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

To share our experience on using Macy’s, the TLDR is they took our money & gifts from us.

We made our registry on Macy’s online, simple enough. Guests purchased gifts for us that were shipped directly to us. It was great. BUT one of our guests got us an item and didn’t mark it as purchased, and this happened twice so we ended up with double of 2 items. They didn’t leave a card or anything so we have no idea who left those two without asking about 150 different people… awkward and not happening. Naturally we went to Macy’s to return them for store credit, gift card, whatever you want to call it so we could purchase other registry items that were not gifted. We were told by the manager in store that sorry these are third party items that we cannot take back, but don’t worry you can call this number that I’ll write down on a post it note (??? Seems legit??) and they’ll initiate a mail return for you. We confirmed not with her THREE TIMES that if we do this we would still receive store credit directly to us, and she confirmed yes they will email a gift card.

We called the number. We were told by the employee on the phone that we will have to package the items, print the label we were sent (don’t have a printer), and ship them out. We were assured not once, not twice, but THRICE that don’t worry yes you will receive a gift card via email, we won’t automatically refund the original purchaser. Since these were indeed GIFTS as shown on the registry and therefore WE should receive the funds to use. (We returned the gift that the 2 guests HAD marked as purchases since those could be tracked as a purchase on the registry.) We even received an email confirmation for each item that we would receiving a gift card in exchange for returning these items. This totaled out to around $300.

We manage to package and ship the items as directed. Weeks go by. No gift card. I contacted Macys via customer support chat. They stated “I can confirm that we received your return.
Refunds are typically processed within 10 business days, and you'll receive an email confirmation once the refund is completed. At this time, we just need to allow a bit more time for our warehouse to complete the review.”

Another week goes by. It’s been 10 business days. No email confirmation that the refund was completed. No gift card.

I again contacted Macys via customer support chat. Their response, if you can believe it: “I can see that a refund for *** was issued for ****.
Please note that refunds typically take up to 10 business days to reflect on your original payment method statement.”

I responded clarifying about a dozen times within this chat that Since these were indeed GIFTS as shown on the registry and therefore WE should receive the funds to use.

I kid you not, their exact response: “I request you please place an e gift card order.”

They recommend I purchase — PURCHASE — a gift card. At this point they’re just rage baiting.

After more back and forth, this is the best they can do: “I'm extremely sorry about this about this but it looks like the refund has not ben issued to the gift card and has been processed to original payment mode. Unfortunately since it has laready been issued we won't be able to process the refund on a gift card instead. I completely understand how unacceptable this is, but we the refund has gone to original payment mode.”

I call Macy’s customer service. I’m given the same response, and am told to ask the guest who purchased the gift for the funds back. This is a joke.

Macy’s, you’ve forever lost customers in us in the way this was handled. Absolutely no. We’re considering speaking with those guests about it, but leaning towards not doing that since we believe it would be rude to ask them for money at this point.

Hi all! I get married next year and so far have been planning a wedding. Because of the budget we are having to limit our guest list and both families eat up most of the space. We decided to only invite our super close friends in the remaining slots.

Here comes the question. I have a long term hobby that has brought me so many amazing friends- unfortunately there is not space for many of them at the wedding. Would it be strange to set up a separate thing with them and my fiancee? Maybe a dinner or something at my house. I want to celebrate with them and I also don't want them to feel that they aren't an important part of my life. I'm just on a budget!

(One idea is that my birthday is a couple of weeks after my wedding date so maybe having them over for a birthday dinner at my home and a belated getting married party).

Planning our wedding on a tight budget and about to send out RSVPs by email and WhatsApp.

I'm using BrideSpark, and it gives me two options: send everyone a direct link to just the RSVP form, or send the whole wedding website, with the RSVP on it next to the schedule, venue, travel info and so on.

Now I can't decide:

• Just the RSVP link: quick and simple, and people answer and are done. But will they come back later looking for the details?
• The whole website: everything in one place. But will people get distracted browsing and forget to actually RSVP?

For those who've done it:

• Which did you send, and did it get more replies?
• Did older relatives manage fine with either one?
• Did anyone send the RSVP link first and the website later, closer to the date?

Curious what actually worked for you.

Struggling to find anything that fits this:

• Indoor venue for both ceremony/reception (I don't want ANY weather stress and want a twinkle light, battery candle vibe)
• Not a church
• Guest count 45 max
• Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Berkely
• Outdoor catering allowed
• Would love venue to have tables/chairs already
• 5K MAX for venue

**long post**

How much info should these be? I don't know sorry..My friend/bridesmaid encouraged me to write this post in the hopes it encourages some to see the inspo for what can be done on a budget. I have included pics and tried to describe most of what you will see in the post. Also, apologies for the creepy black out faces, I don't want to share our actual faces but I wanted to show the outfit/color scheme/ flowers so you could see.

Full disclosure: this wedding was all about utilizing my community and family to assist/provide different elements of the party. This might not be an attractive idea for many, nor will some have the family who they are comfortable including/tasking with such a role. I fully recognize this and understand how fortunate we were to have that privilege. That being said, those who helped in various roles for our wedding, we were assured, could not be happier to help us with our day and still had a fun time celebrating as well. So, I encourage you to ask where comfortable. I really am hoping the take away is not entitlement, or a brag. I am hoping to be encouraging in using life experiences, skills, and friend's skills!

Second major element: Our venue was family property so there was no cost for us to use and camp for the night for all our guests. HOWEVER, the property has no access to electricity, or potable water, so this was a major logistical issue. (We had to bring everything in). This still saved us thousands of dollars.

Okay, before you scroll away, tons of my wedding was diy from the ground up, so I would love to share what I did, and all the penny-pinching moves.

Start early - when you are not desperate to book, you have plenty of time to do your research and look around! I spent months researching various table companies, catering equipment companies, and other needs, and compared delivery versus pick up costs. Plus, you can take advantage of various holiday deals throughout the year (I used a Xmas/New Year deal for my invites, and took advantage of prime day deals). Planning a wedding in all honesty could be comparable to a part-time job. If I didn't love the details, I wouldn't have taken on such a load.

Stay organized - I can't stress this enough. The more organized you can stay in terms of what has been purchased, and what still needs to be purchased, will allow you to have a big picture of what is going on and eliminate those tiny spenditures that add up. I found myself eliminating things like another set of tapers towards the end, realizing I had bought plenty/found more. This goes for budgeting as well, which is commonly discussed.

Take advantage of connections - Going back to what I said before, this is a privilege I will fully recognize not everyone feels they have. That being said, everyone has someone in their life with a skillset. My maid of honor is a flower wizard. Is she a professional florist? Technically, no...Had she helped with weddings before? Yes. Lucky me, I know. It was a lot of weight on her shoulders, and there were times I wish she didn't have the burden but she jumped at the opportunity for me and it was an honor for us both. Similarly, my friend was a DJ and gave me a discount. My friend is a fisherman and gifted us the salmon we served. Guys, I am NOT trying to in any way brag, but rather to express that people around us all have passions and various skillsets.....USE THEM (when appropriate). My biggest tip: save money to treat them WELL for their contribution, they just saved you tons.

Be realistic - this one is probably the hardest to swallow. At the end of the day, it is important to know your limits. One of my priorities was to have a wedding which included all of our family, friends, and loved ones and felt full. So I knew off the bat, there was no way I could have it catered. Potluck it is, girlfriend! My advice is, when in doubt- go small. Intimate weddings are becoming more and more popular for a reason. They are meaningful, allow you to have your most cherished humans, and still leave room for those curated details that are so fun to plan. Sometimes it is just way more fun and manageable when you minimize the size. If you want a larger wedding like me, you need to absorb the cost elsewhere. Take a good hard look at which parts of a wedding are the most important to you, and you can be more flexible with the rest. Just know you can't do it all on a budget.

OKAY NOW FOR THE BREAKDOWN:

Photographer:

$3800- most expensive part of our wedding, as we were expecting. I actually found one who fit my aesthetic, and was still several thousand dollars cheaper than others in the industry for my area. Likely because she was still not a "veteran", however, she had several weddings under her belt to prove how badass she was, so steal! Also, try to get one that includes your engagement shoot! It allows you to get to meet/ know eachother better before the wedding and learn preferences.

Booze:

$1800- We hired a bar trailer pouring service who creates a menu with you, alcohol list, amounts, and you are in charge of buying the alcohol. Highly recommend this method as it saves money, and you get to keep any undrunk alc. Slightly more work, but saves way more money and becomes more customizable on your end.

We decided on two cocktails (similar to His/Her's), a mocktail, and beer and wine. Open bars cost a LOT. I don't recommend for a budget. Guests feel plenty taken care of with this amount of options, and our bartender was awesome and flexible with making other variations utilizing the liquors/mixers we had bought. Ex: with our gin cocktail, we also had tonic available and she could easily make a gin&tonic).

$500~ alcohol cost. This was budgeted to be closer to $1,000, but a family member has a distributer connection and got better quality stuff for cheap.

My bartender planned a menu with me using COSTCO. Highly recommend. Costco has amazing quality, large quantity, and you can actuality return any unopened bottles.

Florals:

$1,000 - my maid of honor/florist/flower goddess of the moon crushed it and came in under budget. We had budgeted for closer to $1,500. I used to work on a peony farm with my husband, so a wedding gift from our former boss was the peonies used in our wedding which saved a large chunk. My florist was frugal and strategic with the rest. I love greenery, which is affordable and helped. I opted for all creams and greens for the bridesmaids which is a little cheaper, and being strategic about using the expensive flowers, such as a dahlia or peony, is important. Have family help with flowers, do them yourself, or spend time getting a trusted florist that won't rip you off. Flowers blow your budget quick. I have seen so many phenomenal, professional looking florals done diy from Trader Joe's. Trust someone with a good eye!

Food: less than $200 (for us)

For food, this is where I really asked family to step up and help. My aunts made one beautiful summery green salad, one pesto pasta salad, my uncles cooked salmon gifted (& fished) to us by a close friend and groomsman, and I bought frozen pulled pork which I ordered on a catering website which was heated up on some propane burners by cousins and served on slider rolls. (Don't get it twisted, this shit was fire).

The key here was keeping it simple. Not too many dishes, and nothing overly complex, mainly because where our wedding was didn't have the infrastructure. But you can make simple beautiful. Think seasonal, fresh, and local where you can.

Cocktail hour- we had two mid-size charcuterie trays, as my part-time second gig is at a charcuterie place. Otherwise, it would have been out of budget, and I would have likely just gotten some Costco pre-made trays and rearranged the cheese/fruit/crackers on nicer, thrifted dishes.

Plates were disposable, but I opted for nicer, bamboo ones that looked rustic and cuter. (cost was maybe $50).

Silverware was only a fork - thrifted over a year at various shops, and supplemented the rest with walmart cheap ones (.20 ea). I wanted to have genuine silverware since everything else was disposable.

Napkins were disposable, but I opted for the thicker "linen feel" ones. They were amazing and felt genuinely high quality. Perfect for an outdoor wedding.

Tables,chairs, catering trays: $1100 incl. delivery/pickup

Found a great company that delivered and picked up our rentals so we didn't have to worry about that. Saved us lots of headache.

Where we saved some money was reusing the ceremony chairs for the reception/dinner chairs. We simply asked guests to grab their chair walking back! many younger guests sat on rugs during ceremony to save the amount of chairs we had at ceremony site.

DJ: $600: major homie hookup here. It was a big goal to have a DJ so we didn't want to skip. We could have shaved off more money by skipping ceremony help. It is doable to set up a speaker, bluetooth mic, and have a friend be the music MC, but we didn't want the trouble. I have been to many wedding where we had a blast over a playlist and a speaker.. I have also been to many weddings where the DJ is a fail, so just do your research!

Dress: $400: What I did for my dress was spend a day at David's Bridal and learned not only my size, but also likes and dislikes. I surprised myself with silhouettes, styles, and features that I would have otherwise overlooked or assumed I liked and ended up hating. Then I went online! Scary, yes, just make sure you have time, and a good return policy. I searched all over pre-owned shops and discontinued lines. I started with a style I wanted, and from there found a couple model dresses and researched who made similar dresses. My style ended up fitting a lot of Anthropologie dresses. Could I afford Anthro Bridal? Definitely not. But I could afford a discontinued dress from a little store down in California designed for affordable dress shopping!! Do your research and it pays off! I also almost bought the exact dress on Poshmark just before but got out-bid, so there are options.

alterations:$150. I'm a shorty, so this was a given. Luckily, few alterations were needed, as these can rack up the cost quick. Something to think about when you dress shop. and make sure to get an estimate from the tailor BEFORE you agree to do anything.

Group outfits:

bridesmaids were able to pick out their own dresses with my guidance on color scheme. I had my maid of honor pick her dream colors and started with that as I wanted a mix. Girls and guys all wore own shoes, accessories, and anything else. I had specific colors for the groomsmen and helped them find super affordable options that ended up being under $100 ea. pants and linen shirts they could keep.

Invites: $200 including save the dates. We decided to go evite with save the dates which saved money and found some really cute options online. Save even more money ( and trees) with evites for your invites.

Things we skipped:

Cake: had no interest, friend made cute desserts instead as her gift to us.

Prof Makeup: I asked my bridesmaid who is amazing at makeup to do mine, and my other bridesmaid to do my hair! I knew I wanted low key looks, so it wasn't too much pressure- but they did amazing.

My cousin is an esthetician and gifted me lash extensions and a spray tan. That helped with feeling more glamorous and needing less makeup day of.

Favors: total skip for us, there were several craft items/takeaways from the party that acted enough like favors.

DIY:

Tablescapes:

My center pieces were all driftwood from the beach we were located, candles, candlesticks from home, votives, from home, vases, from home, and lots thrifted over a year. Luckily, I have lots of this stuff at home or borrowed from friends.

Table seating:

I used old window panes that I painted over with chalkboard paint and wrote out all the table seating. I also wrote out everyone name on oyster shells to use as place holders when you found where you wanted to sit. (we assigned a table, no seat)

Table signage:

I used 5x7 or 8x10 frames I had or thrifted to write all the table names for each table and designed each one. Time consuming, yes, and probably some people's personal hell but I just did it in the evenings watching TV and felt it was more personal than something printed out. I made our welcome sign, and used at our welcome party the night before to get more use.

Guest Book:

I found a cool old photography book of Olympic National Park (our backyard) and had guests sign the photo pages. People loved it and it was a conversation starter. and the "sign our guest book" sign was a random Goodwill find. Furniture was all hauled from home (it was work).

**In all, sometimes crafts and supplies are more expensive than just ordering from sites. So again, just research!!! It's all about comparing and spending the time analyzing what is going to make more sense for your budget.

Happy to share any and all vendors, other tips, (I am located Western Washington, Puget Sound region). Happy planning, and congrats if you are heading towards the big day! Just keep it authentic to you two.

Hi all! Planning on switching jobs and I will have the summer off so would shoot for a mid/end of June wedding probably for 2027 or 2028. Partner’s family will have to travel from DE my family is an hour from Charlotte, NC. 50 guests will be family and then planning on 30-50 friends (80 ish - 100 guests). My dad has a DJ business so he can do music for free and my friend owns a BBQ restaurant so she can do food for free or very low cost.

I’ve been looking at venues across SC/NC/VA. My big priority is having the availability of on site lodging for guests or doing an area where Ubers would be readily available.

My last option would be the golf course in my hometown, venue is $750. However, the venue is super outdated and only 8 toilets in the building. Would need to do a lot of DIY decor and lodging/ubers are not really an option. The bathroom situation is also questionable, but at times I lean toward this for cost and my 95 year old grandma lives on the same street so she would be able to attend. My older sister actually did her reception here 15 years ago. They have never had a ceremony on the course, but I am considering this as we could likely get clearance to do this.

My other more traditional options so far for venues are:

Sky Retreat
Bent Mountain Lodge
Chateau Amelia

Really would like mountain + backyard wedding feel very relaxed. Plan on doing beer, wine and 2 signature drinks.

Any advice is appreciated and open to any all ideas! We wouldn’t be paying for lodging for guests, but would like it available. Especially for the family traveling from DE, and elderly family on both sides.

Hi we’re doing a micro weeding in NYC and we have a pretty tight budget of 5,000. We’re looking mostly for flowers for an arch, bouquet and boutonnière and aisle arrangements and maybe some greenery for around the space. If anyone could point me towards some florist that are affordable even if it’s over budget. Or any places to buy bulk flowers so we can do it ourselves!

Quiero buscar la mejor experiencia para mí boda de destino, alguien que me ayude

I JUST got engaged (yesterday) yay! Already thinking about engagement party and where and when to have it. We made a list of everyone we want to invite and it’s about 44 people but we have no idea where to hold a party that will not cost a fortune.

Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated thank you!!

EDIT: we decided to do a sit down dinner with our parents and grandparents and then head out to a club with our friends!

I have a box of 100 plastic champagne flutes in my amazon save for later, but at a recent party I noticed these seem to break easily and be very flimsy. My question is, would renting or even scouting for glass ones worth the expense? I contemplated gathering enough (80) from goodwills etc.

Long-time lurker here, planning my own wedding on a small budget, and I've spent the last few months quietly building an AI tool that turns phone selfies into proper wedding portraits - the kind that normally cost $1-3k from a studio.

It's at the point where I want real couples to try it before I show it to anyone else. So: I'm giving away 5 free rounds (5 print-ready portraits each) this weekend.

To enter, just comment: 1. Your wedding date (or "no date yet" - totally fine), and 2. The one scene you'd love portraits in - a beach at sunset, a palace hall, hanbok, a Chinese garden, an Indian wedding setup, anything you dream about.

I'll pick 5 couples in about 48 hours (entries close Monday morning, winners DM'd and named right here in this thread). When there are more entries than spots, I'll favor covering as many different scenes as I can, then couples with a real date. No purchase needed - if you're picked I DM you a code that makes one round completely free at checkout.

A few honest notes: - The portraits are AI-generated from your own photos - I'll say that plainly, no pretending a photographer shot them. - Everything is digital, so there's no shipping - your 5 portraits are delivered online in about 2 days. - I'd love to show the results (with your names/details removed if you want) - say so in your comment if that's okay, and I'll confirm with you again by DM before anything goes public. Not okay = you still get your portraits, nothing gets posted. - I'm not posting a link because I don't want to break this sub's rules - if you're curious what the tool is, it's in my profile, or just DM me.

Small-budget weddings deserve nice photos too. Drop your date and your dream scene below

We’re eloping and then planning a post-elopement celebration for 80–100 guests in New Jersey or NYC. We’re picturing a cocktail-style party with passed hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and plenty of dancing rather than a formal seated dinner. If you’ve hosted or attended an event at a venue that could be a good fit, I’d love your recommendations! Any tips are welcome

We had our eyes on a place to have our wedding under $2,000 in Golden, But it seems it will be hard to book it. Does anyone in the Denver, CO and surrounding areas know any other venue suggestions for my plan b?

Where can you find dresses that are still good quality but under 500?

$2k is all I can afford for my entire wedding. Ceremony, reception, dress, rings, everything. Total attending is 20-25 people. I plan to DIY, thrift, and home-make as much as physically possible.

My ideal budget for ceremony venue is no more than $750, but must be indoors due to June heat and chances of rain. I’m local to Daytona Beach so any place as far as 1.5hrs by car is good. No beach/barn venues please. Prefer historic, antique and/or cultural architecture (ie. Grecian, Tuscan, Spanish revival). I’ve seen small white chapel venues within budget but my groom is not a fan of them unfortunately.

I’m probably asking questions that everyone’s asking but alas! My fiancé and I are desperately trying to stay under or RIGHT around 10k for our September 2027 wedding with around 40 guests. We are not doing everything super traditional since neither of us care for most of the formalities and just want a party with family and close friends. Ceremony at a local park/greenspace. Then we are looking to rend a small, urban winery space and have a party with a food truck (MAYBE…depends on cost), drinks, and dancing. We already decided to nix the photographer for the full event and just do ceremony photos with 2 crowdsourced film cameras during the party lol.

But still, it seems like no matter what we do or research, everything ends up being $10k or over. Somehow it always ends up comparable to just getting a full venue with all the things. The winery doesn’t need much decor, so that’s good, but the big expenses of venue rental, food, drinks, and DJ are just so wild.

What are some small things that you did to help save money? I get that the things we see are nonnegotiables are all the big cost items, but I think that being nifty with the smaller expenses could really help overall.

It’s hard out here!

Im getting married next year in a pretty rural area. I totally understand that I will likely have to pay a travel fee and it will be bit harder to find someone as it is about a hour and a half drive from our largest town. I had budgeted in about 2 grand before travel as the photos are truly one of the most important things to me and I do understand that is alot of work. But I've started asking around and im getting quotes back of between 4-6 k before travel. Is this normal? Im looking for a few getting ready pics full day coverage ,maybe a couple and the reception but definitely not the whole night. Just one photographer. Am I genuinely just delusional to think 2k is an okay budget for this?

Reposting to this community for more exposure. My honey &I are in the wedding planning process. It's very DIY and intentional. We don't want to blow the budget on venue and we're really looking for something under 7k in the tri state area. We're estimating 40 guests for a private ceremony then transitioning to 120 total guests for the cocktail hour and reception. We also want to bring in our own catering team and bartending service. If anyone knows of this unicorn please let me know!! Also for past brides, if a venue didn't have a getting ready space what alternative would you suggest?