A $5000 wedding, is it possible?

Question

I might find my "prince charming" in the future but I would love a fairytale wedding for only five grand. Can I do it? And, if you had a low buget wedding that looks like $30,000 or more but cost about $5,000 what is your story and what are the tips?

Answer 1

Well I planned my sisters wedding for 6000. She has a big backyard so I suggested she have it there. We bought a gazebo from a garage sale that looked new. We rented some table andchairs and got decorations from the dollar store...yes the dollar store. Streemers and silk flowers aren't name brand anywhere, LOL. We cooked our own food and she even made her own cake(but she's in school for clinary arts, LOL) Her dress was bought from a bridal shop that was never worn, but was made for a bride that had flown the coop. It was beautiful. Entertainment was from cousins choir who is actually well known. The brides maids bought their own dresses(that's why brides maids should be real friends and not just people who take pretty pictures.) Oh yeah, I took the pictures and did the video because it's a hobby of mine. All of the tables got centerpieces I bought of ebay for real cheap and I did all of her invitations on my computer and they looked better then the ones the shop wanted for 500 bucks. The reception was also in the backyard and the same chairs and tables where used. The wedding was a wishing well wedding so all the money they got payed for their honeymoon and they even got some of their expenses for their preparation back.

It was all very classy and really beautiful.

Answer 2

When there's a will there's a way! ESPECIALLY if it is God's will. It was amazing and beautiful: my $4700.00 wedding last May! My mother and 4 sisters planned it all so that my (now) husband and I wouldn't elope. They had a meeting, invited us and said, "Just Show Up." Well, it was a little more than that, but it really was that easy. My Mom's house turned into Operation Wedding Central. It was the eBay and Internet wedding! It was held at the church I grew up in and my reception was 5 minutes away at the Marina on the lake near our Northwest Indiana home. I asked attendees later how much they thought my wedding and reception cost. Nobody said anything under $20,000. It can absolutely be done! Theknot.com used to have a budget calculator that told you what you could do for how much, but I couldn't find it last year. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. My fiance and I were too busy to do much of anything. Feb-Aug was unbelievably busy for us, then we moved 2 states away! Just shop around, don't be afraid to ask people to cut costs, get some good people on your team and above all, tell your heavenly Father what you want and believe that HE can go before you and make a way. He did it for me! My bridesmaids dresses, for example were bought off the rack at JCPenny for $60.00 each. They were beautiful! Stay away from the bridal boutiques that are out to make money. My sisterinlaw got married last November, and my participation and my husband, my and my daughters travel expenses and wedding expenses cost us more than our WHOLE wedding cost us almost. Ridiculous and unnecessary. I could email you more if you like. Peace.

Answer 3

It is possible. It depends on what you consider a fairytale wedding. Everyone is different. My hubby and I spent $3,000 on our wedding and it looked like we spent way more than that.
Make sure your bridesmaids can rent their gowns/dresses. Make alot of the stuff yourself. My cake was made by a friend's mom. It was 3 tiers 3 layers each. It was her wedding gift to us. Boutineirs and corsages were made by another friend and they were also a giftand they were not real either. The best man paid for our dj as a wedding gift. The maid of honor paid for the video as a wedding gift and she paid for our copy of our wedding but anyone else that wanted a copy of it had to pay $20. Instead of buying the pics that the photographer took, we got the proofs for $30 and had our own enlargements done later. The only things we paid for was the place we had our ceremony and reception - which we had in the same place, my dress and shoes, everyone in the wedding party rent their attire and we set a limit on the open bar. Meaning we set a tab paid that and when the tab ran out our guests had to pay for their drinks from that point on. Do you see where I am going with this? As a gift to us everyone who didn't know what to get as a wedding gift offered to pay for something we needed for our wedding. My bouquets for my girls and the gifts they received from me as well as my veil were made by my mother. She did an excellent job. My hairdresser for me and my girls ended up being the maid of honor's mother my aunt. She did an awesome job. It didn't cost me anything. We still ended up getting gifts from everyone that attended. So it all worked out.

So do your research on what you want out of your wedding. Look at the stuff you could possibly do yourself to save a buck. Take your time with the planning you only get married for the first time once. Otherwise, start saving now.

Answer 4

My "fairytale" wedding cost $27 for a license to get married at the courthouse. Our rings cost $200. My dress cost $30. My husband's shirt and tie cost $25. My parents spent $50 for our wedding cake and about $50 for snacks and drinks. We had our immediate family with us and it was wonderful. So our "fairytale" wedding cost a grand total of $382.

Answer 5

Ours would be around $6K if we hadn't rented a theatre for the wedding.

Look at your wedding date--Saturdays are most expensive, followed by Sundays and Fridays.

Shop around in offseasons, and possibly look into having a winter wedding.

Had we gone with our church, grown our own flowers/use fake flowers, gone with a consignment dress, forgo a sit-down meal and stick with cake and punch, hire a friend to the photos, and make our own cake...we would come a LONG way.

To make it look expensive, you will have to work with it. You will have to find what is special to you to make it look the rich. Find a place that doesn't have to be decorated much at all. Your dress from a consignment store can be just as great as newer ones.

Basically, you have to pick out 1-3 items you want to splurge and on go for it. Just remember that you shouldn't have to impress anyone!

If you research hard enough and talk vendors down, anything is possible.

Answer 6

I had my fairytale wedding in Las Vegas at the Excaliber Hotel and Casino in May 2005. It cost us just over 1500.00 for flight, hotel, flowers, hair and makeup, champagne, photos. I already had my wedding dress. You can have a reception there too....they have a banquet hall. Less expensive than the traditional wedding here at home....but you can make it any way you like out there. Most of the Hotels have chapels...they are really nice. Was worth every penny and no regrets.

Answer 7

Yep, if you do it right. Because my boyfriend and I will be dirt poor when we get married, we are setting our budget at $5000 for 150 people. Here is my budget:

flowers and centrepieces 500 (I love flowers and we are going to buy them wholesale and then have my bridesmaids make them into bouquets and fill fish bowls with water, candles, and flowers)

dress500 (at most, with my veil made my good friend)

tux200 (most likely less because we are going to have the guys wear sports coats and slacks)

favors250 (our theme is the flower iris and we are taking iris bulbs and putting them in little boxes with a corny poem about watching our love grow)

food2100 (is averages to about $14 a plate)

church300 (donation, not normally required, but something we feel like we want to do)

booze400 (we live in wine country and good wine is really important to us, if you want a dry reception, it will save you more)

tips200 (we have worked as servers and know the need to tip well)

invites300 (we are making our own on publisher and printing them ourselves.)

other 250 (for everything I've forgotten to think of)

One of our friends is donating the music and another is doing the photography. We are making our own invitations, flowers and centerpieces, and favors. Our cost, pre-honeymoon will be less than $5,000 and the wedding will be beautiful.

Answer 8

Who are you, Tori Spelling? 5 Grand is alot of dough for most people. A family of 19 could live on that for 29 years in some third world country. Let me be your wedding planner, and I'll pull off the nuptials for 2 Grand.

Answer 9

Every person has a different deffinition of a "Fairy Tale Wedding". There are a lot of tips for weddings on a budget on our website which will help you keep the costs of everything as low as you can.

Answer 10

I did my fairy tale wedding for only about $5500. I loved it and all of my guests loved it too. Nobody could believe what I really spent on the wedding. I shopped on the cheap, but didn't skimp on quality. I hired a photographer for only $900 who let me own my photos, negatives and all, and gave them to me on a CD that I could pass around to family and friends. They all said "These are some of the best wedding pictures that I have ever seen. My dress was only $375 and I actually got a prom dress. I didn't want white, because it was my 2nd marriage. I did the reception in the fellowship hall of the church and decorated it ourselves. I loved the way it turned out and if you want to see what I did, feel free to email me. I will send you pictures and names of who did what. I live in St. Louis.