Wedding Advice on a budget

[Ksandra]

We did the no kids route as well. Why everyone doesn't do this, I have no idea.

We allowed kids and it was a lot of fun. But then I enjoy my cousins. It was rather cute actually, my nephew wanted to dance with one of my husband's cousins but she refused, he was so sad for the rest of the night. (he's 4 and she was 6 lol) Made for some great pictures, and it's not like kids eat a lot anyways.

If you do the park, hire a goddamn wedding planner. Don't let her convince you that she can do it on her own, because it's fucking hard when you are building the whole thing yourself.

I did it on my own with the help of an amazing Maid-of-Honor (she was soooo much help). It is a little stressful, but I am a pro-haggler when it comes to shit (get it from my dad) so I don't think I would have saved anything with a wedding planner outside of stress. Granted, I obviously didn't have as many people (80), but it is doable and knowing me I still would have done it myself even if I had 200+. It's not for everyone that's for sure though, and if you do it, you have to be willing to settle for less than what you wanted sometimes.

Yeah, a friend of her brothers does planning, we may hire her. Even with a site fee of only 2k, with alcohol costs being under 2k, STILL fitting this whole thing under 15k will be tough. Shit's nuts.

tbh, you should be fine to keep it at 15k even with those prices. My experience, and from what I've seen from other weddings, the venue/reception (with food) tend to be the hugest chunk of your budget. It all comes down to where you guys are willing to bend. And the biggest thing as others have said, is keeping flowers to a minimum will save you huge amounts. And, as I said before, you can haggle on flowers. That's how wedding planners "get you a better deal", so they are used to it.

[archibaldcrane]

My problem is she's going to fall in love with a photographer that will cost 3k.

Or actually, not really my problem, but just the issue with staying in budget.

I'm going to talk with a friend who is a (really good) wedding videographer and see if he has ideas for a cheaper wedding photographer.

[Demosthenes11]

My problem is she's going to fall in love with a photographer that will cost 3k.

Or actually, not really my problem, but just the issue with staying in budget.

I'm going to talk with a friend who is a (really good) wedding videographer and see if he has ideas for a cheaper wedding photographer.

I'd skimp elsewhere rather than on the photography. We booked out photographer 2 days after seeing about 4 different ones and we are really excited with our choice. There is a huge difference based on style, personality, talent, knowledge of the venue, lighting, etc. and so that was something we know we were going to be spending money on. We got her for 3k and that includes an engagement photo session at a location of our choice and a rehearsal run through a few days before the wedding.

[archibaldcrane]

Well, if we're actually doing this for under 15k, there is no "elsewhere". A 3k wedding photographer will push us over, for sure. 165ish guests, food, chairs, tables, venue, liquor, wedding dress, wedding bands - they have costs that aren't particularly flexible below a certain point.

[Ksandra]

@ Archi, how long is your wedding planned to be? It sounds like you guys are going to have a small ceremony at the reception right? I don't know if this will be helpful at all, but I might as well shoot this at you, but this is the photographer I went with:

http://www.christopherwoodphotograph...hea/index2.php

He has a package for a "half day wedding" which is 6 hours of footage for $1700. He is a photography professor at USD. Obvious problem I see is he's based in SD so dunno if he's willing to go to LA or if he'd charge extra for it.

I can say though I was extremely pleased with him. We did a small package deal which was $500, and I feel I got a lot out of it. I would say his prices can be haggled some for sure. He was very open with me, and definitely took the time to figure out what I wanted and was very pleasant.

For my package too he gave me a link to all my pictures so I could d/l them for free and give the link to anyone so they could d/l them for free as well. iirc I have the negatives too (If you remember, I moved recently so can't find which box I put them in atm lmao) and for sure he gave me a CD copy. If you want a link to my photo album I can pm you (just please don't spread them around) just so you can see the quality of his work.

[archibaldcrane]

Sure, shoot me a link.

[Manako]

my fiance's family was big on inviting children, so that we're doing that. For our caterer it doesn't cost that much, I'm more concerned about having enough seats. There is a local two year old who is too cute, so I'm glad we'll have him there, but the infants are invited more for convenience to the parents.

Depends how much spare time you/fiance have if you want to do it yourselves, without a planner. It can also depend on how helpful your vendors are. My reception location gave us a lot of information on their preferred vendor list, and the caterer is doing all our setup. If you can find a caterer that provides all linens and such I'm not sure you would need a planner. It can't hurt to meet with one or two and see how much they cost I suppose... I think the most time and effort we've spent so far is with the invitations/guest list, I'm not sure a wedding planner helps with that.

For flowers I think what really helped us was having a clearly defined budget, and also that we didn't want expensive flowers. We are also providing all the vases, renting vases is also a way to save money.

[Melena]

My problem is she's going to fall in love with a photographer that will cost 3k.

Or actually, not really my problem, but just the issue with staying in budget.

I'm going to talk with a friend who is a (really good) wedding videographer and see if he has ideas for a cheaper wedding photographer.

If you only lived in the bay area Archi. I'd hook you up with the person who did our Photography. Simply amazing and she doesn't rape on fee's. Got her and her sister to do our wedding in Reno and including paying for their hotel room was about 1k with full release of pics.

[Ace-o-fire]

Natty Ice is a good substitute in case you run out!

I just got married like 3 weeks, 2 of my college friends showed up with a car full (around 45+ 30 cases) of Natty ice, Keystone, Milwaukee's Best and Tecate and set up a beer games for people to play, but most of our friends are under 30. That ended up being the most successful compared to paying 8,750k for a stocked bar, when the only thing drunk was a fuck ton a Belvedere and Jack Daniels.

If i could have done it over again, I would have just picked up a couple of kegs of the typical stuff, buy some mid range liquor, and maybe a bottle or two of the good stuff for her family and just have haired a bartender to run the station then pay some over priced asshole to run it.

I would say 4-6 pony kegs (around 60 drinks each) of different stuff and maybe like 20+ bottles of liquor and you should be good.

As for finding some one to bar tend who isn't a friend or anything try and find a bar-tending school (credited by BBB obliviously). While it may seem like a gimmick to call a school for people to bartend, they generally have tons of people who would jump at the chance for a simple recommendation, and most will send an instructor along with students also, with all there own equipment for mixing drinks, you just got to give them the glass wear.

[Adrien]

I think you should be arrange your wedding function by a wedding planners they are organised your wedding program in
under of your budget.What budget you tell them they are arrange your function because i also hire the some wedding
planners in my wedding and i told them about my budget and they arrange my wedding function according to my
budget list and they arrange a beautiful function you should also contact with them to arrange you wedding
ceremony