A Wedding on a Budget
According the the latest issue of The Nest magazine, New Jersey is the second most expensive state to get married in, with the average wedding costing $37,150.
My fiancé and I certainly don’t have that kind of money burning a hole in our pockets. We also do not have huge families to invite either. After talking together we have settled on a budget of $10,000. The funds would come from money we have been saving for a house down payment. It will delay the eventual day when we will be able to buy a house, but we believe that it will be worth it.
I am a firm believer in the mantra that if you are going to spend money when you are young, you should spend it on experiences rather than stuff. Stuff can be lost, stolen, it can break, and it can also become obsolete. Memories last forever.
So, the bottom line is this, how are we going to pull this off for $10,000 or less? Lets look at what we have done so far.
We chose a date and time that was not the most popular. Our wedding will take place on a Sunday in the afternoon. All of the wedding venues we looked at offered discounts for any Sunday wedding. A seated lunch menu is also much cheaper than a dinner menu for a reception.
We booked our reception and ceremony together. No travel is needed between the ceremony and reception which makes it easier for everyone to get from I Do to Let’s Celebrate! It’s also much easier to plan.
We asked all of our friends, recently married or not, for advice and recommendations. It was a tip from a friend that led us to the venue mentioned above. Not only is it very affordable compared to other venues we saw, but it also fits our expected number of guests much better. One of the problems we faced when hunting for a venue was minimum seating requirements. We noticed a tangible bias towards large extravagant weddings here in New Jersey. We didn’t want our relatively small party of 50-60 people to feel lost in a reception hall that was far too large for us to fill.
We also found an officiant, from a recent friend’s wedding who, to our delight, charges a nominal fee for a wedding ceremony. Nowhere online or elsewhere have we seen a price as reasonable as his.
We printed and stuffed our own wedding invitations. We bought a simple kit from a local craft store and spent a night (and morning) together printing, cutting, and stuffing envelopes. For invitations we have spent around $100 which includes postage and an extra ink cartridge for our printer.
As we get closer and closer to the big day I’m sure we will have more advice to give. And when it is all over, I’ll be sure to report on how we did as well. Can we really pull it off for $10,000? Stay tuned for more.
Links>>
- My finacé and I enjoy reading the Kvetch forums from Indie Bride for ideas and general entertainment.
- Calculate your Economic Stimulus Payment right at the IRS website.