How I threw my dream wedding under 10k
What comes to your mind when you think weddings? Mine is the infamous “Say yes to the dress” show on TLC. Since I was a child I always dreamed about having a wedding and even had my whole Pinterest board planned out to the T, lol. Crazy? I think so. So in May of 2020 ( right in the middle of the pandemic) we started planning our wedding journey. First things first I know the average wedding cost 29-30k not including honeymoon. So I knew before I even started to search for anything, I wanted to get set on a budget and try to stay under or as near to it as possible. My husband & I wanted to make sure our wedding was paid in cash & we definitely didn’t want to go into debt over it.
So first things first I knew our biggest expense would be the venue, based off all the research I had done prior to booking anything. I knew I wanted a rustic/ boho type of venue, I toured two venues & I LOVED them, but they didn’t give me that WOW factor I was looking for. Then I came across https://www.sparrowcreekranch.com/ Instantly I fell in LOVE & this was just seeing their pictures they had online. It was giving Rustic but still elegant vibes. Not only that but this was one of the few venues that lets you use your own vendors & they have weekend packages which is the one we chose. You get the venue from Friday-Sunday that way you do not have to rush your decorating and planning. Another plus for us was the venue was BYOB!Once we toured the venue we fell in love & instantly knew this was the one. Venue was total of $2,800 which was Phenomenal for the location & how beautiful it is! Next thing on the list was the catering company. We paid $1,700 for a two meat plate for 130 guests from a preferred vendor Brothers Smokehouse located in Graham which was the best cost we could find! Next for my dress I went to https://www.brilliantbridal.com/ which brides raved about this place on local Dallas wedding groups. Everything about the shop was awesome down to the customer service & cannot forget Ebonnie who helped me find my dress! My dress was regular $1500.00 but we got it on sale for $900.00 so it was a win win considering the dress was lace, mermaid & low back! Everything I wanted. I didn’t go in there planning to purchase a veil but once she put it on me we knew it was going to complete the look. Veil was a total of $350.00.For alterations which I also did maybe a month of research, I came across https://www.leescleaning.net/who also won best of North Texas for alterations. From the moment I went in he was so professional and honest. Letting me know that if we had to cut through the lace it was going to be extra. Luckily we did not have to & total cost of the alterations was $150.00. My dress was maybe ready in 2 weeks which was not bad at all. For decorations we did not spend any money because my mom volunteered to do them all. Another win in our book. We did have a champagne wall, shot wall, & some neon signs which were of no cost to us since my husband & I own the company which is the website you’re on. :)
Grand total for cost of wedding a whopping $8385.
Over all my wedding planning was going right according to budget. Once I made a budget for each item I told my self there was no way we would go over and we stuck to it down to the last penny! Below is a breakdown of what we spent on each thing.
Venue- $2800.00
Catering company $1700.00
Wedding dress $900.00
Dj $600.00
Photographer $600.00
Bartender: $360.00
Veil $350.00
Cake $350.00 ( not including floral)
Cleaning fee- $275.00 (shoutout to ASH G for taking care of this) LOVE YOU
Security $250.00
Sparklers $100.00
Chalkboard artist $100.00
Makeup was free by my brother & the talented https://www.instagram.com/makeupbyjeremy/?hl=en
Throwing a wedding under budget is definitely possible. My advice is to do as much as research as possible. My bridesmaids purchased their dresses from https://www.azazie.com/ & if you look at their site they also have beautiful wedding dresses. I had originally planned to buy my wedding dress from there as well but I waited too long and it wouldn’t have arrived on time for my big day. Also I found a ton of tips & tricks on tik tok as well. A bunch of the photos my photographer captured were ideas I had found on tik tok like the “under the veil” pose featured above. My advice is to soak in the day as much as possible. It goes by so quick, if I could go back I would deff just try to soak in the day and moment as much as possible. I hope this article helps my future budget brides :) There is nothing wrong with having a budget wedding or an over the top wedding, as long as you’re happy and make the most of your beautiful day!