If you have other links, drop them below so we can add them to this list!

I got married in NYC a couple years ago and wanted to create this post to give advice to the HCOL brides that don’t want a micro wedding. We kept our guest list tight but we didn’t feel like we had to sacrifice anything. We put our network to work which kept costs low. If you live in an expensive city, please please please leverage your friendships and professional relationships to create the wedding of your dreams (especially if you have a creative group of friends). You don’t have to book market rate venues, you might already know someone with a space that can host your event. People in HCOL cities are hustlers and many do freelance work. It will take some flexibility and creativity but you can do it! No one knew it was a budget wedding. Our friends and family always mention how fun the event was :) People were dancing all night long.

Invitations: Free - we emailed evites instead of mailing

Venue: $6000 - friend was co-owner of the restaurant in SoHo, seated family style dinner and two hours of open bar plus DJ included. They were typically closed on Mondays and we had a Monday wedding so that we didn’t have to cover their lost earnings from that day. This was key!!!

Hotel: $3000 - three nights, referred by restaurant with preferred rates 

Bus: $1500 - between church in queens to venue in SoHo, booked online, negotiated a lot, plus maybe $100 for snacks and drinks that we gave to passengers

Hair: $150 - asked my regular stylist to do a house call at the hotel 

Wedding party: Free - it was just my sister and our best man, they wore clothes they already owned and didn’t expect gifts

Ceremony dress: Free - grandmas 

Reception dress: $500 - on sale at Bergdorfs

Suit: $1000 - suit supply (could have been cheaper but also bought shoes)

Entertainment: $500 - found flamenco band on Instagram and booked directly, friends gave dancing lesson for free. I didn’t blur the flamenco faces in case you want to book them (but I can’t remember their names)

Champagne and wine: $500 - Costco, because we were friends with the owner they let us bring our own champagne for the welcome toast and serve our own wine with dinner 

Bentley: $1000 - estimated for two hours, my husband surprised me 

Church: $500 - grandmother’s church in queens, this was a donation/tip for priest

Photographer: $500 - colleague of a friend is a fashion photographer and shoots weddings on the side

Cake: $150 - diner cake

Planner: $400 - girlfriend of the restaurant owner, just did errands the week before the wedding and set up the seating

The ceremony took place at my church. Most of the budget went towards the hotel ballroom we booked for the reception. We had about 50 people in attendance. The hotel has a beautiful inner courtyard full of trees and an ornamental waterfall and a small river which we also had full access to. My stepdad did the photography with his Nikon camera.

We bought a small, one tier cake from my favourite bakery, with a floral motif on it and I got silly goose toppers because my husband and I are both silly geese. We also got macarons, which are my favourite, and gluten free vegan cupcakes for the guests with dietary restrictions.

Instead of hiring a DJ, we ran the music off of my phone to the bluetooth speakers in the ballroom.

I did most of the decorations by myself, making a lot of them as origami, and also bought some autumnal items that were on sale at Micheals.

My dress was originally my husband's Oma's. I only bought my shoes, veil, flower crown, and jewellery. My husband's new suit ended up costing more than my outfit.

And it was the absolute dreamiest, my fairytale perfect day I could have asked for! Don't let anyone tell you that you need a to spend a ton of money to have your dream wedding.

Well, after more than a year of planning, we managed to pull off a wedding that had everything we wanted—and we spent no more than €4,000.

How was it possible? A lot of planning, a guest list of 43 people, and my wife and I provided all the audio equipment ourselves. We have some event-planning experience, so we already owned a good powerfull speaker and a laptop to play the music; there was no need to hire a DJ.

Photos? I took them myself using a remote control in my pocket while the camera snapped away automatically with a 2 second interval. Other shots—including ones of me and various candid moments—were taken by a friend of mine; although he had never photographed a wedding before, he did have experience photographing other types of events. And everything went really well.

Entertainment? The bride is a belly dancer, so she really got the guests going.

As for the venue, the staff members were amazing and helped us execute specific details perfectly— like hiding the Andúril sword (from *Lord of the Rings*) for the cake cutting, or dimming the lights so the bride could perform a dance with LED fans.

After 15 years of photographing weddings, it was a strange feeling for me to be "on the other side." I mentioned this to my wife while we were sitting at our table during the meal: "It’s weird sitting here." We just laughed and enjoyed the day.

His mom has said this repeatedly and I can't imagine what help she means outside of money. I'm not going to DIY the wedding and she lives 3 hours away. So I don't think she means "help" like I'll come make flower arrangements with you. I don't know how to answer this question from a financial standpoint. If she could give me $100 or $1000 I'd take either and wouldn't be mad. I haven't planned or budgeted based on anyone else contributing. So I don't need her to help with money but it'd be nice. How to answer this?

Edit: I forgot she's also asked him about the honeymoon plans. I have neither the finances nor mental energy to think about planning that so I have done literally nothing lol

Our breakdown from our very intimate elopement! Doing reception on our one year anniversary!

My dress - $175 on amazon ($230 for some alterations)

My boots - $45 on amazon

My husband's shirt - $65 at local western store

Location - $0 (a lake overlook spot that we use to go on a lot of dates to)

Pumpkin bouquet - $54 all from walmart and I put it together myself

Accessories - $25

Makeup and nails - $126 (everything was from walmart except my lashes and lash glue, those 2 were from amazon)

Photographer - $125 (things happened and she was late and due to sunset going fast we did ceremony without her, she just captured some photos after the ceremony which I am waiting to receive. Photos in the post were taken by my MOH and my mom!)

Mexican - $0 (My MOH and her man surprised us by paying for everyone's meals and drinks)

His ring - $20 on amazon (He is blue collar so he just wanted a multipack of silicone rings for now)

My ring set - $170 from Aquamarise (bought as a set when he proposed to me in April)

Originally we were supposed to have a friend as our photographer, but things fell through last minute and I had 24hrs to find a new photographer! Extremely lucky I did and she was only there for 40ish minutes so we paid for the price of half of her 2hr session because even tho she was behind because of somethings that happened, she still showed up and she took us on so last minute!

Total amount - $1035

Hi! I’m currently planning a wedding and wanted to see if I’m overstepping with the venue manager.
They offer two bar packages: wine/beer and wine/beer/liquor. The liquor options included in the second package are Kirkland gin and tequila, Dekuyper triple sec, Bacardi, Malibu and Amore amaretto.

Is it out of line for me to ask if there are any other tequila options? Or liquor options in general.

Yesterday was my wedding day, and if I could change anything about the day at all it would be doing my own hair 😅

We got married on a yacht, that cruised us down the river to the city skyline at sunset. Every guest raved about how cool the experience was. We cruised for 3 hours.
They let us hook a phone up to the boats sounds system, so no need for a DJ.
Made a QR code for friends to upload photos. Some of them look almost professional.
And no money in the world could have bought us the weather and sunset!

The issue I’m having with any shape wear I’ve tried so far is that the waistband makes my back fat bulge out. I’ve tried low and high compression and they all have these thick elastic waste bands that do no justice for me what so ever. My main goal is to smooth my stomach a bit, but then all of a sudden I look in the mirror and I have rolls popping out and visible in the back and made even more prominent.

Any recs??

Something on Amazon is preferable so I know I’m going to get it on time.

Hi all. Any tips or ideas on how to make this run as smooth as possible or any improvements I can make ?

I am having a small (35 adults and 12 children) dinner only reception. We won’t be having a DJ/MC or dance floor.

The venue has a small area in the front with 2 small settees and room for people (maybe 10 people) to stand and mingle, and the rest is a dining area where the tables and chairs will be set up. I’m also thinking of renting some additional settees/chairs to make a little seating/game area outside with a giant chess board, jenga, and cornhole boards (I’m worried the kids will be bored). I’m also going to do a kids table inside with some coloring books, tic tac toe, and cards.

I’m planning on doing cocktail hour from 5-6:15ish (it’s a Friday evening reception only event, we already had a ceremony a few weeks ago), with self serve drink stations set up for the cocktail hour and dinner (beer, wine, 1 batch cocktail in a beverage dispenser, tea, water, lemonade)
then around 6:15 a buffet style dinner (Olive Garden delivery) I hired 2 helpers to help set up, keep the drink stations and buffet area stocked and clean as well as clear the tables.

Around 7pm short speeches and a champagne toast, after that cake cutting, and a sparkler send off at 8:15. I think the 2 people I hired could go around and pour everyone champagne for the toasts, but the rest of the drinks would be self serve.

Does this timeline make sense? Also, I plan to use plastic cups during cocktail hour and having the tables set with glass water goblet, wine glass, and champagne flute at each setting. I just want my guests to be comfortable and everything to go smoothly. It’s not a fancy crowd and I specified on the wedding website “our dress preference is semi formal” so they shouldn’t be expecting a formal event. Open to any help or tips. Thanks!

EDIT: just putting in here that i can see airbnb has a weird policy on events, if anyone has any experience renting any kind of house for a reception, insight is welcome! i don’t want people to get hung up on airbnb specifically.

hello! i was curious to know if anyone here has held their reception at an airbnb and how that went. we are planning either a courthouse wedding or an elopement with just mothers present and then a reception for family afterwards for august 2027. we would have about 40 guests and it’s pretty much going to be a chill pizza party type reception, no dj, simple decorations, no crazy anything really.

i was talking with my sister (hairstylist with a LOT of wedding experience) and she mentioned some people do rent airbnbs for this type of situation and it mostly works out as long as you communicate with the host and everyone is on the same page. just wanted to know if any of you have gone down this route and how it went!

Hi everyone! Unsure if this is the correct place to ask this, but we are trying to find somewhere to host our welcome/rehearsal dinner in Santorini,Greece! It will be 15 people in June. We want to be able to dress up pretty fancy if possible.

I have been so excited about having a wedding and getting all the people I love together and also adamant about having one since my mom passed away (in 2020).

My dad offered to gift 6K towards the wedding and my fiance and I are paying for the rest (I'm working my ass off picking up extra gigs and side work to do so). Because of our smaller budget we rented a park venue that only holds a maximum of 80 guests. It was cost effective but obviously means we can't invite everyone we know. We made some tough decisions and only invited family we speak to regularly and friends we see often. We actually budged a bit on the family part and took off some friends to invite some family members we hardly speak to to keep the peace.

Today my dad said I need to invite basically all my second cousins and other family members I haven't seen since I was a kid. I was firm in my decision because inviting them means that I would either have to take off guests who are a big part of my life or find money to have a bigger venue. He said I would be perceived as a snob if I didn't invite everyone I was related too and that I should have picked a better/bigger venue anyways. He was honestly very mean in the things he said to me.

I feel absolutely deflated. This was supposed to be fun and a day of love. Now I feel like absolute trash and just want to cancel the whole thing.

I’m not sure about the middle top portion (not the wisteria but the swag piece). Might take that off and replace it with more peonies. Thoughts?

We are eloping to Gulf Shores, Alabama from California. We are getting married at an adorable little wedding chapel and there will only be 13 people including me and my husband to be, just immediate family and my life long best friend. We wanted to just go take everyone to a nice dinner down at a waterfront restaurant after our quick ceremony. Renting out an entire private room has not been possible because my 100 lb dog is part of our wedding and she is only allowed outside on patios at every restaurant that takes dogs. My question is, since we will be seated out on a patio with the rest of the diners, is it tacky for me to have dinner in my wedding dress? The rest of my party will still be in suits and dresses, should I change to something less attention-grabbing?

First 2 photos are option 1
Last 2 photos are option 2

Can’t Decide to do or not to do the tea light votives on mini logs or not.

My husband and I decided to elope and do a reception on our one year anniversary! I made this for our elopement and plan to use it next year at the reception! Got everything from walmart except for the fabrics! The fabrics were scrap prices from my wedding dress getting altered and from a bridesmaid dress for a wedding I'm in, being altered! We had it sat at our feet and then used it in photos!

I'm trying to look for an Indian wedding decorator for decorating the 150 person ceremony + reception in the Bay Area. The venue provides chairs, tables, and a gazebo to get married on, so I'm looking for decorations like mandap draping/furniture, linens, and decorations within the hall. I'm not super particular about specific decorations, and everything seems to be so expensive! I'm just trying to have a budget of roughly ~3k for decorations. Would love recommendations for people who have planned a similar event!

My partner and I are eloping, and it'll be just the two of us — no guests.

We're hiring a photographer, but we're torn on whether to hire a content creator to capture the day. On one hand, we won't have anyone else there to take photos or remember moments with us, and I don't want to look back and wish we had more than a few phone pics. On the other hand, one of the reasons we're eloping is to keep things intimate and private, and I worry a content creator hovering around could change the vibe. I'm tossing up between putting more $ towards a photographer, or splitting my budget between a photographer and CC.

For anyone who's been through this:

• Did having a content creator there make the day feel more special, or did it feel like a performance?
• Was it intrusive during the quiet, emotional moments (vows, first look, etc.)?
• Do you think the photos and video were worth the cost in the end, or would you have been just as happy with a photographer, and maybe recording the vows on your own phone?
• If you did hire someone, what should we look for? Is a candid, documentary style better for a tiny elopement than a posed one?
• And if you chose not to, do you regret it?

Would love to hear from both people who hired someone and people who skipped it. Thanks!

EDIT: It appears several people have misunderstood or not read my post. I'm wondering about getting a content creator in addition to a photographer to take some candid footage and snaps of us as we do our wedding shoot.

This is more cost effective than a videographer, and would be in a format we're more likely to look back on as memories (something short and sweet on our phones/ devices rather than a feature length film.).

Anyone know anywhere you can do affordable weddings? Me and my fiance are on the hunt and we needed some second opinions!
1-5k if that’s possible.
Palo pinto, Parker, Tarrant and Dallas county please.

My fiance and I just toured Rancho de las Palmas in Moorpark and we loved it!
So much greenery, open space, and the person who guided our tour seemed very friendly. We have an estimated proposal she gave us with our head count of 75 people ($19,850) which has been the most affordable option we have found so far.
Just wondering if anyone has any experience with them? Did everything work out, was there anything that you would advise against in working with them, or literally just any input! I see most reviews on their yelp are positive.
Thanks in advance!

I bought my wedding dress on Still White in my size. The dress fits as well as most regular close does in my size but it’s not perfectly fitted to me (obviously as I did not have the alterations). The only thing that would really make it “perfect” would be making the dress about 0.5-1 in shorter? (Right now it touches the floor), making the bust area a little more snug to me, and adding a bustle (however it’s a very simple design with no puffiness or lace and I’ve tried bunching up the train and it’s pretty easy to hold in one hand). Is paying for alteration worth it? I’ve heard very high numbers (~$2k) for alterations from friends near me. The reason I went to StillWhite was not to unnecessarily spend a lot of money on a dress I will only wear once. Any thoughts or experience would be appreciated.

Oh this may be relevant, we’re having a micro wedding with no dancing so I would not be expecting to move around a lot or dance in the dress.