with nice looking plastic cups. A friend of my cousin's will be manning the bar and helping to replenish and keep it looking nice.

Another thing you can do it pick out cheaper wine and then put them in carafe's on tables. that way they don't know what you've bought. 2 buck chuck tastes the same to most people when they don't know :)

We are borrowing lawn games from friends for croquet, cards,etc so guests can have fun.

I'm using an ipod and my brothers speakers for music. I can have the band of my dreams that way :)

Lastly, for food, we found a local caterer who will do bbq type food. They are making great bbq, ham biscuits, big bowls of fresh strawberries, potato salad, pasta salad, grilled veggies, crusty bread, lemonade and iced tea. She's doing it for about 25/person. We are saving by not having servers and plated dinners. And we can supply our own alcohol.

and lastly! I am getting my dress from a pre-worn wedding dress site. You can save on a really beautiful dress and then re-sell if again when you're done. Check out : OnceWed, GreenWeddingShoe, preownedweddingdresses.com

email friend | report thread

Soul2Soul Posts : 2 Registered: 6/11/09

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Nov 14, 2010 7:11 PM Go to message in response to: Guest; I totally understand, as I teacher, I don't make much. Plus I come from a single parent household. My brother is in college, so my family really can't afford to contribute the affair. My fiancee' and I just bought a house and we have 3 kids 10, 4, and 6 months. All of my colleagues can afford illustrious weddings. I feel sooo poor, but if I can make $5,000 look like $50,000 I will truly be happy.

wedding , a , budget , on

email friend | report thread

MissApril Posts : 276 Registered: 1/21/09

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Nov 14, 2010 8:41 PM Go to message in response to: Soul2Soul; I can't believe I didn't post this sooner. When my friend got married this summer, their reception theme was "Coffee and Donuts". It was a short afternoon reception (4-6) so feeding guests only cost about $100. Any leftover donuts went home with the B&G.

Life happens! I'm no longer WaitingForApril2010

email friend | report thread

deliciousappleb... Posts : 15 Registered: 8/21/10

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Nov 16, 2010 11:46 PM Go to message in response to: MissApril; My budget is 10, not 5, but the lower I can keep the cost, the more likely my fiance will be to agree that we can actually save what we need in time for the date I want. ;)

The main way I'm saving money is by cutting things that really aren't that important. No ridiculous cake, no limo, no extra stationery (programs and stuff), no guestbook, no jewelery, and a bunch of little things like that. It really adds up. Also, we're having the ceremony at our reception site, then moving the chairs out of the way for the party. Having a small guest list also helps.

I realize that all of that should put me into the $5,000 range, but we're insisting on a great photographer, venues are pricey where I live and we're splurging on the best open bar possible. And my fiance told me not to scrimp on the dress and get whatever I wanted, so I have no idea what that's going to end up costing. Splurging on those few things is what's making up the extra 5 grand, so anyone who takes the tips in this thread about student photographers (which is a great idea!) and cheaper dresses, it can definitely be done for less.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks $45,000 on one party is a huge waste.

email friend | report thread

PrincessEnglish Posts : 13 Registered: 9/24/10

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Dec 10, 2010 8:38 PM Go to message in response to: deliciousappleb...; I plan on having a winter wedding and instead of decorating with flowers I will be using birch tree branches and pine cones. These are completely free since I live in the woods and only need to go for a walk to find them!

email friend | report thread

Jaymee Posts : 143 Registered: 10/6/10

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Dec 18, 2010 8:56 AM Go to message in response to: PrincessEnglish; I'm getting married on June 2, 2012 and I'm trying to keep our wedding budget around $3,000.

We're going to have the ceremony and reception at an outdoor ice skating rink. It's $50 to rent for the whole day.

We're having an early afternoon reception and we're going to do meat and cheese trays with rolls and some sides like pasta salad.

I'm going to buy the flowers from the grocery store and arrange them myself.

I ordered my invitations from Vista Print for $6.54!

To decorate the pavilion area I'm making coffee filter pom-pom garlands. They are time consuming but easy and inexpensive to make.

I got my cake knife and server set on eBay for $5.95!

I also got my cake topper on eBay for $2.50!

email friend | report thread

lalaf7 Posts : 2 Registered: 3/9/11

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Mar 9, 2011 4:13 PM Go to message in response to: Guest; Thank you very much for this!!! it is so true!!

___________________________________________________________
San Antonio Weddings

san_antonio_dj

email friend | report thread

xxpiperxx Posts : 6 Registered: 3/25/11

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Mar 25, 2011 12:08 PM Go to message in response to: lalaf7; My wedding will be under $5,000 too.

email friend | report thread

futureswedishbr... Posts : 115 Registered: 7/27/10

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Mar 30, 2011 11:32 AM Go to message in response to: xxpiperxx; My budget will be about that much as well. I'm having both my wedding ceremony AND wedding reception at my church because right behind the chapel part is a huge gym. I get to use both for free. Also my bishop is performing the ceremony for free. I'm getting the limo for 200 bucks because I know the owner personally. In my area, limos run for anywhere from 600 to 1200 bucks. I suggest going to Oriental Trading. They are always having sales and opporunities to get free shipping. My wedding is June 9th,2012.

email friend | report thread

3500weddingblog... Posts : 2 Registered: 4/28/11

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: Apr 29, 2011 3:21 PM Go to message in response to: futureswedishbr...; It's such a great feeling sticking to a wedding budget and being debt free after a wedding. We did our wedding for about $3500. We had the ceremony and reception in my sister's backyard. My wedding dress was a beautiful find from a thrift shop and a lot of my friends are talented and provided flower bouquets, my best friend dj'd. It was great!!!
www.3500weddingblog.com

email friend | report thread

Deleted Posts : 23 Registered: 1/7/10

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: May 5, 2011 5:27 PM Go to message in response to: BirdLover; This thread is awesome! I was worried because i thought i had a year to plan for my wedding but change of plans my FH wants to get hitched this year and we def. don't have a million dollars to work with but reading this thread i have hope that i will be able to have a nice wedding for a low cost!

email friend | report thread

DeniseRose Posts : 40 Registered: 5/10/11

Re: Weddings under $5000: Posted: May 12, 2011 4:04 PM Go to message in response to: Deleted; My friend had an under $5000 wedding.

One thing she did was spend $0 (zero) on the ceremony venue. They had the ceremony in a state park. Normally there might be a fee but after checking they found out that if there was no furniture (no chairs, no arch, no sound system, etc) that they could gather with their guests for no fee. I was sceptical but it was fab! We all showed up and mingled around on the lawn in a very pretty setting. The groom and officiant greated very one as we arrived. The bride stepped out from behind a building and began walking toward the groom. There was no music but as the guests began to realize that the bride was headed our way we opened up a path for her. They kept the ceremony short because the guests had to stand for the whole thing. It was beautiful, unusual, memorable. It felt spontanious and romatic. They spent nothing on decorating the venue (it was naturally decorated).

She still had to make compromises on the reception but she had her whole budget for the party and her dress with nothing spent on the ceremony without skimping on the ceremony.