A Wedding Under $2,500

Hello friends!

Once again, it's been a while sense I posted. I don't know what made me think that I could consistently blog while planning my OWN wedding in 2 months time! But regardless the wedding was beautiful and I managed to stay right on budget! I'm going to Post my budget sheet I used along with ways I saved money... 

Once Micah and I get our pictures back from our photographer, we'll most definitely post them for all to see! :)

Okay, so here's the budget sheet I used to stay organized. You can modify it to make it work for you and it definitely helps to be realistic. Figure out your budget and stick to it! It's totally possible to have a wedding under $3,000. 

By the end of our wedding, Micah and I spent a grand total of $2,110. Unreal but it happened. We knew starting out that we didn't have a lot of money to spend and even the thought of spending several thousand dollars on one day was sickening to both of us. Now I agree when people say that you only get married once, but you also live in an era of Pinterest and craftiness. So there is absolutely NO excuse to be in debt after your wedding day. Micah and I are both a young couple and our parents didn't have the funds to help us pay for our wedding day either, so with the help of some friends and family we made it happen with zero debt and it turned out magical!

Ways we saved:

Wedding Venue...

Instead of using a wedding venue, we found a friend with a huge backyard and a sweet barn that offered to have us there for free! We knew we wanted something outside but most outside venues are ridiculous! So we agreed to help him fix it up and he'd let us have it there no charge! It was wonderful and he got a beautiful backyard in return.

Flowers...

All of my bridesmaid bouquets and my bouquet were handmade by me. I got the "fake" flowers from Hobby Lobby on sale and whipped up some BEAUTIFUL bouquets that not only were fun and quirky but they'll last forever!

Reception...

We saved SO much money doing our reception the way we did. Our wedding was at 5pm, so normally a night wedding serves dinner but instead in our invitation we stated that it was a dessert wedding! So not only did we get away with only buying some cupcakes, but we asked everyone to bring their favorite dessert! We never ran out and we spent a total of $90 on treats for the night! 

As far as decor goes, most of it was handmade or borrowed from past brides. Log stumps, old mason jars, white spray painted vintage milk glasses, everything was borrowed! We even borrowed our churches sound system and tables!

Wedding Dress...

This part will amaze you... I looked EVERYWHERE for a simple dress that was under $300 but every dress shoppe I went to was ridiculously expensive. I was online shopping for one of my bridesmaids a dress one night and stumbled upon shopruche.com. They have a BEAUTIFUL wedding section and they're SO reasonable! My dress was only $250 and it got to my house within 7 days and fit PERFECT!

That's just a few things, but I would love to hear of ways YOU saved at your wedding so we can help future brides who are in love and on a budget. It's not about having the most flashy wedding, it's about you and your soon to be husband spending the rest of forever together... It's YOUR day, remember? So why spend SO much money on a wedding for everyone else? Stay positive friends!