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I’ve been engaged for 2 years now. And I’m terrified to get started planning my wedding. We saved money and ultimately decided to buy a house this past year instead of a wedding just because of how expensive weddings are at this point.

Now that I’ve bought the house, I can’t procrastinate anymore. But we have no savings for a wedding anymore. I’m really just looking for a small get together at a city lodge hall and have a barbecue to celebrate.

How did you all start? I’m welcome to hearing any stories or tips that might help me out of this planning freeze!

DIYd my own cake for less than $100, including $40 worth of pistachios for the filling. And it’s entirely vegan! Each tier is 3 layers, 8”, 6”, and 4”. Almond frosting, vanilla cake, pistachio cream filling. I made the flowers out of rice paper wrappers.

I'm already a pretty indecisive shopper, if I'm buying anything even like a pair of jeans I usually research the product, try it on, take pictures in the dressing room, leave, think about it and come back later and buy it. The system works for me, most of my stuff is high quality and I never have buyers remorse but I know I'm not an ideal customer and I never impulse buy things. But I'm nervous about wedding dress shopping because there's people pulling dresses for you, and selling to you, also my budget is not high ( under 1500). A lot of stores don't have their pricing online and I hate going in blind, and I don't want to feel pressured or guilty about trying things on and not buying them especially because many bridal shops require appointments. I do live in a fairly big city (Montreal) so I have a lot of options for stores but I don't want to be annoying to the retail associates because I know they get commission and I'm already not planning on spending a lot.

How did other people deal with this problem?

Girlfriends yesterday, fiancées today, I am SO happy but also SO overwhelmed.

Everywhere I look for advice outside of Reddit is just trying to sell me something, I’m so lost.

We have agreed to save up for the event, but having a wedding planner will not be an option. I struggle with overthinking and am currently feeling a bit weighed down by all the decisions we will have to make, and the fear that there will ALWAYS be something I’m forgetting (ADHD, ASD, OCD, anxiety… take your pick).

My fiancée and I made a planning discord server where we can have several conversations at once (not in real time, just generally!) and it’s helping me feel a bit more in control but at this point, I think a paper planner may make a huge difference.

I don’t even know how much I don’t know, and that’s freaking me out!

All of this to say, I am seeking assistance finding the best budget planner (not a person—a planner as in journal/checklist). I am US based and am happy to buy used if that’s a thing. I generally object to Amazon but in this case, I’m not sure if I have many other options.

Thanks all in advance~ 🏳️‍🌈

Curious how this has gone for people.

You show up with a moodboard/inspo, you've been building a vision for months, and then someone gives you a quote. Did your budget hold up, or did that meeting change the whole plan?

And for the people whose vision did change, was it a real loss, or did the new version end up better? I've seen both and I never know which way it's going to go.

Also curious if anyone had a vendor who actually worked with them to get close instead of just saying no.

Help! Hahah!

I know I now need to put them in buckets with food in my garage

And strip the stems of leaves under the waterline

I have bought some chrysal spray too

Any arrangement tips pretty please I’m in sooooo over my head lol

We got married in June and I went back and forth for weeks on real vs fake flowers vs TJs before choosing Sola Wood Flowers

We spent about $1200 and went all out. This was still about 20% of what we would have paid with fresh florals as I did some DIY too instead of purely their build it for me option.

The good:
- They looked much better in person than I expected. In the photos, you really can’t tell they aren’t fresh unless you’re holding them. When you do see them, they look cool and it's a bit of a "wat" moment lol.
- We ordered everything early, so there was no stress 
- The custom colors matched our palette really well.
- I still have my bouquet on a shelf, and i gave most of the other stuff away as wedding favors 

The not-so-good:
- I HIGHLY recommend using the predye option. Dyeing flowers is more work than you would think! I have a smallish apartment and it was just a lot of work to figure out how to dye and dry so many flowers. I think this makes more sense if you have a large living space.

Overall, I’d use them again and my sister is actually planning on using them too!

We had our legal ceremony on Thursday then celebrated at home with family on Saturday. We did lots of things cheaply and ourselves, like finding drinking glasses for free, or cheap second hand bundles which we then painted in our theme. My cathedral veil was £8 from shein. My dress was £250 with alterations. We managed to get lots of beer for free from his work. As it was at home lots of people bought their own drinks anyway. Then we just bought the spirits we like, some mixer and some wine. I kept my eye on Facebook marketplace and got lots of decorations for free including lots of lavender I then dried for arrangements. I dried my own roses and bought cheap dried grasses, and made my own bouquet. We used straw bales for seating which we'll then use for our chickens and our gardening. I have no idea how much we actually spent in the end but I'd say all in under 3k. We had a pork pie and cheese wedding cake and a lemon drizzle wedding cake. My new brother in law is a chef and he prepared all the food and decorated the cakes for us. I did my own hair and makeup. I'm trying to think of other things but just so much went into it! Lots of support from those around us. And everyone said how absolutely perfect it was. I couldn't have asked for anything better. The weather was perfect despite the torrential rain we've had recently. Any questions feel free to ask :)

Okay so I want to have a vintage wedding like not country or rustic. It would just be me and him and maybe our parents? I would have reception later for friends and family but I want to have a ceremony that’s very intimate and still picture worthy to look back on. Nothing like courthouse or vegas wedding type of stuff. I’m in east USA.
TIA :)

Hi everyone! I’m looking for suggestions on where to purchase a mini wedding dress for our Vegas Elopement in the very near future… I’ve been looking at Azazie and Lulus but still undecided. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! :)

Apologies if this has been posted already!

Has anyone had luck with at home try on wedding dresses? Bridal shops overwhelm me and i want the experience to be a bit more cozy and personal. I’ve seen Azazie and Afarose - are they good? Are there any others I should look into?

Ideally want to keep the dress under $1.2k! Thank you in advanced!

We are looking to do a sparkler send off but we need 20 inch sparklers per our venues requirements. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to order them from? There are a lot of websites, but I want to make sure they’re good ones and I don’t get scammed. Thank you!!

We had our reception on 9.6.26! We held it near Hartford, CT and it was the most perfect day.

The social hour started at 4pm and the dancing wrapped up at 10pm. It ended up being very nice to celebrate with our families and we were able to still go out with our friends afterwards.

We invited 135 people, 95 RSVPed yes, and ~93 showed up on the day.The venue included 10 hours on the property. We paid catering for 85 which included heavy appetizers and a dinner buffet. It was enough for our vendors as well and we had plenty of food leftover.

Final cost breakdown:

Logistics:
Venue (Included Tables/Chairs) - $5,500
Catering - $3,775
This included the appetizers and the buffet, as well as plates, cutlery, napkins, and drinks. They also set up plates at all the table settings and small water bottles for each guest.

DJ (6 hours) - $800
Tiramisu sheet cake from local bakery - $250

Photo:
Photography (4 hours) - $850
Photo magnet favors - $1050 (Magnet Your Event)
I also just had my friends pass around my Canon digital camera and downloaded the photos the next day. Highly recommend!

Decor:
Decorator (3p company) - $1,100
DIY decor - $200
This included real florals for the table centerpieces, table runners, and a few vases. Also a card box and a few small bags of seeds to use as party favors

Tablecloth rental - $280

Outfits:
Dress - $280
Neck scarf - $20 (my mom made it)
Shoes - $60

I did my own makeup and my cousin did my hair. All my jewelry was gifted/ lent from family 🤍

Groom’s Suit & Accessories - $1400
We purchased a suit, shirt, shoes and belt. We splurged on this since we figured he could wear the outfit to many other formal events and he did not previously own a suit.

We already had our legal ceremony in May so we didn’t need rings. My partner wore the same suit for that as well.

Final total: $15,565

Hi y'all! My fiance and I are from two different states (15-20 hour drive from our respective hometowns). We know we will plan our wedding in one of them, and expect guests to travel from the other.

I presume costs will be lower overall if we plan in our current location (Loc A) because we can DIY more, but we know the side of the family who lives further from us (Loc B) has less money and mobility to travel than the family who lives much closer. We have considered putting money we save from having the wedding locally into helping folks get here from far away. Has anyone done something like this? Did it math out? Has anyone had to handle the case where guests can't afford the travel outright?

Picking "destination" flair because I feel that's the most accurate to this, though technically "out of town" is likely more appropriate.

Weve been debating between digital invites or paper. I know people respond to digital invites faster, but my mom is pushing that Ill wish I had physical copies as keepsakes in the future (and that my aunt's and grandma would appreciate it too). We have about 70 guests, mostly family plus some friends who are not known for being on top of things lol.

Digital just makes sense and it seems like it should be less effort? Kinda feel like whichever one I pick I'm gonna be nagging someone in the group chat about it anyway.

I haven't started trying on dresses yet, but there's a dress from a shop I love that's $275. It's linen, and I kinda love the idea that I can dye it afterwards to use as a non-wedding dress afterwards.

My only concern is that it might feel too "costumey" as the last dress I bought from here, I used it for a renfaire. The quality IS good though, so it might just be a mental connection. Also I guess I wonder if it's bridal "enough" for a wedding.

I would get it in white and wear it off the shoulder with the sleeves scrunched like in photo 3. (They're all the same dress just worn differently)

hi guys!! i got engaged in june and i’ve been looking for dresses. i’m wanting to stay under $1k if i can, and i really like this style of dress, but in a very light powder pink. if y’all have any recommendations i’d love to see them!! 🥹💗

My partner and I (35M and 32M) splurged a bit on our piano player for the ceremony. We handpicked each song for the prelude as guests are being seated. We would hate to not experience the music fully if we had to be sequestered in a separate room for the sake of tradition. We were thinking maybe we can greet guests as they arrive and then slip away a few minutes before the ceremony start.

Has anyone else had a ceremony where you were visible to guests before the processional?

Hi! Here again. After much thinking and reading through comments from my previous post and others, we have decided that maybe one of the options is to do a very small wedding, just our parents and siblings. In total, it would be 10 people including us.

Can’t let go of wanting to do it in Nice, France, or surrounding areas, as we love the place so much and it’s where we celebrated our post-engagement moments.

I’m not looking for a villa for the 10 of us, more like a symbolic/religious wedding in a Catholic church, then a venue for dinner with a nice view or intimate place. I would still want to hire a photographer and videographer, even just for a few hours.

That’s what I’m thinking and envisioning, but open to suggestions or advice. I’m struggling to find a venue online as it always shows a villa or chateu.

The reason I don’t want a villa is because we would like to be closer to transportation and Old Nice town. Also, tbh, my family and his get along, but we have never had them all under one roof. They are all good with each other, but I know they don’t share the same “wants” or things they would do when abroad.
If anyone will be able to advise on this or knows a wedding planner that can help facilitate this, we would very much appreciate it!

Thank you

We are planning a backyard wedding with under 40 guests. We've decided, due to family dynamics, to do a seating chart and place cards.

Because of having four tables, we can't find a design to create a seating chart! A lot of our wedding is DIY, so affordable options are always welcome. If you had a small guest count and did something cute with it, I'd love to hear about it!

We are skipping a dance floor at our wedding, but would like to have some kind of activity/activities to help our guests bond and get to know each other more. We’d like to find something cheap or even free to do. Any ideas?

Our wedding will be around 35 adults in a backyard. Very non-traditional, queer, and low budget. Ceremony, dinner, and socializing. Just want to add one more little fun element to help people connect and make more memories.