Making It Happen Within Our Budget

            When I said I do, thinking about how much money a wedding really cost didn’t even crossed my mind. It was soon after seriously talking about the number of guests and where will our wedding take place that we really worry about the expenses. When I found out that an average wedding can cost up to $25,000, I really panicked. I’m still at school and my fiancé is facing difficult times, but still we are determined to make this happen. Regardless of our problems, we started thinking on how to save money on our wedding. I started to set time apart and prioritize. We compromised in taking 1 hour four times a week to shop around and look for local vendors. For us the most important thing was the location. We wanted an outdoor ceremony, so the first thing on the list was to look for that special place. We had a list of possible places and were surprised that my University had the perfect place for us plus at an affordable price. One thing that helped us decide to book that location was that they offer 2 private rooms located on the same building, this definitely helped us because we can all arrived at an appropriate time and start getting ready there, that way we save on transportation expenses and helps us used the time wisely. Another important decision for us was “how many guests?” We are planning a small wedding having only family and very close friends, which really do cut on food expenses. Most of our guests don’t drink so we are thinking on adding 2 bottles of wine per table for the toast and having a cash bar with complimentary tickets for people we know occasionally drink. Another thing to consider was the cake, we decided to go with a vendor that works at home and makes beautiful cakes that taste very good and cost a lot less. We’ve noticed that in the weddings we’ve been we don’t even eat the cake since most caterers include dessert in the dinner service. For my dress, I’ve already got mine on sale; I heard that a bridal shop was unexpectedly closing. I went to check it out and believe me I found a great bargain. About the bridesmaids’ issue, we are planning something small and decided to save money on that too. My sister will be the Maid of honour and his brother the Best man, we won’t need to add extra stress in order to get good pictures, we’ll have family pictures that I’m sure will look as lovely. We still have many things to take care of, but at least we know our priorities are taken care of. We all hope for the best.

Sincerely,

Maira