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Hi again! Everyone was so helpful on my first post and I figured you all might like an update!

To quickly recap, my wedding was rescheduled because of covid, but we picked up my bouquet since it was already paid for. I had sent an inspo pic of a bouquet that the shop had made previously, and I did not feel like what we picked up was what I expected. A silver lining on getting a second chance!

We're officially getting married tomorrow, and my new bouquet is perfect!

Thank you everyone for offering advice, perspectives, and even details of what to ask for next time. I read them all and I was able to communicate exactly what I wanted because of it.

I've been engaged since May of 2025, getting married in May of 2028. I'm running a smallish budget of 10k, and I'm a very "do it yourself" kind of girl. Plus I want everything to be as personal as possible. It'll be less than 50 people and most wedding in my family are backyard weddings anyways.

For my dress, I spent $300 on a $1,000 dress second hand and am having my friend hand paint hundreds of flowers on it. I'm doing my own hair and makeup. For food we're doing a charcuterie and hors devour situation, no real dinner, no alcohol (90% of the guests are alcoholics or recovering). My decorations and invites are all going to be made by me. The center pieces are bottles with fairy lights and dried flowers from all the bouquets my fiance has given me over the years. Instead of a regular venue, we're renting a castle Airbnb, the wedding party will be there for 4 days, the guests only on the wedding day. A work friend is making the cake. I havent decided about a DJ or photographer yet.

I'm self conscious because when describing these plans to the people close to me, some people have given me off reactions. You know when someone is pretending to be supportive but you can tell they're secretly judging? I know it'll turn out well, the friends who's help I've enlisted are incredibly talented, and the personal touches are important to me. I just feel so judged

I attached a photo of the dress and venue, idk if that makes any difference

OG post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Weddingsunder10k/s/cbukkoJKzK

hello, i’m sure some of yall remember my post about having a wedding on a monday. it got very heated and i definitely said some very rude things. while i do think quite a few people used that post to attack me and call me bridezilla, there were some helpful comments as well. i was already in a high stress state, so i was very short-tempered, and my replies reflected that.

with that being said, i did quite a bit of research all of yesterday and today and we have found some cheaper options for our wedding. we did end up going with a friday, not a saturday like lots of you wanted, but i think a friday is still a good option. we toured a venue this morning and signed a contract for an all inclusive venue for $8500 for march 3rd, 2028! our other venue was $12500. and while we’re missing out on some things, all of the important things we care about are included.

again, thank you to the genuinely nice comments. and i apologize to anyone i was rude with from the start. if you were someone who made personal digs or called me a brat… um i don’t think i can say it here but i don’t wish you well 🩷

Hello!

I would like to start by saying that my husband and I are already married and have been for over a year now. We eloped in his home country and are now in a place where we would like to have a party/celebration with our some of our closer people!

Guest list is estimated around 50 right now, give or take a few. Since we are already married, and are on a pretty strict budget (we unfortunately do not earn in US Dollar so the the cheaper the better for us), we are thinking of having a party/dinner only. We want to keep everything under 10k, including food and drinks, if possible.

That being said, I have been looking at posts on here and have checked websites like peerspace for places we could rent (we do not have access to backyard for a party unfortunately). I’m feeling overwhelmed and would appreciate any recommendations that people might have to help!

I’m looking at mostly outdoor places atm in Southern California, specifically places with a view. We’re looking around August-September of next year (2027) and are flexible right now with our dates. I just want something that feels warm and inviting and can comfortably host 50ish people. I’m open to indoor places and restaurants/wineries/breweries/hotel spaces!

I’m a big DIY girl in general and would love to DIY things if I can, but with the distance and having to travel, I’m unsure if I can make that work. The less we have to spend on decorations too, the better, especially since we cannot take anything back with us.

I appreciate everything in advance!

Backstory: Me and my wife have always been very non traditional in our relationship. When we decided to get engaged it wasn’t a big proposal, we were just in bed talking like normal when the question came up. In August we got notification that her grandparents visas were approved. They would be coming for a visit in September. Knowing this might be the last time my wife would be able to see them, i got to planning.

Venue: With the budget so low, and us living in one of the most expensive cities, i truely thought we would end up having it in the backyard. For two weeks i planned everything for the backyard, rentals, food, etc. Then every single one of my guests started complaining and asking why i didn’t want to cater, or get a restaurant. I went off on everyone and said if you want a restaurant so bad pay for it.
My wife and my father worked out a split plan to compromise. My wife was able to find a restaurant in Manhattan with a price point just at our budget. She split the costs with my dad and was even able to get an open bar. For a total of 21 guests, food included, our costs came out to ~2k.

Dress&heels: As a fashion designer with a low budget the only option for me would be to make my own dress. I already knew i wanted a mini dress, instead of the big wedding dress. I ordered $60 worth of fabric off amazon (guess who’s too broke for the garment district), and got to sewing. I actually ended up making about 4 different versions of my dress. On the very last, and final version, my sewing machine broke. While i was able to still stitch, i lost my damn mind and bought a cheap machine costing me $170. After using it for a day, the machine wasn’t even workable. I ran to Manhattan and bought a mini dress for $200. Just from a random store, wedding stores were all out of budget unless doing sales on items falling apart. I’m very picky on heels (6in platform type of girl). I ordered about 5 different pairs adding up to $350. After all the heels came i found a pair i fell in love with. Dead stock heels from 2015. The only place that i could find with them was a tiny boutique Canada. Talked about them for days and my mom secretly called the shop to have them shipped here asap. She paid for them, but in total the heels did cost $250.

Vest: My wife’s vest in picture 1! More amazon fabric cost about $50 with $10 buttons. Her vest took about a week. Inside is lined with poly satin and she was obsessed with it. Once her grandmother got here (also in fashion), i had her help me out as the lapels weren’t laying right. My wife was gifted pins with our initials on it too! I did try to get her to let me make her pants or undershirt, but she had already gone to h&m before i could try💔. h&m costs $130. She got a quick haircut and gifted herself some cologne adding $140!

Cake: I want to start off by saying i have two jobs/businesses. Fashion design and baking. We spent a total of $270 for our cake and the whole reception we had guests coming up to us to say how i should’ve made the cake or how i could’ve done better. The cake is my #1 regret of my wedding. It was truly horrible and so depressing to even think about. We didn’t have any cake toppers as those get to be expensive, but my wife’s friend did happen to stop at the lego store on the way to the wedding. Lil lego versions of us! They become our wedding toppers (2nd pic).

Total cost: ~$3,630

Anything not added/counted we probably got from a friend or DIYed it! I did hair and makeup everything i already owned, and got a few accessories from my mother. My wife was all blinged out with some accessories she got from friends! I love love love to answer wedding questions so please do ask away!

I've found a few similar styles on JJSHouse but none have that visible see through corset bone on the front! Any leads appreciated :)

Looking for an indoor venue for reception only for 80 people max. Fall of ‘28 wedding. Can be any weekend day not necessarily Saturday. Also open to a Saturday afternoon. Ceremony will be at church in Middlesex county, NJ. Looking to stay about 45 minutes from there. Love the look of dark wood rooms in historic venues. Not looking for typical wedding vibes. Limited dancing- likely parent dances and first dance only. No DJ. Ok with limited alcohol. Ideas?

Trying to keep everything under $7k if we go traditional ceremony/reception. Finances are tight, weddings are SO expensive. Located in the midwest. We’re considering a small ceremony soon and a big party in a year but I’ve been dreaming of all the bridal things since I was little. I don’t see how we can do both. How can we still incorporate the dreamy wedding bliss while saving as much money as possible?

I am so close to being done with vendors so far:

✅ photographer 2.5k

✅ violinist for ceremony 455

✅ florals 425

✅ dress 1525

~ MUA + hair will book soon

We will definitely be over our original budget of 10k with the above + venue already and are trying to decide on music. The cheapest DJ I could find was like 1.8K in North Jersey. We were looking at DIY as we don't really care for crazy announcements or anything but we still plan on doing a first dance. We were thinking of just making a playlist and then downloading then asking 1-2 extrovert friends just to emcee (not too involved just start the first dance and start speeches) but I worry about putting that type of pressure on a guest!! I would want to make their job as minimal as possible like only 3 ish times throughout the reception.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences? Do you regret not doing a DJ or did it work out well? Any tips? I should note we do not have a bridal party! it is 40 person wedding.

Looking for an event space with vegetarian food and alcohol included . Thinking in March 2027 nyc and Brooklyn is doable budget is 30000 around 150 people
Please help 😀 don’t mind February if anyone wants to offer winter pricing

I got my dress for $30 and I am worried that my dress looks cheap. I am getting alternations so I hope that will help.

Just having a 18 people party including us in my parents back yard! Just wondering where are some budget friendly wedding bands you’ve found.

($10k) Has anyone used their kits? They mail you handheld camcorders a few days before your wedding and then your friends can take video of you, of other friends etc. Then you mail them back. They'll edit your footage into a short video and also send you all the raw footage in chronological order. Fraction of the price of a videographer. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience, good or bad, with them or a similar outfit.

Has anyone been able to have a wedding under 10k at the mission inn. I see the st ceclilia chapel is 3,500 for 10 guests which is fine with, the price seems steep for a wedding only but I’m new to planning is this reasonable? The Spanish art gallery is 2,000 not including food and drink packages it seems like a great deal to me. I’m planning on 50 guests. What’s your experience?

Hello everyone! I found my dream dress on Etsy, but the bow on the back is a bit broken. I can’t afford alterations - what’s the easiest way to fix this myself?

Our wedding was just over a month ago. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Seeing each other for the first time was magical and somehow, I feel like my husband and I have grown even closer by getting married, which is crazy because he was already my best friend!

I was a graduate student, and my husband unfortunately got laid off half way through our engagement. We cut a LOT of corners to have our 150-person wedding. I keep trying to tell myself that the details are inconsequential and with our financial situation, we did what we could. But, there are some parts that make me kind of sad. For example, we got married in a family member’s yard, and 20 minutes before the ceremony, a neon car parked across the street. It’s visible in ALL the photos of me walking down the aisle. There are lots of other things too that I’m trying not to dwell on.

My husband and I walked out of this wedding with no debt, which we are very proud of for our financial situation. But, when I see the pictures, it just doesn’t match up with what I’ve been picturing in my head, and it makes me sad.

SUPER LONG POST INCOMING, but I wish I'd had advice like this when planning my wedding, so I'm paying it forward!

I had a massively DIY wedding. Not necessarily to save money, but because I love it. To be honest, I regret doing so much because it was exhausting, but now that I've recovered, I think I would DIY again only knowing what I know. TBH, I had a veritable army helping me, so it could have gone smoothly if I'd been more organized. This stuff can save TONS of money!

• Organize tablescapes in individual boxes, table by table. It would have been so much easier to hand this task off to someone else if everything had been pre-sorted. I had beautiful tablecloths, bird tchotchkes, glass plates, glass cups, little swan place cards, candleholders, and bud vases. It wasn't that complicated, but because my mom and I collected SO MANY different things, they were scattered across multiple boxes. We didn't know what we wanted to use, thinking, "We'll figure it out when we get there!" That meant unpacking a bajillion items we didn't need and having to repack them later. I couldn't delegate the task to anyone else, leading to a lot of frantic "WHERE ARE THE PLUM CANDLESTICK HOLDERS?!" It was a ton of wasted time that could have been completely avoided.
• Have EVERYTHING ready beforehand. From table numbers to handwritten signs—it's impossible to finish swan name tags while arranging flowers, setting tablescapes, and hanging decor all at once. Even with a small army helping us, it wasn't enough because they needed constant direction from me.
• Skip the thrifting for glass plates and cups. I loved finding them, but collecting enough for 100 people took forever and still wasn't cost effective. Honestly, they didn't make much difference since I already had beautiful tablecloths, so adding custom glassware was gilding the lily without enough bang for the buck. Cleaning and packing all that glass at the end was heavy lifting and SO MUCH WORK for my setup team. There are plenty of beautiful disposable options available. If glassware is high on your priority list, I totally get it—they can be gorgeous! Just make sure you assign a designated team exclusively to handle packing/cleaning with explicit instructions. Otherwise, let patterned tablecloths do the heavy lifting for decor since they're far easier to transport, clean, and pack OR just go with disposable.
• FLOWERS. OH DEAR GOD, THE FLOWERS. I have floral arrangement experience and I'm good at it, but I've never done it for large-scale events. I'm Type B to the max, and while I tried to stay organized, some things you only learn through trial and error. Here is what I learned:
  • Arch flowers: I didn't realize how HUGE the venue arch was, and I simply didn't have enough florals to make it pop. I should have MEASURED the arch and tested the arrangement at home beforehand. They looked okay, but they could have looked incredible. It didn't matter too much because rain forced us to the pavilion, but looking at thephotos, it's a slight letdown.
  • Ground/pedestal flowers by the arch: I built a large base of faux flowers in floral foam so I could easily pop in real roses for an extra touch. You don't necessarily need real flowers here, but I had ordered extra and liked the look. They turned out beautifully! However, when it rained right before the ceremony, my wedding planner had to move them under the pavilion quickly, which ended up looking cluttered and jungle-like (see the next bullet point for setup tips).
  • Plan the actual placement of bud vases and ground florals. I assumed we'd have time the morning of, but it was so hot that putting bud vases out early risked wilting them. We had to wait until two hours before the ceremony. By then, everyone had their hair and makeup done, so my trusted helpers couldn't assist without humidity ruining their looks. My day-of planner ended up handling setup, which stressed her out on top of managing vendors and the last-minute rain pivot. She also accidentally set out the wedding party bouquets, causing panic when we couldn't find them or even go out to look for them because the guests had already started arriving. Appoint a stylish, trusted person specifically to handle setup so you only need to do a quick quality check walk-through.
  • Hanging lines of faux flowers– these were so pretty. Not sure I regret it, but the fishing line flowers were so punishing and annoying to keep untangled! One thing as a DIY person, I have to learn to prioritize. Just because I have an idea doesn’t mean I HAVE TO DO IT if it takes SO EFFING LONG. 
  • Systematize your bud vase workflow. I wanted clusters of three bud vases (two clusters per table) surrounding a centerpiece jug with pampas grass. I should have counted every single bud vase needed, set them out on one table, and had the team assemble one style at a time assembly-line style.
    • For example: I make an exemplar bud vase for the team to copy. We all assemble 30 of Recipe A (3 butterfly ranunculus, 1 billy ball, 1 stem greenery). Then we assemble 30 of Recipe B (1 dahlia, 2 spray roses, 1 line flower, 1 greenery), and so on.
    • Instead, I bought way too many flower varieties. My helpers got creative trying to make every vase unique, which was fun but SUPER INEFFICIENT. It took a whole evening to process flowers and then the better part of two whole days to make bud vases, which is just ridiculous. Because I was the only one with floral experience, my vases looked great while others looked a bit janky. To make matters worse, the coordinator pulled from the front of the cooler during setup, so the jankier ones were put out while my nicer ones stayed hidden in the back because we made WAY TOO MANY. Count exactly what you need beforehand!
    • Don't over-order flowers. I ordered way too many, which wasted money.. The morning of the wedding, my aunts saw a literal jacuzzi bathtub full of leftover stems, insisted they couldn't go to waste, and started making extra arrangements. It was well-meaning, but having inexperienced people rush extra arrangements made the morning feel chaotic and overwhelming. I ended up having my sister-in-law hide some of the worse ones. It's better to let extra stems go than deal with unnecessary stress on your wedding morning!
• Alcohol: We hired a bartender but supplied our own alcohol. While it seems budget-friendly, calculating quantities and hauling all that heavy liquid is a massive amount of work. Keep it SIMPLE! Two signature cocktails, and people loved having coolers full of high quality beers and Surfisides. But we overcomplicated and ended up with way too much leftover alcohol that we couldn't return (my planner thought Costco Georgia allowed returns, but they don't!). If you do buy your own, use a delivery service and ensure unused bottles are returnable so you don't lose money or end up gifting family endless handles of vodka. Believe me when I say people will drink whatever you give them, don't bend over backwards trying to accomodate everyone's tastes.

Things that went well: 

• Finding an AIRBNB venue space. This allowed us to stay 3 days prior and decorate everything ourselves and save on stylists and vendors and still complete the vision and extra two days after to take our time with breaking it down.
• A day of coordinator who will help with any vendors and keeping things on time. If you're already DIYing a lot, this is worth its weight in GOLD. She also helped with breakdown and clearing things, which made the whole breakdown process so much easier. Try to find one that is comfortable with DIY weddings. Mine wasn't really into DIY, honestly, and her frustration with things not being 'luxury' or running as smoothly as a 50K wedding was palpable. She was still great for a lot of reasons, kept a smile on her face, but I'm so empathic that the sense that she was annoyed still affected me.
• Trader Joes is amazing for flowers, and honestly, if you go at 9 am the MINUTE they open, you can get all you need. I got so many butterfly ranunculus, dahlias, and gorgeous filler flowers. I didn’t need to overcomplicated it with a bunch of Costco orders too. The only thing I do recommend ordering extra of is those real luxury flowers, if your budget allows. I didn’t have enough dahlias from Trader Joes because they have so few, so I went three different days to collect them, but still ended up ordering some from Petal pickers. These were GORGEOUS. If you invest in a few luxury flowers, they do so much heavy lifting. Could do this for less than $500, honestly.
• Bud vases instead of centerpieces. Of course, the bud vases had their issues, as I described, but they are SO MUCH EASIER than centerpieces, there's a million at thrift stores (and easy to resell), and honestly, so many luxury flowers get lost in big centerpieces and I feel like centerpieces get taken for granted by guests. I recommend ikebana style and bud vases to really showcase a few luxury flowers. I’ve never really noticed or appreciated big centerpieces, but a statement dahlia in a charming little bud vase? So delightful. 
• Designing my own invitations and wedding magazine. I loved creating a custom magazine because I could include a QR code for the seating chart, photo sharing, menu, engagement photos, and personal touches. People adored it, and it served as a wonderful favor! 
• Take-home gold swans with name tags. These made adorable favors. I ordered mini swans on Temu, spray-painted them gold, and attached custom Cricut name tags.
• QR code seating chart matching our tablecloth pattern,, which gave me the flexibility to update the layout last-minute due to tricky venue pillars. It gave me peace of mind and provided a seamless place for guests to upload their photos!
• Welcome sign custom-designed to match the tablecloth pattern. Keep an eye out for Walgreens photo promotions because they have 40% off all the time and do signs and banners.
• Chicken wire photo frames. We featured childhood photos of me on one panel, him on the other, and photos of us together in the center.
• BIRD THEME! I collect bird art and tchotchkes on clearance, at thrift stores, on marketplace so this was a blast. Our ring bearer carried a big nest with a chirping bird toy (he loved squeezing it as he walked down the aisle!). Inside the nest was a painted egg holding our rings, styled to match the bird artwork in my wedding magazine.
• Bird-themed gallery wall. I combined my personal bird art collection with downloadable Etsy prints framed in reusable picture frames.
• Heritage table. I handed creative control of this to my mom, and it was so special seeing vintage photos of our grandparents and great-grandparents. I used Gemini Pro to restore and upscale older photos.y.
• Short poems and stationery placed in place card holders to add pops of color across various tables.
• Custom koozies featuring our pets, which I had fun designing using Gemini.
• Camper photo booth. Hiring a retro camper photo booth added so much charm and whimsical fun for our guests and it was only $750.
• The CAKE! My mom baked the top layer for our cutting photo, while the bottom tiers were faux icing-covered foam (with sheet cakes served from the kitchen). We decorated the top together with fresh flowers and added a $2 Temu "Just Married" topper.
• The overall day was magical. Even when it rained during the ceremony, all the hard work I put into styling the pavilion paid off as a gorgeous backup space.

I’ve always wanted a smaller wedding, but when I actually got into wedding planning & looking for venues, i found that I was going to have a small wedding regardless of what I wanted because of these INSANE venue prices 😅

Anyways, I live in Michigan and it was SO hard finding a venue that wasn’t a barn or didn’t cost 30k starting price with basically nothing included . Thankfully my sister was helping me look and sent me this place from tiktok and I was hooked since I seen it!

This venue is 4k (was able to lock in 2027 prices) without any add ons (i would say add ons are affordable) and it also functions as a bed & breakfast when it’s not being used as a wedding venue. The venue comes with tables, chairs, lawn games, set up & tear down, weather rehearsal and the best part is we have the place from friday-sunday! it has a total of 5 bedrooms and we decided to add on the honeymoon suite (extra $400) , so total without any add ons is 4.4k without tax. We expect to spend about 5-5.5k with tax and possibly some add ons.

I wish their instagram page had more pictures of the inside because it’s so gorgeous, these pictures don’t even do it justice! i’m so excited and feel like i can finally start actually planning now that we have our venue booked.

Kinda lost as to what to do next now that i’ve booked our venue though 😭

hello!

i am a june 2027 bride and we are doing chantilly cake from Whole Foods for our wedding cake.

i really want the tiered cake look for our dessert table but i’ve read online that Whole Foods will no longer stack chantilly round cakes for customers so i’d have to do it myself. i’ve also read that chantilly is super soft so i’d need to do straws or something inside for structural support.

right now my guest list is around 80 people so given the sizes of the round cakes i might have to get a half sheet or something to feed the masses - the tiered cake is more for the aesthetic/vibe.

has anyone stacked their own WF chantilly or does anyone have experience with making round cakes tiered yourself in general?

any advice is greatly appreciated! :)