Our Wedding Expenses – Thinking Out Of The Box

Posted by Whitney on Monday, August 25th, 2008 in Whitney & Billy

Being frugal has always been a hobby of mine. We were able to have our wedding for just a little over $2,000. I was raised to always think a little out of the box and think of different ways to do things that were much cheaper. So, how did we pull off a wedding for around $2,000? Here’s the breakdown on our wedding expenses:

♦ Wedding Flowers: $510

♦ Wedding Dress, veil, shoes: $315

♦ Bride’s and Groom’s cakes: $270

♦ Gifts for bridal party, parents and misc. helpers: $250

♦ Invitations: $230

♦ Photography: $125

♦ Decorations for the wedding area: $100

♦ Gift card for preacher: $100

♦ Reception food and supplies during the reception (not including the cakes): $50

♦ Rehearsal dinner food: $45

♦ Marriage License: $35

♦ Fabric for matron of honor’s dress and flower girl’s dress: $30

♦ Unity Candle: $25

♦ Guest Register book: $25

♦ Music: $25

♦ Programs during the wedding: $25

♦ Rice bags: $15

♦ Misc. supplies for flower girl and ring bearers: $10

$2,185 – GRAND TOTAL

Expenses not included above are my husband’s ring, my ring and our honeymoon. I don’t even know how much my ring was or the honeymoon as my husband paid for these before we got married and considered them as a gift.

We had quite a bit of things around my mother’s house that we were able to use that customarily wouldn’t be used for a wedding. You’ll hear more about those things in the coming posts.

Matron of Honor in cheap $1 a yard material Also, we have several friends that were able to help us out. For instance, the lady that played the piano has been a family friend for years and years. The gentleman that did the photography was a friend of mine. We pulled in a bunch of favors, and saved lots of money.

One of the biggest savings was the fabric for my sister’s dress who served as the matron of honor. My mother, an expert seamstress, made her dress.

When we went to pick out flowers the lady’s daughter had recently married. One of her colors just happened to be celadon green, as was mine. Well, the daughter had her mother buy about 20 yards of material that was never used. We were able to purchase the high quality material at $1 a yard. My sister was pregnant at the time of our wedding, but she still didn’t need 20 yards of material. So, we were able to use the material for use in decorations. What a savings!!

Another big savings was the reception food and supplies… but we’ll go in more detail about that later. But the biggest savings of all was when Billy and I went to a bridal show and registered to win free tuxedo rental for our entire wedding. Lucky us… we won!

It is very possible to have a pretty, yet inexpensive wedding. It just required us to think more out of the box than lots of people do.



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2 Responses to “Our Wedding Expenses – Thinking Out Of The Box”

  1. Jessica, Wedding Hair Stylist Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 7:45 am

    Really, quite little expense. Thanks for sharing, enjoyed it.

  2. Lacey Says:
    December 1st, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    I hope we can pull off a beautiful and inexpensive wedding like yours!

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