Wedding on a $6,000 budget?

Question

My wedding is next year in May, and we don't have a lot of money. Do you think I can pull off a decent wedding on a $6,000 budget. Do you think this is going to be a nightmare? I'm not one of those girls who has to have the top notch fancy wedding but I do want it to look as if I spent about $10,000 or more on it. What do you think?

Answer 1

Oh honey, don't worry. I had a beautiful wedding (with 125 ppl) on far less than that. Yes, you will have to do some things yourself, but that is half the fun anyway. You have plenty of time to catch things on sale and do it yourself on somethings, and that is not to say you have to do everything yourself. You will be fine, I actually think that is a sensible amount for a very classy wedding. If you are interested you can email through my profile and I can show you pictures of mine on the photographers website and give you some ideas of cutting the cost a little. I paid around $3500 and that was with a professional photographer and everything.

Answer 2

It depends on what kind of town you live in. When I got married I went back home to do it (about an hour away from where I live now) because it was much cheaper to do it there. For example, my cake only costs 75 cents a slice as opposed to the 1.75 a slice it would have costs where I live now. My husband and I had flowers and the whole deal and we only spent about $5,000 and that includes our 2 week honeymoon that included a 1 week cruise and a trip to Disney.

My point is, spend some time doing research. If you live in a big city, see if there is a small town nearby that things are a little bit cheaper there. Sometimes if you go with someone that is just starting out in their business and needs the exposure you can get great deals. If you make the effort you should be able to have a beautful wedding for relatively low cost! Good Luck

Answer 3

I just had a wonderful wedding and mine was less than 1,000.
I got married in a local garden/park. The site only cost me 150.00 and 50.00 that is refundable. Doing things yourself will cut costs. For example I found wonderful invitations at walmart. It has the card stock with a design, envelopes everything. you just go to the included website that comes with the set and you make the invitations yourself and then print. It walkes you through step by step. I think a box of 50 is like 20.00 or so. It even includes reply cards and most design also have thank you notes to match.

Also silk flowers at craft store will be cheaper than the real thing. Have the bridesmaid have silk and you real thing or have silk for yourself also. I did so I can enjoy for years to come. Also enlisting help of family and friends. Those up and comers in photography are normally cheap and just as great.

If you have an aunt or grandmother that can bake and you pick a simple wedding cake . My cake was so simple it was three round layers each a little smaller than the bottom one. each of the layers where made of a choc. layer and then a van. layer. I bought my cake topper for less than 9.00 at hobby lobby (craft store same as where I bought my flowers) I had rose petals sprinkled over the sides and top of the cake. Hint most craft store rotate sales one week flowers next week greenery. Or just drop in a store for a few weeks in a row (also to get an idea of what you want) and you'll see a pattern of the sales.

Plus the whole buffet idea is so much cheaper. Even try your favorite local resturant they will do things super cheap and then just eat at your favorite place.

This can be the best cost savings ever depending on what you want. Try to find a prom style dress.......it will be alot of cheaper but some are wonderful and a fraction of the cost. My dress was 150.00 and i went with a prom dress. also you can find excellent dresses and consigment shops or try you local battered womens shelter alot of time they will have consigment shops and alot of people are donating beautiful dresses to such a good organization. I found one there but to make the length correct they would have had to cut off alot of the beautiful design so I opted for 150.00 prom dress.
If you need any more cost saving ideas let me know I'll help with what ever I can.

Answer 4

I live in Long Beach, CA and I planned my whole wedding myself. Here's what I did:
We got married outside in May at a lighthouse that overlooked the Queen Mary and harbor at 5pm - price: $0 ... all we had to do was ask for permission from the city and they gave us the OK! Our guest sat on the grass on blankets we bought and gave as gifts (price was $3 per blanket @ 40 blankets ... $120) We had our reception at a restaurant @ 6pm (Gladstones) that was a short walk away ... cost of dinner (appetizer, salad, main course, drinks) $2,100 for 80 people! And the restaurant let us have the whole part of the restaurant to ourselves and we had a DJ @ $200 from 6pm - 11pm. My dress cost $1,500. I got my cake from Albertson's Grocery Store - they do wedding cakes and they look just as good and TASTE just as good as any cake I've ever had (they even let us do a tasting!). Cost for a cake for 100 people $165! I also had Albertson's do my bouquet and wedding flowers! They were red roses and GORGEOUS!! Cost for 1Bridal bouquet, 1 Maid of Honor, 1 Jr Brides Maid, 2 corsages, and 4 Men's boutonniere's + 2 dozen extra red roses for the centerpieces ... $270! Plus I bought some simple tall, cylinder glass vases to put a each table with a red rose ... for 15 tables @ 1.35 each vase = $20.25. The minister to perform the ceremony $250. My husband rented a suit at $75. Plus I bought some little odds and ends here and there - but the big stuff came to: $4700! It CAN be done! Especially if you have a year to plan --- you can get things little by little!

Answer 5

You can have a very nice wedding on $6K, if you keep your guest list to a minimum. A daytime event is cheaper than an evening, a buffet meal is cheaper than a sit down. There are lots of ways to cut the costs.
I discovered that by going small I was able to go big. With only 12 guests I can have a destination wedding, stay at a resort, ride in limos, etc. And it's going to cost me less than $5000. You don't necessarily have to have such a small guest list, but the fewer the guests the better you can treat them and the more time you'll have to spend with them.

Answer 6

You can have a nice wedding for $6,000. Since you have a year to plan I wouldn't waste anytime doing so. Write down everything that you want to have and start putting together a spending plan. You may have to do without something, or just make it a smaller and more intimate. But the most important thing is that you and and your beau will be married and you will be surrounded by people that love you.

Answer 7

Okay, to me $6,000 is very expensive. My husband and I paid $200-$400 for everything, including our rings. We had friends make finger foods. We had a friend do the photography. I borrowed a dress. My husband wore a suit. We got married at the church we attended. We rented a volunteer fire dept hall for $20. We used fake flowers. You can get very real looking ones from hobby stores and such. There are a few more cheap things we did. We got married in July 2002.
I think wanting to look as if you spent a fortune on it sounds vain. It sounds like you are having the wedding more for show than anything. Remember, it's just ONE DAY. Not even the most important. The most important days and years are the ones FOLLOWING the wedding.
No having guests pay for the wedding. That's tacky. If one wants to get married, THEY, not the guests, should pay for it. Also, the groom should be making just as many decisions as you are for the wedding.

Answer 8

DIY projects! Thats how you save money and bargain shopping. YES you can make it work! Also if you have connections use them! Enlist the skills/talents of friends and family if they can do anything to keep your wedding within budget! Its a definite yes that you can make it work! If you want more help Im sure some girls on http://www.theknot.com can help you out! OH! I forgot to add that you should have your wedding day NOT on a weekend day say Monday through Thursday you will save a LOT of money! Also remember to negotiate with vendors. You have the upper hand because its YOUR wedding and YOU are PAYING them for their services.

Answer 9

IT CAN BE DONE!! You should get the book "Priceless Wedding for $5,000 or less" by Kathleen Kennedy. Excellent ideas and cost saving tips on everything. There is also a 1000 Wedding Bargains book that is very useful too. You should be able to find both of these books on Amazon.com. Good Luck.

Answer 10

Assuming you're not in a major city, this can easily be done if you're willing to do the legwork. For EVERYTHING in our wedding, I spent just over $6k in mid-Michigan. I did a LOT of DIY and took advantage of talented friends, I got my dress on Ebay (the same one I fell in love with in the store, not a knockoff), had a smaller (60'ish) guest list and didn't have every single thing that I was told I HAD to have by The Knot. xH got re-married a month after I did and we compared notes on our respective planning from time to time and he spent about twice what we did to have the same wedding.

1. Look at October-March and consider Friday or Sundays. These are less-common times and many of the better trades will give discounts just to get bookings.

2. Look for deals on everything you can think of on Ebay and Craigslist. I got my wedding gown for $80 including shipping and found the cookies I wanted for my favors at the dollar store.

3. Take advantage of talented friends or friends of friends. My brother DJ'd, I found a local at-home baker for our cake, DH's co-worker was trying to start a photography business and gave us a super deal and amazing service, found a newer wedding planner that did day-of coordination for pretty cheap, florist was a friend of a friend, etc etc etc.

4. Consider free or cheap places to have the ceremony. I paid $250 for our site and we had it for 4 hours.

5. Figure out what's important to you and focus on that. Don't worry about custom stamps with your picture on them for the invites, personalized cocktail napkins, globo light shows by the DJ, filet mignon... If you simply HAVE to have a chocolate fountain (for example), just call around for the best price!

6. Don't worry about the details. Really. No one but you will notice that there weren't personalized cocktail napkins.