To be 100% honest, my idea of a dream wedding has always been going to some quiet woods, exchanging vows, and coming back to 15 people gathered around a long table, where we would eat dinner and share stories under twinkling lights. I grew up in a culture where the bigger and flashier a wedding, the better. But, the concept never really appealed to me. Long days, long speeches, long lines for the buffet… My husband on the other hand, wanted to have a big wedding, surrounded by as many of the people we love as possible, and he was convinced that I would not be content with as small of a wedding as I claimed I wanted, and said over and over, “You deserve a big wedding!” So we compromised, we could have a small ceremony that felt like us, and be surrounded by the people that love us. Here’s how I went about planning a wedding on a budget.
When we started planning, obviously, you jump into the norm: finding a popular wedding venue, finding a caterer, a baker, a DJ etc. We went in for a wedding cake tasting, and our baker said, “I can bake you cake, and it’ll cost $x, or I can bake you a wedding cake and it’ll cost you $x multiplied by 10. I don’t want to steal your money so I’ll just be upfront with you.” When she said that, I realized when it comes to most things, the word “wedding” tacks on a pretty hefty price change – which to me, made no sense at all. So I started thinking of ways we could save money by looking at our wedding, not as a “wedding”, but as a party celebrating our love – corny, I know, but go with me on this 🙂
Wedding Stationery
From ideas off of Pinterest, I designed all of our stationery and instead of getting them printed at office depot etc, we decided to buy a printer and do it ourselves. We got our printer at Staples on sale for 50% off, in addition to a manager’s special 25% off, and it came with ink already! Derek and I put all the invitations together ourselves. The biggest problem was getting slightly high off the spray adhesive, lol. Oh, an unexpected cost was USPS charging us the cost of a parcel not a letter since the twine created a bulge on the envelope, so we ended up paying 4x more than the cost of sending a letter – warning to future brides!
Dress, Suit and Jewelry
Our close friend, Sheila, sent me a couple of dresses on sale on Amazon, which led to me finding my dream dress, for only $200. My original budget was still, a pretty decent $500, but a week later, Amazon sent me an email and told me it was $50% off. That coupled with an Amazon Gift Card I got as a graduation present from my mentors, I got my dress for a whopping, $75 including shipping and alterations!!! I sent the seller my measurements, and they altered it for free, and it fit to the T!
Derek wore a Joseph A Bank’s suit which was about 10 times the cost of my dress, oh, the irony! But was blessed by his friend who happens to be a store manager there getting him a pretty great discount. I got all my accessories at Claire’s for under $50. We did splurge on engagement/wedding rings, because diamonds ;-D and because we’d wear them forever and hopefully even pass them on to our kids.
Wedding Venue
For a venue, we picked a spot that we both fell in love with since the first time we saw it. Sheila took us to this beach when we were looking for venues, and as soon as we got there, I felt this peace I hadn’t felt anywhere else, and she’ll tell you she remembers me saying, “this is it,” with this glow on my face. It felt surreal. The beach is tucked away and so out of reach, it feels, virtually like a private island. And looking out past the water is about 3 mountain ranges. Anytime we want to get away and relax, this is where we go, so it was a natural choice – best of all, it was FREE! And we got both a woods/forest wedding (which is what I wanted) and a lake wedding (which is what Derek wanted). Another bonus, we didn’t have to spend a ton of money on decor, since all eyes would be on this view… The flowers we did have, we got from Joann’s when they were having their crazy summer sale, which went from 50-70% off.
Cake & Food
Another challenge with cake was with it being an outdoor wedding, buttercream and fondant have a tendency to melt or look goopy, unless they’re in the fridge until right before the ceremony, which was not an option. So I decided to do cupcakes, which I made and frosted myself, since all I do is bake these days, and I’m actually quite good at it, lol. I made the buttercream with extra sugar to help it survive the heat, and ya’ll, even days later the leftover cupcakes were still sitting pretty in their frosting! Win!
I wanted something special for our main cake, and looking on Pinterest, discovered “naked cakes”, where you basically do away with the frosting, and go for more of a rustic looking cake. To make our cake uniquely ours, since Derek and I are such huge Superman fans, he and our friend designed, and used a CNC machine to cut out our Superman cake topper. This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the wedding, because it’s so Derek, and because our friend went through a lot of trouble to get it just right 🙂 Thanks M!
Food was pretty simple, we had a brunch wedding on the hottest day of the year (90 degrees!), so yay for brunch desserts, plenty of sweet treats, fresh fruit, endless drinks supply, sparkling and regular water and buckets of ice! We had so much food, and it was such a blessing for everyone to feel like they could eat as much as they wanted and still have plenty left. We probably spent around a total of $250, including plates and cutlery, feeding 25 adults and 10 children. We also decided to buy plates instead of renting them, because they’d be ours and we could keep them forever.
Later that night, we had a private dinner with just our family at our favorite restaurant in town, and yes, we had speeches – but it was great because it was natural and all came from a place of love. The manager, great guy, knowing it was our wedding, gave us a little more time after closing time and we ended up staying almost half an hour after while the staff was cleaning up. It was great!
Music
Speaking of buy instead of rent, instead of paying thousands of dollars for a DJ and electrical equipment for an outdoor wedding, our biggest purchase was probably buying a $300 amazing bluetooth wireless speaker, which was on sale online for 30% off! I made a playlist of the ceremony songs below, and for the reception, I found a DJ online who had his wedding reception mix from 2015 available to purchase, so with that on my iPod, we had all the music we needed. Another friend volunteered to be in charge of the music, which was basically hitting play.
Our ceremony songs made the wedding for me, because they all mean something to either me or the both of us.
- Bridal march: Hope Is The Anthem – Switchfoot (My favorite band of all time, always been my dream to have them playing at my wedding and this song is from their new album which came out just in time for the wedding! The song means so much to me because so much has led up to this point in my life, and in those hard moments, hope is what kept me going…hope is the anthem of my soul!)
- Opening prayer: Met By Love – United Pursuit (Definitely wanted to incorporate worship into our wedding, and this song was exactly right, “We can run straight into your arms unafraid, Cuz every time we need you we’re met by love, And we can lift our hands to heaven full of faith, Cuz every time we worship we see your face…”)
- Feet washing ceremony: I Do – Mark Willis (The first time Derek sang me this song was in Indiana, pretty much in the moments we realized what was happening between us, and I remember sitting in the car tearing up. Needless to say, this song means a lot, especially to play in this part of the wedding, where we were showing humility to one another and pledging to serve each other forever.”
- Pronouncement as husband and wife: Aye: Davido (Had to get in an African song somewhere! Fun story, I begged Derek for weeks for us to dance to this at the wedding. Long story short, Derek danced, I didn’t, he still hasn’t forgiven me. :-p)
Transportation
For transportation, it was perfect timing because we were blessed with having to being able to upgrade Derek’s old car, and getting our first new car as a couple, literally 3 days before the wedding. We definitely could not have done it had we made different choices in the wedding planning process. Was it fun to get a surprise bill 3 days before our wedding? No! It definitely did threaten to steal our joy, but God’s timing is so perfect, and guys, He knows things before we even do. I will stand from the rooftops and proclaim that He is always on our side, and His protection firmly rests over his children! We LOVE this car, and it felt like the perfect reward for being frugal and humble in so many areas! It ended up being the perfect car to get driven to the wedding in, and as our get away car, and as our first family car. I am just so thankful. If you need breakthrough, grab that testimony, lol!
Photos & Videos
For photography and videography, we had not one but two of our talented friends offer to do both for us, which was such a major blessing. We’ve seen some of the pictures, they’re coming in slowly but surely, and they look beautiful! Our friend Bill Anthony also did our engagement pictures, and he is the best. If you’re in Northern Idaho, look him up!
Those are the major things I can think of and the things that traditionally cost the most. I can’t say for sure how much we spent on the total wedding, since there’s a bunch of stuff that we bought that we’ll be using for more than the wedding. But I think I can probably estimate that for wedding-only costs, apart from the rings, and including 2 weeks of traveling and eating out with my mom, we probably spent around/under $1500. Hopefully we’ll be traveling to both our home towns/country, to throw a reception for our family that couldn’t make it and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for that 🙂
The cool thing is, we got some crazy deals, but we did not at all go looking for them! We just “happened” to walk into stores or stumble upon items that we already loved, that just “happened” to be on sale! That has me convinced that God had our wedding and all it’s details already planned, and all we did was stumble onto a path He’d already lit up for us. The secret to how we saved money? We just picked the things that are important to us, the things that are special to us, and we started from there. At the end of the day, the things that matter most to you are pretty much the only things you’ll remember about your wedding day anyway, so make them count! I know for us, it was pretty much one of the best days of our lives, and we carry such great moments in our hearts, and we’re so thankful that God ordained this day for us before we even knew it!
