We got married 8 years ago in May. The average cost of a wedding was $33,931. There was no way we were going to be able to afford to spend that much money, nor did we want to. I wanted to elope, but my husband really wanted to have a marriage ceremony due to two things- couples have a higher chance of staying together if they don’t elope, and he didn’t want me to regret not having a ceremony. Up until the day before our wedding I kept suggesting that we elope before the wedding. The total cost we paid for our wedding was under $5000.
I wrote this post in 2022 but I’m just now finally posting it.
Related: How to create a budget
Set up a budget
We set up our budget before we bought anything. Think through everything you think you will need and write it out. Make sure you have a back up plan cost decided as well.
Decide what’s most important
We decided early on that I really cared about the pictures. We spent a large portion of our budget on our amazing photographer. I definitely think it was worth it. If you care about the music, spend a lot of your budget on the DJ, if you care about the cake, spend it on the cake.
Location
We chose an outdoor venue- my parents front yard. My parents have an aqua scape in the corner that they had to quickly finish and add a bridge to before our wedding. (I had let them know I wanted to get married there for years. My dad is great at procrastinating.) Now they have their completed aqua scape that definitely adds beauty to their yard and it was a beautiful background for our pictures.
If you have friends or family with a big yard, ask if you can use it for your wedding. If you don’t, you can consider parks, even in the winter. Churches are also often free or quite affordable if you want an indoor venue.
Limit your guest list
We actually didn’t do this. We invited everyone we needed to even though it was more people than we wanted to have at our wedding. We wanted our wedding to be pretty small, but between friends and family it ended up that we needed to invite over a hundred people. I believe between 50-60 came.
Buy a cheap dress
I bought my dress off of Amazon for $135. It was labeled as a blue quinceañera dress. It was supposed to be made to my measurements but it unfortunately was not (I think we ended up getting a partial refund of $25 since it didn’t fit) so we ended up needing to have it altered so it would fit me. That was $100. So my wedding dress was $235. Look up quinceañera dress’ on amazon they are gorgeous and a fraction of the cost of wedding dresses.
My flower girl got her dress from Walmart for $23 and my maid of honor got her dress off of Amazon for $30. They both have worn them again! That was a huge goal of mine, I didn’t want them to spend money on a dress they would never get to wear again.
You can search second hand stores or Facebook marketplace for dresses that are affordable but beautiful. Altering dresses isn’t too costly so you can still look beautiful and like the dress was made for you!
Don’t go crazy with decorations
We had very minimal decorations. We had an arch decorated with fake flowers. The tables had paper table cloths with a mirror, upside down glasses with a fake flower underneath and tea candles on top. My mom had the glasses we used, the mirrors were $5 at Joanne’s, the flowers were $10 on amazon, and the tea candles were $5 at Walmart.
For everything else we used what we had or what our friends and family had. Use what you have, search Facebook market place or second hand stores so that the prices are low.
Have a bar (for food) or forgo food
We had a taco bar for our wedding. It was so easy. You have meat, tortillas, beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and you’re pretty much there. Everyone gets to decide what they want on their tacos and there’s a vegetarian and gluten free option.
You can try a baked potato bar, a mac & cheese bar, a grilled cheese bar, Buddha bowls, or even a charcuterie board. It’s cheaper than hiring a caterer and the possibilities are end less.
You alternately can try to not serve food, or just have snacks like a charcuterie board if you have the event at an in between time.
Don’t serve alcohol
We don’t drink alcohol. It’s expensive. It is not necessary. We served coffee and orange juice. If you feel you must have champagne for toasts, you can inform whoever serves it to not offer refills and offer it in a smaller glass.
Ask friends for help
We had one of our friends coordinate everything the day of. My husbands best man’s mom made a lot of food for our wedding and set it all up for us. Our friends were MVP’s for our wedding being a wonderful day to celebrate our union for the rest of our lives.
Conclusion
Do you think you can have a wedding under $5000? My wedding was beautiful. I kept my priorities in mind while planning. I didn’t have many dreams about my wedding until we started planning it, so it was beyond my dreams.
How can you lower your wedding costs? Let me know if you did anything different for your wedding!
