Did you do any DIY Projects or create any handmade items for your wedding?
We love candy and love sharing snacks with others, so we decided to buy bulk bags of our favorite candies! We also ordered bulk bags of our coffee cart’s coffee beans and individually packaged them into smaller packages for our guests to take home.
We printed our own table numbers, programs, seating chart, and handmade all of the wedding favors.
What creative or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?
We are not night-owls, so we decided to have an early afternoon wedding. This allowed us not to spend too much on alcohol! We decided to serve pizza with a coffee cart, and ice cream!
We did a lot of the stationery on our own since my husband has a professional printer and I have a Cricut from being a teacher. We also provided lactaid pills for all of our lactose intolerant friends!
What is the most memorable moment of your day?
Do you know the movie White Chicks? Instead of the traditional mother-son and father-daughter dance, we decided to do a family dance battle between the bride’s family and groom’s family! Totally worth it!
What was the biggest thing you did to save money?
We did as much as we could to see where we could save money. Food and alcohol was the biggest hit to our wallets, so looking at our options and how we could save, we decided a midday wedding would allow us to cater on a budget but still provide some delicious food everyone loves.
Alcohol was also a good money saver. Since we weren’t expecting many to drink, we went to Costco and bought it in bulk.
Finally, we used vendors that were referred to us, which got us some nice referral discounts.
What was your biggest splurge?
The coffee cart was definitely our biggest splurge. It wasn’t a necessity, but totally worth it!
What was your favorite detail?
Our favorite detail was having the wedding midday. It gave us time to enjoy the rest of the day with each other and with those who came from far away. We also had a chance to recover and slowly wind down before our flight the next day!
What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?
It’s an important memorable day that is worth investing in, but at the end of the day, it is just the start of the rest of your life. Start by identifying your non-negotiables. Once you know what truly matters, it becomes much easier to shape the rest of your day around your budget without sacrificing what’s most important to you.
Another note is considering what things can be saved, reused or sold online to get some of your money back.
On another note, that many may not want to hear, but the reality is most people aren’t going to remember most of your wedding, you might not even remember most of it. Keep that in mind and splurge (or don’t splurge) accordingly.
