Yes, It IS a big day. It’s not such a big day that you spend your entire life savings, and have no future.
Get a DJ, get a cake, get a hall, get a photographer…forget the doves, forget the ice sculptures, forget the wedding planner, forget the genocidial mimes, forget the big limo, keep it small. Do you really need to invite your great aunt, who you’ve seen 3 times in your life?
You should NOT be spending like $20,000 on a wedding.
A friend of mine donned his nicest clothes and went down to the courthouse with his fiance and a couple of witnesses. I mentioned this to my sister, and she mentioned that in retrospect, she wished she’d done something similar when she got married.
I’m in agreement except for the wedding planner. Whether they help with the planning from day one or are just the day-of coordinator, a good wedding planner is worth their weight in gold. I’d rather plug an old mp3 player into a portable speaker and skip the DJ before I recommend skipping out on the planner.
Absolutely! Making it memorable and fun does not mean making it expensive. Cut whatever you can’t afford, do not take out a loan to cover anything. Then cut anything that isn’t meaningful to you and your partner.
A wedding planner is helpful if you don’t have a trusted and naturally organized friend who volunteers to handle details for you.
You want a unique picturesque wedding on a budget?
National Parks in the US. If you keep your guest list under 50 people, you can get married anywhere in the park, provided you don’t block access, put up decorations, or damage the park, and it’s free! If you have more than 50 people, you need a permit, and those are raffled off per day, and almost no one uses them.
I got married on the bluffs overlooking Little Hunter’s Beach in Acadia National Park. The drive, food, and lodging for my wedding there cost less than the first payment for the venue of my “local” ceremony in my home city, which we ended up canceling anyway.
We had our wedding at our house in the backyard, no DJ, a discounted cake from my wife’s work (a bakery), catering from a BBQ place. Still ended up costing just about 2k, after food, flowers, and rented tables and chairs.
I’m sure JP stands for something reasonable, and that makes sense, but my mind struggles against itself, and all I can imagine is it stands for “Japanese” and also my brain things “Jurassic Park”.
So even though I’m 100% confident that this DIDN’T happen, I’m just imagining your wedding, with people sitting down, waiting for the bride to walk the isle…meanwhile, over by the other side of the room are bunch of Japanese cosplayers all recreating scenes from Jurassic Park. Complete with inflatable dinosaurs and .wav files of dinosaur sounds.
All the while your guest list is like “WTF is even happening over there???”
I’m sorry. I don’t know what ACTUALLY happened at your wedding, but it would have been a HUGE upgrade if you had dinosaur fights, and Japanese cosplayers.
Weddings.
Yes, It IS a big day. It’s not such a big day that you spend your entire life savings, and have no future.
Get a DJ, get a cake, get a hall, get a photographer…forget the doves, forget the ice sculptures, forget the wedding planner, forget the genocidial mimes, forget the big limo, keep it small. Do you really need to invite your great aunt, who you’ve seen 3 times in your life?
You should NOT be spending like $20,000 on a wedding.
The genocidal mimes are non negotiable
out of the loop, what are genocidal mimes?
It’s right there on the tin
A friend of mine donned his nicest clothes and went down to the courthouse with his fiance and a couple of witnesses. I mentioned this to my sister, and she mentioned that in retrospect, she wished she’d done something similar when she got married.
Did the same, then went out for a nice meal, weddings are a complete waste of money.
I’m in agreement except for the wedding planner. Whether they help with the planning from day one or are just the day-of coordinator, a good wedding planner is worth their weight in gold. I’d rather plug an old mp3 player into a portable speaker and skip the DJ before I recommend skipping out on the planner.
Oh, by DJ, yeah, thats all he’d be doing is controlling the winamp playlist basically.
And a wedding planner I don’t see as being needed.
Step 1) rent local venue.
Step 2) ask cousin to be DJ.
Step 3) pick up cake from dairy queen.
Step 4) Flowers??? I’m sure the florist can figure something out.
Thats about it.
We spent less than 10k on our wedding and only invited close family. Did most of it ourselves. It was the best day ever!
Absolutely! Making it memorable and fun does not mean making it expensive. Cut whatever you can’t afford, do not take out a loan to cover anything. Then cut anything that isn’t meaningful to you and your partner.
A wedding planner is helpful if you don’t have a trusted and naturally organized friend who volunteers to handle details for you.
I’d also recommend taking a local honeymoon.
Here’s my pro tip.
You want a unique picturesque wedding on a budget?
National Parks in the US. If you keep your guest list under 50 people, you can get married anywhere in the park, provided you don’t block access, put up decorations, or damage the park, and it’s free! If you have more than 50 people, you need a permit, and those are raffled off per day, and almost no one uses them.
I got married on the bluffs overlooking Little Hunter’s Beach in Acadia National Park. The drive, food, and lodging for my wedding there cost less than the first payment for the venue of my “local” ceremony in my home city, which we ended up canceling anyway.
If you do get a permit, are you allowed to put up decorations?
I think that depends on the location. Parks may have their own specific rules.
We had our wedding at our house in the backyard, no DJ, a discounted cake from my wife’s work (a bakery), catering from a BBQ place. Still ended up costing just about 2k, after food, flowers, and rented tables and chairs.
Mine cost $150. $70 for the license and $80 for the JP to do their thing.
I’m sure JP stands for something reasonable, and that makes sense, but my mind struggles against itself, and all I can imagine is it stands for “Japanese” and also my brain things “Jurassic Park”.
So even though I’m 100% confident that this DIDN’T happen, I’m just imagining your wedding, with people sitting down, waiting for the bride to walk the isle…meanwhile, over by the other side of the room are bunch of Japanese cosplayers all recreating scenes from Jurassic Park. Complete with inflatable dinosaurs and .wav files of dinosaur sounds.
All the while your guest list is like “WTF is even happening over there???”
I’m sorry. I don’t know what ACTUALLY happened at your wedding, but it would have been a HUGE upgrade if you had dinosaur fights, and Japanese cosplayers.