We did a brunch wedding. We had a breakfast buffet (people loved it). We swapped the dj for a saxophone player (he played current music + some more jazzy songs). We had oranges for centrepiece. Mimosas for the alcohol (+ an open bar but since it was a brunch people were not drinking as much. We ended up paying just 180$ for the other drinks). We had mini cheesecake for the wedding cake from a Italian bakery. And we gave coffee mug for favor. It was really a lovely day. The wedding was done by 4pm and we were able to go on our honeymoon that night.
I'm planning my wedding on a budget of 15k. I know this isn't cheap, but even I had trouble finding a venue that was affordable. I ended up finding a place that is full service, including catering, for about 7,500. They clean up, provide linens etc., and we're having filet mignon for dinner! I also got really lucky with my dress. I bought it saturday, and it just went up $300 today. One thing that I have to keep in mind is that this day is for me and my future husband, no one else. I'm finding out that my mom as really expensive taste lol
You got this! My wedding was $17k in 2023. We paid for an all inclusive venue that was $9500 of our budget (so similar to yours). My mother in law wanted a fancier venue and for me to upgrade the chairs but didn’t offer to pay! We did what was best for us and had an amazing day! We still get compliments on our wedding. Do what is best for you.
My advice is Etsy is your bestie! Not only are you helping indie creators & small businesses, a lot of the time you can get the things you want at a fraction of the cost because big stores mark up everything. Both of my weddings were at the courthouse by choice, but I still dressed up, got my accessories, gifts & wedding items from Etsy. Just make sure you shop months in advance because a lot of sellers need time to communicate & craft your items. Plus if you need any adjustments, you have to allow time for that & of course: shipping.
Yes, but a warning to anyone whos sees this: be a little bit careful. Etsy isn't all indie creators anymore, there's a lot of people drop-shipping temu-like products that are *not* the quality you thought you'd be getting. So if you see a bargain, look at their other items and the reviews, try to get a feel for whether it's *actually* a bargain. That said, I bought some *gorgeous* clip-on earrings and hand made jewellery from Etsy when I was going to a good friend's wedding, so there absolutely are still treasures there if you take the time to look!
A really cool way to do flowers for the tables is roes bowls. I think they’ still sell actual new but second hand shops have them. However you don’t need the bowl. I use ma’am jars or mason jars. I also like the little square vases as well. The trick is to make a tape grid and have supermarket flowers stop the leaves and put the flowers in the grid. The best budget deal I got was my dress I was a skinny girl so I could go to the samples dress. Finding a dress for 250 was great. It was similar to my dress dress but we had 2 months to plan so that was a little stressful but always look any samples they are selling, A cool favour I found for my niece was some mint hard backed guess how much I love you book. I also made hot chocolate cones with marshmallows. Looking back I think they were pointless. I did see cute spoons which when tied to a couple of tea packets the looked nice and now you can get the spoon for pennies and instead of having them for a few months then throw them out. I swear my mum had loads of sugar almonds that I tried to steal but I get why she tossed them. I personally have been making bead tubes for craft fairs and they woul work well on a budget. Just make a mix of a few colours and put them in the tube with an elastic thread. You can use pony beads but the peals in a mix of a matching theme the pony ones are usually cheap looking. So any way a cute mix of red a few shades of pink mixed looks pretty and you can add a charm on the front. The bracelets are back getting shared at concerts they usually stand for love peace unity, plus you have an activity kids can do while the speech’s are happening. I’m in Scotland if you need them made I’m enjoying making them plus you can buy little wooden bricks that go on a string my son a hyper little man. His older cousins had fun trying to stop him running away, so by us getting to reception he thankfully had a nap but he loved threading beads so I had some in my bag in case he needed them. If you have a functioning printer you can find free colouring pictures so you could have them with stickers. I prefer the beads as a grown up may enjoy it too. I also have a ton of paper roses I’m not sure how to use but I love seed paper and seed bombs. It has seeds in clay or soil I think maybe a little card box with seed bombs and one of the paper 3d roses on it. I have a few more cheap favour ideas but don’t want to make a wall of text.
David’s bridal also had great clearance! My dress was originally $1499 but on sale for $360 when I bought it. It was being discontinued. I was able to get a high quality detailed dress that I otherwise would not have been able to get.
Goodwill carries wedding dresses and in my experience, prices them the same as normal dresses. We have two wedding dresses we're going to alter and they were $8 a piece. Seriously. Eight. They're both gorgeous too.
I know you love the real flowers, but for those of us planning way in advance (2 years) using fake florals and making bouquets, and decor over time catching sales when you can (certain craft stores alternate sales every week) can make things easier to afford. Especially for us alternative brides where the colors of our florals may only be available in fake florals, this is brilliant. Also, our venue allows payments. We are also insuring our wedding in case of emergency or weather (we live in a hurricane zone) so we have less risk. On the idea of alternative weddings... can we please do a video for the dark and broody gals out here? Goth decor (without being all skulls and Halloween-y) I am having a TON of issues trying to find ELEGANT dark wedding/reception ideas.
@epapere love that. My dress is black with lots of shimmer (black sequins under black tulle and white lace appliques. Veil to match) Love my dark bride girlies!
My sister spent 5 K on her wedding over thirty years ago including honeymoon. Her dress was genius, she was a bridesmaid and the skirt of the dress was white. She had a seamstress cut off the colorful bodice and added what she wanted along with some tulle.
backyard. cafe lights, and fairy lights. already had white tents and thankfully borrowed tables and chairs from grooms unlce. it was chill woth awesome catered italian food from one of the greatest vendors in our area. Triple D worthy! Michael Symon Worthy. Yeah! Buccis!! We had such a wonderful backyard gathering/party!! So happy my gorgeous daughter and her husband were so relaxed and happy with a low key reception!!!
I got married 2 years ago and thought by saving all my budget wedding vendor info I'd be doing my 2 friends who are getting married a big favor. Wrong, all of my vendor prices, doubled or near doubled. Im anxious for them y'all, coming back to re-watch jamie videos to try and be more helpful.
I got married 10 years ago and one thing I did was lean on my community to help me with things. I would pick a person and ask them to be in charge of an element of my wedding. For example, a lady from church who always did fun craft things and decorations, I asked her to coordinate my decorations. Obviously I kept in contact with her about stuff and helped to acquire things, like sheer curtians for the ceremony area. I also asked some ladies from my church to coordinate sides and we bought sliders from Walmart (my bakery was amazing, espeically since we ordered a ton of sliders that day). The food was great and the whole day went really well. I wish the party had lasted longer, yet at the same time, it lasted a good amount of time as well. Another thing was that I moved out of state after my wedding, so it was a small way to say goodbye and thank you to all the people who were important in my life at the time.
I'm not sure what the final budget was, but I think we spent around 5 grand total. I also made my dress and my bridesmaids dresses, mainly because I had a very specific image of what I wanted color and the inspiration for my side was Padme (Starwars). It all turned out amazing and I love looking back at the picture even now.
Our venue was a local monstastery which was so beautiful. We were not catholic, but that meant we could use anywhere on the grounds instead, which was what I wanted anyway. The venue provided tables and chairs, I think we borrowed tablecloths from another church or they were provided by the venue. It was really reasonable, I think less than 1 thousand.
In 1997 I got married on a 500 dollar budget. We rented the community centre for (25 dollars) for 4 hours. We had a potluck, I went to the local bakery and got a sheet cake and the woman was so nice and put a verse about love on it (24.95) and family friend did pictures. Instead of buying tonnes of flowers, we had very basic bouquets and then a red rose for every woman who attended (2 dozen red roses for less than 50 dollars). It sure wasn't a fancy wedding but everyone was happy and with very little disposable income it worked. As a side note the photographer got a photo of all 2-5 generations of females and we all have it hanging in our homes more than 25 year later (most of the women have passed so it is a nice reminder).
Hi! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this idea: We’re considering hosting a salad and/or dessert contest at our wedding, where guests would bring in their own creations. Everyone would have the chance to vote and the best entry would win a small prize. What do you think?
Great video, but where’s the link for DJ Griff? I’ve looked and not been able to find a link when you’ve mentioned him in the past, too. Anyone?? Googling didn’t yield results either.
The rings are for you. So if you both don't want them, I don't see a reason to get them. I'd definitely tell your officiant if you aren't doing rings well ahead so they can plan accordingly.
We did a brunch wedding. We had a breakfast buffet (people loved it). We swapped the dj for a saxophone player (he played current music + some more jazzy songs). We had oranges for centrepiece. Mimosas for the alcohol (+ an open bar but since it was a brunch people were not drinking as much. We ended up paying just 180$ for the other drinks). We had mini cheesecake for the wedding cake from a Italian bakery. And we gave coffee mug for favor. It was really a lovely day. The wedding was done by 4pm and we were able to go on our honeymoon that night.
I'm planning my wedding on a budget of 15k. I know this isn't cheap, but even I had trouble finding a venue that was affordable. I ended up finding a place that is full service, including catering, for about 7,500. They clean up, provide linens etc., and we're having filet mignon for dinner! I also got really lucky with my dress. I bought it saturday, and it just went up $300 today. One thing that I have to keep in mind is that this day is for me and my future husband, no one else. I'm finding out that my mom as really expensive taste lol
your mom can have really expensive taste as long as SHE is paying for it (and not out of the budget).
You got this! My wedding was $17k in 2023. We paid for an all inclusive venue that was $9500 of our budget (so similar to yours). My mother in law wanted a fancier venue and for me to upgrade the chairs but didn’t offer to pay! We did what was best for us and had an amazing day! We still get compliments on our wedding. Do what is best for you.
I'm working on keeping everything under 12k.... GIRL this is hard, but I know no matter what it's going to be a wonderful day
My advice is Etsy is your bestie! Not only are you helping indie creators & small businesses, a lot of the time you can get the things you want at a fraction of the cost because big stores mark up everything. Both of my weddings were at the courthouse by choice, but I still dressed up, got my accessories, gifts & wedding items from Etsy.
Just make sure you shop months in advance because a lot of sellers need time to communicate & craft your items. Plus if you need any adjustments, you have to allow time for that & of course: shipping.
Yes, but a warning to anyone whos sees this: be a little bit careful. Etsy isn't all indie creators anymore, there's a lot of people drop-shipping temu-like products that are *not* the quality you thought you'd be getting. So if you see a bargain, look at their other items and the reviews, try to get a feel for whether it's *actually* a bargain.
That said, I bought some *gorgeous* clip-on earrings and hand made jewellery from Etsy when I was going to a good friend's wedding, so there absolutely are still treasures there if you take the time to look!
A really cool way to do flowers for the tables is roes bowls. I think they’ still sell actual new but second hand shops have them. However you don’t need the bowl. I use ma’am jars or mason jars. I also like the little square vases as well. The trick is to make a tape grid and have supermarket flowers stop the leaves and put the flowers in the grid. The best budget deal I got was my dress I was a skinny girl so I could go to the samples dress. Finding a dress for 250 was great. It was similar to my dress dress but we had 2 months to plan so that was a little stressful but always look any samples they are selling, A cool favour I found for my niece was some mint hard backed guess how much I love you book. I also made hot chocolate cones with marshmallows. Looking back I think they were pointless. I did see cute spoons which when tied to a couple of tea packets the looked nice and now you can get the spoon for pennies and instead of having them for a few months then throw them out. I swear my mum had loads of sugar almonds that I tried to steal but I get why she tossed them. I personally have been making bead tubes for craft fairs and they woul work well on a budget. Just make a mix of a few colours and put them in the tube with an elastic thread. You can use pony beads but the peals in a mix of a matching theme the pony ones are usually cheap looking. So any way a cute mix of red a few shades of pink mixed looks pretty and you can add a charm on the front. The bracelets are back getting shared at concerts they usually stand for love peace unity, plus you have an activity kids can do while the speech’s are happening. I’m in Scotland if you need them made I’m enjoying making them plus you can buy little wooden bricks that go on a string my son a hyper little man. His older cousins had fun trying to stop him running away, so by us getting to reception he thankfully had a nap but he loved threading beads so I had some in my bag in case he needed them. If you have a functioning printer you can find free colouring pictures so you could have them with stickers. I prefer the beads as a grown up may enjoy it too. I also have a ton of paper roses I’m not sure how to use but I love seed paper and seed bombs. It has seeds in clay or soil I think maybe a little card box with seed bombs and one of the paper 3d roses on it. I have a few more cheap favour ideas but don’t want to make a wall of text.
David’s bridal also had great clearance! My dress was originally $1499 but on sale for $360 when I bought it. It was being discontinued. I was able to get a high quality detailed dress that I otherwise would not have been able to get.
Goodwill carries wedding dresses and in my experience, prices them the same as normal dresses. We have two wedding dresses we're going to alter and they were $8 a piece. Seriously. Eight. They're both gorgeous too.
I know you love the real flowers, but for those of us planning way in advance (2 years) using fake florals and making bouquets, and decor over time catching sales when you can (certain craft stores alternate sales every week) can make things easier to afford.
Especially for us alternative brides where the colors of our florals may only be available in fake florals, this is brilliant.
Also, our venue allows payments.
We are also insuring our wedding in case of emergency or weather (we live in a hurricane zone) so we have less risk.
On the idea of alternative weddings... can we please do a video for the dark and broody gals out here? Goth decor (without being all skulls and Halloween-y) I am having a TON of issues trying to find ELEGANT dark wedding/reception ideas.
Yes! Moody + Maximalist on a budget! We’re doing a kind of celestial theme with dark vintage academia vibe. And my dress is black lace.
@epapere love that. My dress is black with lots of shimmer (black sequins under black tulle and white lace appliques. Veil to match)
Love my dark bride girlies!
For inspo, what about looking at goth media and stuff like music videos or something? I think it can be a great way to find well designed moody stuff.
safiya nygaard wedding her style was definitely in that category
My sister spent 5 K on her wedding over thirty years ago including honeymoon. Her dress was genius, she was a bridesmaid and the skirt of the dress was white. She had a seamstress cut off the colorful bodice and added what she wanted along with some tulle.
backyard. cafe lights, and fairy lights. already had white tents and thankfully borrowed tables and chairs from grooms unlce. it was chill woth awesome catered italian food from one of the greatest vendors in our area. Triple D worthy! Michael Symon Worthy. Yeah! Buccis!! We had such a wonderful backyard gathering/party!! So happy my gorgeous daughter and her husband were so relaxed and happy with a low key reception!!!
We’re going to use modern grooming for suits. My friend used them at their wedding and loved them. You get to keep the suit after!
The cook book idea was so great! I love people’s creativity, honestly
I got married 2 years ago and thought by saving all my budget wedding vendor info I'd be doing my 2 friends who are getting married a big favor. Wrong, all of my vendor prices, doubled or near doubled. Im anxious for them y'all, coming back to re-watch jamie videos to try and be more helpful.
Thank you for sharing. According to the Knot, 2022 weddings were an average $30k and 2023 was $35k. 5k just toward inflation in a single year.
I got married 10 years ago and one thing I did was lean on my community to help me with things. I would pick a person and ask them to be in charge of an element of my wedding. For example, a lady from church who always did fun craft things and decorations, I asked her to coordinate my decorations. Obviously I kept in contact with her about stuff and helped to acquire things, like sheer curtians for the ceremony area. I also asked some ladies from my church to coordinate sides and we bought sliders from Walmart (my bakery was amazing, espeically since we ordered a ton of sliders that day). The food was great and the whole day went really well. I wish the party had lasted longer, yet at the same time, it lasted a good amount of time as well. Another thing was that I moved out of state after my wedding, so it was a small way to say goodbye and thank you to all the people who were important in my life at the time.
I'm not sure what the final budget was, but I think we spent around 5 grand total. I also made my dress and my bridesmaids dresses, mainly because I had a very specific image of what I wanted color and the inspiration for my side was Padme (Starwars). It all turned out amazing and I love looking back at the picture even now.
Our venue was a local monstastery which was so beautiful. We were not catholic, but that meant we could use anywhere on the grounds instead, which was what I wanted anyway. The venue provided tables and chairs, I think we borrowed tablecloths from another church or they were provided by the venue. It was really reasonable, I think less than 1 thousand.
I just discovered your channel and I'm so excited to learn all ins and out about planning a wedding. ❤ Thanks for this video it got the wheels turning
I've spent all my money and my wedding is in a week, I just don't feel done planning 😂 and I enjoy your videos! Xx
the lending room sounds lovely- i would love to host something like that. Could you give more details about it's history/how it works?
My fiancé and I have leaned a lot on Facebook Marketplace for a lot of DIY kinda things for our wedding next September!
You look so good in this video! Love the darker hair 😊
Bought my dress for $23 but need to get it slightly altered!
In 1997 I got married on a 500 dollar budget. We rented the community centre for (25 dollars) for 4 hours. We had a potluck, I went to the local bakery and got a sheet cake and the woman was so nice and put a verse about love on it (24.95) and family friend did pictures. Instead of buying tonnes of flowers, we had very basic bouquets and then a red rose for every woman who attended (2 dozen red roses for less than 50 dollars). It sure wasn't a fancy wedding but everyone was happy and with very little disposable income it worked. As a side note the photographer got a photo of all 2-5 generations of females and we all have it hanging in our homes more than 25 year later (most of the women have passed so it is a nice reminder).
With inflation, that is twice as much now. $500 in 1997 is $980 in 2024.
@@Birdie336 Even with inflation less than a 1000 dollars for a wedding is pretty impressive.
the music guide doesn't load 😢 thank you for the tips!!
🎉🎉🎉 I'm first. Planning my wedding in 6mos and started to watch your channel..
Hi! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this idea: We’re considering hosting a salad and/or dessert contest at our wedding, where guests would bring in their own creations. Everyone would have the chance to vote and the best entry would win a small prize. What do you think?
Great video, but where’s the link for DJ Griff? I’ve looked and not been able to find a link when you’ve mentioned him in the past, too. Anyone?? Googling didn’t yield results either.
LUHL-yey
David’s Bridal shops/stores are mostly out of business in certain areas..
What do you think of audio guest books?
You can't have a marriage without a bride and a groom. Actually rings are optional.
Or two brides/two grooms ❤
Huh…?
Do you HAVE to have rings?
The rings are for you. So if you both don't want them, I don't see a reason to get them. I'd definitely tell your officiant if you aren't doing rings well ahead so they can plan accordingly.
@MaineCoonMama18 we deffo want rings, just curious if it's some kind of legal thing
@watchthisheadspace I believe in the US, you just need a marriage license, proper officiant, and witnesses for a legal wedding.
@MaineCoonMama18 fab thanks. We're UK but I imagine it's similar