A 2020 bride here (so my wedding didn't go as planned) BUT the best advice I have is never assume and always ask. If there's something you're not sure of with a vendor, ask them. Better to be up front about it than to assume and not it not be like how you wanted it to be.
ABSOLUTELY! I'm grateful they're both now in a solid financial place to be able to help us without burdening themselves. Gotta love retirement age lol.
I had a small wedding for $7k and that included Indian food, DJ, photo booth, and drinks for about 30 people. Traditionally, our wedding ceremonies last several days but my family and husband were okay with a smaller event. It was nice to have saved money and shared a good time. Looking back, this amount of money spent for that many people will be a core memory for you.
Packages aren’t always cheaper! I just got married and we booked a private venue and planned with individual vendors. Every “all inclusive” or “package” venue we toured had expensive options and then also tacked on a 20% service fee on top of every single thing you purchased from them. Upgraded chairs, Cutlery, Florals, cake, food, etc. 20% extra for every single dollar. We saved so much by planning ourselves and being able to pick and choose where to spend money (and avoid that extra 20% on everything - but we tipped vendors). It depends on the venue, of course! But those service fees and event minimums are sneaky. Also our guest count didn’t affect our venue cost.
2023 bride here! These videos couldn’t have come at a better time! Everyone’s comments have been so helpful too. Appreciate all the financial breakdowns!
I got married in April this year. Ours was a small wedding so that helped. One thing that saved us money was making as much of the stuff ourselves as was possible, but it does add another layer of stress so you need to weigh up if it's really worth it for you. I think the main thing is to work out what your priorities actually are (ours was to support local and be as eco-friendly as possible) and then it actually becomes a lot easier to make decisions. Good luck with you wedding Aja. It'll be beautiful I know. And thanks for another open and honest video.
I got married last year, but I'm obsessed with these wedding videos. We had a destination wedding for around 50 people for 10k. We did most of our decorations our selves, we even made our own wedding arch which we loved. The only outside things we paid for was food, photography, and tables and chairs. It's totally do-able y'all!
Not me being a “graduated 2022 bride” and still watching wedding content. I think you did an amazing job on your budget, esp you being able to cross check the price of an exact vendor that was less in the package. And I completely agree about going with the flow, the budget will ebb and flow and being able to adjust without going into debt is truly the best thing you can do for yourself. And YES to taking your time planning, your style and priorities change as you plan and I can confirm my first pass at my wedding vision vs what I ended up with is completely different but I love how everything turned out! I would also double check with Costco on the return policy I think there is a 24 hr limit on alcohol returns. I got my alcohol at a local spirit shop called Total Wine and they accepted the returns with no issues. Y’all are going to have a beautiful wedding! Best of luck and can’t wait to see more wedding content!
As someone who had a wedding in CA on a budget and also worked as a wedding florist i realize that most people downplay how much they spent and also they don’t know how much they spent exactly. Out of all my friends that got married I only know one person who told me how much they spent exactly because she wrote it down. Everyone else said oh we spent about 25 or 30. How much you spent on your wedding Aja is literally how much people spend if not more. I just don’t think people take the time to really calculate it. Hope you get to enjoy your special day!
Got married here in Hawaii for $10k with 100 guests back in 2019. LOTS of hook ups were needed to not exceed that budget. I’d say 9k went to food and photography. Bunch of friends and aunties helped out with decor, center piece, leis, flower arrangements and entertainment to cut cost. If it weren’t for them, I’m sure I’d have to pay 4x that. I also had to invite more people than I wanted cause of the hook ups. Anyway, good luck with the wedding planning Aja! I know how stressful it really is up to very last minute of the actual wedding. Make lots of great memories ❤️
my life lessons I learned from getting married: hire a cleaning crew. Even though I had friends willing to help in the wedding, they just took their stuff down and then just put it aside. We had to go back and clean up. 2) schedule photos throughout. It took so long after the wedding to get pics of both sides of the family, that half my guests were gone and the food was eaten. 3) I've also learned that while you are getting ready, it's wise to have a stash of snacks and water (clear liquids) . Don't want no spills to ruin the clothes. Otherwise you are starving by the time you get to the reception. Hope this helps people
I’m getting married this summer and here are some of my biggest tips from a financial perspective: Etsy: I filtered products I wanted by region and set it to local. Then I sent businesses messages asking if I could offer payment off platform to save on shipping costs and Etsy fees (so as not to take away profit from small businesses) and it saved me anywhere from 10-30% Booking vendors: I tried to find up-and-coming but talented vendors for things like makeup and florals by doing a lot of Instagram research. I’m in Canada, so a perk of working with small businesses is you save on tax and their fees are generally lower than “Insta famous” vendors Paying cash: I have actually saved thousands of dollars by asking if we could provide payment in cash (this is why if you can, save as much as you can up front). Venues: Always consider what the venue needs to be profitable. They’re usually trying to hit a total number for the evening and you can be strategic in how that money is spent. For example, my venue is a hotel and I didn’t want to pay for a (dumb) wedding room booking fee, but I did know we wanted an open bar, so we asked if we could use those dollars there since we were going to get the bar anyways. It’s a great way to cut on those annoying add on fees while still giving the venue what they want.
My tip: we didn’t do favors. We had a photo booth, donuts, and floral temporary tattoos out. We felt our money was better spent on things that enhanced the experience
Thank you for your transparency and for sharing the breakdown! I also am planning a destination wedding in Hawaii and was hoping to stick to a smaller budget, so the burden of going over budget has been so mentally stressful! 🥲
I just recently got married in Oahu and everything you mentioned about how much things cost in Hawaii all sounds so familiar! Our budget kept increasing because things are a bit more expensive in Hawaii and we had to go the a la carte route due to our venue. Anyways, I wanted to throw this out there in case you haven’t budgeted for it because this was an area that I overlooked and it’s a big one…tipping vendors. This ended up being a big chunk of money that I was not planning for. Love the wedding updates, keep them coming :).
Great video aja, I feel like if your parents are offering to help you should definitely take it in whatever aspect they are offering to help you in. Reason I'm saying this is because almost all parents will be happy their child is getting married and contributing to that will make them happy and ease the burden on you
Love the breakdown and transparency regarding your wedding budget! Inspires me to do one for how much our large Asian wedding in the Bay Area cost 😬 Also wish I had your wedding planner template since I planned almost everything myself!! For tips, I totally agree with remembering your priorities. It’s okay to splurge in a couple areas that are really important to you and cut back on areas you don’t care as much about. Also remember your guests won’t care much about small details like paper goods, signage, centerpieces. They mostly care about food, drinks and having a good time!
Thank you, Aja, for bringing us along on your journey. I really appreciate the personal growth you've shown, especially in accepting yourself and your decisions. I was one of those who commented on your previous video to remind you that Hawaii was not a choice for you - you HAD to have your wedding there because of popo. I hesitated to watch this video because I thought that would still be one of the mistakes you identified. I'm so happy to see that it is not! Have a beautiful wedding day!
The most commendable aspect of this wedding budget was the fact that you had the financial and budgeting chops to really re-examine it and reflect about your true wants for a wedding. I did buffet style too, and don’t regret it one bit. The guests were happy and enjoyed the casual style for the food. I also did Spotify playlist instead of a DJ, and hired a friend MC to manage it. I don’t regret any of my budget cuts from a traditional wedding, except I should have gotten my hair professionally done. Had tons of flyaways and my hair fell flat throughout the day. Excited to see how it all turns out! Great job in saving money where you could in photography and videography!
Love that you used Notion to keep track of wedding budget, I’m doing the same and it is so great for organizing to-dos as well. I’ve been planning my wedding since 2020 and will be getting married this July and I do wish I didn’t have this much time because I’ve been stressing about the wedding for 2 years now and I’m still not done, also my taste and style has changed over that time so that’s something I had to account for. One nice thing about booking a wedding in advance is that vendor prices do change but if you book early you can get the lower price.
Am in a HCOL area planning a wedding for 180 people including a tea ceremony, church ceremony, and reception. Current budget with everything, including dress/jewelry, food, decor, taxes, tips, and all fees are having us around $64000.
Huge $$ saver for me - Canva for invites, especially if your style is modern/simple/minimalistic. So many great templates, really easy to customize, and shipping to LA took literally 3 days. I paid $0.55 per invite and I don't regret it at all.
I enjoyed weddings with DJ significantly more than a live band. With live bands, all the songs sound the same because obviously the same people are singing every song. A dj was so much more fun because you play songs that you know everyone loves and enjoys especially nostalgic older songs!
Honestly, $56K for the location plus all these other services you mentioned is pretty good deal. It's still a lot of money but these type of events tend to be. Also, I second on receiving help from others. I had to learn that myself- it is beautiful and gracious gift to receive help from others. It's only wrong if it's not appreciated or abused.
I know that in American culture it's more common to do a registry but in Jewish culture almost always people bring money as a gift and that helps a lot in terms of the budget always remember that you can create your own traditions if you don't want to have something in your wedding or it isn't in your budget
our wedding registry is just a link to a cash "wedding fund" and links to some of our favorite local nonprofits if people would prefer to donate instead. We don't want anything but cash money baby! lol
I feel like this is common for most cultures outside of the US. In Spain, the couple puts their bank account info on the wedding invites to receive transfers directly, and a minimum of €150 per person tends to be expected.
We spent 25K on a 130 person wedding at smogshoppe in LA in 2016. I remember the rough breakdown, 7000$ venue rental for a friday plus i think there was a valet charge (chairs and tables provided) though we did have to rent cutlery, plates etc which wasnt too expensive. 4500$ on food, $3000 on flowers, $4000 video/photo, then we had to pay for servers/cleanup & a wedding planner & miscellaneous things. It was a great deal!!! They let you have the venue for an 8 hour block if i remember correctly.
Omg I have never clicked on a video faster!! I am wedding planning and thought the same with $30k and it’s just not a realistic with a DC wedding if you want to work with remotely decently rated vendors. So happy you shared. There needs to be more transparency in the price of these events.
100% agreed. Honestly, I don't even think I have expensive taste when it comes to this stuff, I just want quality. It's sad you have to pay so much for 'quality'
Hi! I am also considering Sunset Ranch and I am sad about the 9pm end time for the party. Did you arrange for an after party or were you ok with ending the night at 9pm? Was Sunset Ranch easily accessible / provide onsite stay for guests as well? Thank you!
Honestly, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be considering it’s in Hawaii. I’ve heard of people spending $70-$100k+ here in New York and that was over ten years ago 🤷🏻♀️
Thank you for this video Aja! Question: could you explain the structure of your wedding? For example, the rationale behind no bridal/groom party and what that would look like instead? Financially, that sounds like such a great idea!
i mean, what does the wedding party do? I don't want a bridal shower, I'm having a solo bach so, besides just our parents and us walking down the aisle, a wedding party has no point TBH.
Such great advice! I would check on returning alcohol at a Costco. We tried in San Diego at our Costco after my husband bought the most bouje champagne and they wouldn’t take it back 😭.
I did use my credit card for most things (and then paid it off in full immediately) but I was not able to increase my credit limit so payments +$8000 were just pulled from my checking.
I am living for your wedding diary videos! I am getting married in August and I can definitely relate with you! We increased both our guest list and budget LOL
Yeahhh $1200 for alcohol might not be enough for a 90+ person wedding 😅 Our friends are big partiers/drinkers & we budgeted for $2000 for a 70 person wedding after calculating based on drink/per person costs. I found out through yelp our wedding venue (who offers drink packages & hosted options) had an instance where they ran out of alcohol 2 hours into reception & me being the nervous/overthinking person that I am immediately contacted the venue to revise our drink package budget. Granted this is my priority because our wedding is at a distillery so might not apply to you!
@@AjaDang Of course! Since you mentioned you can return unopened alcohol, better to estimate slightly over than under if you don't want a dry wedding 😅
Most people don’t have even 5k to put towards their wedding but anyway to each their own. Almost all yt content projects a life beyond our means despite budgeting and living the “minimal” life.
I saw the thumbnail and said to my husband, our daughter can have $50 grand for a house down payment but if she said it was $56k I would faint. Listening to you and your budgeting/saving and you won't have debt is factastic. I hope it is truly the greatest day of your life. Are you paying airfare for your wedding party?
Definitely calling in the favors in HI helped me a lot to save money (discounts and additional items that we got for free for booking other svcs), and it also helped a lot when we had to cancel because of covid. My asian parents also did the same - forced me to take their gifted money and told me if I don't use it for the wedding, use it for something else 😂 Price out the alcohol at Costco first, overestimate, and make multiple trips if needed - when you can visually see the amount, you'll be able to tell if you might need more and have time to buy it! My bridal party was something that I just personally wanted, but def didn't plan on a having a bachelorette party or bridal shower. Just wanted them glammed up standing next to me on the day!
A honeymoon in Italy sounds ideal. Have you been to Italy? I highly recommend Venice and Lake Como. I particularly enjoyed Lake Como because it's so pretty and relaxed, and it was not hot during the summer.
it's insane how normal it is in the U.S. to spend that much money on a wedding. this amount of money could be life changing for some people. just saying.
Yes absolutely. This amount of money was life changing for Aja. She IS the person it was life changing for. Aja has built her platform by putting herself out there, talking about debt and money management and built a business for herself. I love her honesty and watching her grow and build herself successfully is inspiring and helped me get my finances in order.
@@lindseyhtf good for you and good for her. but i meant life changing as in a poor person could afford an academic degree or pay for important medical bills. but of course a kinda rich person can afford a huge wedding day for this money. it just feels off. might be a cultural difference though. but i wish her all the best and hope she'll feel the wedding is worth it. i could never.
@@sarahcash11 any amount of money can be life changing for anyone. There will always be others who will have more or do more with their money but at then end of the day it’s what they want to spend it on. I was able to get my degree thanks to the military for free and the money I would have spent on that I spent on my wedding. You can have everything you want if you do your research and budget. Not all money is spent to survive somethings are just for fun or for the memories.
@@Vika-Svarsky yes. i was just trying to put it in perspective. 56k for some people could change the course of their life for ever and for some people it's a wedding day. i think there is a big difference. i'm not saying she can't do what she wants with her money.
i love seeing this fun wedding content, but it feels unrealistic. I wish I had a $60,000 budget for anything! I have a strict budget of $15000 max for a wedding in the same month. For everyone operating on a strict budget, you can do it!
The wedding budget did not include engagement photos but we took those a while ago. And the floral budget is included in the wedding venue package and totalled around $4k
Our Hawaii wedding bar bill was 3000 for 50 people…but we also had top shelf liquor and we had to pay for every bottle of wine we wanted so Costco definitely sounds like an excellent plan there
I wish I saw your wedding diaries before my wedding 😫 We went way over budget ans spent $80,000 on a wedding in NJ (i picked NJ thinking it would be cheaper than locally a NYC or a destination wedding but couldn’t turn back anymore when the ball went rolling) I had two “day of” weddings planners by accident too. One from venue coordinator and one day of planner. You’re so blessed to have your parents offer. I didn’t get that but it all worked out. Looking back, I would have done a destination wedding, and whoever was invited and wants to come can come no pressure… I will have no wedding bridal/groom party ( we had 12 sets cousins and friends- Filipino thing) and I would have given myself more than 8 months of planning. It would have definitely cut the budget in half. We cashed flowed everything but it was suuuper hard during crunch time and delayed our home buying 3 more years. In the end we are happy we did it, We are happy we had fun during the wedding and I am happy to be writing this comment in our first home that we bought in 2019 (: I just don’t want to think about the planning part (PTSD) 🤣🤣🤣🤣 My advice to the newly engaged planning their wedding! 🤣
but remember, that's including rentals (chairs, tables, plates), food, florals, day-of coordination, etc. It is definitely a lot of money but it would've been way more without the vendor package.
"May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer- may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love (Proverbs 5:18-19)"
I definitely think our roundtrip tickets were a great deal. The hotel on the otherhand... is a deal for Hawaii I guess but Hawaii hotels are just so insanely expensive.
Loved all this advice. I wish this was available when I planned our wedding in 2020 🥲 I would double check with Costco though! We tried to return champagne and they stated they do not take returns on alcohol
A 2020 bride here (so my wedding didn't go as planned) BUT the best advice I have is never assume and always ask. If there's something you're not sure of with a vendor, ask them. Better to be up front about it than to assume and not it not be like how you wanted it to be.
You’re Lucky to have parents that can support you like this🙏🏽
ABSOLUTELY! I'm grateful they're both now in a solid financial place to be able to help us without burdening themselves. Gotta love retirement age lol.
I had a small wedding for $7k and that included Indian food, DJ, photo booth, and drinks for about 30 people. Traditionally, our wedding ceremonies last several days but my family and husband were okay with a smaller event. It was nice to have saved money and shared a good time. Looking back, this amount of money spent for that many people will be a core memory for you.
Packages aren’t always cheaper! I just got married and we booked a private venue and planned with individual vendors. Every “all inclusive” or “package” venue we toured had expensive options and then also tacked on a 20% service fee on top of every single thing you purchased from them. Upgraded chairs, Cutlery, Florals, cake, food, etc. 20% extra for every single dollar. We saved so much by planning ourselves and being able to pick and choose where to spend money (and avoid that extra 20% on everything - but we tipped vendors). It depends on the venue, of course! But those service fees and event minimums are sneaky. Also our guest count didn’t affect our venue cost.
2023 bride here! These videos couldn’t have come at a better time! Everyone’s comments have been so helpful too. Appreciate all the financial breakdowns!
I got married in April this year. Ours was a small wedding so that helped. One thing that saved us money was making as much of the stuff ourselves as was possible, but it does add another layer of stress so you need to weigh up if it's really worth it for you. I think the main thing is to work out what your priorities actually are (ours was to support local and be as eco-friendly as possible) and then it actually becomes a lot easier to make decisions.
Good luck with you wedding Aja. It'll be beautiful I know. And thanks for another open and honest video.
I got married last year, but I'm obsessed with these wedding videos. We had a destination wedding for around 50 people for 10k. We did most of our decorations our selves, we even made our own wedding arch which we loved. The only outside things we paid for was food, photography, and tables and chairs. It's totally do-able y'all!
where did you get married?
Not me being a “graduated 2022 bride” and still watching wedding content. I think you did an amazing job on your budget, esp you being able to cross check the price of an exact vendor that was less in the package. And I completely agree about going with the flow, the budget will ebb and flow and being able to adjust without going into debt is truly the best thing you can do for yourself. And YES to taking your time planning, your style and priorities change as you plan and I can confirm my first pass at my wedding vision vs what I ended up with is completely different but I love how everything turned out!
I would also double check with Costco on the return policy I think there is a 24 hr limit on alcohol returns. I got my alcohol at a local spirit shop called Total Wine and they accepted the returns with no issues. Y’all are going to have a beautiful wedding! Best of luck and can’t wait to see more wedding content!
your humility, your sense of humor and your ability to be flexible is super cool to see, Aja! thanks for passing on some of those lessons!
💕
As someone who had a wedding in CA on a budget and also worked as a wedding florist i realize that most people downplay how much they spent and also they don’t know how much they spent exactly. Out of all my friends that got married I only know one person who told me how much they spent exactly because she wrote it down. Everyone else said oh we spent about 25 or 30. How much you spent on your wedding Aja is literally how much people spend if not more. I just don’t think people take the time to really calculate it. Hope you get to enjoy your special day!
Got married here in Hawaii for $10k with 100 guests back in 2019. LOTS of hook ups were needed to not exceed that budget. I’d say 9k went to food and photography. Bunch of friends and aunties helped out with decor, center piece, leis, flower arrangements and entertainment to cut cost. If it weren’t for them, I’m sure I’d have to pay 4x that. I also had to invite more people than I wanted cause of the hook ups.
Anyway, good luck with the wedding planning Aja! I know how stressful it really is up to very last minute of the actual wedding. Make lots of great memories ❤️
my life lessons I learned from getting married: hire a cleaning crew. Even though I had friends willing to help in the wedding, they just took their stuff down and then just put it aside. We had to go back and clean up. 2) schedule photos throughout. It took so long after the wedding to get pics of both sides of the family, that half my guests were gone and the food was eaten. 3) I've also learned that while you are getting ready, it's wise to have a stash of snacks and water (clear liquids) . Don't want no spills to ruin the clothes. Otherwise you are starving by the time you get to the reception. Hope this helps people
I’m getting married this summer and here are some of my biggest tips from a financial perspective:
Etsy: I filtered products I wanted by region and set it to local. Then I sent businesses messages asking if I could offer payment off platform to save on shipping costs and Etsy fees (so as not to take away profit from small businesses) and it saved me anywhere from 10-30%
Booking vendors: I tried to find up-and-coming but talented vendors for things like makeup and florals by doing a lot of Instagram research. I’m in Canada, so a perk of working with small businesses is you save on tax and their fees are generally lower than “Insta famous” vendors
Paying cash: I have actually saved thousands of dollars by asking if we could provide payment in cash (this is why if you can, save as much as you can up front).
Venues: Always consider what the venue needs to be profitable. They’re usually trying to hit a total number for the evening and you can be strategic in how that money is spent. For example, my venue is a hotel and I didn’t want to pay for a (dumb) wedding room booking fee, but I did know we wanted an open bar, so we asked if we could use those dollars there since we were going to get the bar anyways. It’s a great way to cut on those annoying add on fees while still giving the venue what they want.
My tip: we didn’t do favors. We had a photo booth, donuts, and floral temporary tattoos out. We felt our money was better spent on things that enhanced the experience
Not getting married anytime soon, but the wedding planner breakdown are giving my organizational list-loving self so much life. 🤣
well start saving up now anyway lol.
Thank you for your transparency and for sharing the breakdown! I also am planning a destination wedding in Hawaii and was hoping to stick to a smaller budget, so the burden of going over budget has been so mentally stressful! 🥲
Yeaaaah finally a finance related video!!!
I am so so happy ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Also, you look very beautiful💕
@@viviena90 thanks!
I just recently got married in Oahu and everything you mentioned about how much things cost in Hawaii all sounds so familiar! Our budget kept increasing because things are a bit more expensive in Hawaii and we had to go the a la carte route due to our venue. Anyways, I wanted to throw this out there in case you haven’t budgeted for it because this was an area that I overlooked and it’s a big one…tipping vendors. This ended up being a big chunk of money that I was not planning for. Love the wedding updates, keep them coming :).
Great video aja, I feel like if your parents are offering to help you should definitely take it in whatever aspect they are offering to help you in. Reason I'm saying this is because almost all parents will be happy their child is getting married and contributing to that will make them happy and ease the burden on you
definitely missed your financial videos!!
I do more on other social media platforms now. Doing youtube budget videos is kinda boring when it's all the same every month.
Love the breakdown and transparency regarding your wedding budget! Inspires me to do one for how much our large Asian wedding in the Bay Area cost 😬 Also wish I had your wedding planner template since I planned almost everything myself!!
For tips, I totally agree with remembering your priorities. It’s okay to splurge in a couple areas that are really important to you and cut back on areas you don’t care as much about. Also remember your guests won’t care much about small details like paper goods, signage, centerpieces. They mostly care about food, drinks and having a good time!
TY for this video, Aja! I like how you keep it real with the lessons learned through the process - looking forward to future updates on this!
Thank you, Aja, for bringing us along on your journey. I really appreciate the personal growth you've shown, especially in accepting yourself and your decisions. I was one of those who commented on your previous video to remind you that Hawaii was not a choice for you - you HAD to have your wedding there because of popo. I hesitated to watch this video because I thought that would still be one of the mistakes you identified. I'm so happy to see that it is not!
Have a beautiful wedding day!
The most commendable aspect of this wedding budget was the fact that you had the financial and budgeting chops to really re-examine it and reflect about your true wants for a wedding. I did buffet style too, and don’t regret it one bit. The guests were happy and enjoyed the casual style for the food. I also did Spotify playlist instead of a DJ, and hired a friend MC to manage it. I don’t regret any of my budget cuts from a traditional wedding, except I should have gotten my hair professionally done. Had tons of flyaways and my hair fell flat throughout the day. Excited to see how it all turns out! Great job in saving money where you could in photography and videography!
I appreciate that!
I feel you on inviting more than you planned!!
Love that you used Notion to keep track of wedding budget, I’m doing the same and it is so great for organizing to-dos as well. I’ve been planning my wedding since 2020 and will be getting married this July and I do wish I didn’t have this much time because I’ve been stressing about the wedding for 2 years now and I’m still not done, also my taste and style has changed over that time so that’s something I had to account for. One nice thing about booking a wedding in advance is that vendor prices do change but if you book early you can get the lower price.
Am in a HCOL area planning a wedding for 180 people including a tea ceremony, church ceremony, and reception. Current budget with everything, including dress/jewelry, food, decor, taxes, tips, and all fees are having us around $64000.
Huge $$ saver for me - Canva for invites, especially if your style is modern/simple/minimalistic. So many great templates, really easy to customize, and shipping to LA took literally 3 days. I paid $0.55 per invite and I don't regret it at all.
and Canva is great for business owners as well!
I enjoyed weddings with DJ significantly more than a live band. With live bands, all the songs sound the same because obviously the same people are singing every song. A dj was so much more fun because you play songs that you know everyone loves and enjoys especially nostalgic older songs!
Honestly, $56K for the location plus all these other services you mentioned is pretty good deal. It's still a lot of money but these type of events tend to be.
Also, I second on receiving help from others. I had to learn that myself- it is beautiful and gracious gift to receive help from others. It's only wrong if it's not appreciated or abused.
and it's only wrong if the person volunteers their help holds that over your head during the wedding or in the future.
Oooo sunset ranch costs a pretty penny. Thank you for being so transparent about everything. Can wait for honeymoon planning series?!
yes! That one will be more enjoyable haha
I know that in American culture it's more common to do a registry but in Jewish culture almost always people bring money as a gift and that helps a lot in terms of the budget
always remember that you can create your own traditions if you don't want to have something in your wedding or it isn't in your budget
our wedding registry is just a link to a cash "wedding fund" and links to some of our favorite local nonprofits if people would prefer to donate instead. We don't want anything but cash money baby! lol
I feel like this is common for most cultures outside of the US. In Spain, the couple puts their bank account info on the wedding invites to receive transfers directly, and a minimum of €150 per person tends to be expected.
We spent 25K on a 130 person wedding at smogshoppe in LA in 2016. I remember the rough breakdown, 7000$ venue rental for a friday plus i think there was a valet charge (chairs and tables provided) though we did have to rent cutlery, plates etc which wasnt too expensive. 4500$ on food, $3000 on flowers, $4000 video/photo, then we had to pay for servers/cleanup & a wedding planner & miscellaneous things. It was a great deal!!! They let you have the venue for an 8 hour block if i remember correctly.
Smogshoppe definitely would've been our venue had we gotten married in LA!
Omg I have never clicked on a video faster!! I am wedding planning and thought the same with $30k and it’s just not a realistic with a DC wedding if you want to work with remotely decently rated vendors. So happy you shared. There needs to be more transparency in the price of these events.
100% agreed. Honestly, I don't even think I have expensive taste when it comes to this stuff, I just want quality. It's sad you have to pay so much for 'quality'
Ooo you increased your budget by a lot! Hope it is less stressful and that you got everything you wanted ☺️
it's definitely less stressful. I'm still upset we needed to increase it more but mentally, it's healthier for me.
Hi! I am also considering Sunset Ranch and I am sad about the 9pm end time for the party. Did you arrange for an after party or were you ok with ending the night at 9pm? Was Sunset Ranch easily accessible / provide onsite stay for guests as well? Thank you!
Honestly, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be considering it’s in Hawaii. I’ve heard of people spending $70-$100k+ here in New York and that was over ten years ago 🤷🏻♀️
Love that this is a budget video and also lessons learned! 💗
As a 2023 bride I LOVE the category breakdown.
Thank you for this video Aja! Question: could you explain the structure of your wedding? For example, the rationale behind no bridal/groom party and what that would look like instead? Financially, that sounds like such a great idea!
i mean, what does the wedding party do? I don't want a bridal shower, I'm having a solo bach so, besides just our parents and us walking down the aisle, a wedding party has no point TBH.
This is so helpful! My two best friends are getting married in the next few years and they are fancy and financially stable as well. :)
Omg that tea thing is too cool
Such great advice! I would check on returning alcohol at a Costco. We tried in San Diego at our Costco after my husband bought the most bouje champagne and they wouldn’t take it back 😭.
Hi! Quick question, may I ask how much of a budget you allotted to flowers? If any. The floral budget is mind blowing, flowers are so exy exy exy!
I believe the floral budget allocated within my venue package is $4000ish?
When it comes to payments did you and Brian use credit cards to pay your vendors/venue? Just wondering if you saw any benefits points wise.
I did use my credit card for most things (and then paid it off in full immediately) but I was not able to increase my credit limit so payments +$8000 were just pulled from my checking.
I am living for your wedding diary videos! I am getting married in August and I can definitely relate with you! We increased both our guest list and budget LOL
literally I started feeling guilty not inviting certain people who I didn't even want coming lol
Hi Aja, did you include tip on the total amount of your vendors?
Where is your couch from? Do you recommend it?
Article. Love it.
Yeahhh $1200 for alcohol might not be enough for a 90+ person wedding 😅
Our friends are big partiers/drinkers & we budgeted for $2000 for a 70 person wedding after calculating based on drink/per person costs. I found out through yelp our wedding venue (who offers drink packages & hosted options) had an instance where they ran out of alcohol 2 hours into reception & me being the nervous/overthinking person that I am immediately contacted the venue to revise our drink package budget. Granted this is my priority because our wedding is at a distillery so might not apply to you!
ok, see that's what I assumed. Our friends and family are partyers too. Ok, I'll look into raising it a bit. Thanks for the input.
@@AjaDang Of course! Since you mentioned you can return unopened alcohol, better to estimate slightly over than under if you don't want a dry wedding 😅
Giiirrrlll I’m originally from Hawaii too and this made me realize I’ll never be able to afford this😵💫😵💫
Most people don’t have even 5k to put towards their wedding but anyway to each their own. Almost all yt content projects a life beyond our means despite budgeting and living the “minimal” life.
Hey Aja! I tried to return alcohol at Costco a few years ago and they said I could not do it. Look into it!
realllllyyyyy??? hmmmmm. Ok thanks for the heads up
thank you breaking these down. makes me want to save more for my wedding budget fund for when it happens
please do a gift registry video!!
girl, no gift registry! We have a "money fund" page + donation links to some of our favorite local non profits.
Your dad is so sweet!
my parents are the best.
I saw the thumbnail and said to my husband, our daughter can have $50 grand for a house down payment but if she said it was $56k I would faint. Listening to you and your budgeting/saving and you won't have debt is factastic. I hope it is truly the greatest day of your life. Are you paying airfare for your wedding party?
56k??? That's not a wedding that's a celestial life changing event
Oh yes, as someone who also grew up in Hawaii, weddings back home are MONEY MONEY! 🥲💸
Where I’m from that’s just the dowery 🤣
well isn't a wedding a celestial life-changing event? lol
@@ARealCookinMama dayummm. I didn't know this
@@a33m3a gotta make sure you're with a real soulmate for that much 😮💨
Definitely calling in the favors in HI helped me a lot to save money (discounts and additional items that we got for free for booking other svcs), and it also helped a lot when we had to cancel because of covid.
My asian parents also did the same - forced me to take their gifted money and told me if I don't use it for the wedding, use it for something else 😂
Price out the alcohol at Costco first, overestimate, and make multiple trips if needed - when you can visually see the amount, you'll be able to tell if you might need more and have time to buy it!
My bridal party was something that I just personally wanted, but def didn't plan on a having a bachelorette party or bridal shower. Just wanted them glammed up standing next to me on the day!
We spent $48k in 2011 for a 70 guest wedding in Chicago. I am amazed that you guys did so well and didn’t spend more!
oh wow! ok, now i don't feel too bad
This is so helpful
A honeymoon in Italy sounds ideal. Have you been to Italy? I highly recommend Venice and Lake Como. I particularly enjoyed Lake Como because it's so pretty and relaxed, and it was not hot during the summer.
We've been to Venice a few years ago and I believe the wedding is in Lake Como!
it's insane how normal it is in the U.S. to spend that much money on a wedding. this amount of money could be life changing for some people. just saying.
agreed
Yes absolutely. This amount of money was life changing for Aja. She IS the person it was life changing for. Aja has built her platform by putting herself out there, talking about debt and money management and built a business for herself. I love her honesty and watching her grow and build herself successfully is inspiring and helped me get my finances in order.
@@lindseyhtf good for you and good for her. but i meant life changing as in a poor person could afford an academic degree or pay for important medical bills. but of course a kinda rich person can afford a huge wedding day for this money. it just feels off. might be a cultural difference though. but i wish her all the best and hope she'll feel the wedding is worth it. i could never.
@@sarahcash11 any amount of money can be life changing for anyone. There will always be others who will have more or do more with their money but at then end of the day it’s what they want to spend it on. I was able to get my degree thanks to the military for free and the money I would have spent on that I spent on my wedding. You can have everything you want if you do your research and budget. Not all money is spent to survive somethings are just for fun or for the memories.
@@Vika-Svarsky yes. i was just trying to put it in perspective. 56k for some people could change the course of their life for ever and for some people it's a wedding day. i think there is a big difference. i'm not saying she can't do what she wants with her money.
Love your wedding series. Mine coming up in august and I still need to find an officiant 😫
we asked our friend to officiate!
i love seeing this fun wedding content, but it feels unrealistic. I wish I had a $60,000 budget for anything! I have a strict budget of $15000 max for a wedding in the same month. For everyone operating on a strict budget, you can do it!
Of course you can do it...you can have whatever you want just budget well ....
Does your budget include engagement photos?
Also what about flowers? That’s a big chunk too
The wedding budget did not include engagement photos but we took those a while ago. And the floral budget is included in the wedding venue package and totalled around $4k
Props to wedding planners because that was one of the most stressful things to do in my life lol
Our Hawaii wedding bar bill was 3000 for 50 people…but we also had top shelf liquor and we had to pay for every bottle of wine we wanted so Costco definitely sounds like an excellent plan there
wow. so was your wedding bar supplied by your venue/caterer?
There is a goddess among us. And her name is Aja Dang
Not to add more to your budget but you may need to remember to consider tipping as well 😅😖
absolutely.
So good to live in countries who don't have tipping cos their govts pay a liveable minimum wage!
I wish I saw your wedding diaries before my wedding 😫 We went way over budget ans spent $80,000 on a wedding in NJ (i picked NJ thinking it would be cheaper than locally a NYC or a destination wedding but couldn’t turn back anymore when the ball went rolling) I had two “day of” weddings planners by accident too. One from venue coordinator and one day of planner. You’re so blessed to have your parents offer. I didn’t get that but it all worked out.
Looking back, I would have done a destination wedding, and whoever was invited and wants to come can come no pressure… I will have no wedding bridal/groom party ( we had 12 sets cousins and friends- Filipino thing) and I would have given myself more than 8 months of planning. It would have definitely cut the budget in half. We cashed flowed everything but it was suuuper hard during crunch time and delayed our home buying 3 more years.
In the end we are happy we did it, We are happy we had fun during the wedding and I am happy to be writing this comment in our first home that we bought in 2019 (:
I just don’t want to think about the planning part (PTSD) 🤣🤣🤣🤣
My advice to the newly engaged planning their wedding! 🤣
Brian could not wrap his head around the fact that I didn't want a wedding party. Literally had to say NO for 2 months before he got it.
@@AjaDang it’s because Filipinos 99.9% does bridal party in 6 or more sets 😂
i'm planning my mom's wedding
I think you should focus on your married life and save money for a beautiful marriage life not just thousands in a day.
well. it's too late for that
It’s not just a day like a regular Wednesday though is it. It’s memories, family and so much more.
@@Sachah lol ironically if people got married on a Wednesday in the low season you could literally save $20k 😆😆
I don't believe Costco accepts returns on alcohol.
Me looking at the venue 30 THOUSAND!?!
but remember, that's including rentals (chairs, tables, plates), food, florals, day-of coordination, etc. It is definitely a lot of money but it would've been way more without the vendor package.
$56,000 for a wedding??!!!
True!
Especially when people go on about buying a house 🏘️ depends on priorities l guess
Oh god, that’s my whole gross yearly income. I’m never getting married.
Lol...you can do a wedding for any amount it doesn't have to be as execessive as $56k...😆
"May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer- may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love
(Proverbs 5:18-19)"
Don’t be so hard about the first class air fare and hotel, 6k is actually reasonable for Hawaii
I definitely think our roundtrip tickets were a great deal. The hotel on the otherhand... is a deal for Hawaii I guess but Hawaii hotels are just so insanely expensive.
Loved all this advice. I wish this was available when I planned our wedding in 2020 🥲
I would double check with Costco though! We tried to return champagne and they stated they do not take returns on alcohol