Happy Wednesday my friends! Hope you’re staying healthy out there. I’ve been thinking of everyone during this time. To lift our spirits today, I’ve got a #weddingwednesday post. This week I’m sharing my tips for planning a wedding and also tips on where to budget / save $$$.
When Josh and I sat down with my family to pick a date and ask about budget, my parents had made it clear to us what their budget was, and what they expected us to pitch in for. If you just got engaged, make that your first step! It was nice to have a clear expectation of the budget as well as what we needed to save for.
If you have the budget for a planner, amazing! If you don’t, I’m with you sister!! We didn’t have the budget for one and my mama and I planned the wedding ourselves over a year and 7 months.
If you don’t have a wedding planner, download the wedding wire app! This isn’t sponsored, I just really love that app and my mom and I used it like crazy throughout the whole process. It sets you up with a checklist and truly has everything on there that you would need.
One of my main tips is to make a top 3 list of non-negotiables as far as what you absolutely want/ will pay for. The two things that were the most expensive outside of our venue, was the alcohol and flowers. An open bar was non-negotiable and having the videographers I wanted was non-negotiable as well. Those were the splurges and everything else we just worked to get the best deal/ most affordable option we could over the planning process.
If you are planning your wedding, all you truly need is just a checklist! You will just be the person doing all of the calls, doing the research, etc. If you’re an organized person, you got this! It was so easy to plan ourselves in my opinion. Just adds more stress (especially in the end) but totally do-able.
I will say, we hired a month-of coordinator who helped us make sure we had everything together and also was the person keeping us on a timeline the day-of the wedding which is extremely helpful and necessary to me. If you are budgeting, find a student who is looking to get into wedding planning! Our month-of was actually someone I knew in college and she works in the wedding industry and wanted to add my wedding to her portfolio so that was amazing. Speaking of budget…. let’s get into budgeting tips!!
I could go on and on for days about budgeting and how I budgeted but here’s the main areas WE personally budgeted in.
I feel like I’m still missing some other ways we budgeted but you get the point! There are so many ways to budget and save money. In the end, weddings are not cheap. But utilize what you can, and be flexible to make it as affordable as you want. Hope this helps with your wedding planning, friends! Thanks so much for stopping by. XO!
Photography by: Laylee Emadi
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